Many entrepreneurs start accumulating experience, contacts and education by working for companies first. These intrapreneurs
have all the same characteristics as entrepreneurs, including the
ability to take risks, sell their ideas and see opportunities where
others don't. They choose to work for a company in order to test ideas,
learn from mistakes and prepare themselves to eventually have their own
businesses. A company can act as a venture capital firm in this way, and
the main difference is that an employee almost never has the rights to
what they create.
Intrapreneurship has been around since 3M developed Post-It notes
back in 1977 and is even more popular today as companies leverage their
employees to innovate
and stay competitive in the marketplace. Some examples include
DreamWorks, where employees take free classes to learn how to pitch
their ideas and are then able to pitch them directly to executives, and
Facebook's "hackathons," where engineers collaborate on software
projects that have turned into real features for the site including the
infamous "like" button. There's a lot you don't know about
intrapreneurship, but through my research, I've uncovered a few
interesting findings that reveal more about how supportive companies are
and how it can lead to entrepreneurial ventures later.
1. Managers are actually willing to support intrapreneurial employees.
In a new study in partnership with American Express, we found that 58
percent of managers are either very willing or extremely willing to
support employees who want to chase business opportunities. Managers
believe that the best employees will be more than their job description
and seek additional responsibilities outside of their day-to-day
activities. Intrapreneurship projects actually make managers look really
good because it shows that they are innovating, thinking outside of the
box and delivering more value to the overall organization.
Intrapreneurs work longer hours, are more productive and their
creativity and passion are infectious, so the entire team benefits.
2. The majority of workers still don't believe they can become an intrapreneur. In
a study with Monster.com, we found that less than one third of workers
feel they have the freedom, flexibility and resources to be an
intrapreneur. From their perspective, they already have enough on their
plates and it's hard to do more without additional incentives and
flexibility. They are also afraid of getting fired and stepping on their
managers' toes. Most companies still don't have formal intrapreneur
programs, so it's not an obvious career path for employees to select.
When you're starting a job, there's a lot of pressure to focus on your
current job responsibilities, so you end up trying to avoid all
distractions. Innovative companies embrace entrepreneurial-minded
employees, and they rely on them to move business forward.
3. Intrapreneurship is a stepping stone to entrepreneurship.
Some 94 percent of intrapreneurs think they have the required skills
and knowledge to start a firm of their own, and 76 percent say that fear
of failure would not prevent them from starting a business, reports the
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. We've seen many examples of this,
including Dave Morin, who co-created the Facebook Platform and Facebook
Connect before starting his own company called Path. He established a
strong reputation, visibility and skills at Facebook, which he was able
to leverage in order to establish his own business. Of course, some
entrepreneurs don't need to work at companies or even go to college, but
the corporate world can certainly help increase your odds of success
and its own path to achieving it.
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