Some of us like to take a risk, initiate action, and become leaders, whereas others are equally interested in innovation and thought leaders. However, they like to do it under the guidance and sheltered by someone. In a nutshell, the first set of people I described are entrepreneurs, and the second set of people are intrapreneurs.
Let’s look at each of these profiles in detail to better understand what the profiles entail. This will make it easier for you to figure which role you are more inclined towards.
Entrepreneurs:
These individuals want to take a risk, own a business, and create an innovative product or service. They observe the market, identify a gap that no one else has, and grab the opportunity to fill it.
They are highly intuitive who use their own capital and resources, including machinery and manpower, to run the business. They are their own boss, and hence as leaders, they have excellent decision-making skills and people management abilities.
Intrapreneurs:
While these individuals are equally motivated to build innovative services and products, they are not prepared to take the financial risk on their own. Hence, instead of having their own venture, they prefer working for someone else.
They work as employees under an entrepreneur. However, they are almost like the right hand of their bosses. They are held in high regard, manage an entire team and are also in charge of innovation and the creative side of the business, which eventually leads it into a successful enterprise.
We’ve gone through the differences between an Entrepreneur and an Intrapreneur. Let’s now look at points where their roles intersect or the similarities between the two roles.
Leadership: Strong leadership skills are crucial for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs alike to keep their teams motivated to achieve the desired goal. They both constantly come up with creative and diverse styles of people management to make sure the entire team is content and on the same page.
Vision: Entrepreneurs, as well as intrapreneurs, are individuals with an exceptional talent to recognize potential in products and services that might be missing from the market, however, they also need to balance it out with practicality and see how profitable they will be in the long run for the business.
Adaptability: Being able to adapt to a changing or challenging situation suddenly arising out of nowhere is of utmost importance for both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs equally much. Unless they can efficiently and effectively respond to a crisis and steer themselves out of trouble, it’s hard for them to sustain themselves as business leaders.
After having gone through the differences and similarities between an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur, I hope you can ask yourself a few questions and come to a conclusion about what would be the more appropriate path for yourself!
