The intrapreneur
15 notes, 2012 to 2025 · All guides
An intrapreneur builds a new product, service or business inside an existing company, as an employee. An entrepreneur starts a company of their own and carries the risk. Gifford and Elizabeth Pinchot coined the word in a 1978 paper, and Gifford Pinchot wrote the book Intrapreneuring in 1985.
| Intrapreneur | Entrepreneur | |
|---|---|---|
| Who funds | The employer, through a budget approved by sponsors | The founder, then outside investors, banks or customers |
| Who owns | The company owns the project and its results | The founders and investors own shares of the company |
| Risk | Career and reputation inside the company, salary usually continues | Personal savings and income, no salary if the business fails |
| Resources | Access to the company's customers, brand, data, experts and distribution | Builds everything from scratch, with limited means |
| Freedom | Works within the company's rules, budgets and approvals | Decides alone, accountable to customers and investors |
An intrapreneur builds something new inside a company organised to run what already exists. The company asks for innovation and resists it at the same time.
Start with the ten commandments Gifford Pinchot wrote for intrapreneurs in 1985. They still hold: “Come to work each day willing to be fired”, “Find people to help you”, “Honor your sponsors”. Stories in French follow: an intrapreneur at Sodexo on the best and the worst of both worlds, a physicist who became an intrapreneur at Renault, and a course on intrapreneurship in a business school.
Then what gets in the way: short-term focus, excuses, bureaucracy and politics, and companies that fire the very people who innovate. Innovating often means bending the rules.
Then the people who make it possible: the sponsor, shown in French at SNCF Réseau, and leaders who delegate outcomes rather than tasks.
Heads of innovation close the guide, with essays from 2025: bet on teams rather than ideas, and survive a job that puts a target on your back.
These notes come from the field: with Forward Partners, I have run about a hundred intrapreneurship and innovation programmes in more than 50 companies since 2012, and coached more than 1,000 teams.
In French, with French field cases: Intrapreneuriat en grand groupe.
Start here
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The 10 Commandments of the Intrapreneur
In 1985, the book Intrapreneuring by Gifford Pinchot answers the question in its subtitle: why you don’t have to leave the corporation to become an entrepreneur. As part …
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Entrepreneurship in a large company: the best and the worst of both worlds, the case of Sodexo
Being an entrepreneur inside a large company is both the best and the worst of both worlds. That is what Yannick …
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Lomig Unger, l’intrapreneur
Portrait publié par We Demain en 2018 dans une série sur les nouveaux travailleurs. Docteur en physique entré chez Renault en 2005, Lomig Unger y a fondé …
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Introducing intrapreneurship at business school
A business school recently asked me to teach a course on intrapreneurship. Happy to share my experience, I said yes. They had already had courses …
What gets in the way
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How to not innovate
Taken from 10 ways to inhibit innovation, here are 4 trends that what prevents innovation in companies. We exploit and don’t explore Our focus on short-term results …
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5 excuses to overcome in corporate innovation
Moves the Needle lists the five excuses established companies give for not doing real innovation, and how to get past them: « it's not my job », when …
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Intrapreneur’s guide to navigating bureaucracy and politics
Moves the Needle gives intrapreneurs four ways to push through bureaucracy and politics: align the project with the company's strategic priorities, win …
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The case for corporate disobedience
Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg, in Harvard Business Review (June 2014): you can't really innovate without bending the rules. Companies gain from leaving room …
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Companies want innovation but fire the innovators
Companies hire and reward employees that are good at operating the business. This means: Rewarding conformity; Suppressing original thinking; Punishing …
Sponsors and leaders
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Comment sponsoriser un projet d’innovation, l’exemple de SNCF Réseau
Il y a ceux qui ont l’idée de startup et ceux qui soutiennent le projet et se battent pour lui. Les sponsors jouent un rôle …
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5 leadership changes vital to enterprise innovation
Moves the Needle lists five changes leaders must make for innovation to happen in large companies: step back from the pressure of quarterly Wall Street …
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Delegate outcomes and goals rather than tasks (Giff Constable)
Moves the Needle's Lean Lunch with Giff Constable, CEO of the product innovation firm Neo: how he helps organisations let go of bad ideas and work on …
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Innovation starts with courageous leadership
We talk about innovation as a process or a strategy. But at its core, innovation is a leadership decision — and it takes guts. New ideas challenge the …
For heads of innovation
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Stop Betting on Ideas. Start Betting on “Minimum Viable Teams”
Why the most important decision an innovation director makes isn’t what project to fund, but who they choose to build it. As an innovation director, …
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Corporate Innovation Strategy: Why 80% of Projects Fail (And How to Survive)
Let’s be honest about the job title. If you’re “head of innovation”, leading a corporate innovation strategy or a major transformation project, you’ve a target on …
