Intrapreneurship – old wine for new times
The term Intrapreneur dates to the 1983 PhD dissertation by Burgelman though its antecedents may lay in the thoughts of some intellectuals much earlier. Almost 7 years before Burgelman’s dissertation, Norman Macrae predicted in The Economist a number of trends in business – among them being ‘dynamic corporations of the future should simultaneously be trying alternative ways of doing things in competition within themselves’. Other people who gave the concept prominence were Gifford Pinchot who defined it in his 1985 book, "Intrapreneuring"; a revised edition. By 1986 John Naisbett’s book titled ‘Re-inventing the Corporation’ and Steve Jobs’ description of the development of the Mac as an intrapreneurial venture within Apple, made intrapreneurship the mantra for established businesses to find new markets and new products. By the 90s, the term intrapreneurship had become so overused that it perhaps got into the intellectual blind spot. Being ahead of its time is perhaps the oth...