Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Intrapreneurship everywhere
Wherever we find innovation in large organizations we find intrapreneurs making it happen. Every innovation, large or small, requires some courage, some vision, and a willingness to take charge and make it happen. The tireless persistence and practical imagination of the intrapreneur are essential to the success of any new idea.
Even the little everyday innovations that keep a company responsive to customers begin with a vision of how to serve customers better or more cost-effectively. They grow out of a small dream and require significant initiative and courage to carry through. Even the most minor innovation thus represents a small intrapreneurial act.
Intrapreneurs naturally arise because they are passionate about making some idea a commercial reality. But though intrapreneuring is almost everywhere, so are management practices that make it more difficult. In this book, we will show how to radically increase the rate of innovation—without increasing the financial resources devoted to it. We will show how to bring out, focus, and guide the organization’s intrapreneurial energy without frustrating its intrapreneurs.
Source: by Gifford Pinchot and Ron Pellman (Intrapreneuring in Action: A Handbook for Business Innovation)
Even the little everyday innovations that keep a company responsive to customers begin with a vision of how to serve customers better or more cost-effectively. They grow out of a small dream and require significant initiative and courage to carry through. Even the most minor innovation thus represents a small intrapreneurial act.
Intrapreneurs naturally arise because they are passionate about making some idea a commercial reality. But though intrapreneuring is almost everywhere, so are management practices that make it more difficult. In this book, we will show how to radically increase the rate of innovation—without increasing the financial resources devoted to it. We will show how to bring out, focus, and guide the organization’s intrapreneurial energy without frustrating its intrapreneurs.
Source: by Gifford Pinchot and Ron Pellman (Intrapreneuring in Action: A Handbook for Business Innovation)
Innovation of human capital
For more than half a century, research and development (R&D) has been closely associated with technological innovation (Miller & Morris, 1999). Invention is the narrowest definition of innovation. Drucker (1994) maintained that there are seven basic sources of opportunities to innovate. Only one of them refers to inventing something new. Innovation is thus more than invention and does not have to be technical. There are, for instance, numerous examples of social and economic innovations (Drucker, 1994). Innovation is a proposed theory or design concept that synthesizes extant knowledge and techniques to provide a theoretical basis for a new concept (Bright, 1969; Sundbo, 1998). Innovation thus has many facets and is multi-dimensional.
The most prominent innovation dimensions can be expressed as dualisms—(1) radical vs. incremental; (2) product vs. process and (3) administrative vs. technological (Cooper, 1998). Innovation can be radical and incremental. Radical innovations refer to path-breaking, discontinuous, revolutionary, original, pioneering, basic or major innovations (Green, Gavin, & Aiman-Smith, 1995). Incremental innovations are small improvements made to enhance and extend the established processes, products and services. However, this contradistinction does not "necessarily [correspond] to the more fine-tuned reality" because "radicality is a continuum" (Katila, 2002, p. 307). Product innovation, as the name suggests, "reflects change in the end product or service offered by the organizations, [whereas] process innovation represents changes in the way firms produce end products or services" (Utterback cited in Cooper, 1998, p. 498). Some researchers have categorized innovation as either technological or administrative. Technological innovation refers to "the adoption of a new idea that directly influences the basic output processes", whereas administrative innovations "include changes that affect the policies, allocation of resources, and other factors associated with the social structure of the organization" (Daft, 1978 cited in Cooper, 1998, p. 497).
For the purpose of the present study, innovation is defined broadly to include new products, new processes, new services (including new uses of established products, processes and services), new forms of organization, new markets and the development of new skills and human capital.
Source: by Fang Zhao (Maximum business profit through E-Partnership)
The most prominent innovation dimensions can be expressed as dualisms—(1) radical vs. incremental; (2) product vs. process and (3) administrative vs. technological (Cooper, 1998). Innovation can be radical and incremental. Radical innovations refer to path-breaking, discontinuous, revolutionary, original, pioneering, basic or major innovations (Green, Gavin, & Aiman-Smith, 1995). Incremental innovations are small improvements made to enhance and extend the established processes, products and services. However, this contradistinction does not "necessarily [correspond] to the more fine-tuned reality" because "radicality is a continuum" (Katila, 2002, p. 307). Product innovation, as the name suggests, "reflects change in the end product or service offered by the organizations, [whereas] process innovation represents changes in the way firms produce end products or services" (Utterback cited in Cooper, 1998, p. 498). Some researchers have categorized innovation as either technological or administrative. Technological innovation refers to "the adoption of a new idea that directly influences the basic output processes", whereas administrative innovations "include changes that affect the policies, allocation of resources, and other factors associated with the social structure of the organization" (Daft, 1978 cited in Cooper, 1998, p. 497).
