Business Principles

Sometimes large businesses are not viewed as places that encourage the creativity that leads to new ideas and opportunities. Some talented employees leave to start their own businesses when they believe they are not able to use all of their talents.

To keep their businesses on the cutting edge and to encourage their creative employees, some larger employers are supporting intrapreneurs. An intrapreneur is an employee who is given funds and freedom to create a special unit or department within a company in order to develop a new product, process, or service. Although the main company finances the new venture, intrapreneurs enjoy the freedom of running their operations with little or no interference from upper managers.

Some of the largest corporations in the United States provide intrapreneurship opportunities that allow valuable employees to provide the company with innovative products and services. IBM and other major corporations such as 3M (which makes Scotch tape, Post-it Notes, and a variety of other products) and General Electric have also captured the innovative and entrepreneurial talents of employees.

Employees benefit because they risk neither their salaries nor their savings to launch a new business.

Employers benefit by keeping creative employees who might have started successful competing businesses. Furthermore, employers and consumers benefit because new and better products, processes, and services are introduced at a quickened pace through intrapreneurships.

In recent years, businesses that struggled for survival in a global economy looked for ways to increase employee productivity and commitment.

Two methods were sharing profits with employees and offering employees the opportunity to become
owners of the company through the purchase of stock. These programs provide an extra incentive
for employees to increase their efficiency and effectiveness. As a business becomes more successful and profits increase, the employees benefit by receiving a percentage of those profits or a higher value for the stock they own. Companies benefit by obtaining funds from employees who buy shares and by having a loyal, productive workforce.