Intrapreneurship: Is it Right for Your Company?

Intrapreneurs are valuable team members who create thoughtful approaches to improve how things are done within existing frameworks using existing resources. 

Unlike entrepreneurship, which relies on the visions of the business owner, intrapreneurship focuses on the development of teams, using the skills found in the trenches. 

But will this approach work for your company?

What is an Intrapreneur?

Intrapreneurs have similar skills and mindsets to entrepreneurs but are team members who are motivated to take ideas from concept to profitability. As a result, they are the talent that helps drive profitability while also finding new efficiencies that reduce costs.

What are the Benefits of Intrapreneurship?

The greatest benefit of intrapreneurship is that it allows those who know the inner workings of the organization to shape ideas into opportunities others might overlook. 

They are talented individuals who can point out project potential that will lead to change, making them excellent leaders to take businesses into the next stage of growth. 

When you embrace intrapreneurship, you gain the insights of those who understand company functions and see where resources lie that can be leveraged to achieve specific, profitable goals. Although finding intrapreneurs within your organization is best, you can also hire talent that demonstrates their intrapreneurial spirit in their work history. 

This allows you to introduce them into your organization as future leaders who will instinctively use their leadership and training to develop insights and identify opportunities.

Nurturing the Idea of Intrapreneurship

You might have intrapreneurs in the making dispersed across different company functions who need encouragement to step into their roles. 

To do so, you need to create an intrapreneurial environment where ideas are highly valued and individuals can pursue independent work projects. Providing access to organizational resources empowers these innovators to achieve business-critical goals. Tapping into team member ideas that would otherwise remain unspoken also opens doors that foster positive change and facilitate the sharing of knowledge to drive profitability.

How to Find Intrapreneurs

Teaching managers to spot key intrapreneurial characteristics will also assist in introducing intrapreneurship into your culture, such as:

• Being proactive
• Motivation to pursue their ideas or develop the ideas of others
• Strategic thinking
• Collaborative mindset that also works independently with little supervision
• Resourcefulness to find ways to make do with the existing tools within the organization
• Knowledgeable about the company, but always wanting to learn more
• Adaptability

Is Intrapreneurship Right for Your Business?

There are a few things to help you decide if intrapreneurship is a good fit for your business:

• Are your managers okay with allowing team members to recommend areas for improvement and present realistic solutions?
• Is your structure able to accommodate “volunteer” participation between departments to participate in projects of interest that allow people to apply their true skill sets and knowledge?
• Do you have team members who have seen success with previous company innovations?
• Do you see people demonstrating a desire, talent, and willingness to take on larger projects beyond their responsibilities?

If you answer yes to most of these questions, you can start laying the groundwork for intrapreneurship, leveraging your internal resources to introduce viable approaches that facilitate your ideas.

About Focus HR, Inc. Focus HR, Inc. uncomplicates the people side of business by providing small business owners with outsourced HR, project HR, and Leadership Coaching. For more information, please contact us today! If you liked this post, please subscribe to our blog. You can opt-out at any time. 

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