Intrapreneur

Scott Gatz is pretty stoked at the ability to be an Intrapreneur at Yahoo.  He gets to make a case for a project, acquire resources and above all, innovate.  Possibly building a profitable business within a business.  Great stuff.

But shouldn't any knowledge worker be able to do this at a BigCo?  I have problems with using the word Intrapreneur, except for describing an innovative spirit.

The difference between an Intrapreneur and an Entrepreneur is the latter takes personal risk.

Comments

[Evan]

I disagree strongly with the implication that "intrapreneurship" involves no personal risk.

When you gamble with company time and money and win, you're a superstar; the one who made it happen.

But when you're given the ball to run with and you bobble it, you are the one who has wasted company resources, hurt team morale, and compromised your reputation in direct proportion to the spectacle of the failure and the extent to which any lapse of your judgment contributed to it. You might not be fired but you might wish you had been, and you certainly needn't bother yelling "I'm open" next time your GM is looking for his receivers, at least for a few years.

And that is probably the main reason you don't see more folks like Scott opening their mouths and championing new or iconoclastic ideas in big companies: it's obviously safer to sit and help execute on someone else's flawed vision and scope your accountability, than to stand up and risk your corporate quantity.

So yes, easy access to capital is theoretically there but the personal risk is just as real if you're in the corporate game for the long haul and you're not as bright as Scott.

[Ross Mayfield]

Evan, I don't necessarily disagree with you. Intrapreneurship to me is being able innvoate with a degree of independence. Yes, you risk your career path within the organization. But there are very different incentives when you put your own capital on the line, even if it is the very sweaty kind of equity.

I should note that Scott is putting some of his own capital on the line as he probably owns stock in the company. But with Yahoo's scale, cash outwieghts equity incentives.

I happen to believe there is no reward without risk. Within a large organization this should be true. Here in the Valley, we celebrate risk, and even reward failure.

One thing large organizations should consider, given their means of cultural production, is if it is possible to reward failure.

[Andrew Fife]

I would also ad that the greatest personal risk is ones monthly salary. Entrepreneurship failure means ones salary goes to zero. Intrapreneurship failure may lead to a slowing of one's salary growth rate. As someone whose startup recently failed, I can attest that this is a significant difference in personal risk.

Furthermore, the prestige of being at a large company opens many more doors than an unknown bootstrapping startup.

[Paul Elosegui]

Having been an entrepreneur inside and outside a corporate environment, I have experienced them very differently.

The degree of risk and reward are orders of magnitude out.

Has anybody become a millionaire as an intrapreneur ?

Not counting hedge fund managers ?

From personal experience, the difference in upside has been three orders of magnitude. And the requisite three orders of magnitude in personal risk; I never risked my house on intrapreneurship projects.

Aside from lottery wins, I have never seen investment millions made without pain, anguish and volatility.

You never forget that sick metal taste in your mouth, when you are about to take a plunge.

Maybe intrapreneurs should be allowed to invest personal wealth into the corporate project, without spinning-out.

Increase the risk-reward leverage in intrapreneurship.