People
Issue No. 21 - February/March 2005
Entrepreneurship v intrapreneurship
by John Doughty
According to Legge & Hindle, the word entrepreneur was given to a Frenchman who 'entered and took charge' of royal contracts issued to noblemen. The entrepreneur took responsibility for managing the whole contract, paying a fixed fee to the nobleman and accepting any profits for himself.
Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship are words used to describe the behavioural traits (abilities, skills, and knowledge) found in certain individuals and mostly displayed in work based activities. These different words describe two different sets of circumstances when these traits are displayed. This article will put forward why it is important to support both approaches, not one over the other.
Entrepreneurship is mostly used in relationship to business building practices, although there are examples of this behaviour in all endeavours i.e. sporting, social, arts, humanities, medicine etc.
Entrepreneurial behaviour is the ability to:
- see an opportunity, usually to make money and/or do something more efficiently/better, through the creation of a business/business system
- persist, to follow the opportunity through to a conclusion
- persuade others to support the opportunity
- do what it takes to make it happen, often in the face of opposition and considerable challenge
- do all the above without being concerned about the current state of one’s resources
The Entrepreneur assesses reward for success in a number of ways. The public normally assesses their success by the wealth created and (sometimes) displayed by the Entrepreneur.
As with all activities, there are degrees of entrepreneurial behaviour. The person who creates a number of successful businesses is like the professional athlete, at the top of their profession and continually competing to demonstrate it.
A person who turns a hobby into a paying venture that supplements their other income, whilst being entrepreneurial, is no...
