Intrapreneurship: a brief introduction

1. Intrapreneurship: a brief introduction Pauline Kneale p.e.kneale@leeds.ac.uk

2. Intrapreneur is a term coined byMacrae (1982) and developed by Pinchot (1985) According to Pinchot ‘Intrapreneurs are "dreamers who do," those who take hands-on responsibility for creating innovation of any kind within an organization’. Innovation is the introduction of something new - an idea, process, product or method. All organizations, large and small, from multi million corporations to charity and social groups cannot rely on their past achievements to continue their success in the future. Successful companies and organizations look to develop and to mange change creatively, so that the business grows, renews and develops. Really good organizations see innovation as a core competence in management

3. Intrapreneurs are people who can invigorate and reinvigorate businesses, organizations and other groups through: • recognizing opportunities (through research, screening and analyzing). • drawing up a business plan with marketing and financial professionals. • building a team to develop and implement the project.

4. Intrapreneurs can be found in service industries, creating innovations that draw customers away from the competition. • Intrapreneurs are found in charities, voluntary activities and social groups. They work within systems to develop activities, products and ideas. • Intrapreneurial employees are energetic, enthusiastic, imaginative and inventive. They have ideas for creating new products or services often working on them in their own time. They can see how savings can be made. How processes can be improved

5. Intrapreneurial activity by you as fairly new / young member of a group or company could include: • Spotting ways to improve a service, saving time or money, or just making life easier. • Seeing the scope for variations on current products, or a new product. • Realising that there are other ways the company or group can communicate with and respond to their audience or customers • Understanding how a job could be done smarter • Seeing how the quality of a service or product could be enhanced • Reducing the time it takes to do something • Finding ways to do background administration more smoothly, is data sought and held in the most efficient way • Finding ways to enhance the workplace atmosphere / sociability / working day to the advantage of staff and employers.

6. Win – Win situation. Kettle chips Portland Trailblazers Basketball Stadium

7. Tactics to help a junior intrapreneur to succeed. (Pinochet and Pelman 1999) • Test ideas casually with friends who can point out basic flaws and ask challenging questions. • Keep ideas from natural enemies as long as possible to avoid opposition. • Promote ideas modestly and constructively. • Test casually on potential customers to check the project is realisable and profitable. • Accept suggestions gratefully. • Always look to network the idea so it can be thought about from many aspects. • Don’t give up at the first sign of disappointment.

8. What do you understand about the working culture at Save the Children? • What have you learned about how innovation is promoted? • How do you think you would fit into this organization? What strengths can you offer? • How might you apply what you have learned in this case to your own activities? How might you use some of these ideas in your part-time job, social activities, workplace? • How did your group work together, what was the main challenge for you and how was this met?