Page 45 - DMGT310_ENTREPRENEURSHIP_AND_SMALL_BUSINESS_MANAGEMENT

Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management

Notes Intrapreneurship is the practice of entrepreneurial skills and approaches by or within a company
or at home. Employees, perhaps engaged in a special project within a larger firm are supposed
to behave as entrepreneurs, even though they have the resources and capabilities of the larger
firm to draw upon. Capturing a little of the dynamic nature of entrepreneurial management
(trying things until successful, learning from failures, attempting to conserve resources, etc.) is
claimed to be quite valuable in otherwise static organizations.
This is the reason, why founders behave differently to his/her successor. In a flourishing business
the entrepreneurial spirit is very little or not present to those successors because everything is
spoon fed. Unlike the founders who experienced struggles and conflicts.

3.3.1 Economic Differences

The difference between the entrepreneur and the intrapreneur is that an entrepreneur is starting
a business while intrapreneur is developing a new product in an already existing business.
There are many definitions of an entrepreneur and the simplest and the most appropriate is one
who recognizes opportunities and organizes resources to take advantage of the opportunity.

Example: When a company’s growth begins to dwindle, boardroom meetings grow
strained and the finger pointing starts.

3.3.2 Corporate vs. Intrapreneurial Culture

Corporate culture is the sum of the values, customs, traditions and meanings that make a
company unique. Corporate culture is often called “the character of an organisation” since it
embodies the vision of the company’s founders. The values of a corporate culture influence the
ethical standards within a corporation, as well as managerial behaviour.
Intrapreneurship is a strategy for stimulating innovation by making better use of entrepreneurial
talent. When effectively promoted and channeled, intrapreneurship not only fosters innovation,
it also helps employees with good ideas to better channel the resources of a corporation to
develop more successful products.

Caselet The Intrapreneur, the New Change Maker

he report revealed that the social intrapreneur think there are many advantages for
the corporation when it comes to projects that align societal needs and business
Tvalue: creating new revenue streams, expanding core capabilities into new areas,
fueling innovation, enhancing brand equity, retaining talent, or achieving competitive
advantage in new markets.
“The result is not immediately obvious, but it is important to have a presence in these
markets,” said Orlando Ayala, who led the Microsoft Unlimited Potential initiative that
promoted technology affordable for people to low income and is now vice president of
emerging markets in the company.
There are other examples of social intrapreneurs:

Vijay Sharma Shakti project led to Hindustan Unilever to train and support women
entrepreneurship in India
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