For the purpose of the present study, innovation is defined broadly to include new products, new processes, new services (including new uses of established products, processes and services), new forms of organization, new markets and the development of new skills and human capital.
Source: by Fang Zhao (Maximum business profit through E-Partnership)
Intrapreneurship construct
Drucker (1994) made an important contribution to the theoretical construct of entrepreneurship in large organizations when he referred to "corporate entrepreneurship" or "intrapreneurship". In the present study, entrepreneurship includes corporate entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. Corporate entrepreneurship can be used to improve competitive positioning and transform corporations, their markets and industries, as opportunities for value-creating innovations are developed and exploited (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996; Miller, 1983; Naman & Slevin, 1993). Antoncic and Hisrich (2003) argued that intrapreneurship goes on within organizations, regardless of their size. Intrapreneurship research has studied the individual intrapreneur, the formation of new corporate ventures and the characteristics of entrepreneurial organization (Antoncic & Hisrich, 2003). There is a firmly established empirical base for claiming the effectiveness of corporate entrepreneurship (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996; Zahra & Covin, 1995). Corporate entrepreneurship rejuvenates and reengineers corporate growth through innovations in various forms.
Source: Maximum business profit through E-Partnership
Source: Maximum business profit through E-Partnership
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Lumpkin and Dess Intrapreneurship model
As depicted in Figure 2.5, Lumpkin and Dess (1996) present an alternative intrapreneurship model which describes intrapreneurial behaviour in terms of five dimensions: autonomy; innovativeness; risk taking; proactiveness; and competitive aggressiveness. According to Lumpkin and Dess (1996), intrapreneurial behaviour refers to the processes, practices and decision-making activities that lead to entering new markets with existing or new goods and services. In this context, a new entry is the idea that underlies the concept of intrapreneurship (Adonisi, 2003: 47). Key dimensions that characterise intrapreneurial behaviour include a propensity to act autonomously, and a willingness to innovate and take opportunities (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996).
Zahra Intrapreneurship model
Zahra (1995: 227; 1996: 1715) sees Intrapreneurship as the combination of all the firm's efforts on innovation, renewal and venturing. Innovation involves creating and introducing new products, organizational processes and systems; venturing encompasses expanding existing operations or entering into new markets; and renewal entails revitalising the organization's business model.
Zahra (1993) essentially revises Covin and Slevin's (1990) model in that he merges the technological environmental factor with the dynamism environmental factor; he adds a new construct called `munificence' to draw attention to a related construct of opportunity seeking; and he defines intrapreneurial behaviour more clearly, by differentiating between constructs such as `intensity of behaviour', `formality of intrapreneurial activities', `types of intrapreneurial behaviour' and `duration of such efforts'.
Zahra (1993) also recognises the possibility that different kinds of intrapreneurial posture may influence different dimensions of performance differently and at different times. Regarding the locus of intrapreneurship, he argues that intrapreneurship occurs at multiple levels within an organization.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Covin and Slevin Intrapreneurship model
According to Covin and Slevin (1991), intrapreneurship involves extending the firm's domain of competencies and corresponding opportunity set through internally generated new combinations of resources. These authors developed a model, as illustrated in figure 2.3, which seems to improve on that of Guth and Ginsberg (1990) in at least two ways: by depicting feedback loops between intrapreneurship factors and intrapreneurship; and by not being too specific about the type of intrapreneurship-reference is only made to entrepreneurial posture.
The key feature of the model is the recognition that intrapreneurship influences the external environment and the internal variables, albeit to a weaker extent. Conversely, organizational performance has a weaker effect on intrapreneurship. Significantly, it also highlights the acknowledgement that the three intrapreneurship factors - environment, strategic variables and internal variables-have a moderating effect on the relationship between intrapreneurship and organizational performance.
