Intrapreneurship, women and rural entrepreneurship
An intrapreneur innovates inside an existing firm. Women and rural entrepreneurs widen India's base but face finance, mobility and market barriers that targeted schemes address.
Entrepreneur vs intrapreneur
Classic examples: 3M's Post-it notes (Spencer Silver and Art Fry) and Sony's PlayStation (Ken Kutaragi).
How firms encourage intrapreneurship
- Give autonomy and some free time to pursue ideas.
- Tolerate failure and treat it as learning.
- Provide seed funds and a senior sponsor or champion.
- Use small, separate teams ('skunkworks') shielded from routine bureaucracy.
- Reward success with recognition, bonuses or a share in the new venture.
Women entrepreneurs in India
| Area | Problem | Support |
|---|---|---|
| Finance | Little collateral; property often not in women's names | Stand-Up India, MUDRA, CGTMSE, SIDBI's Mahila Udyam Nidhi |
| Family | Dual role at home and at work | Family support, childcare, flexible home-based units |
| Mobility and networks | Limited travel and business contacts | Women's chambers such as FICCI Ladies Organisation; online marketplaces |
| Skills and confidence | Less exposure to training and technology | EDPs for women, the TREAD scheme, the Udyam Sakhi portal |
| Social attitudes | Male-dominated business culture | Role models such as Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Biocon) and Falguni Nayar (Nykaa) |
Rural entrepreneurship
| Aspect | Points |
|---|---|
| Types | Farm-based (food processing, dairy), artisan (handloom, pottery), tribal, non-farm services |
| Why it matters | Rural jobs, less migration to cities, use of local resources, balanced regional growth |
| Problems | Finance, weak infrastructure, small local markets, middlemen, low skills, competition from large units |
| Support | KVIC and PMEGP, NABARD, SFURTI clusters, DAY-NRLM self-help groups, Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) |
| Indian models | Amul (dairy cooperative, Anand) and Lijjat Papad (women's cooperative enterprise, 1959) |
NET asks you to identify who coined 'intrapreneur', to contrast entrepreneur and intrapreneur, and to match schemes with their target group (Stand-Up India for SC/ST and women, PMEGP for new micro units).
Typical MCQ: “Who coined the term 'intrapreneur'?” Gifford Pinchot III, with Elizabeth Pinchot, in 1978; popularised in his 1985 book. Trap: not Peter Drucker.
Typical MCQ: “Which scheme asks every bank branch to finance at least one SC/ST and one woman borrower for a greenfield enterprise?” Stand-Up India (launched April 2016).
Intrapreneur = 'inside entrepreneur': the firm's money, the employee's idea.