How can companies help intrapreneuship to happen?

• Encourage employees to try new things. Give free hours for exploration and high bonus for successes.
• Do not punish or fire the ones who failed, at least they tried. They will learn with that and hopefully succeed in the future.

Why is intrapreneurship more important than ever before?

The world is changing faster than never before, companies no longer compete with other local competitors but also with international firms. Companies are finding it hard to survive, therefore, they are looking for intrapreneurs to take beyond competition to create new business in new markets. It is no longer enough to be efficient and solve problems, creative thinking is now needed. Business have to keep up with changes.

Entrepreneurship vs. Intrapreneurship

Similarities:

Both entrepreneur and intrapreneurs share similar characteristics and behaviors that enable them to innovate wherever they are acting in.  They are opportunity driven and they see patterns of change.  For an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur everything is variable and nothing is fixed, assumptions exists only to me challenged.

Differences:

The context in which entrepreneurs act are different from intrapreneurs in some extends:

Positive for the intrapreneur:

·         Entrepreneurs innovate for themselves; they understand possible futures and create the future of his or her choice. On the other had intrapreneurs innovate on behalf of an existing organization. The intrapreneurs usually have to ask for permission before attempting to create a desired future.

·         Less financial risks for the intrapreneur. There are already resources available for the intrapreneur within the organization that can be applied to the opportunity being exploited. Structure is already present in a company, while the entrepreneur has to build it (HR, mkt…)

Negative for the intrapreneur:

·         Innovation tends to come harder as an organization gets larger.

·         The cost of failure is too high, and the rewards of success are too low.

·         No-one is willing to change. “That is the way we have always done it around here”. Fear to go against a system that is already working well, however, with a potential to work better.

·         Hierarchy. The deeper the hierarchy , the harder is to get permission for anything new.