Are You Fostering Entrepreneurship From Within?

Are You Fostering Entrepreneurship From Within?

By Judy Olian**

Since the 1970s, the U.S. Small Business Administration reports that small businesses started by entrepreneurs have accounted for 75 percent of the net new jobs created in the U.S. economy. And, let's not forget that start-ups can rapidly grow to challenge large corporations - Netscape versus Microsoft is a case in point.

Obviously, new ideas and the risk taking associated with launch of new businesses are not limited to start-ups. There is also the creative employee or team who successfully launch new businesses from within. Companies like Agilent Technologies and Lexmark were spawned within Hewlett-

Packard and IBM, respectively, and later spun-off. Sure, they grew out of the established R & D divisions and expert bench depth of those corporations. But, they were enabled by the ingrained cultures in these corporations that tolerated missteps, and actively supported employees in discovering new business and technology applications. Such companies also created the right incentives to breed new businesses from within.

That's "intrapreneurship" -- entrepreneurship within established corporations.

Intrapreneurs have the advantage of drawing on the proven infrastructure and processes of an established organization. But companies must convert that into an asset by resisting the typical inclination to stifle the mavericks who challenge the traditions of the business model.

Here are some ideas on sustaining an intrapreneurial culture:

• Demonstrate from the top that calculated risk taking is the way business is practiced;
  
• Set up and communicate a simple, accelerated approach to evaluate and invest in intrepreneurial ventures;
  
• Provide intrapreneurs with access to critical resources so they can execute;
  
• Accept and manage failures - reasoned risk that fails should not become a permanent blot on a career path;
  
• Establish metrics and milestones for success and failure of the intrapreneurial venture;
  
• Allow intrapreneurs to identify with their new business ideas through some form of ownership incentive;
  
• Resist the tendency to control everything - leave them to run with their business ideas.
  

With potential competitors materializing in Internet time, from any corner of the global economy, mature companies must regard intrapreneurship as a critical and enduring function among their business operations.