Summary
Highlights
Intrapreneurship is similar to entrepreneurship, encouraging entrepreneurial activity, but the key difference is that the benefits go to the employer or business, not the individual. Examples include Gmail, which originated from Google's policy allowing employees 20% of their time for personal projects, and the PlayStation, developed by a Sony employee.
In entrepreneurship, the entrepreneur takes the risk and reaps the rewards. In contrast, with intrapreneurship, the company takes on the risk, and the majority of the rewards benefit the business itself.
Intrapreneurship needs to be actively encouraged. Methods include allowing employees dedicated time for innovation (like Google's 20% rule), bringing diverse teams together for innovation projects, seconding staff to smaller entrepreneurial businesses, or holding specific innovation competitions like hackathons.
Large, successful businesses often struggle with intrapreneurship due to complacency, bureaucracy, inadequate reward systems, or a focus on short-term gains rather than long-term, innovative perspectives.
To encourage intrapreneurship, businesses need to cultivate a culture that values and celebrates creativity and innovation among employees. This can include implementing reward systems that share profits or sales from new products and backing employee ideas with investment funds or financial resources.