Week 14 - SOCIAL INTRAPRENEUR

In my previous post, I mentioned that there needs to be more knowledge on social entrepreneurship. But then, I've come across this article on "social INTRApreneurship". What is that?!

Image from www.entrepreneurnews.com.au

What is a Social Intrapreneur?
Interesting as they are, the greatest agents of change are unlikely to be social entrepreneurs, but rather those working for large companies who have the ability to see avenues for new markets and to leverage resources to create better products, according to The Economist. Paul Polak, social entrepreneur and founder of International Development Enterprises, a company that produces low-cost solutions for small-time farmers, explained that big business is the key to scaling solutions to problems such as poverty. Those driving change within these corporations are the social intrapreneurs or in other words, “corporate social entrepreneurs”.

Image from www.behance.net

Social intrapreneurs are capable of making a positive impact to their business and for the world, and wish to align societal needs and business value.  They possess characteristics similar to social entrepreneurs, yet they are able to navigate massively complex systems to get things done with scale and impact because of the fact that they are HUGE people in the corporate industry.  And they are thus, surrounded by the resources to be able to create much more change for the better.  Together, these social intrapreneurs make for an army ready to attack – social and environmental problems that are being faced in this world.

While social entrepreneurship has deeper roots, having existed way back in the day and only being officially known in the 1970s, the first mention of social intrapreneurship or "corporate social entrepreneurship" came in place in the early 2000s and was more of an observation of the role an employee (intrinsically-driven by personal values). Today however, social intrapreneurship is the result of global market failures, increased expectations of businesses’ role in society, and a shift in personal values and motivation to build more sustainable business structures to help solve the many existing social issues.

I do wonder though... Will social intrapreneurship be here for the long-run?

Image from www.sustainablebrands.com

I would imagine that while these big corporate individuals have the drive to make great changes, their journey would be filled with many many challenges.  Social intrapreneurs would typically work all on their own and play the role of a social intrapreneur in addition to their normal day-to-day tasks.  Though the light has switched on for them and some of their colleagues, many describe their companies as slow-moving and simply aren’t able to adjust to the change in trying to be more social than profitable.

Challenges

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As the article mentioned, the first reaction these social intrapreneurs would face to any new idea is a straight out “no”.  Their colleagues would counter their proposals by saying “This is a distraction”, “Poor people have no money”, or “We’re not in that business”. In turn, they face the risk of losing out on promotions and salary increases, and even losing their jobs. The numbers don’t lie - they show that social intrapreneurship can be short-lived and may not actually last for the long run.  It was reported that four years after SustainAbility’s report launched, just under half of social intrapreneurs interviewed remain at their companies.
Still, those who have gone through a light bulb moment tend to remain committed to the idea of aligning social and business values, and have moved on to other bigger (and better!) roles. 

There is hope that social intrapreneurs would stir much great change in the world, but if all else fails, we still have all our social entrepreneurs to come in and save us!

Image from www.karmakonsum.de

References

Ip, M. (2013, January 8). Social intrapreneurship - an idea whose time has come. In social enterprise buzz. Retrieved on 26th January 2013 from http://www.socialenterprisebuzz.com/2013/01/08/social-intrapreneurship-an-idea-whose-time-has-come/