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Intrapreneurial Opportunity At Google Case Study

Intrapreneurship is the act of creating a business in an established company. Typically, the intrapreneur is an employee who has an idea, but instead of leaving the company to pursue that opportunity, instead leverages company resources in order to create the opportunity within the company. This differs from a more traditional work model where the employee would create something and the company would be the sole beneficiary; with the intrapreneurship model the company would set up a means by which the company and the intrapreneur split the proceeds of the endeavor. While entrepreneur and intrapreneur share similar traits with respect to ability to innovate and develop an idea from start to finish, they differ in their ability to handle risk, and may differ in terms of the project, where the intrapreneur's idea is too big to execute properly without corporate resources (Newlands, 2015). Employees at Google have famously received incentive to carry out intrapreneurial pursuits. In the past they were given 20% of their time by the company to pursue their own projects, many of which would necessarily result in intrapreneurial activity (Ross, 2015). Even without that policy, there are many reasons to think that a nearly endless supply of intrapreneurship activities could exist within Google. First, the company is home to incredibly talented, intelligent people, many of whom fit the profile of success intrapreneurs (Williams, 2013). Second, the company has tremendous financial resources. Third, there is a history of intrapreneurship within Google. So the baseline resources needed to foster intrapreneurial activities...

One obvious benefit is that there have already been several aspects of Google that have emerged as the result of this type of activity. The company's Chrome browser, and the Chromebook, are a couple of examples that have helped the company to grow in terms of data collection and revenue. Gmail is another well-known example of an everyday Google product that came out of its intrapreneurship program (Trenchard, 2016).
A good way to look at the potential of Google as an intrapreneurial incubator is through the SWOT analysis tool. The strengths and weaknesses are outlined, and then weighed against each other, as are the opportunities and threats (MindTools, 2018). Google's strengths include having an exceptional team of people, incredible financial resources, and a corporate culture that supports intrapreneurship, including a history of successful intrapreneurial products. There does not appear to be too many significant weaknesses for Google as an intrapreneurial incubator – the fact that the company has done away with its 20% policy means that it is a little bit less friendly, but that is only relative to itself; Google is still one of the friendliest companies to the idea. Another potential weakness is that Google's employees are known to work long hours already, so there might not be a lot of time to develop…

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References

MindTools. (2018). SWOT analysis. MindTools . Retrieved March 30, 2018 from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm

Newlands, M. (2015) 10 things entrepreneurs need to know about intrapreneurship. Inc. Magazine. Retrieved March 30, 2018 from https://www.inc.com/murray-newlands/10-things-entrepreneurs-need-to-know-about-intrapreneurship.html

Ross, A. (2015) Why did Google abandon 20% time for innovation? HR Zone. Retrieved March 30, 2018 from https://www.hrzone.com/lead/culture/why-did-google-abandon-20-time-for-innovation

Trenchard, R. (2016) Be inspired: Five brilliant examples of intrapreneurship in action. Virgin. Retrieved March 30, 2018 from https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/be-inspired-five-brilliant-examples-intrapreneurship-action

Williams, D. (2013) The 4 essential traits of intrapreneurs. Forbes. Retrieved March 30, 2018 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkwilliams/2013/10/30/the-4-essential-traits-of-intrapreneurs/#4f829ba251da


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