Every forward-thinking firm seeks to nurture its employees, and most will say they already do, but intrapreneurship goes further. It’s about embracing creativity and innovation, and enabling employees to turn ideas into something of real value to the business.

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Key elements of transitioning
from intrapreneur to
entrepreneur
Every forward-thinking firm seeks to nurture its employees, and most
will say they already do, but intrapreneurship goes further. It’s about
embracing creativity and innovation, and enabling employees to turn
ideas into something of real value to the business.
What is an intrapreneur?
An Intrapreneur could be compared to old fashioned “change agents”
but with a specific focus: to make or save the company money while
tackling a pressing societal issue. Intrapreneurship motivates staffs to be
in-house entrepreneurs. The trend has been slow to take off in

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professional services but this is set to change as firms seek agile new
ways to drive growth.
Who can become a successful intrapreneur?
Intrapreneurs can come from practically anywhere in the organisation:
marketing, supply chain, operations, finance, and more. And they don’t
have to be at the very top (C-suite) to be effective. Infact, some of the
most effective intrapreneurs come from upper/middle management.
Companies Promoting Intrapreneurship
Apple, Facebook and Google are leading examples of intrapreneurship,
otherwise known as corporate entrepreneurship. These companies
positively encourage employees to develop radical ideas for business
growth. Facebook’s ‘like’ button, one of the company’s most important
innovations, was the product of encouraging engineering teams to
collaborate on software projects. Companies can introduce these two
things:

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 Reward Creative Thinking
Companies should nurture employee aspirations describing it as “an
opportunity to ‘create’ clients with potentially innovative and
sustainable business models.
 Investing in Ideas
Any successful company must have a number of intrapreneurs to see
future trends and meet them before their competitors do. Intrapreneurs
can become the driving force that moves a company forward and have
the potential to rise to the top as they understand the company from all
levels.”
How can someone turn their ideas into entrepreneurial ventures
within large organisations?
 First, it takes recognition by the company’s management that any
such experiment needs to be protected within the large
organisation. There needs to be a protected environment where
new ideas can be experimented with. There will be failures along
the way before an idea is able to stand up on its feet. That requires
a much disciplined effort to protect it, separate it, and allow it to
grow on its own timeline.
 Second, it requires that you don’t use the same measurement tools
that you would use for a large business. The beauty of startups is
that they can experiment and pivot. No one holds them up to an
existing blueprint to follow. You want to be in an entrepreneurial
environment within a large company where you feel and act as

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though your survival depends on the success of the project you
have, not on following a strict business plan.
Transitioning From an Intrapreneur to Entrepreneur
1) The number one mistake Intrapreneurs usually make is quitting their
job the second they decide that they want to run a business for
themselves. Before you even think of quitting your day job you should
put a plan in place;
-Build your minimum viable product (MVP)
– Spend time understanding the market
– Get a business plan together
– Secure your domain name
– Register your business name

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2) The second biggest mistake is choosing the wrong business for the
wrong reasons.
The best businesses ‘start with why’. They have deep, values based
reasons on why they are doing what they are doing – a deep purpose.
3) Third biggest mistake is not validating the hypothesis with real data.
Many a times, only little actual ‘hard data’ research goes into identifying
the entire possible market or the current competition of a targeted
market.
So now that you know what not to do, here are a few tips to consider
as you transition from Intrapreneurship to Entrepreneurship
 Get a Mentor- You want to make sure you are receiving advice
from someone who has learned lessons; you can avoid costly
mistakes and be guided to a faster path to success.
 Manage Your Expectations- Being an Entrepreneur is exciting as
well as challenging. Yes it’s flexible and autonomous but you will
work longer and harder than you did in your corporate. Also, don’t
under-estimate the challenge of financial insecurity.
 Make a Decision- It’s the brave and courageous few who take
‘action’ and do something about it. This all starts with a decision to
say ‘the time is now, I’m doing it’.
 Find Your Tribe- The hardest transition you will face by going
from an Intrapreneur to steering your own ship is the community

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of people you lose around you. As fast as possible go out and build
a tribe of like-minded people around you, if you don’t have a
network join a co-working space.
Conclusion
Intrapreneurs can become the building blocks of a company’s executive
teams and leaders. A transition from intrapreneurship to
entrepreneurship should be well calibrated with defined aims.
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