Intrapreneurship is a business concept that has been around for decades. But not as popular as entrepreneurship. It involves establishing a business within the confines of a parent company. It is the implementation of innovation and entrepreneurial skills within an organization. In this article, I’ll walk you through some common challenges of intrapreneurship as well as its benefits.
Most people are yet to understand the concept of intrapreneurship fully. And people who are into it often encounter some challenges. When not executed properly, both the intrapreneur and the parent company could face some obstacles.
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#1. Conflict of strategy
Intrapreneurs often start by solving a long-standing problem missed or ignored by the parent organization. They identify opportunities and pull resources together to execute them. But sometimes, the strategy employed may not align with that of the parent organization.
While some companies are open to intrapreneurship, others are not. That’s because it requires a dramatic shift in the organization’s culture, thinking, and management style.
The structural and operational complexity of many organizations makes intrapreneurship difficult. There’s always a conflict of strategy whenever someone wants to try a new thing within an organization.
The complexity often makes it difficult to move quickly within an organization. A new idea or strategy has to get through bureaucratic processes before any company accepts it.
Frustratingly, intrapreneurs don’t have the autonomy to try new things. They must seek the parent company’s approval.
#2. It’s challenging to change a business culture
One of the biggest challenges of intrapreneurship is changing the way people within an organization think. It is not easy to get people to see things from your perspective, especially if they aren’t flexible.
However, Intrapreneurship is about exploring new ideas or approaches to solve issues that companies face. But, getting people to accept your opinion is not an easy task. And it proves more difficult if it’s a new business.
When an organization adopts a strategy for a long time, it becomes the norm. And the strategy will become part of every employee’s culture. Of course, they may not want to try something new, even if the existing strategy seems ineffective. Sadly, this makes it challenging to implement changes in such an organization.
Generally, it’s not easy to change an existing company’s culture. It requires you to work hard and develop innovative ideas that are convincing enough to effect change.
#3. Inability to meet expectations
Another common challenge of intrapreneurship is the inability to meet expectations. Companies are more concerned about getting immediate results than looking at the bigger picture.
Short-term results drive these companies. And they give little or no room for failure. Unfortunately, innovation and creativity always happen after many failed attempts.
But when companies give no room for failure, intrapreneurs won’t want to take bold, innovative steps. And this could affect performance in the long run.
Notwithstanding, it’s almost impossible to develop creative ideas as an intrapreneur if the pressure and expectations from you are high.
#4. It’s always challenging to find support
You need two kinds of support to survive as an intrapreneur – financial and management support. Without adequate financial aid, you can’t garner sufficient funding to make innovative exploration.
Similarly, without adequate support from the management, you won’t get the necessary independence to manage leadership expectations.
#5. Resource conflict
Most intrapreneurial companies always grapple with complex funding issues. And they rely primarily on corporate cash flows. Usually, when things go as planned, there won’t be much issue.
However, when there are cash flow challenges due to unforeseen problems, it can affect the intrapreneurial endeavor.
Also, when the priorities of the parent company change, they may divert some of the resources going to the intrapreneur, into other projects. Unfortunately, this kind of resource shift renders the intrapreneur helpless. It’s obviously one of the common challenges of intrapreneurship.
The Importance of Intrapreneurship
#1. It increases business productivity
Intrapreneurship focuses mainly on the operations of the parent company. And It allows your employees to come up with innovative solutions to problems that hinder productivity.
With intrapreneurship, your employees are more motivated and goal-oriented. Also, it helps you keep track of workflow and consistently create ways to improve your company’s overall production.
#2. It brings about innovation
Intrapreneurship brings about innovation and helps you come up with effective changes in your business. It enables you to recognize the right strategy that could help grow your business.
#3. Improves the business processes
One of the functions of an intrapreneur is to investigate problems and suggest creative ways to fix them. This helps bring about improvement in your company’s processes and systems. It helps to reduce any interference that might slow down your business output.
You’ll identify strategies that need improvement and evaluate how you can improve them. Intrapreneurs help you to rise to challenges by suggesting effective business models that will bring success.
#4. It promotes growth and expansion
Intrapreneurs bring innovation and changes that help grow your business beyond its current scope. They seek and pursue new business opportunities to facilitate growth and expansion.
Intrapreneurship as a business concept offers significant benefits to companies. It allows you to discover ways to improve your organization from the inside out. However, the concept of intrapreneurship has become less popular because of the endless challenges intrapreneurs face.
Intrapreneurs help evaluate a company’s position in the marketplace and offer innovative ideas to solve existing problems. But can encourage intrapreneurship by providing solutions to some of the challenges mentioned above.
