Entrepreneurship is the practice of embarking on a 

new business or reviving an existing business by pooling together a bunch of resources,

in order to exploit new found opportunities.

What is Intrapreneurship?: Intrapreneurship is the practice of entrepreneurship by employees within an organization.

Difference between an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur:

An entrepreneur takes substantial risk in being the owner and operator of a business with expectations of financial profit and other
rewards that the business may generate. On the contrary, an intrapreneur is an individual employed by an organization for remuneration,
which is based on the financial success of the unit he is responsible for. Intrapreneurs share the same traits as entrepreneurs such as
conviction, zeal and insight. As the intrapreneur continues to expresses his ideas vigorously, it will reveal the gap between the philosophy
of the organization and the employee. If the organization supports him in pursuing his ideas, he succeeds. If not, he is likely to leave the
organization and set up his own business.

Example of intrapreneurship: A classic case of intrapreneurs is that of the founders of Adobe, John Warnock and Charles Geschke. They
both were employees of Xerox. As employees of Xerox, they were frustrated because their new product ideas were not encouraged. They
quit Xerox in the early 1980s to begin their own business. Currently, Adobe has an annual turnover of over $3 billion.

Features of Intrapreneurship: Entrepreneurship involves innovation, the ability to take risk and creativity. An entrepreneur will be able
to look at things in novel ways. He will have the capacity to take calculated risk and to accept failure as a learning point. An intrapreneur
thinks like an entrepreneur looking out for opportunities, which profit the organization. Intrapreneurship is a novel way of making
organizations more profitable where imaginative employees entertain entrepreneurial thoughts. It is in the interest of an organization to
encourage intrapreneurs. Intrapreneurship is a significant method for companies to reinvent themselves and improve performance.

In a recent study, researchers compared the elements related to entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial activity. The study found that
among the 32,000 subjects who participated in it, five percent were engaged in the initial stages of a business start-up, either on their
own or within an organization. The study also found that human capital such as education and experience is connected more with
entrepreneurship than with intrapreneurship. Another observation was that intraptreneurial startups were inclined to concentrate more
on business-to-business products while entrepreneurial startups were inclined towards consumer sales.

Another important factor that led to the choice between entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship was age. The study found that people
who launched their own companies were in their 30s and 40s. People from older and younger age groups were risk averse or felt they
have no opportunities, which makes them the ideal candidates if an organization is on the look out for employees with new ideas that can
be pursued.

Entrepreneurship appeals to people who possess natural traits that find start ups arousing their interest. Intrapreneurs appear to be those
who generally would not like to get entangled in start ups but are tempted to do so for a number of reasons. Managers would do well to
take employees who do not appear entrepreneurial but can turn out to be good intrapreneurial choices.

Examples of Intrapreneurs:
A lot of companies are known for their efforts towards nurturing their in-house talents to promote innovation. The prominent among them
is “Skunk Works” group at Lockheed Martin. This group formed in 1943 to build P-80 fighter jets. Kelly Johnson was the director of the
project, a person who gave “14 rules of intrapreneurship”.

At “3M” employees could spend their 15% time working on the projects they like for the betterment of the company. On the initial
success of the project, 3M even funds it for further development.

Genesis Grant is another 3M intrapreneurial program which finances projects that might not end up getting funds through normal
channels. Genesis Grant offers $85,000 to these innovators to carry forward their projects.

Robbie Bach, J Allard and team’s XBOX might not have been feasible without the Microsoft’s money and infrastructure. The project
required 100s of millions and quality talent to make the product
Vismaya Firodia, vicepresident, Kinetic India, says that one of their recent models, the Zing, was an idea
that came from one of their employees. "He suggested to us that we must think about having a mobile
charger in a mobike. It was innovative and was quite appreciated. The research and development (R&D)
team is naturally at the core of such creativity, but we by all means want to encourage it among all
employees," she says.

The idea seems to have percolated to all sectors. Lalit Kumar Jain of Kumar Properties says, "At least 80
per cent of the projects that are floated come through the recommendation of my employees."

An indication of how several companies are looking at creative minds more seriously than ever before
can be gauged from what Naushad Forbes of Forbes Marshall says: "We have something called the
'sunset clause', wherein any idea given by an employee has to be screened by the end of the following
day. If not, the manager has to necessarily back the idea."

Arun Khanna of Emcure adds, "In the pharmaceutical industry, most of the product ideas come from
employees. They know the customer best afterall."

Keeping in view changing management needs and emerging scenarios, various MBA institutes are
getting cued in to the trend. Like the Indira Institute of Management (IIM) has initiated a global
entrepreunership programme, wherein 20 top entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs will be invited to the
campus.

"The need of the hour is for people who are creators rather than followers.While entrepreunership is
the most recommended way to create job opportunities and unleash talent, intrapreneurship offers
security and access to better resources," says Chetan Wakalkar, head of the institute.

