Intrapreneurship and Libraries: Need, Competencies Requirement, Barriers and Strategic Approach for Success

1. Intrapreneurshipand Libraries: Need, Competencies Requirement, Barriers and Strategic Approach for Success Jitendersharma Librarian NIILM Centre for Management Studies, Greater Noida, Delhi-NCR

2. Rationale Behind this Paper Topic of the conference “Entrepreneurial Approaches to Librarianship” forced thinking about relevance of the topic for librarians Trying to understand correlation between entrepreneurship and librarianship Understanding need to borrow management concepts in librarianship State of librarians and their intrapreneurship capabilities in Indian libraries

3. Beginning… Global economic recession impacted all sphere of life Hit hard on the education sector as hiring demand is less due to slowdown Many institutions either closed down or are in the process of closing down Need of additional revenue generation and adopting innovative methods to remain relevant

4. Impact on Libraries… Libraries are still considered to be non productive entities Budget shrinking in any academic set up always starts from library Downsizing of staff and cutting down on academic resources Users’ expectations and demand however always go up This need to think on some innovative ways of revenue generation and be less dependent on organizational resources

5. Entrepreneurship… Numerous definitions are available on entrepreneurship and lot has been written Thinking, judgment making, risk taking capabilities, innovation are some common traits of an entrepreneur Summing up: Entrepreneurship is an inner quality of dreaming, thinking differently, developing innovative idea(s), striving hard to make that idea(s) a reality and taking calculated risk to make this idea successful

6. An Entrepreneur… • Various definitions are available • Summing up them all • An entrepreneur is willing and able to convert a new idea or invention in to a successful venture • An entrepreneur always strives for novelty, innovation and is always willing to take risk or sacrifice for bringing innovation in an existing system

7. Intrapreneurship… Lot of overlapping between entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship Entrepreneurship within a firm or large organization is referred as intrapreneurship It is comparatively less risk taking Focus more towards bringing innovative practices and methods in existing system for more efficiency and additional revenues/resources generation Entrepreneurship is like a tree and intrapreneurship is like its branches

8. Intrapreneur… An intrapreneur is an entrepreneur who works within the organization Intrapreneur works for innovative accomplishments Works for finding new opportunities, developing a new product, service or technology Introduces new process, procedures and make structural changes so as to bring innovation and resources generation

9. Need of Intrapreneurship in Libraries Information is commercially exploitable in 21st century It is considered as fifth pillar of production Libraries being the storehouses of information can easily make use of the same for commercial sense This can make libraries and librarians relevant in these tough economic times This will bring financial rewards and professional experience for library professionals Taking up such challenging tasks will help them in getting parity with teaching community Not possible for all librarians to take up a full scale entrepreneurship route

10. Competencies Requirements… Information assimilation, storage and dissemination is their stronghold Requiring basic management skills like developing, implementing & marketing a business plan, simple accounting/ finance methods and operations management skills Need of good communication skills both verbal and written

11. Barriers… Lack of staff resulting in hampering regular work and services Lack of clientele and lack of marketing skills in finding and developing new clients Dilemma of Users first versus Customers first Lack of organizational support for taking up such ventures and for initial funding Tough competition from commercial established players working on large scales

12. The Way Ahead… Identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and Threat (SWOT Analysis)

13. Strategic Approach… Devise a workable and profitable plan and defend the same before authorities about need of such work with clear cut achievable goals and also potential risk involved Indentify information products that are different or superior from competition Think about collaboration to avoid duplication and gain more Correctly estimate your organization risk taking appetite May tie up with commercial entities and extend your expertise for mutual benefits Contents developments for online education can be one such example

14. Conclusion Only change is constant, hence change and change for your skills upgradation that results in new innovative products development with potential of not only serve your existing users but with commercial viability also. Intrapreneurship efforts will help librarians not only keep floating in these uncertain times but will cement their place and worth in organizations