In this article, we provide a clear distinction between intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship. The article discusses the technicalities, roles, responsibilities, and capabilities that one should have for each role.

1. Introduction
2. What is Intrapreneurship?
3. What is Entrepreneurship?
4. Intrapreneurship vs Entrepreneurship
5. Intrapreneurship or Entrepreneurship: What is best for you

Introduction

In a world driven by start-ups, the terms “entrepreneur” and “intrapreneur” hold a lot of significance. But their meanings are often misunderstood. Although the phrases ‘entrepreneur’ and ‘intrapreneur’ seem similar, they are not interchangeable. Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship have comparable but distinct characteristics, goals, and risks.

The difference between intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship is that an entrepreneur is someone who begins their own business with a fresh idea or concept, whereas an intrapreneur is an employee who holds a key position in the company and somebody who encourages innovation and ideas within the confines of the company.

In this blog, we’ll discuss the difference between intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship. But before we get into the specifics of their distinctions, let’s define who an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur are.

What is Intrapreneurship?

The noun “intrapreneur” is not used as much as “entrepreneur.” Hence, people are usually confused about who are intrapreneurs and consider them entrepreneurs. But as mentioned earlier, there are differences.

Intrapreneurship is a term that refers to the practice of behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a larger organization. It involves bringing creative ideas to your team and making changes in your department or company that will improve its overall performance.

Intrapreneurship is the act of creating value in your organization with an entrepreneurial mindset.

In other words, the intrapreneurship process is a way for employees to think outside of the box when it comes to their work environment, and develop new ways of doing things that can have a positive impact on the business.

Did you know that Google invests in intrapreneurship? Google encourages workers to devote 20% of their workday to personal projects or intrapreneurial initiatives. Google believes that it will benefit the company in some manner. The Gmail we use was created as a result of the same activity. Even Deloitte invests heavily to fulfill the ideas of their intrapreneurs.

The idea behind corporate intrapreneurship is simple: give your employees the freedom to innovate, and they will come up with all sorts of innovative ideas that can help your business grow. Now that we know who are intrapreneurs, let us understand the key skills required to become successful intrapreneurs.

The Key Skills of an Intrapreneur

1. Problem-solving & critical thinking: The intrapreneurship process requires a lot of thinking on the fly and the ability to adapt quickly to new situations. You will often have to make decisions based on incomplete information and in high-pressure situations that require quick action.
2. Creativity: Intrapreneurship is about creating something new from within the context of an existing business, which means you have to be able to think creatively about how you can add value without stepping on anyone’s toes or taking credit for others’ ideas (which is not easy).
3. Dealing with ambiguity: While many things are similar between being an intrapreneur and starting your own business outside of an existing company, there are also some major differences—one of which is how much information you get up front before making decisions and taking action. The less information available, the more important intrapreneurship becomes.
4. Problem-Solving: To become an intrapreneur, you must tackle problems head-on. This means being able to think critically and solve problems. To understand when it’s time to step back and get some help from your team members. You’ll need a resilient growth mindset to keep pushing forward irrespective of what happens. Because it’s easier to let yourself get bogged down by setbacks or roadblocks, that take you nowhere.
5. Management: Intrapreneurs are great at networking and stakeholder management. They’re also strong communicators; they share their ideas with employees and stakeholders unambiguously. This helps stakeholders understand exactly what’s going on, so there aren’t any misunderstandings about what needs to be done next!

Are you wondering about the successful intrapreneurs out there? Let’s look at a few.

Famous Intrapreneurs

Some of the world’s most famous entrepreneurs are also intrapreneurs. Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Sundar Pichai are all co-founders of multi-billion dollar companies who started their businesses while employed by other organizations. Each of these men took an idea and ran with it, eventually leaving their jobs to pursue their ventures full time. Along with Page, Brin, and Pichai, two other well-known intrapreneurs are Satya Nadella and Bumsoo Kim.

What is Entrepreneurship?

