A couple of weeks ago Jan Shubert and I presented at the Conference Boards, Women’s Leadership Conference in New York City.  The topic was Intrapreneurs: Key to Company and Professional Growth.  At 11:15AM when the session was to start there was absolutely no one there.  Jan and I looked at each other with a blank stare wondering if perhaps there was little or no interest in the topic.  As we retreated to the room, one person after another started coming in. Soon the room was filled.

As we started the session we asked the participants how many were familiar with the term Intrapreneur. Not one person raised their hand.  Perhaps it was the sub-title that attracted them to the session – Key to Company and Professional Growth.  Surely it was not the term Intrapreneurs.  Isn’t it surprising that even today, few if any professionals understand the word Intrapreneurs, what it means, who these people are and why they are important, especially now in today’s economic climate.

Yet, as the session continued we began to see a number of heads bobbing up and down.  The presentation was resonating with many of them. They really hadn’t thought of themselves as Intrapreneurs until they began to understand how these individuals think, act and the context for how they work.   As the session continued Jan took the participants through a self-assessment.  Each participant was asked to reflect on their own situation – did they have the characteristics of an Intrapreneur, did they work for some one who did or did they have someone reporting to them that exhibited these behaviors.  Everyone could relate to one of these.

We had struck a cord with many of the participants.  Many of them came up to us after the session to continue the discussion and we’ve had numerous follow-ups since then.  Yet, we know that when many of them return to their organizations they will find little or no tolerance for Intrapreneurs.  For many senior executives the term entrepreneur or Intrapreneur conjures up images they would prefer to ignore – risk taker, rule breaker, mavericks etc. 

Perhaps this lack of understanding of who these Intrapreneurs are is getting in the way of organizations leveraging these individuals at a time when their skills and competencies are needed more than ever.  We can only hope that some of these participants are willing to step up to the challenge and educate their organizations about what it means to be an Intrapreneur.

Submitted by: Susan Foley