PROMOTING AWARENESS AND BETTER UNDERSTANDING ABOUT INTRAPRENEURSHIP Presented by: Ms. Anu Ramachandran CONTENTS ? ABSTRACT ? INTRODUCTION ? INTRAPRENEURSHIP VS. ENTREPRENEURSHIP ? WHY INTRAPRENEURSHIP ? MERITS OF INTRAPRENEURHIP ? ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS THAT ENCOURAGE INTRAPRENEURSHIP ? THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR INTRAPRENEURS ? THE PRACTICE OF THE ART OF INTRAPRENEURSHIP ? DRIVING FACTORS IN LARGE ENTERPRISES ? CONCLUSION
ABSTRACT The implementation of corporate entrepreneuring or intrapreneurship is becoming an important activity for growth-oriented businesses However, very little empirical research exists that attempts to measure the effectiveness of an environment or culture for the implementation of intrapreneurial ideas. This study attempted to assess the factor structure of intrapreneurship culture through promoting awareness about intraprenurship.
In this topic we discussed why to implement intrapreneurship within an organization also we discussed Intrapreneurship is not only important for the organizational development but also for economic development as it helps in increasing employee productivity and motivation. INTRODUCTION “Intrapreneurship refers to employee initiatives in organizations to undertake something new, without being asked to do so”. 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. Intrapreneurship is an example of motivation through job design. 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. INTRAPRENEURSHIP VS. ENTREPRENEURSHIP Intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship have vast similarities and differences. The most notable are that, Intrapreneurs are still company employees, whereas Entrepreneurs are self-employed people running their own company. One of the biggest differences is that intrapreneurs have at least a modicum of support from the primary organization; the entrepreneur doesn’t.
Also, intrapreneurs must get final approval of an idea from a senior executive. Entrepreneurs answer to themselves. An entrepreneur takes substantial risk in being the owner and operator of a business with expectations of financial profit and other rewards that the business may generate. On the contrary, an intrapreneur is an individual employed by an organization for remuneration, which is based on the financial success of the unit he is responsible for. Intrapreneurs share the same traits as entrepreneurs such as conviction, zeal and insight.
As the intrapreneur continues to expresses his ideas vigorously, it will reveal the gap between the philosophy of the organization and the employee. If the organization supports him in pursuing his ideas, he succeeds. If not, he is likely to leave the organization and set up his own business WHY INTRAPRENEURSHIP? There are many answers for this question of why to implement intrapreneurship within an organization. Intrapreneurship which is a concept linked to the entrepreneurial orientation of an organization is the spirit of entrepreneurship within an established organization.
At a particular crucial point there occurs the need to catalyze the organization and imbue it with a new spirit of intrapreneurship. Intrapreneurs work within corporations to develop new products, increase innovation, and build employee morale. Allowing employees to introduce and implement innovation within an organization is a means of fostering economic growth. Few innovations have been derived from a flash of genius, most are the result of a conscious, purposeful search for innovation opportunities. MERITS OF INTRAPRENEURSHIP
Intrapreneurs have been credited with increasing the speed and cost-effectiveness of technology transfer from research and development to the marketplace. At times intrapreneurs are considered inventors. While inventors come up with new products, intrapreneurs come up with new processes that get that product to market. Another reason for what they are considered similar to inventors is that they are creative and are risk-takers in the sense that they are stepping out of their traditional role within the business. However, their risk-taking behavior is personal.
In terms of the business, they actually work towards minimizing the risk through the innovative approaches they use to more efficient and effective product production and sales. Many organizations have placed greater importance on a service-orientated approach to their business activities. This customer service focus has resulted in an emphasis on being a team player. Consequently, the culture and ethos of a customer service focus has enabled an increase in intrapreneurism. This in turn has led to the development of intrapreneurial competing teams within a company.
Teams can function as small businesses within the organization. Teams can focus on either a product or a process. Such practices result in a “free market system” where work is more effectively co-coordinated and responsibility is distributed more evenly. ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS THAT ENCOURAGE INTRAPRENEURSHIP The key to establishing an “intrapreneur-friendly” organization is to create an innovative working environment. There are hierarchies, rules, procedures and the “right” way to do things to make the company more efficient.
