INTRAPRENEUR

noun (Business World) A business person who uses entrepreneurial skills from within a large corporation to revitalize and diversify its business, rather than setting up competing small businesses. Etymology: Punningly formed on entrepreneur by substituting the Latin prefix intra- in the sense 'within, on the inside' for its first element entre- (or by clipping out the middle part of intra-corporate entrepreneurship: see below). The result is a hybrid word made up of Latin and French elements, which many people would consider an ugly formation. History and Usage: The idea of intrapreneuring or intrapreneurship came from US management consultant Gifford Pinchot in the late seventies. At first he named the concept intra-corporate entrepreneurship, but by the mid eighties the shorter form was becoming established. The corresponding adjective is intrapreneurial; the view that employees of large corporations should be encouraged to use their skills in this way has been called intrapreneurialism. All of these words are still predominantly used in American sources, although the concepts have been tried in many developed countries. The belief that Japan is lacking entrepreneurs is wrong. 'If you want to set up your own business or go into a partnership, your path is blocked. So an entrepreneur becomes an 'intrapreneur'...Intrapreneurs set up the new business ventures. If a venture is a success, the company spins it off as a subsidiary. Business Review Weekly Oct. 1987, p. 158 A one day briefing on intrapreneurship: developing entrepreneurs inside Australian organisations. Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 21 May 1988, p. 27 Not surprisingly, other parts of the IBM empire reacted jealously against the PC team and the kind of threatening 'intrapreneurial' behaviour that they were encouraged to adopt. Independent 21 Mar. 1989, p. 19