What the Hack is an Intrapreneur?

What comes to mind when you hear “intra-preneur”? I was one for years before I even heard the word and had to check the meaning. When I did, it opened up a new way of thinking for me.?

Here’s why.

What is an Intrapreneur?

First, what is an intrapreneur? C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel coined the term in 1978 in their book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. They defined it as “the practice of innovation, risk-taking, and entrepreneurial behavior within an existing organization.”

These “corporate entrepreneurs” are often responsible for projects and have a certain amount of freedom to complete them. They are “mavericks” and rule-breakers who struggle with authority, constantly ask questions outside their designated role, and don’t take answers at face value. Because of this, they are the ones who change the world.?

Gifford Pinchot and Ron Pellman’s 1985 book, Intrapreneuring in Action: A Handbook for Business Innovation, highlighted three main differences between intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs.?

1. First, they operate within organizations rather than acting as lone agents.?
2. That means the parent organization already has existing rules and structures constraining the intrapreneur.?
3. Conversely, it means they can draw on existing resources and support unavailable to the entrepreneur.

But why does this matter?

Intrapreneurs drive innovation

The pandemic caused a startup slowdown for the first time in a decade, followed by The Great Resignation and record high numbers of startups. But according to Fabian Eggers, writing in the Journal of Business Research, post-2019 startups are presented with new challenges. On top of being small and new,? they have to deal with a “strategy/funding chicken-and-egg-problem” with a shortage of resources to pursue the strategies that would create stability or growth.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, organizations face a massive burnout crisis, with “quiet quitting” and other signs of employee disengagement being huge topics of discussion.

Intrapreneurism can be a win-win for employees looking to start a new career or develop a new product without the added stress of creating a startup and companies trying to retain talent and pivot to meet future trends.

Allowing employees to work on personal pet projects or leeway to work on real projects in their own way gives them the freedom to effectively create their own startups within the confines of the parent company. These in-house innovation engines drive progress at many larger companies today.

As head of the Global Innovation Unit in a major Swiss bank, I effectively ran a startup within an organization, selling innovation development programs, training, and leadership programs. I also ran big consulting programs and sprints internally and externally. We also taught Fortune 500 companies and other banks to set up their own internal innovation engines and harness the power of intrapreneurs.

Not convinced?

Here are some examples of intrapreneurship at work, some from before the word was even coined.

• Richard Monta?ez was a janitor with a 4th-grade education earning $4 an hour at Frito-Lay when he presented Flamin Hot Cheetos to the board as part of CEO Roger Enrico’s “act like an owner” initiative. His career as a janitor over, Monta?ez later became a VP of MultiCultural Sales and Community Promotions at PepsiCo.
• MacDonald’s Happy Meals were the pet project of St Louis regional manager Dick Brams in 1977. They rolled out company wide in 1979 and now sell around 3 million per day globally.
• Amazon Prime generates $19B per year in subscriptions. Not bad for an idea submitted by an employee through the digital suggestion box, itself a product of an internal innovation engine led by former Amazon VP Greg Greeley.
• The Sony PlayStation sprang from a chip Sony employee Ken Kutaragi built to boost his daughter’s Nintendo. After his bosses rejected his idea, Kutaragi went straight to the top. Fortunately, CEO Norio Ohga understood the gaming industry's value and launched a joint project with Nintendo. The project failed, but Sony developed its own console.
• Post-it Notes are a great example of collaboration in intrapreneurship. Spencer Silver's adhesive invention – a repositionable adhesive – appeared useless for years until colleague Art Fry needed to mark pages in a book without damaging them. Once the use was clear, the two partnered and made enough for the company. The rest is history.

So, intrapreneurship is great for businesses and individuals, some of whom have become multi-millionaires due to their pet projects. But how do you become one?

What skills do intrapreneurs need?

If you do any of the following, you may already be a budding intrapreneur.

• The first of all skills is the courage to show up, be visible and be OUT of your comfort ZONE
• Question the status quo and flag up redundancies or inefficiencies in workflows.
• Keep asking “Why?” until you get to the root cause of a problem. This is curiosity at its best?
• Do your job focused on the outcome, not the process. They like to do business on your own terms.
• Take on more responsibility than your job description requires to make it more fulfilling or effective. Go the extra mile.?
• Constantly learn new skills on the job and in your own time to achieve your personal goals - lifelong learning and learning agility
• Run a side project or lead an internal department that operates autonomously within the organisation.

If you think that’s you, or you want it to become such intrapreneur, what might would be your next step?

How does it feel to be in the skin of an intrapreneur?

Being an intrapreneur comes with its dose of barriers and uncomforts.

Not everyone'll be happy when you attempt to do things differently. The more you are visible, the more “haters” and ”naysayers” you will have, and more people will disagree with you. You'll meet a lot of skepticism and critics. I learned those lessons the hard way. So get used to people not agreeing with you and not blaming them for it.

All those difficulties of being understood, convincing your stakeholders, holding the flag and motivating your followers while pushing your project forward, often make the journey feels lonely. Intrapreneurs might feel isolated, discouraged, deflated, by the well-meaning but business rules and processes creators.?

Sometimes, they also feel like they are on a different planet. Intrapreneur might not always fit within their organisation.

So those struggles do not kill your light and drive you to burn-out, here are some advices to make the journey smoother.

How do Intrapreneurs can best deal with those drawbacks?

1. Learn to speak their language, bring them on board and find the way.?I know it is hard but also this should not be and doesn't have to be a lonely journey.?I was there as well...
2. The courage to stand up, learn from the experience, find a way to do it again, and Figure it out. Our newsletter is called Figured OUT because I genuinely believe there is a way, and I am on the mission to help people and organisations to do just that.?Because there is always a way... and Yes it gets hard sometimes but doesn't have to
3. Get yourself a Tribe a community of warriors supporters walking through the same path.

One of the quickest ways to jump-start your entrepreneurial career is to join a MasterMind group with other intrapreneurs so that you can help each other brainstorm, problem-solve, and innovate solutions.

Where to find your community, your MasterMind that supports you?

You might have already a group of people, a community, where you can share and discuss your next steps. A word of caution, not every group will be as effective. Self made masterminds often lack of success due to the followings top struggles:

1. Lack of commitment and consistency. Members don’t show up for meetings,
2. Low accountability: members do not check-up on their peers and lots of excuses are found why the set-up targets are not achieved. No progress tracking.
3. No structured facilitation to get the best outcomes.
4. Members’ "seniority or level is unequal.
5. Trustful environment: it doesn't feel safe to share by fear of being judged. These result in members not opening up about their problems and challenges.
6. And for the Intra (company) Mastermind, lack of perspective and openness, in the box thinking

To help getting the most out of Intrapreneur spirits, as a client experience addict and value creator, I have decided to upgrade our programs and focus on adding awesome experiences of masterminding together. On top of the Executive Change-maker Enablement program that concentrates on the crowdsulting experience, we have formulated the Compass MasterMind to help you develop your MasterPlan, and implement it under one year

Our next Compass MasterMind cohort starts on 29/30th September, and only a few spots are available. We are 50% sold out. This is not open to everyone check if you find your tribe.?

If this article resonates with you, to get your Mastermind spot with the MasterPlan, contact me for a DISCOVERY CALL - I will tell you if this is for you and figure out your next step.