Writing in The Economist in 1982, Norman Macrae credited Gifford Pinchot III (who sounds like one of those enthusiastically sleek-haired dogs in the Pedigree Chum ads) with inventing the word intrapreneur. Although Macrae was writing more than 25 years ago, many of his ideas about the participatory workplace are as relevant as ever. I recommend the full article. Macrae quotes Pinchot as saying:
If we are to get really good problem-solving in our decentralised corporations, we must introduce a system that gives the decision to those who get successful results, not to the inoffensive. Such people will be willing to take moderate risks and will be more concerned with achieving results than gaining influence. These are among the characteristics of the successful entrepreneur. What is needed in the large corporation is not more semi-independent departments run by hard-driving yes men, but something akin to free-market entrepreneurship within the corporate organisations.
Dilemmas:
This relates to the question of having a vice-president in charge of revoution, as discussed in dogging. It's fine, in theory, but if yours is a battleship of the stature of The Economist, not only do you not want a revolution but you quite possibly don't need one.
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Credits:
Clip: Hollaback Intrapreneurs and Stew's blog.
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