Zahra (1991; 1993) criticized the reference in Covin and Slevin's (1990) model to the intrapreneurial posture construct without defining it. Zahra's criticisms and improvements of the model are incorporated in his own model, which is discussed next.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Guth and Ginsberg Intrapreneurship model
In their definition of the intrapreneurship construct, Guth and Ginsberg (1990: 5) posit that intrapreneurship encompasses two types of phenomenon and the processes that surround them: the birth of new businesses within existing organizations (i.e. internal innovations or ventures); and the transformation of organizations through renewal. These authors' conceptual model depicts intrapreneurship from a strategic management perspective, as shown in Figure 2.2.The model by Guth and Ginsberg (1990) treats the following factors as antecedents of intrapreneurship: environment, such as competition or technology; strategic leadership posture, such as values and behaviours; organizational form, such as structure and processes; and organizational performance, such as efficiency and job satisfaction.
The key weakness of the model is that it resembles a flow chart, and therefore depicts a sequential relationship between the intrapreneurship factors and intrapreneurship. Except for the relationship between intrapreneurship and organizational performance, possible feedback loops and interrelationships between the intrapreneurship factors on the one hand, and between intrapreneurship and the intrapreneurship factors on the other, are not depicted.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
What it takes to be a successful intrapreneur?
WHAT'S AN IDEA WORTH? TO A CORPORATE entity willing to embrace and support it, the right idea could bring millions, Lockheed Martin Information Technology, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin and the brainchild of its president, Linda Gooden, made more than $2 billion this year. Dafina Books, an imprint of Kensington Publishing conceived by Karen Thomas, has grossed more than $12 million a year. And when Microsoft dropped from $7.3 billion in 2001 to $5.4 billion in 2002 to a competitor offering a software system for free, Martin Taylor developed a strategic platform to recapture those dollars without discounting Microsoft's offering.
Gooden, Thomas, and Taylor are among an elite grouping of enterprising and innovative corporate professionals called intrapreneurs. Coined by author and business educator Gifford Pinchot in 1978, intrapreneurship, also referred to as corporate entrepreneurship and corporate renewal, is a concept by which perspicacious corporate employees--at any level of the company--identify and construct a unique business model that offers significant growth opportunities for their company. "Intrapreneurship is creating some type of value inside of an existing entity by taking some kind of new product or business and looking for new ways to bring it into the market," explains Joe Watson, CEO of Reston, Virginia-based Strategic Hire, an executive search firm. "But in order for it to be truly an intrapreneurial opportunity, it has to be a product or service that's different from the company's traditional business."
Many of the same precepts apply to entrepreneurship: developing a unique idea, constructing a market analysis, assessing the competition, creating a sales and marketing plan, determining risks and rewards, and executing a plan. For the intrapreneur, however, there is the security of knowing that the parent company will provide the necessary resources and still pay a salary even if the venture is not as successful as anticipated. But even with those benefits, there is still inherent risk An unsuccessful venture could derail your career.
Both endeavors require a certain type of individual to be successful--a process-oriented, creative thinker. Coming up with a great idea is easy. The intrapreneur is someone who can develop an exciting concept into a profit-driven enterprise. Successful intrapreneurs are also unwavering in achieving their goals. Your level of resilience will be challenged against obstacles and roadblocks, says Watson. Failure to properly navigate problems that could arise is a sure way to hurt yourself and your reputation. Gooden, Thomas, and Taylor exemplify the true spirit as well as the intricate components of intrapreneurship: discovering a concept, developing a plan, generating buy-in from senior management, executing the business model, and having the ability to adapt and overcome challenges.
At its very core, intrapreneurship is the innovation that corporations need to keep them competitive--particularly in today's aggressive and rapidly changing business environment of globalization, emerging markets, and technology innovations. Pinchot, who is today chairman of Pinchot & Co., a consulting firm focusing on intrapreneurship and sustainability, says that the degree to which corporations encourage intrapreneurial activity can also be impacted by economic conditions. "Intrapreneurship changes as the nation goes through phases," he offers. "When corporations are trying to generate revenue, intrapreneurship opportunities increase." He explains that, despite the demands for the creative development of new products and services that can enhance the profitability of a business, in large organizations such innovation only takes place when there are intrapreneurs to drive it. They are the individuals who, because of their work in a specialized area or unit, gain a unique perspective on how changes in one area of a company's business can impact the organization overall. Enterprising employees will often make recommendations to senior executives on how they can capitalize on these market shifts.
