what is an intrapreneur 
an intrapreneur is an employee who is tasked with developing an innovative idea or project within a company the intrapreneur may not face the outsized risks or reap the outsized rewards of an entrepreneur however the intrapreneur has access to the resources and capabilities of an established company roles of intrapreneursintrapreneurs are employees of a company who are assigned to work on a special idea or project they are given the time and freedom to develop the project as an entrepreneur would however they are not working solo intrapreneurs have the resources and capabilities of the firm at their disposal an entrepreneur starts a company as a means of providing a good or service an intrapreneur seeks to improve an existing company intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs have different objectives an entrepreneur envisions creating a company from the ground up an intrapreneur has a broader vision for an established company this vision may involve radical changes to company traditions processes or products the intrapreneur typically has direct applicable skills and experience to bring to the job history of intrapreneurshipthe term intrapreneur is a portmanteau of the two words internal or the prefix intra to mean internal and entrepreneur it was first coined by the couple gifford pinchot iii and elizabeth s pinchot in a 1978 white paper titled intra corporate entrepreneurship for the tarrytown school for entrepreneurs after this white paper was released the term began to gain traction in various academic studies in february 1985 time magazine had an article here come the intrapreneurs which popularized the term even further benefits of intrapreneurshipan entrepreneur starts a company as a means of providing a good or service an intrapreneur explores policies technologies or applications that will help improve the performance of an existing company inevitably as an intrapreneur develops the skills needed to recognize and solve important problems that intrapreneur may turn into an entrepreneur an intrapreneur can expect to be given the freedom and autonomy needed for such a project day to day deliverables are generally not demanded the intrapreneur is expected to analyze and understand the trends necessary for planning the company s future intrapreneurs synthesize their findings and make proposals for staying ahead of their competitors an intrapreneur is usually given the freedom and autonomy needed to explore new projects but sometimes they have to do this in addition to their regular day job intrapreneurs often become a company s executive leaders over time they move the business forward and rise to the top with a deep understanding of the business from all levels when intrapreneurs work at solving problems they foster the growth of other talented intrapreneurs and integrate more new ideas for the good of the entire company characteristics of an intrapreneurin the original intra corporate entrepreneurship whitepaper pinchot outlines that intrapreneurs are people who follow some of the following principles including intrapreneurs are typically highly motivated individuals who have specific skill sets as well as leadership abilities and an innovative vision that others in the corporation can get behind although intrapreneurs may have their day job and usual assignments on top of their new venture they are willing to take certain risks and interpret trends in the marketplace to visualize the next steps that a company may need to innovate or stay ahead of the competition example of an intrapreneurin less than a year on the job as ebay s chief of staff of global product management healey cypher realized the company was missing out on a major business opportunity at the time ebay offered only e commerce services to its clients despite the growth of internet retail the majority of consumer purchases are still made within 15 miles of a consumer s home many ebay retailers told cypher they wanted a physical retail presence as well after consulting with ebay s chief executive officer ceo cypher assembled a team of engineers to develop tools that could be used to create an ebay presence in physical stores the engineers created an interactive storefront that toys r us eventually installed over the following two years the engineers did the same for toms sony and rebecca minkoff cypher s success became a new division of ebay giving workers autonomy for solving problems and moving the company forward cypher became ebay s head of retail innovation 