Intrapreneurship: Innovation in the Office

Innovation does not refer only to new products, new technologies, or new jobs. It does also include the way we do things, the way we do business… and the way we act at the office and face challenges. This week we bring you a new way of working that might be pretty interesting, whether you already are an entrepreneur or not.

Thus, intrapreneurship is a concept we must take into consideration. This new way of doing business and innovating in processes makes structures much more fluid. But, what exactly is an entrepreneur? Only then we will differentiate it from an intrapreneur. 

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, an entrepreneur is “one who organizes, manages and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.”

Following the definition of Dictionary.com, is “a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.”

Consequently, whereas an entrepreneur is a person starting, and organizing an enterprise, an intrapreneur is an employee showing many of the characteristics of the entrepreneurs.

This said, what are the main characteristics of the intrapreneur?

1. They take the initiative and the leading role, not to start a company from scratch, but to solve, improve, or innovate any aspect of a company.

2. They are major contributors to the enterprise growth. This is because they take risks, they are creative, and find effective ways to solve problems. They seek to provide solutions. They are resolutive, if they have an issue or need something, they will do everything in order to get it sorted out.

3. The intrapreneur, as well as the entrepreneur, needs space and trust to grow, and room to experiment and try out things.

4. The intrapreneur understands trends. They have a vision in what its hot, so they can make the most of it and apply it to their companies. In other words, they apply innovation to their own characteristics; they innovate.

5. They have a global vision of the company. They haven’t created it, but they have experience within it, know the people working there, know the departments, and know the culture.

Intrapreneurs help a company to innovate, to improve, and in consequence, to grow

No wonder why intrapreneurs are so relevant for companies! They help a company to innovate, to improve, and in consequence, to grow.

But great power comes great responsibility! If you are lucky enough to have intrapreneurs among your colleagues, you need to take care of them. Otherwise, they will lose engagement very soon.

Now, how should you encourage the intrapreneurs around you? 4 hints! 

1. Recognize their ideas and achievements.

2. Give them space, and voice, to propose ideas, initiatives or anything else they would like to share.

3. Everybody can have ideas, and good ideas. But you can not know how good a idea is until you expose it to your colleagues’ feedback. Welcome any idea, and appreciate the courage of sharing them with the rest of the team.  

4. They appreciated to be asked and to be included in important decisions.

As you can imagine by now, intrapreneurship is a skill that almost everybody can develop. The core of this trait is to dare. Dare to imagine new things, dare to propose them, dare to do them, and apply them, and dare to innovate.

Would you like to check how intrapreneur is your team? Would you like to give them a free, friendly space where everybody can propose and give feedback? A way to encourage them, and include them in company challenges? Then Nextinit is the perfect place for you. You can even try it for free ;).