Bob Iger, (CEO-Walt Disney Company) – “The heart and soul of the company is creativity and innovation”. 

There is no denying that innovation plays a central role in the progress of a company and ,thus it would be wrong to undermine the value of self-motivated action oriented innovators of the company or as we now call them Intrapreneurs.^[1]

In a Harvard Business Review blog post ^[2] Vijay Govindarajan and Jatin Desai list out 6 patterns for successful intrapreneurs, this not only was an interesting read but also a career tool as, considering the importance of intrapreneurial skill, being able to relate to and develop some of these traits is  great way to better equip oneself for our future in the business world.

According to them these patterns were-

1. Money Is Not the Measurement- Most intrapreneurs are greatly driven by the freedom of will and creative insight rather than monetary incentive.
2. Strategic Scanning. Intrapreneurs are constantly thinking about what is next, one step into the future.
3. Greenhousing. Intrapreneurs  tend to ideas in their greenhouse, protecting them for a while from potential naysayers before actually presenting it.
4. Visual Thinking. Only after an exciting insight do intrapreneurs seem able to formulate and visualize a series of solutions.
5. Pivoting. Pivoting is making a significant, often courageous, shift from the current strategic direction. For example- CEO Tony Hsieh of Zappos pivoted from  selling only shoes to becoming an online customer experience company.
6. Authenticity and Integrity. Intrapreneurs have confidence and humility, not boastful flamboyance.

While this blog post did help to better explain, understand and interpret one of the big words that we come across in a business school, I do however feel it doesn’t blanket everything that could constitute an intrapreneur.

In my opinion another pattern common among intrapreneurs, lets call it Pattern #7, would be Problem hunting. An innovator can’t discover something new and analyse it’s future potential without first identifying a purpose; a purpose that usually comes from identifying the problem with current situation. Thus being able to correctly identify problems and responding to it is the start for a good environment for intraperneuship.

For example- Patrick Naughton, a developer, almost left Sun in 1995 because he believed they were missing out on the fast-growing PC consumer market. He was convinced to stay and help Sun set up a group dedicated to the consumer market. This is where group member, James Gosling, created an elegant object-oriented programming language called Oak, which was later renamed Java.^[3]Thus, had Naughton not identified the problem of lack of responsiveness to a growing market, no innovative development such as Java could have been made.

Hence, we must keep looking for people showing such patterns to enjoy the benefits of progressive innovation.

Word count-449.

References-

[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkwilliams/2013/10/30/the-4-essential-traits-of-intrapreneurs/#f2ba1d014ce1

[2] https://hbr.org/2013/09/recognize_intrapreneurs

[3] https://www.vocoli.com/blog/may-2014/10-inspiring-examples-of-successful-intrapreneurship/

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