Far from futuristic professions such as urban farmers, space guides, or drone managers, the employee-entrepreneur—better known as the intrapreneur—is a reality.
While intrapreneurs are increasingly sought after in companies, their role remains ambiguous in the job market. Is it a real profession or merely a mindset? What are their key skills? Is the job market ready to embrace intrapreneurs with dedicated job postings?
The Professionalization of Intrapreneurs: Myth or Reality?
What Is an Intrapreneur?
Though not widely recognized by the general public, the term itself reveals part of its definition. The concept of intrapreneurship originated in the United States in 1978 when entrepreneur and author Gifford Pinchot coined the term and outlined its foundations. He later popularized it in his book Intrapreneuring in 1987.
An intrapreneur is an employee within a large company who, with the organization’s approval, pursues an innovative project that aligns with the company’s interests. They are the bridge between ideas and viable business activities. Over 40 years since its inception, the concept remains relevant.
How Does an Intrapreneur Differ from an Entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurs build businesses from the ground up, assuming financial and operational risks. In contrast, intrapreneurs innovate within an established organization, sharing risks with the company. While both share an initiative-driven mindset, intrapreneurs benefit from a structured environment that allows for experimentation without jeopardizing their careers.
What Are the Benefits of Intrapreneurship for Companies?
Implementing an intrapreneurship program allows large companies to foster innovation, engage talent, and maintain competitiveness while minimizing the risks and costs associated with strategic transformation.
Here are the key benefits:
Stimulates internal creativity and encourages new ideas.
Enables rapid concept testing using agile methodologies.
Facilitates the adoption of emerging technologies and new business models.
Allows exploration of new markets without disrupting core business operations.
Why Consider the Professionalization of This Role Today?
As early as 1985, Gifford Pinchot highlighted the need to recruit intrapreneurs. He foresaw that if companies lacked these profiles, they would need to attract them externally or cultivate entrepreneurial managers from within.
Developing entrepreneurial expertise is now a crucial asset in navigating an unpredictable, complex, and volatile business environment.
| Yumana’s lastest Intrapreneurship Barometer emphasizes this point: for 61% of intrapreneurship programs running for over five years, companies now recognize employees as the primary success factor. |
Intrapreneur: An Unseen Corporate Superhero
What defines an intrapreneur? Is it a mindset, a skill set, or an emerging profession? Many companies seek these hybrid employee-entrepreneurs, yet they often go unnoticed because they don’t realize their own value.
According to recruitment firm Michael Page, intrapreneurship has been one of the most in-demand skills since 2020.
Key Skills of an Intrapreneur
An intrapreneur possesses a hybrid and atypical profile. While they hold a defined role and job description like any other employee, their key traits set them apart:
Agility and Adaptability
Ability to pivot in response to challenges and adjust strategies quickly.
Leadership and Influence
Ability to rally a team and persuade stakeholders.
Project Management Skills
Planning, execution, and efficient tracking of initiatives.
Innovative Thinking
Capacity to think beyond conventional frameworks and propose disruptive solutions.
Communication and Storytelling
Engaging presentation skills to secure buy-in from decision-makers.
Are Intrapreneurs Born or Made?
While intrapreneurs exhibit distinct characteristics, can these skills be learned? Can employees be trained to become intrapreneurs?
Though personality and motivation play a role, intrapreneurs can leverage project management tools, agile work methodologies, and business innovation frameworks. These competencies, much like entrepreneurship, can be acquired.
Scientific research has debunked the notion that entrepreneurship is reserved for a select few. Likewise, intrapreneurship is more learned than innate, suggesting that structured training can professionalize the role.
The Rise of Intrapreneurship Training
Some business schools have already integrated intrapreneurship into their programs. Cambridge Judge Business School offers a 6-week program on innovation and intrapreneurship, while Columbia Business School, HEC Liège and Paris Dauphine provide programs focused on corporate innovation. These programs aim to formalize intrapreneurship as a recognized discipline.
Their target audience includes: managers who exhibit intrapreneurial traits and want to refine their expertise, employees with innovative ideas looking to drive change within their companies and professionals aspiring to transition into innovation consulting.
What Challenges Do Intrapreneurs Face ?
Despite the increasing push for innovation, many companies struggle to create an environment conducive to intrapreneurship.
Encouraging intrapreneurial talent is challenging due to corporate resistance to change. Organizations often prefer maintaining the status quo over embracing uncertainty. Many employees lack the entrepreneurial mindset necessary to navigate ambiguity. A risk-averse culture can stifle initiative and discourage experimentation.
One common misconception is that a good idea alone makes a strong intrapreneur. However, intrapreneurs are not merely ideators; they turn concepts into viable products or services, test them in real markets, and drive implementation.
To foster intrapreneurship, companies must provide dedicated resources and spaces for experimentation while supporting employees through mentorship and digital tools.
Intrapreneur (m/f/x): A Missing Job Title in Job Boards
Today, according to official discourse, companies are increasingly open to and appreciative of résumés that don’t fit the traditional mold or follow a “standard” career path. But beyond the rhetoric, most businesses still struggle to embrace unconventional profiles. They tend to prefer the reliable team players over the mavericks—those who often prove to be thorns in a manager’s side.
However, the winds of intrapreneurship are beginning to shift. Companies are starting to look beyond their internal talent pool to find new profiles and strengthen their intrapreneurial teams. We investigated and reviewed hundreds of job listings on major recruitment platforms. While terms like “intrapreneurship” or “intrapreneur” appear more frequently in job descriptions, they generally refer to desired skills—not to the actual job title.
So what job roles today resemble an “intrapreneur” recruitment?
“Startup Program Manager,” “Intrapreneurship and Incubation Specialist,” “Innovation Project Lead”—behind these titles lie a wide range of very different realities.
Although the skills sought are often clearly stated, with expected proficiency in methods like Design Thinking or Lean Startup, the job titles themselves remain vague. These listings tend to fly under the radar, making the search for a true intrapreneur more implicit than explicitly defined.
How to Recruit and Onboard an Intrapreneur?
Recruiting an intrapreneur is only the first step. Companies must ensure they provide the right conditions for success.
They need to allow flexibility to test ideas through agile experimentation. They must offer direct access to top management to facilitate strategic decisions. And they should provide adequate resources, such as innovation budgets and mentorship.
Even though intrapreneurs thrive in challenging environments, companies shouldn’t make the journey unnecessarily difficult.
What’s Next for Intrapreneurs?
Intrapreneurship is already a cornerstone of corporate innovation strategies. The formal recognition of this role as a distinct profession is on the horizon.
In a few years, we may see “Intrapreneur (h/f/x)” officially listed as a job title, fully acknowledged by recruiters and HR teams. For now, it remains a sought-after mindset, but its evolution into a legitimate profession seems inevitable.
Find out more about intrapreneurs :
- “What Is an Intrapreneur? (With Definition, Duties and Skills)“ Indeed – Career Advice.
- “Intrapreneurs: Who, What, How and Why?” By Susan Foley, 2020.
- “Employers: Hire Intrapreneurs (Job-Seekers: Become Intrapreneurs To Land The Best Positions)” Forbes, by Larry Myler.
CEO & Co-Founder Yumana
