intrapreneuriat

Intrapreneuriat, or intrapreneurship in English, is the practice of applying entrepreneurial thinking and methods within an established organization. Intrapreneurs seek ambitious opportunities, develop new products, services, processes, or business models, and use the company’s resources and networks while operating under an accepted set of goals and constraints.

Originating in management literature in the late 20th century, the concept was popularized by Gifford Pinchot III in the 1980s. It describes a way for large organizations to capture the advantages of entrepreneurship—speed, innovation, and market adaptation—without the risks of external start-ups. The approach has since been widely adopted across industries as a means to sustain growth, improve competitiveness, and engage talent.

Core features of intrapreneurship include autonomy within a defined strategic framework, access to internal resources (funding, personnel, facilities), and formal or informal executive sponsorship. Intrapreneurial initiatives are often housed in dedicated units, internal incubators or skunkworks, or funded through corporate venture arms. Governance typically uses staged development processes, with milestones and metrics to balance risk and reward.

Benefits of intrapreneurship for organizations include faster innovation cycles, the creation of new revenue streams, and enhanced employee engagement and retention. Challenges can arise from organizational resistance to risk, bureaucratic hurdles, misaligned incentives, and competing priorities for resources.

Examples of intrapreneurship practices include long-standing corporate cultures of experimentation and internal innovation programs at firms like 3M and IBM, and informal models such as Google’s historic 20 percent time. Related concepts include corporate entrepreneurship and corporate venturing.