Source Citation:Richardson, Nicole Marie. "What it takes to be a successful intrapreneur: three corporate dynamos run with a big idea and bring in megaprofits for their companies ." Black Enterprise 36.5 (Dec 2005): 92(6). General OneFile. Gale. Open University Malaysia. 6 Apr. 2008
Gooden, Thomas, and Taylor are among an elite grouping of enterprising and innovative corporate professionals called intrapreneurs. Coined by author and business educator Gifford Pinchot in 1978, intrapreneurship, also referred to as corporate entrepreneurship and corporate renewal, is a concept by which perspicacious corporate employees--at any level of the company--identify and construct a unique business model that offers significant growth opportunities for their company. "Intrapreneurship is creating some type of value inside of an existing entity by taking some kind of new product or business and looking for new ways to bring it into the market," explains Joe Watson, CEO of Reston, Virginia-based Strategic Hire, an executive search firm. "But in order for it to be truly an intrapreneurial opportunity, it has to be a product or service that's different from the company's traditional business."
Many of the same precepts apply to entrepreneurship: developing a unique idea, constructing a market analysis, assessing the competition, creating a sales and marketing plan, determining risks and rewards, and executing a plan. For the intrapreneur, however, there is the security of knowing that the parent company will provide the necessary resources and still pay a salary even if the venture is not as successful as anticipated. But even with those benefits, there is still inherent risk An unsuccessful venture could derail your career.
Both endeavors require a certain type of individual to be successful--a process-oriented, creative thinker. Coming up with a great idea is easy. The intrapreneur is someone who can develop an exciting concept into a profit-driven enterprise. Successful intrapreneurs are also unwavering in achieving their goals. Your level of resilience will be challenged against obstacles and roadblocks, says Watson. Failure to properly navigate problems that could arise is a sure way to hurt yourself and your reputation. Gooden, Thomas, and Taylor exemplify the true spirit as well as the intricate components of intrapreneurship: discovering a concept, developing a plan, generating buy-in from senior management, executing the business model, and having the ability to adapt and overcome challenges.
At its very core, intrapreneurship is the innovation that corporations need to keep them competitive--particularly in today's aggressive and rapidly changing business environment of globalization, emerging markets, and technology innovations. Pinchot, who is today chairman of Pinchot & Co., a consulting firm focusing on intrapreneurship and sustainability, says that the degree to which corporations encourage intrapreneurial activity can also be impacted by economic conditions. "Intrapreneurship changes as the nation goes through phases," he offers. "When corporations are trying to generate revenue, intrapreneurship opportunities increase." He explains that, despite the demands for the creative development of new products and services that can enhance the profitability of a business, in large organizations such innovation only takes place when there are intrapreneurs to drive it. They are the individuals who, because of their work in a specialized area or unit, gain a unique perspective on how changes in one area of a company's business can impact the organization overall. Enterprising employees will often make recommendations to senior executives on how they can capitalize on these market shifts.
Source Citation:Richardson, Nicole Marie. "What it takes to be a successful intrapreneur: three corporate dynamos run with a big idea and bring in megaprofits for their companies ." Black Enterprise 36.5 (Dec 2005): 92(6). General OneFile. Gale. Open University Malaysia. 6 Apr. 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
Tips To Get Your Entrepreneurship Off And Running
by: Michael Johnson
One of the best of the small business associations is the University of Central Arkansas Small Business Advancement National Center (SBANC.)
While the ideal way of starting a small business would be to free yourself up from every other venture, problem, time consuming effort and obligation and throw yourself into starting a small business every waking moment, this isn't an ideal world. Few of us can afford the luxury of setting everything else aside to devote all our time and efforts, as well as capital - to starting a small business.
Some of us have the itch to become an entrepreneur but have to "keep our day jobs" while we give this starting a small business idea a go. It may well be, in fact, that starting a small business part time is the most common entrepreneurial process.
Part of succeeding at starting a small business if you have to do so part time is to know your schedule and your time limitations and choose a business concept that you enjoy, have some training or expertise in and can be accomplished around your work schedule. The other alternative is to change your work schedule either with your current employer or choose an alternative employer. Starting a small business takes effort and focus as well as time.
It may be that your current job is not only time consuming but also the type of work that requires a great deal of energy, a great deal of concentration, a very regimented schedule and perhaps the responsibility that tends to have you taking your work home with you either actually or mentally. This sort of work style doesn't lend itself well to starting a small business part time.
Let's look at an example of a journalist who has a successful writing and editing business from her home office. When she decided she was interested in starting a small business she had been working for many years in newspaper management. Her executive responsibilities required 70 and 80 hour workweeks and even then she took work home.
After many years of this she began to think more and more about her dream of starting a small writing business. It called to her more and more urgently. But how was she to even think of starting a small business when she had little time, energy or focus left in her busy work week? Besides, she had to work to keep the roof over her head.
