Entrepreneurship and why is it necessary to promote it?

Developing an entrepreneurship activity within organizations is essential for innovation. People with an entrepreneurship vision supported by their companies will offer identification, analysis and creation of new business opportunities. US researcher Gifford Pinchot coined in 1985 the term intrapreneurship to define the development of an entrepreneurship activity within an already existing organization to ease innovative initiatives allowing the redefinition of the business model.

In this complex world we live in, uncertainty and constant change are ever more common. Therefore, those responsible of businesses have to make an effort to achieve differentiation from competition. In this line, entrepreneurship thinking may represent an advantage. The opening to this way of thinking as well as counting with a team of intrapreneurship profiles is such a pro to constantly improve organizations.

What defines the intrapreneurship spirit?

intrapreneurship mindset is highly valued in an employee. An intrapreneur has the capacity to identify business opportunities within the context of the company itself but also is able to dedicate time and efforts to achieve this goal. The leadership capacity, creativity, organization, proactivity, communication skills, inspiration…An intrapreneur risks less than an entrepreneur or a businessman as it puts in place its ideas within the context of an already consolidated company. But, even then, it faces challenges and difficulties. Also, its professional performance and that of its initiatives will depend on the support received from its environment.

Entrepreneurship in a known ecosystem offers certainty that can encourage many people who would never do it in other circumstances to undertake. Also, the learning provided by intrapreneurship can be very useful for the professional in the future should it wish to establish its own business. But the company itself is the most interested in committing to internal entrepreneurship. Therefore it has to listen actively and create open dialogue spaces as well as transversal work processes being aware that ideas may appear at any time and not only in offices. This means that it requires a very important cultural change which goes beyond the creation of an Innovation department.

Moreover the Management has to take into account that innovative and creative solutions provide a lot of value to the company and therefore the employee developing them has to see its effort rewarded. This is the key to retain talent.

CEU Universities are committed to innovation and the alliance between the world of companies and the academic world, so collaborations and challenges are constant. With a practical and employability-oriented education we encourage our students to put their ideas into practice, promoting an entrepreneurship mindset that will be very useful to create their own project or to join an already existing one.