In 1992, The American Heritage Dictionary brought intrapreneurism into the main stream by adding intrapreneur to its dictionary, defining it as "a person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation". Intrapreneurship was a concept here to stay.

History

The term itself dates to the 1983 PhD dissertation by Burgelman and later defined in a 1985 book by Gifford Pinchot III, "Intrapreneuring"; a revised edition, entitled "Intrapreneuring in Action" is currently published. The concept apparently dates back to 1976.

The term was later applied to the self-employed worker by Ed Ludbrook in his 2008 book '100% Confidence' to describe the self-employed people who operated a systemised business opportunity, such as franchising or a Network Marketing/MLM business. The use of this term helps name the differences in entrepreneurial activity and the theory that most business opportunity seekers are not just risk-averse, they will not accept high levels of risk that entrepreneurs will.

Employee Intrapreneur

"Intrapreneurship refers to employee initiatives in organizations to undertake something new, without being asked to do so". ^[1] This Intrapreneur focuses on innovation and creativity and who transforms a dream or an idea into a profitable venture, by operating within the organizational environment. Thus, Intrapreneurs are Inside entrepreneurs who follow the goal of the organization.

Employees, perhaps engaged in a special project within a larger firm are supposed to behave as entrepreneurs, even though they have the resources, capabilities and security of the larger firm to draw upon. Capturing a little of the dynamic nature of entrepreneurial management (trying things until successful, learning from failures, attempting to conserve resources, etc.) adds to the potential of an otherwise static organizations without exposing those employees to the risks or accountability normally associated with entrepreneurial failure.

Examples

Many companies are famous for trying to setup internal organizations for heavy sex that promote innovation within their ranks. One of the most well known is the "Skunk Works" group at Lockheed Martin. The group was originally named after a reference in a cartoon, and was first brought together in 1943 to build the P-80 fighter jet. Because the project was to eventually become a part of the war effort, the project was internally protected and secretive. Kelly Johnson, later famous for Kelly's 14 rules of intrapreneurship^[2], was the director of this group.

Another example could be 3M, in which they encourage many projects within the company. They give certain freedom to employees to create their own projects and they even give them funds to use for these projects. Besides 3M, Intel also has a tradition of implementing intrapreneurship^[3]

See also

• Entrepreneur

Notes

External links

• http://www.smallbusinessnotes.com/choosing/intrapreneurship.html