In simple terms, an entrepreneur is a founder who accumulates resources like land, labor, machinery, tools, and funds to set up and grow an enterprise. Entrepreneurship is a complex, multifaceted concept that has many definitions and interpretations.

The most commonly accepted definition is “the process of designing, launching, and creating a company or business venture.” This definition emphasizes the importance of an entrepreneur’s role in taking an idea and making it real—that is, bringing it to life by turning it into a real product or service that people can purchase and taking the steps involved in setting up a new enterprise. An entrepreneur is someone who sees a need for something that doesn’t exist yet and tries to fill that need by creating it.

Entrepreneurs are also sometimes referred to as “risk takers” because they’re willing to take risks to develop a business. As per a survey, the desire to be their own boss was the reason behind 55% of entrepreneurs beginning their company. Corporate entrepreneurship requires courage, determination, and persistence, and these qualities help explain why so many successful entrepreneurs come from humble beginnings!

The Key Skills of an Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur must possess all the qualities and key skills of an intrapreneur. However, an entrepreneur has more variations of responsibility and challenges. Every challenge faced by an intrapreneur of a company is a problem of the founder or the entrepreneur. Hence, there are a few more skills an entrepreneur must have, to develop a business.

1. Audacity: The first one is audacity. You must take risks and make big decisions to succeed as an entrepreneur. You can’t just sit back and wait for things to happen—you have to go after them with everything you’ve got.
2. Creative Thinking: This implies coming up with new ideas for products or services that people actually want or need.
3. Resilience: The third skill is resilience. This means having the ability to bounce back from failure or rejection without letting it stop you from doing what you love doing!
4. Patience: Finally, patience is important too, because it allows you time to experiment with different ideas until you find something that works well enough for others around you who may not be quite so patient themselves.

Let us look at a few popular entrepreneurs known worldwide.

Famous entrepreneurs

Some of the most famous entrepreneurs in the world include Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Oprah Winfrey. These individuals have all had a major impact on the business world and continue to be leaders in their respective fields. While they may come from different backgrounds and have different stories of success, they all share one common trait: a passion for what they do. Each of these entrepreneurs has built something amazing from scratch- whether it’s a multi-billion dollar company or a global media empire.

Intrapreneurship vs. Entrepreneurship:

There are two types of people in the world: those who take risks and those who don’t. Entrepreneurs are the risk-takers. They’re driven by a passion to change the world, create something new, and make a difference.

Intrapreneurs usually study from renowned institutes and have a good education background in a particular field and excel in it. In contrast, only 9% of entrepreneurs have a Bachelor’s Degree in business. Moreover, Guidant Financial suggests that only 30% of entrepreneurs hold a high school degree.

Intrapreneurs are different. They’re motivated by a desire to improve upon what already exists; they want to make their mark within an existing organization or company. Both types of people are essential for innovation and progress. But what drives each type of person to take specific actions and how do they function? Let us understand the difference between intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship.

1. Goal-Setting

The primary goal of entrepreneurship is creating something unique that can be sold or traded on the market. In intrapreneurship, the main goal is to implement innovation within the company. This includes introducing new ideas and processes, which may lead to changes in how employees work and how they interact with customers.

Intrapreneurs typically work within a company that is not set up for new ideas, and they have to convince their managers and coworkers that they’re on the right track. They may have some outside ideas, but they will not go out and start a business. They are more concerned with the process of accomplishing their objectives than with the end result.

Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, have to set up their own businesses and make decisions about how everything will work. They must take risks and make decisions that intrapreneurs would not make.

2. Access to Resources

Entrepreneurs have more freedom when it comes to accessing resources because they can build their own teams and networks without having to ask permission from anyone else.

Intrapreneurs are more limited in this regard because they have to work within the limits of what their companies can offer them—whether that means access to certain tools or information or even financial support for projects (which may be limited depending on your job).

3. Risks

One major difference between intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship is risk. Risk plays an important role in both their careers. An intrapreneur takes on risks within his company because he is working on something new that may not succeed.