Read more: Intrapreneurs, the toast of corporate innovation - The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune-times/Intrapreneurs-the-toast-of-corporate-
innovation/articleshow/505219.cms#ixzz1BgMF80Vu “Women” as Entrepreneurs in India:

Women owned businesses are highly increasing in the economies of almost all countries. The hidden
entrepreneurial potentials of women have gradually been changing with the growing sensitivity to the
role and economic status in the society. Skill, knowledge and adaptability in business are the main
reasons for women to emerge into business ventures.‘Women Entrepreneur’ is a person who accepts
challenging role to meet her personal needs and become economically independent. A strong desire to
do something positive is an inbuilt quality of entrepreneurial women, who is capable of contributing
values in both family and social life. With the advent of media, women are aware of their own traits,
rights and also the work situations. The glass ceilings are shattered and women are found indulged in
every line of business from pappad to power cables. The challenges and opportunities provided to the
women of digital era are growing rapidly that the job seekers are turning into job creators. They are
flourishing as designers, interior decorators, exporters, publishers, garment manufacturers and still
exploring new avenues of economic participation.In India, although women constitute the majority of
the total population, the entrepreneurial world is still a male dominated one. Women in advanced
nations are recognized and are more prominent in the business world. But the Indian women
entrepreneurs are facing some major constraints like –

a) Lack of confidence – In general, women lack confidence in their strength and competence. The
family members and the society are reluctant to stand beside their entrepreneurial growth. To a certain
extent, this situation is changing among Indian women and yet to face a tremendous change to increase
the rate of growth in entrepreneurship.

b) Socio-cultural barriers – Women’s family and personal obligations are sometimes a great barrier
for succeeding in business career. Only few women are able to manage both home and business
efficiently, devoting enough time to perform all their responsibilities in priority.

c) Market-oriented risks – Stiff competition in the market and lack of mobility of women make the
dependence of women entrepreneurs on middleman indispensable. Many business women find it
difficult to capture the market and make their products popular. They are not fully aware of the
changing market conditions and hence can effectively utilize the services of media and internet.

d) Motivational factors – Self motivation can be realized through a mind set for a successful
business, attitude to take up risk and behavior towards the business society by shouldering the social
responsibilities. Other factors are family support, Government policies, financial assistance from public
and private institutions and also the environment suitable for women to establish business units.

e) Knowledge in Business Administration – Women must be educated and trained constantly to

acquire the skills and knowledge in all the functional areas of business management. This can facilitate
women to excel in decision making process and develop a good business network.
f) Awareness about the financial assistance – Various institutions in the financial sector extend
their maximum support in the form of incentives, loans, schemes etc. Even then every woman
entrepreneur may not be aware of all the assistance provided by the institutions. So the sincere efforts
taken towards women entrepreneurs may not reach the entrepreneurs in rural and backward areas.

g) Exposed to the training programs - Training programs and workshops for every type of
entrepreneur is available through the social and welfare associations, based on duration, skill and the
purpose of the training program. Such programs are really useful to new, rural and young entrepreneurs
who want to set up a small and medium scale unit on their own.

h) Identifying the available resources – Women are hesitant to find out the access to cater their
needs in the financial and marketing areas. In spite of the mushrooming growth of associations,
institutions, and the schemes from the government side, women are not enterprising and dynamic to
optimize the resources in the form of reserves, assets mankind or business volunteers.

Highly educated, technically sound and professionally qualified women should be encouraged for
managing their own business, rather than dependent on wage employment outlets. The unexplored
talents of young women can be identified, trained and used for various types of industries to increase
the productivity in the industrial sector. A desirable environment is necessary for every woman to
inculcate entrepreneurial values and involve greatly in business dealings. The additional business
opportunities that are recently approaching for women entrepreneurs are:

• Eco-friendly technology

• Bio-technology

• IT enabled enterprises

• Event Management
• Tourism industry

• Telecommunication

• Plastic materials

• Vermiculture

• Mineral water

• Sericulture

• Floriculture

• Herbal & health care

• Food, fruits & vegetable processing

Empowering women entrepreneurs is essential for achieving the goals of sustainable development and
the bottlenecks hindering their growth must be eradicated to entitle full participation in the business.
Apart from training programs, Newsletters, mentoring, trade fairs and exhibitions also can be a source
for entrepreneurial development. As a result, the desired outcomes of the business are quickly achieved
and more of remunerative business opportunities are found. Henceforth, promoting entrepreneurship
among women is certainly a short-cut to rapid economic growth and development. Let us try to
eliminate all forms of gender discrimination and thus allow ‘women’ to be an entrepreneur at par with
men.
Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/women-as-entrepreneurs-in-india-
212759.html#ixzz1BgZkF9Fs

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