intrapreneering

Intrapreneurship, sometimes called intrapreneering, is the practice of cultivating entrepreneurial activities within an established organization. Intrapreneurs are employees who identify opportunities, mobilize resources, and develop new products, services, or processes as internal ventures. They operate with a degree of autonomy and are often offered access to internal funding, mentorship, and governance structures distinct from day-to-day operations.

The term intrapreneurship was popularized by Gifford Pinchot III and Elizabeth Pinchot in the 1980s, though the idea predates formal naming. It envisions turning employees into corporate entrepreneurs who take initiative while the parent organization bears the risk and recognizes the rewards.

Common forms include internal startups, corporate incubators, skunkworks, dedicated venture teams, and internal venture capital funds. Projects typically follow stage-gate processes and leadership sponsorship to secure resources. Performance is evaluated against milestones such as time-to-market, revenue impact, strategic fit, or customer value.

Benefits include faster innovation, diversification of revenue, talent retention, and enhanced competitive resilience. Challenges center on risk aversion, misaligned incentives, resource constraints, governance complexity, and difficulties in measuring internal ventures.

Examples and practice vary, but well-cited cases include 3M’s long-standing emphasis on employee-driven experimentation, exemplified by the 15% time rule and the post-it note story, along with Google's informal 20% time and formal intrapreneurship programs such as corporate incubators. Intrapreneurship remains a common feature of corporate innovation strategies, with varying degrees of formalization.