Careers can be destroyed by monetary losses and mistakes. Innovation is difficult under those conditions. Other keys to creating an intrapreneurial environment include the following: * Support from ownership and top management; * Recognition that intrapreneurship is compatible to the existing culture; * Communication channels that are open; * Allocation of resources to the new innovations; * Rewards for intrapreneurship; and, * Follow through by the intrapreneurs in order to see the finished product. While these are noble goals, do most organizations allow for these?
Three fundamental blocks to the above goals in organizations are the following: * Believing you already have “the right answer” (This prevents you from understanding possible alternative futures and choosing to create the one you most desire. The not invented here syndrome is alive and well in most large companies. ); * Taking life too seriously prevents one from exploring new ideas; and, * Believing you are not creative prevents attempts which might result in failure Creativity and innovation must flourish if large companies are striving to create an environment conducive to intrapreneurship. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR INTRAPRENEURS Intrapreneuring” provides a list of rules for the intrapreneur striving in a large company to get his or her idea accepted. They are: * Do any job needed to make your project work regardless of your job description; * Share credit wisely; * Remember, it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission; * Come to work each day willing to be fired; * Ask for advice before asking for resources; * Follow your intuition about people; build a team of the best; * Build a quiet coalition for your idea; early publicity triggers the corporate immune system; * Never bet on a race unless you are running in it; Be true to your goals, but realistic about ways to achieve them; THE PRACTICE OF THE ART OF INTRAPRENEURSHIP Kawasaki (2006) presented a more realistic set of commandments for the modern day “intrapreneur”. This series of practices might well allow us to intrapreneur. These rules are: * Kill the cash cows (Allow for the fostering of new products and services funded by the cash cows of yesterday); Reboot your brain…. Generally, you should do everything the opposite way from the tried and true existing ways of large companies (Building consensus and focus groups do not allow for originality in innovation.
Customers can only tell you what they like or dislike about existing products. They cannot tell you what they think of your new ideas. ); * Find a separate building (Remove the intrapreneur from the daily activities of the company. This allows freedom to try various trials without the constraints of the organization. There is a requirement for freedom of thought, space and experimentation. ); * Hire infected people…. It’s being infected with a love for what the team is doing….
It’s not work experience or educational background (Intuitive, creative people can come up with amazing ideas which can be commercializable, but may not fit well into the traditional bureaucracy of a large organization with its rules and procedures); * Put the company first…. as long as you are an employee, you have to do what’s right for the company; * Stay under the radar … you need to stay invisible as long as practicable … Make your bosses think it was their idea; * Collect and share data (Be prepared for questions and be able to support your position for the nay sayers. ; and, Why is it that underfunded, small businesses without marketing clout, without manufacturing resources, without personnel, without all of the accouterments of business, produce virtually all of the real breakthroughs? The answers relate to the people. So frequently we forget that “enterprise,” “organization,” “business,” even “venture,” are words that we have coined to describe the activities of individuals. No “business” ever decided to take any action. Every action, every decision, every effect of every organization is the result of the acts of one or more people.
It is the motivation of these human decision makers that we must examine. DRIVING FACTORS IN LARGE ENTERPRISES It is easy to understand the bias that is incorporated into the IRR formulae. Managers are literally driven by numbers because their performance is evaluated with them. If you want to progress in the company, then you need to make your numbers. When you meet with your superior each year, you come away with an understanding of the returns you should produce in your profit center, or the percentage of spending reduction you should achieve in your cost center. To progress in the company, you need to meet those numbers.
If you exceed the numbers, that’s great, but if you double or triple the numbers, there is rarely any serious difference in your career outcome. In other words, no one is going to double your salary because you doubled the expected returns for your department or division. In fact, they are far more likely to believe that the original expectations were too conservative and to saddle you with higher expected returns next year. Your reward for outstanding performance is likely to be an expectation for continued outstanding performance in the future coupled with a penalty for failure to achieve those results.
To complicate this picture even more, accounting rules mandate that expenditures for research and development (R&D) be expensed when incurred. We know that there is a lag time between the development of an innovation and any returns it might create and this lag time can be several years. Nevertheless, expenditures made in the search for innovations this year, are deducted this year. That means that the more you spend on research and development, the lower your returns will be, whether your R&D is successful or not!
