Fostering Intrapreneurship: The New Competitive Edge

Abstract

The pressures of competition stemming from globalisation and technological changes today are increasingly buffeting organisations. Due to the dynamic nature of modern organisations, it is imperative that organisations and their mangers remain receptive to new ideas, approaches and attitudes. It is therefore the belief that rapid and cost effective innovation is the primary source of lasting competitive advantage in the twenty first century. Intrapreneurship is increasingly becoming a term used in the business world to describe organisations that are willing to pursue opportunities, initiate actions and emphasise new, innovative products or services.Intrapreneurship describes the process of developing new products, services, and lines of business within an existing company.Integration of entrepreneurial skills into a large corporation’s strategic vision that nurtures a climate of radical or incremental innovation.Intrapreneurship is allowing an atmosphere of innovation to prosper.

The need for Intrapreneurship

Intrapreneurship is important for organisational survival, growth, profitability and renewal especially in larger organisations. Developing intrapreneurs philosophy in organization results in rapid growth in the number of new and sophisticated competition a sense of distruct of traditional management and exodus of money of the best employees who are leaving the organization in order to start their own companies. It also assists

in the creation of a workforce that can help maintain its competitiveness and promote a climate conducive to high achievement.

Challenge of spurring new businesses

The real challenge for any major company trying to unleash new businesses is making people believe that it’s not unnatural. Organizations have to learn how to leverage competencies and assets already in-house. They cannot eliminate them completely or set them off on their own. Final credo for companies implementing intrapreneurship concepts are:

• Creating a climate where everyone has the potential to create new things.
• Going outside for talent and resources.
• Developing internal markets for ideas.

That is easier to accomplish in small companies than in large ones, in part, because large companies have greater geographic differences and bureaucracies.While intrapreneurship is an intriguing, fascinating topic, the bottom line is that the entrepreneur is the only one with complete control of the business and benefits in the long-term.

Why is Intrapreneurship more important now than ever before?

No-one needs another web page telling them that the world is changing now faster than ever before. Organisations are finding it harder and harder to survive by merely competing. They are, therefore, increasingly looking towards their Intrapreneurs to take them beyond competition to create new businesses in new markets.

“As competition intensifies, the need for creative thinking increases. It is no longer enough to do the same thing better... no longer enough to be efficient and solve problems. Far more is needed. Now business has to keep up with changes... And that requires creativity. That means creativity both at a strategic level and also on the front line, to accompany the shift that competitive business demands... from administration to true entrepreneurship” -Edward Bono

What causes or retards Intrapreneurship

The primary factors retarding Intrapreneurship are:

The costs of failure too high, and the rewards of success are too low. Intrapreneurs need to be given the space in which to fail, since failure is an unavoidable aspect of the Intrapreneurial process. This is not to say that organisations should simply condone failure, but rather that organisations need to begin to measure and attribute failure to either Intrapreneur fault, or circumstances beyond the Intrapreneurs control - and punish and reward accordingly. Similarly, the rewards for success are usually inadequate - few organisations provide rewards for Intrapreneurs that even closely approximate the rewards available to the Entrepreneurial counterparts. Most incentivisation systems need to be upgraded accordingly.

Inertia caused by established systems that no-one is willing to change. Most organisations are governed by implicit and explicit systems, and in many cases people are reluctant to change them. Intrapreneurs are met with "this is the way we've always done it around here", "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", and "changing it now would just take too much effort..." Many organisations use their existing systems to prove they already have the "right answer" (see above), effectively dousing creativity.

Hierarchy. Organisational hierarchies are what create the need to ask for permission - the deeper the hierarchy, that harder it is to get permission for anything new. Hierarchies also tend to create narrow career paths and myopic thinking, further stifling creativity and innovation. People lower down in the hierarchy have a tendency to become dis-empowered through having to ask permission, eventually developing the "victim mentality" that causes reactivity.

Elements of a successful strategy

Develop the vision. Must have complete and unequivocal support of the Board of Directors and CEO.

Encourage innovation

Radical innovation: takes experimental and determined vision

Incremental innovation

Systematic evolution of a product or service into newer markets

Need a champion

Top management support

Intracapital needed

In India, employment market is uncertain. The number of unemployed is ever increasing .It is therefore,intrapreneurship who by virtue of his skill and knowledge set will by virtue of his skill and knowledge set will be able to entreneurship as a recourse to employment problems.Intrapreneurship is really a win-in-win idea where the best employees become more energized and motivated.This paper looks into the need for intrapreneurship Indian context and its developments

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Prepared By,

Anu.L

Research Scholar

School of Management &Business Studies

MahatmaGandhiUniversity

Kottayam,Kerala.

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