The major key to sustained success is connected innovation.  That is, continual innovations and improvements to products and practices based on research, feedback, and general connectedness with the serviced demographic.  Innovation is a key characteristic of the entrepreneur.  Every day, entrepreneurs start businesses, have success, and fail.  One of the main factors in this lack of sustainability is not their entrepreneurial spirit but their inability to translate that into an organization.  They either are completely unable to transition from small startup to larger organization or in that transition, lose what made them successful in the first place and allow inefficient, ineffective bureaucracy to infiltrate based on old assumptions of “the way to do it”.  The transition to growth is crucial for sustained success just as the connected innovation that generated the business idea in the first place.

So how do you maintain that power within an organization of 10, 50, 100, 1000, or even 10,000?  An effective organization will be made up of two types of people: Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs.  You’re likely familiar with entrepreneurs but what is an intrapreneur? The popular Wikipedia includes this entry:

Intrapreneurship is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur, except within a larger organization… In 1992, The American Heritage Dictionary acknowledged the popular use of a new word, intrapreneur, to mean “A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation”. Intrapreneurship is now known as the practice of a corporate management style that integrates risk-taking and innovation approaches, as well as the reward and motivational techniques that are more traditionally thought of as being the province of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurs will be found at the head of the organization as owners, key executives, and department heads. Intrapreneurs will essentially make up the rest of the organization.  The key to success, therefore, is instilling the responsibility, trust, respect, and expectations of entrepreneurship throughout the organization and within each position.  

The following list of qualities includes those typical of successful entrepreneurs.  Note how valuable they would be in any employee, even administrative positions.  The challenge is not only finding persons with this exhibiting this list but building an environment conducive to them.

Qualities of Entrepreneurship:

• Ownership mentality
• Innovation
• Risk (managed)
• Interpersonal skills (communication, sales)
• Inner drive to succeed, motivated
• Confidence
• Adaptive, open to change
• Leadership

Now, if each employee of your organization had these qualities, the potential success is notably higher.  The challenge is knowing how to manage an organization with this type of roster.  Most businesses simply drive these individuals away, many times to start their own venture.  Stephen Covey, in his book “principle Centered Leadership”, identifies some powerful points for developing the intrapreneurial position.  Start with a win/win agreement.  This ‘agreement’ ought to rest upon the following conditions:

1. Specify the desired results.  It must be clear what we are to achieve. This includes aligning on the desired result.
2. Set some guidelines.  These will ensure no one oversteps their bounds in accomplishing the result. You may include the what-not-to-do’s as guidelines.  If there are any legal requirements, these must also be understood (don’t do anything illegal!).
3. Identify available resources. Again, this lets all parties know what resources they are privy to and able to call upon in order to accomplish the goals.
4. Define accountability.  How will progress be reported? To whom? What aspects of progress are to be reported? Without accountability, responsibility goes out the window.
5. And determine the consequences.  This includes both positive reward and negative consequence.  If both exist, you are more likely to see success.

Once these conditions have been defined, it becomes a matter of self-management.  The individual must be left to seek out the solution without micromanagement or hand-holding.  This does not mean in isolation, only that they run the project, calling upon management and teams to accomplish the tasks.  The true intrapreneur will hit the ground running.  Without the self-management opportunity, this individual will not last long as that is a key ingredient to satisfy the entrepreneurial desires.

Do all positions within a company need intrapreneurs?

This will largely depend on the company, its purpose and industry, and a few other factors.  For instance, if your organization has some positions that absolutely must be repetitive and follow strict procedure without waver, intrapreneurs will not do well. The nature of these includes innovation, flexibility and spontaneity. If the position requires the opposite, then look for those will to do this type of work.  Now, I say requires as many organizations decide a position requires this restricted setup when the position would become infinitely more productive and powerful if the intrapreneurial approach were utilized.  Don’t get sucked into thinking it must be restricted when that is simply not the case.  If you have positions that you feel must be very tightly managed, attempt to think what would happen if it were open to intrapreneurial innovations.  Remember, the person still must have adequate resources and systems available to accomplish the task, only this time without an exact script to follow.  The idea is to allow for improvement and innovation by inviting the minds of others (those who are in the trenches doing the job) to participate in the development and growth process within the organization, instilling “ownership” of the position and we tend to take better care of what is ours.

So now what?

Once you choose to create this type of organization, you can begin by identifying a position within your company that you will convert to a more intrapreneurial design.  The key is to start with the results in mind.  What does this person need to accomplish? Are they rewarded if they accomplish more than expected? Does it really matter how they arrive at the result as long as it happens right (within reason of course)? Now begin to outline the above stated conditions. If the position already exists, do some of this with the individual filling it in order to get their buy in and to ensure alignment.  Ensure the person is capable of such a position (both skilled, and of character).  This will be a powerful first step to enhancing your entire organization.

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