The accounting issue is a significant one because it drives the calculation of the benchmark numbers for the managers of the world. This is one of the reasons for the popularity of joint venture research and development projects. The costs of a joint venture can be capitalized and charged off over a period of years, rather than being deducted in the current period. It is also a major driver of the interest in mergers and acquisitions. Costs of acquiring another enterprise are not operating expenses, so they do not affect the budgets or benchmarks of the anagers making the daily decisions So, what is a wise manager to do? There is only one safe course of action! Make sure your research and development people concentrate on peanut butter jars, not peanut butter. Control your R&D expenses carefully. Then, watch the market place. Just watch! Sooner or later, some crazy entrepreneur will arise and prove the viability of an innovation which you can use in your company. When that happens, you buy the little enterprise. It is likely to cost less to buy the little enterprise than it would to develop the innovation in house.
More important, the cost of buying the venture won’t be charged against your budget. Most important, buying a proven innovation is clearly the least risky course of action available! There are exceptions, of course. A number of large enterprises have been successful at establishing an environment which really does encourage innovation. The secret is quite obvious; one must eschew the traditional management evaluation system. It requires commitment from the top levels of the organization and a willingness to resist pressure from shareholders.
There will be pressure from shareholders because innovation is wasteful! It produces failures which consume resources. It produces a playful atmosphere which is seemingly less efficient. In fact, nothing about innovation is efficient! That means that most of the time when we see a large firm supporting innovation among its people that firm is producing such great returns for its shareholders that they don’t resist the “waste of resources. ” If the returns to shareholders begin to lessen, top management will discover that supporting innovation becomes much more difficult and even career threatening.
In fairness to large enterprises, it is this external pressure from shareholders which stacks the deck against innovation despite the best intentions of well-meaning people. Why is it important to foster intrapreneurial employees? Intrapreneurs can provide a fantastic boost to your company’s bottom line. Not only do innovations add to your revenue stream, they also increase motivation and empowerment among your intrapreneurial employees. Intrapreneurial employees are typically energetic and enthusiastic, imaginative and inventive. Most likely, they already have ideas for creating new products or services.
Perhaps they’re even working on developing their ideas in their off-work hours. So why not provide them the encouragement, resources and manpower? If you don’t, they may move on to another company, or they may start their own and become one of your competitors — taking customers and business away from you! Intrapreneurial environments also promote expansion. You are only one person, trying to do a hundred different things all at once. When you look at the scope of your day, how much time and energy do you have left over to devote to creating new products and services that could help your company grow?
The likely answer is, very little. As the old saying goes, two brains are better than one. So, wouldn’t it make sense to utilize all of the brain power that you are already paying for? Yes, fostering intrapreneurial employees means taking chances, but these chances can pay off big. In fact, the Ford Mustang, IBM’s personal computer and Kenner Toys’ “Star Wars line” were all forged by intrapreneurs working for other people. Another example of the value of intrapreneurship is the genesis of Post-It Notes¬®. In 1974, a 3M Corporation employee couldn’t keep his hymns marked properly in his church choir book.
After attempting various methods, he decided he’d try using some non-permanent adhesive that was available at his workplace. By placing this adhesive on the back of his markers, he found he could keep them secured in place and then easily peel them off when he was done. The man took his new discovery to the management at 3M, a company that encourages employees to spend no less than 15 percent of their time at work developing their own ideas and projects. With the company’s support, the resourceful man researched and developed a new product.
Twenty-five years later, Post-It Notes¬® continue to be one of 3M’s top-grossing products. You don’t have to own a large corporation to foster intrapreneurship. All you need is the ability to encourage employees to develop new ideas, and then give them the time, space and resources needed to turn those ideas into reality. You may think you already encourage your employees to be innovative, but the question is, do you do it in a formal way? The following questions can help you determine whether you are indeed currently fostering an intrapreneurial environment at your company: CONCLUSION
Intrapreneurship is a strategy for stimulating innovation by making better use of entrepreneurial talent. When effectively promoted and channeled, intrapreneurship not only fosters innovation, it also helps employees with good ideas to better channel the resources of a corporation to develop more successful products. By fostering an intrapreneur ethic within a company, employees can be empowered and enabled to become company “change agents” who are comfortable bringing new ideas forward and promoting their execution.
It is essential to create an elevating and encouraging environment that provides talented and entrepreneurial minded people the freedom to innovate, whilst at the same time supporting them with the resources to quickly bring their innovations to market. For small-to-midsize firms, innovation and speed-to-market are two ways to compete successfully against dominant and well-entrenched companies. Creating, fostering, and sustaining the right environment really are intrapreneurial imperatives.
