RE: ‘Act Like an Entrepreneur Inside Your Organization’
What are the strengths of working for a big corporation? For me, it would be the variety of resources and wide network I can take advantage of. But moving up the tall hierarchical structure of a big would require not only hard work and exceptional performance, but also entrepreneurial behaviour.
A Harvard Business Review (HBR) blog underscoring the importance for big companies to get more entrepreneurial behavior from its employees captures my view. Below are three steps, each of which is followed by my personal response, for employees to act as intrapreneurs within their organization.
1. Have the desire to take effective action within the organization
The thought of breaking the status quo with ideas that appear innovative and entrepreneurial scares me. I know I won’t be a full-time employee for another four years. But even in class, there’s always the risk that one statement changes other people’s impression for the worse.
2. Calculate the uncertainties and consequences
To be the first person taking the first step is not hard. What’s hard, in my view, is to spark innovations that minimize uncertainties and consequences. Yes, it will never be easy to gain the approval of the CEO when one is, say, an analyst working for a global consulting firm. Still, I believe it’s important for everyone—even students—to continuously ask the question: “is there a better alternative?”
3. Look for the right employee partners
As a first year student, it is probably too early for me to think about finding supportive employee partners and bosses. I do, however, find it important to look for partners—classmates and professors, in my case—who are willing to provide me with advice and insights when I have an idea I would like to move forward with.
I think there is no limit to becoming an intrapreneur. Of course, the size of a business school and a global consulting firm differs by a lot. But as would be true in both cases, students and employees have the resources at hand to act on ideas for improvement. The bottom line: take action, stop overthinking risks and “act your way into the future”.