By contrast, an entrepreneur takes on external risk when starting a business because he has no guarantee that customers will buy his product or service once it’s launched. On one hand, you have entrepreneurs who are constantly innovating and taking risks to bring new products and services to market. On the other hand, you have intrapreneurs who are working within organizations to innovate business and create change from within.

Intrapreneurs are often less willing than entrepreneurs to take risks because they don’t want anything bad to happen in their existing job or to their current employer’s reputation if something goes wrong with their project or idea for launching a new company (e.g., bankruptcy). Entrepreneurs tend to take bigger risks because they have more at stake if things don’t work out according to plan.

4. Decision-Making

There’s a big difference between intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs when it comes to decision-making. Intrapreneurs are much more risk-tolerant than entrepreneurs. This is because intrapreneurs have the safety net of a corporate structure, while entrepreneurs are out on their own.

This difference in risk tolerance can be seen in the different types of decisions that each type of decision maker makes. Usually, the extent of risks that intrapreneurs are more likely to take are risky projects because they have the resources of a company behind them or quitting their job!

5. Rewards

The main reward that an entrepreneur gets is a percentage of the profit of his company in the entrepreneur business model. This comes with a risk of loss as well. If a company loses money, both the entrepreneur and the investors will have to pay the loss.

Whereas, in most cases, intrapreneurs have a fixed salary. They may invest in the company, but it is completely their call. In the standard structure, they receive a salary. In the entrepreneurial-based show, “The Shark Tank,” you might have seen sharks asking the founders about how much they pay themselves.

What is common between intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship?

You have seen the differences between intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship. But an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur both need some skills and traits, as both hold a very important position in the business.

1. Intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship are two very different things, but they share one important characteristic: they’re both about taking initiative.

As an intrapreneur, you are also responsible for running your small project within your larger organization. This includes not only captaining a team of employees but also creating revenue and profit. While you have the backing of your company, to stay ahead in the competitive world, you must prove the value you bring to the company and continue to grow your business-driven projects. And finally, both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs need to be visionaries to see the possibilities for the good that their activities can bring.

2. Both intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship are built on a foundation of leadership. This means that you need to be able to lead a team with clear expectations, responsibilities, and deadlines. Both intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship require you to build a team around you to succeed. You need your team to stick together through thick and thin, as well as understand their roles in the overall goal of your business.
3. An entrepreneur and an intrapreneur both have very similar responsibilities when it comes to their businesses. They must:
4. Plan out their strategy for growth
5. Find ways to grow their project or business through new products or services
6. Manage their finances properly so they don’t go bankrupt (or at least know when it’s time to reach out to outside help)
7. Ensure that their employees are happy with their work environment so they stay loyal throughout their employment period

4. Most importantly, both must be able to multitask, effectively manage their time, and remain flexible in their expectations.
5. Both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs must develop effective relationships with external stakeholders and experts (e.g., investors, mentors, consultants, and advisors) as well as internal stakeholders and experts (e.g., other employees, managers, and their boss).

Intrapreneurship or Entrepreneurship: What is best for you?

The distinction between the two is pretty simple: entrepreneurs create ideas and build companies from scratch, while intrapreneurs work for a company and strive to make their organization more successful.

So which one is right for you? It depends on your personality, goals, and vision. Entrepreneurs tend to be more outgoing and self-directed, while intrapreneurs aren’t afraid of structure or bureaucracy. This isn’t an either/or decision: you can be both! But it’s important to understand how each role works best for each person so that you can start making progress toward your goals right away.

The first thing to consider is whether you’re ready to take the plunge into full-time entrepreneurship. If you’re not sure, intrapreneurship may be a good option for you.

Within an established organization, intrapreneurs have the opportunity to work on their own projects and develop their ideas within the structure of a larger company. They can also use the resources of their organization, like data, infrastructure, and financial support, to get their idea off the ground.

If you’re ready to build a team, manage your finances, and most importantly take risks, then entrepreneurship might be right for you.