What she did to determine if starting a small business was even possible, was to sit down and write out a budget, deciding where she could eliminate some non-essential expenses in her life, and what she absolutely had to have to live on. She then looked for, and found, a job that not only brought in enough money to live on but freed up a lot of her daytime work week hours as well as her mental focus. She took a customer service job in a call center.
Starting a small business was going to be possible with this job where it had not been with her newspaper career for a number of reasons. It required considerably less mental acumen, it didn't require that she take her work home with her, it was easy, the hours were flexible (she worked 3pm-midnight Thursday through Sunday) and the dress code was highly casual. She could work all day starting her small business and then don her jeans and go into the call center in the evening. Now she's quit that call center job and her dream of starting a small business has been fulfilled. Her business is thriving and she works at it full time.
You will find links to other small business associations from the SBANC site. These small business associations include the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) offering one on one counseling in person or online, the Small Business Administration (SBA) and its Small Business Development Centers which provide a ton of small business assistance including mentoring, training, publications, tapes, workshops and financing, Allied Academies - a worldwide research and training group, the Small Business Institute which provides entrepreneurial teaching and training, and the Federation of Business Disciplines, a group of educators devoted to small business teaching conferences.
About The Author
Michael Johnson operates a variety of small business websites and newsletters. Visit the website for many business start up ideas. http://www.smallbiztipscenter.com.
mikej_094@yahoo.com
One of the best of the small business associations is the University of Central Arkansas Small Business Advancement National Center (SBANC.)
While the ideal way of starting a small business would be to free yourself up from every other venture, problem, time consuming effort and obligation and throw yourself into starting a small business every waking moment, this isn't an ideal world. Few of us can afford the luxury of setting everything else aside to devote all our time and efforts, as well as capital - to starting a small business.
Some of us have the itch to become an entrepreneur but have to "keep our day jobs" while we give this starting a small business idea a go. It may well be, in fact, that starting a small business part time is the most common entrepreneurial process.
Part of succeeding at starting a small business if you have to do so part time is to know your schedule and your time limitations and choose a business concept that you enjoy, have some training or expertise in and can be accomplished around your work schedule. The other alternative is to change your work schedule either with your current employer or choose an alternative employer. Starting a small business takes effort and focus as well as time.
It may be that your current job is not only time consuming but also the type of work that requires a great deal of energy, a great deal of concentration, a very regimented schedule and perhaps the responsibility that tends to have you taking your work home with you either actually or mentally. This sort of work style doesn't lend itself well to starting a small business part time.
Let's look at an example of a journalist who has a successful writing and editing business from her home office. When she decided she was interested in starting a small business she had been working for many years in newspaper management. Her executive responsibilities required 70 and 80 hour workweeks and even then she took work home.
After many years of this she began to think more and more about her dream of starting a small writing business. It called to her more and more urgently. But how was she to even think of starting a small business when she had little time, energy or focus left in her busy work week? Besides, she had to work to keep the roof over her head.
What she did to determine if starting a small business was even possible, was to sit down and write out a budget, deciding where she could eliminate some non-essential expenses in her life, and what she absolutely had to have to live on. She then looked for, and found, a job that not only brought in enough money to live on but freed up a lot of her daytime work week hours as well as her mental focus. She took a customer service job in a call center.
Starting a small business was going to be possible with this job where it had not been with her newspaper career for a number of reasons. It required considerably less mental acumen, it didn't require that she take her work home with her, it was easy, the hours were flexible (she worked 3pm-midnight Thursday through Sunday) and the dress code was highly casual. She could work all day starting her small business and then don her jeans and go into the call center in the evening. Now she's quit that call center job and her dream of starting a small business has been fulfilled. Her business is thriving and she works at it full time.
You will find links to other small business associations from the SBANC site. These small business associations include the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) offering one on one counseling in person or online, the Small Business Administration (SBA) and its Small Business Development Centers which provide a ton of small business assistance including mentoring, training, publications, tapes, workshops and financing, Allied Academies - a worldwide research and training group, the Small Business Institute which provides entrepreneurial teaching and training, and the Federation of Business Disciplines, a group of educators devoted to small business teaching conferences.
About The Author
Michael Johnson operates a variety of small business websites and newsletters. Visit the website for many business start up ideas. http://www.smallbiztipscenter.com.
mikej_094@yahoo.com
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