Still Curious?

Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship are often confused due to their similar focus on innovation and business development, but they differ significantly in context and execution. Intrapreneurship, or “corporate entrepreneurship,” means behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organization.

• Entrepreneurs build businesses based on their vision. Intrapreneurs operate within organizations to achieve the company’s vision.
• Entrepreneurs must be resilient in the face of market adversity. Intrapreneurs deal with internal obstacles and must be resilient when navigating established structures.
• Entrepreneurs frequently find it difficult to obtain resources. Intrapreneurs have more readily available resources, but still adhere to the scarcity principle.
• Entrepreneurs take tremendous risks and may lose everything if they fail. Intrapreneurs have greater job stability, but must frequently persuade their organizations to take more risks.
• Overall, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs are similar in their passion to create value for their stakeholders, courage to take risks, and resilience in the face of setbacks, consistently learning and adapting in the face of failure.

Intrapreneurship offers companies several compelling benefits that contribute to organizational growth, innovation, and competitiveness.

In many organizations, the idea of innovation is often centered around the work done in functions such as research and product development. This is structural intrapreneurship. There is also cultural intrapreneurship, where organizations foster an environment that encourages employees take ownership in the company’s success by embracing and operating with a growth mindset, no matter their role.

Done right and championed by top leadership, intrapreneurship sparks a culture of continuous innovation from ANYONE, ANYWHERE, ALWAYS within an organization.

The concept of intrapreneurship, or “corporate entrepreneurship,” was first introduced and popularized by Gifford Pinchot III in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Pinchot is often credited with coining the term and developing the underlying principles of intrapreneurship. His work laid the foundation for understanding how entrepreneurial behaviors and practices could be applied within large, established organizations.

Intrapreneurship is about a way of thinking and behaving and the principles can be applied to any personality type.  We believe that anyone with a desire to be a change agent, willingness to expand their thinking and ability to operate with a bias for action will benefit from the principles of intrapreneurship.