Innovating From Within: The Rise of the Intrapreneur

Entrepreneurship and leadership have a natural correlation. How would entrepreneurs build successful companies without strong leadership qualities? But there’s a new breed of leader cropping up in the world of business: the intra preneur.

So What Exactly is an Intrapreneur?

The ‘intrapreneur’ thinks like an entrepreneur, they explore new avenues of business, they’re creative, they’re natural leaders and are able to hire and build teams, but they do so working for a company.

"Running a business means wearing many hats, business development, head of operations, etc..."

They function with a start-up mentality spearheading new streams of business within a company. They are responsible for much of the product innovation in the world today.

The intrapreneur works within the confines of an organization rather than breaking off to start an independent venture. They must get buy-in from their managers and CEOs, but they become experts in their department and can operate completely autonomously. They can leverage existing resources and get their ideas off the ground much faster.

Whereas the entrepreneur wears many hats and has at one point or another performed every basic job function: from accounting, to HR, to sales. The intrapreneur is often free of start-up responsibilities like raising capital or paying for office space.

Google naturally lends itself towards a culture of intrapreneurialism by allowing select engineers to take one day each week to work on self-directed projects. This has led to some of the company’s most well-known products including: AdSense, Google News and Gmail.

Another example is Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works project that was responsible for the development of the U-2, and F-22 Raptor aircraft (among others).

Hackathons, where developers come together and create new software (often while pulling an all-nighter) is another breeding ground for intrapreneurs. Legend has it, the Facebook Like button was created during a hackathon.

At TechWyse, I look for Intrapreneurial qualities in the people we hire. Sometimes they’re people who’ve run their own business in the past, other times they’re people who felt stifled at their previous jobs. Most of the time they are people who see the “big picture” and are most interested in helping their colleagues succeed.

Running a business means wearing many hats, business development, head of operations, accounting, etc. It’s impossible to have your mind fully immersed in one aspect of the business, much the way a specialized employee can. I’ll give you an example from our business.

We’re an internet marketing firm and our team member who runs the Facebook advertising noticed a flaw in the ad approval process. What did they do? They rallied a team together to create a tool that helps advertisers check to see how much text their ad image contained. Too much and the ad was rejected. Our tool helped save time and prevent delays in the ad approval process.

We didn’t sell this, so no, it was not an example of intrapreneurialsm for profit; however, this tool attracted a lot of attention (Facebook even came out with their own version a month later). In our industry where links and positive press translates into higher web rankings, it brought us new business, albeit in an indirect way.

A Growing Trend Amongst Millennials

In Dan Schawbel’s new book Promote Yourself he found that 58% of managers were “very willing” or “extremely willing” to allow employees to develop new streams of business. In addition Dan’s survey also found the Gen Y’s were “very interested” or “extremely interested” in becoming intrapreneurs.

It will become increasingly important for business owners to promote this way of thinking. Schawbel cites in his book that one of the top reasons millennials leave their jobs after two years is due to a lack of career opportunities. I’ve seen it myself over the years, where I’ve hired a person for one role and they’ve gone on to doing something else altogether. Often times because they’re better-suited for the new role and sometimes they feel stifled by a job they’ve been doing for too long.

"When you allow those with potential to thrive in the areas that most excite them, good things will come."

Two Examples of Intrapreneurialism Made Easy

Let’s say you already have a network of clients, why not look to a new employee to resell a product or service? This could be as simple as bringing in a new line of desserts into your restaurant. Or let’s say you’re a web development firm and you’ve got clients who want video marketing. Wouldn’t it be great is a project manager could take it upon themselves to partner with a video marketing firm and resell their product?

Ideas for Fostering a Culture of Innovation

Most of us have team meetings, scrums, operations meetings, sometimes weekly, sometimes daily. The only problem with these meetings is that collaboration and great ideas don’t always happen at once. At TechWyse, we’ve created a private Facebook group that acts as a bulletin board and starting point for new ideas that are shared across the entire team.

Try running contests. At TechWyse we have contests for people who can write the most viewed blog within a certain time-frame. We also have a CRM software called AdLuge that we developed, we’re all encouraged to suggest new features and functionality. Many of these suggestions have profoundly influenced the direction of the tool.

Is There a Silver Bullet for Building a Team of Intrapreneurs?

In short: no, but when you allow those with potential to thrive in the areas that most excite them, good things will come!