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  • March 2020
  • Technical Note
  • HBS Case Collection

Intrapreneurship: Leading Innovation Efforts in Established Organizations

By: Karen G. Mills and Annie Dang
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:6
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Abstract

“Intrapreneurship” is the use of entrepreneurial management techniques within established companies to create new environments that foster innovation. Mature firms have consistently faced risk of elimination from competitors, shifting consumer preferences, and disruptive innovations. That threat has intensified enormously over the past several decades with the emergence of new technologies with sweeping relevance to business practices, increasing the pressure to innovate or perish. Entrepreneurial managers in charge of innovation must ask themselves: What are you trying to achieve? Is your company confronting a specific strategic challenge? Is innovation core to your firm’s mission? Or do you simply want the firm to be open to new ideas and be more innovative? How integrated with the company do you want the innovation effort to be? In this note, we focus on the innovations that are core to the firm and pose real threats to its future, and provide a framework for how to structure innovation efforts in more traditional organizations.

Keywords

Intrapreneurship; Innovation; Corporate Venture Capital; Accelerators; Incubators; Lean Startup; Hypothesis Testing; Business Ventures; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Framework; Disruption

Citation

Mills, Karen G., and Annie Dang. "Intrapreneurship: Leading Innovation Efforts in Established Organizations." Harvard Business School Technical Note 820-096, March 2020.
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About The Author

Karen Mills

General Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • March 2022 (Revised April 2022)
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    Pittsburgh: A Successful City?

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    The Servicification of the U.S. Economy: The Role of Startups versus Incumbent Firms

    By: Mercedes Delgado, J. Daniel Kim and Karen G. Mills
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    Creating 'Smart' Policy to Promote Entrepreneurship and Innovation

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More from the Authors
  • Pittsburgh: A Successful City? By: Karen Mills, Caroline Elkins, Vikram Gandhi, Gabriella Elanbeck and Zeke Gillman
  • The Servicification of the U.S. Economy: The Role of Startups versus Incumbent Firms By: Mercedes Delgado, J. Daniel Kim and Karen G. Mills
  • Creating 'Smart' Policy to Promote Entrepreneurship and Innovation By: Karen G. Mills and Annie Dang
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