On the world map, if there is any nation which epitomizes entrepreneurship or the presence of business acumen, it has to be India. Americans might be the capitalist but there cult of greed took them away from their greens. India on the other hand is a land where business prevails in the entire 130 crores of the human mass present. From Mumbai dabbawallas to Mumbai Indians, everything has a business case to it. From the unorganized versions of making livelihood to the most organized ways of living in mansions, entrepreneurship encompasses one and all.
India has been celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship since we got freedom. Off late with the advent of the wave of globalization and the world becoming flat, things have started to change. Business started to organize; MNCs started entering India and India Inc began took note of the first major challenge of business. The challenge was not in doing business; it was also not in beating the competition but in preserving and maintaing the human capital for sustainable development. With the spirit of doing business, India saw a lot of talent dropping out of their highly paid jobs and started on their own. The workforce wanted to break free from mundane jobs, routines and create ,innovate and think which could add meaning and value to their lives and lives around. Quite surprisingly a lot of these also could succeed in their ventures .Hence the realization of this fact lead the organizations to a very important question “ What should a company do to prevent its cream from leaving and starting on their own “
In Simple terms when an organization or entrepreneurs decides to offer opportunities, resources, tolerance to failure and space for new ideas, we say he is creating Intraprenuers. This is one of the most futuristic approaches an organization can implement. The underlying premise is an internal VS external parity concept. It means that any organization is like a tight rope walker; on one hand they have their external customer and on the other hand internal customers. So far they have been spending their lives getting as many external customers as possible. Advertising campaigns, blue ocean strategies and guerilla warfare in the market place, all this and much more only for the external customers. Today we exist in an ecosystem which is driven by the customer’s pocket, his whims and fancies and not by the organizations. Hence the customer pool is different and ever changing. In such times what remains constant or at least can be kept constant is the pool of internal customers. No customer from the external side stays with you for 5 or 7 years, only an employee does. This is the time when we need to plan internally first and then let the internal customers plan the external ones. The thinkers of the organizations or the visionaries need to have a vision for their people first and then the business shall follow automatically.
When I say celebrate the spirit of Intraprenuers, I simply mean that internal customers have to be given the space and the liberty to emerge as entrepreneurs within. However the trick lies in finding out the potential Intraprenuers and honing them to cultivate, create and innovate a space which is not only monetarily feasible but adds that value and meaning to his life.
The future for India Inc is bright and shiny for reasons more than one, but one reason which I feel is the harbinger of success is: India Inc has learnt the art of channelising the embryonic creativity and innovation in socially acceptable and desirable ideas and services. From Anna Hazaare to facebook we have celebrated every idea and that’s what I call the world of Intraprenuers.
“There are three kinds of people in the world, first who live in boxes all their lives, second who live out of the boxes all the time and then the third those who make their own boxes and then the world lives in them.”
