Intrapreneurship as a form of management

A growing interest is present in the use of Intraprenuership to enhance the ability amongst employees to innovate. This at the same time increases the competitive edge in the marketplace. There are obstacles in making such an activity because of the internal behaviors of some organizations. This is because the environment places a very significant role in Intrapreneurship. This paper highlights what is Intrapreneurship? The strategic importance it has in an organization and what the management can do to enhance support Intrapreneurship.

Intrapreneuership is an activity that should be treated as a must in large or small new or old organizations. A competitive advantage can only be achieved in these doubtful economic times when the organizational attempts to infuse intrapreneuership in the company. A combination of managerial and entrepreneurial skills is the trait of an intrapreneuer. These are the skill which will be realized through the input into innovative processes, which in turn will enhance the profits of the organization. Intraprneuership supports the communal growth through individual actions.

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The following discussion explains the concept of intrapreneuership, the strategic importance of intraprenuership in today's organizational structure. It furthermore explains how to pursue an intrapreneurial mode or process which in turn is beneficial to the organization. There is a strong economic need for organizations to cultivate an intraprenuerial climate to enhance growth and gain competitive edge. Innovation is a course of action that is more than just idea; this requires support on a senior level and teamwork to achieve the success which is more than just desired.

The example of 3m will clearly outline this and illustrate it further. Intrapreneurship is a form of Management, it clearly outlines the need for large organizations which have to compete with other similar organizations; by nurturing and bringing forth in house talent that is abundantly available. Though it would be nai?? ve to say, "Let's round up our dreamers give them some funding and watch it take off" there are multiples factors that have to be considered here.

Intrapreneurship refers to an employee's initiatives in an organization to undertake something new. Major functions related to intrapreneurship may vary in types also, depending on the organization. To name a few opportunity awareness, idea generation, product design, internal alliance building, management persuasion, resource acquisition, planning and organizing. Key aspects of intrapreneurship are personal initiative, active information search, out of the box thinking, taking charge, finding a way, and some degree of risk taking (calculated risk taking).

Pinchot defines intrapreneurship as "behaving like an entrepreneur when you're employed at a large corporation for the benefit of the corporation as a whole" and believes employment as an intrapreneur prior to trying a hand at entrepreneurship is a great way to get your foot into the entrepreneurial door. Pinchot also says a big part of being an intrapreneur is listening to the marketplace. "Intrapreneurs are involved in innovation, so when you're doing new things you never know what the right answer is," he says.

"You do your best and learn from feedback. " The innovation of products, services and processes and the formation of new business enterprises are crucially important to every economy. Innovation and new business development can be initiated by independent individuals or by existing enterprises. The first is referred to as (independent) entrepreneurship, the latter as corporate entrepreneurship/intraprenuership. Intrapreneurship is ever more considered as a valuable instrument for rejuvenating and revitalizing existing companies.

It is brought into practice as a tool for business development, revenue growth, and profitability enhancement and for pioneering the development of new products, services and processes. Intrapreneurship is often defined as a process that goes on inside an existing firm and that may lead to new business ventures, the development of new products, services or processes and the renewal of strategies and competitive postures. As such, it can be seen as the sum of a company's innovation, venturing and renewal efforts.

Intrapreneurship is an evolving area of research. Apparently there cannot be one universally acceptable definition of Intrapreneurship. Authors use many terms to refer to different aspects of corporate entrepreneurship: intrapreneurship (Kuratko et al. , 1990), internal corporate entrepreneurship (Schollhammer, 1982), corporate ventures (Ellis and Taylor, 1987; MacMillan et al. , 1986), venture management (Veciana, 1996), new ventures (Roberts, 1980) and, internal corporate venturing (Burgelman, 1984) (taken from report published by Dr.

Joao Ferreira for the international council for small business, San Juan, Puerto Rico). Scholars view corporate entrepreneurship as a concept that is limited to new venture creation within existing organizations (Burgelman, 1984). Others argue that the idea of corporate entrepreneurship should include the daily struggle within organizations to renew them by hauling out new combinations of resources that rework the interaction between them and their respective environments.

According to Zahra (1991) corporate entrepreneurship refers to the process of creating new business within established firms to improve organizational profitability and enhance a firm's competitive position or the strategic renewal of existing business. Burgelman (1984: 154) includes the definition of corporate entrepreneurship as a form of "extending the firm's domain of competence and corresponding opportunity set through internally generated new resource combinations". The term "new resource combinations" is interpreted to be one and the same with innovation.

Thus intrapreneurship is regarded as an effort to extend an organization's competitive advantage by generating ideas and innovations that significantly change the competition within an industry and or create an entirely new industry. Corporate entrepreneurship is a process to rejuvenate an organization; there are 2 distinct methods to this namely, innovation and venturing. It is also a must to take the process through new market developments. The second dimension of corporate entrepreneurship embodies renewal activities that enhance a firm's ability to compete and take risks (Miller, 1983).