The term entrepreneur is common. Not so with intrapreneur. This is a new word adopted by 1992 when the American Heritage Dictionary adopted it to mean "A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation". It is an employee who takes initiative and self-motivated to use a corporate management style that integrates risk-taking and innovation approaches as well as the reward and motivational techniques, that are more traditionally thought of as being the province of entrepreneurship.
While much is today talked and advanced about entrepreneurship not much is said about intraprenurship. Before venturing into business, you need to search within yourself to find out what you best suited. Your gifting might lead you to be more suited to work within an organizational structure that is already established and running rather than to create your own.
Gifford Pinchot's out-of print book " Intrapreneuring, Why You Don't Have to Leave the Corporation to Become an Entrepreneur" provides 10 commandments for intrapreneurs:
Do any job needed to make your project work regardless of your job description.
Share credit wisely.
Remember, it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
Come to work each day willing to be fired.
Ask for advice before asking for resources.
Follow your intuition about people; build a team of the best.
Build a quiet coalition for your idea; early publicity triggers the corporate immune system.
Never bet on a race unless you are running in it.
Be true to your goals, but realistic about ways to achieve them.
Honor your sponsors.
As an entrepreneur, you are well aware of the great risks you have to take to enter into new ventures on your own. Are you ready for this lonely journey?
Before taking a leap out of employment as yourself what you are best suited for – an entrepreneur or intraprenur?
Showing posts with label business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
WHY TIME IS THE MOST CHALLENGING RESOURCE TO MANAGE
This is a lesson given byHaron Wachira, a mentor in entrepreurship for the entrepreneurship class that is meeting every Sunday.
In economics, time is considered as a nonrenewable resource because it is a scare commodity. Time may only be saved, spent, or allocated to get something accomplished. Money is sometimes traded off for time, as when a busy person hires someone to perform specific tasks. However, for the employer, managing the time of employees becomes another challenge. Out of the 12 months in the year, the business has to contend with:
Weekends: 2.5
Employee holiday 1.0
Lateness, excuses, etc on average 1.0
Proposals preparation. Pitching, looking for work (six months) 6.0
Delays, waiting (for others), cancelled appointments, etc 1.0
Total (months likely to be lost!): 11.5
To make the most out of time, it is important to understand the following concepts / approaches:
Time Management is the conscious control of time to fulfill needs and achieve goals.
Time measurement vs Tasks / assignments
Efficient sequencing (following of one thing after another in a series or an arrangement) – cuts waiting or travel time, thereby increasing your productivity
Time- tagging (mental estimation of the sequences that should take place, the approximate amount of time required for each activity in the sequence, and the starting and ending times for each activity) enables you to allocat time more effictivey.
Deliverable based supervision
Time displacement: a central management concept, which is concern over how much time spent in one activity takes away from time spent in another activity. For e.g., choosing to watch television rather than studying will affect the goal of academic achievement.
Time allocation vs individual’s values, ie what is important to that person. For e.g., if a family values a shared dinner hour with a multicourse meal, then the family members will set aside time for meal preparation and eating together.
Time measurement units (whether minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years): by allocating tasks based on smaller units, one may get more accomplished, but only IF supervision is minimal
Discretionary - Is the free time an individual can use any way she or he wants, eg lunch time, evening and weekends (from the perspective of an employee). Nondiscretionary - Is the time that an individual cannot control totally by himself or herself. For example, scheduled class time, opening/closing of banks (that keep your money). To improve management of discretionary/non-discretionary time:
Make a daily: things to do list” or keep a calendar.
Say “no” to request for time that keep one from finishing projects already under way.
Make use of technology: computer, telephone, recorders
Delegate
Keep a flexible schedule that allows for unexpected events
Questions your choices, “Is this the best possible use of my time at the moment?”
Establish priorities that determine what / when to allocate time (goals, schedules
Understand your productivity cycle, and allocate tasks to yourself based on when you are best suited to perform them (eg some people work best at night, others during the day after a cup of coffee)
Weekends: 2.5
Employee holiday 1.0
Lateness, excuses, etc on average 1.0
Proposals preparation. Pitching, looking for work (six months) 6.0
Delays, waiting (for others), cancelled appointments, etc 1.0
Total (months likely to be lost!): 11.5
To make the most out of time, it is important to understand the following concepts / approaches:
Time Management is the conscious control of time to fulfill needs and achieve goals.
Time measurement vs Tasks / assignments
Efficient sequencing (following of one thing after another in a series or an arrangement) – cuts waiting or travel time, thereby increasing your productivity
Time- tagging (mental estimation of the sequences that should take place, the approximate amount of time required for each activity in the sequence, and the starting and ending times for each activity) enables you to allocat time more effictivey.
Deliverable based supervision
Time displacement: a central management concept, which is concern over how much time spent in one activity takes away from time spent in another activity. For e.g., choosing to watch television rather than studying will affect the goal of academic achievement.
Time allocation vs individual’s values, ie what is important to that person. For e.g., if a family values a shared dinner hour with a multicourse meal, then the family members will set aside time for meal preparation and eating together.
Time measurement units (whether minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years): by allocating tasks based on smaller units, one may get more accomplished, but only IF supervision is minimal
Discretionary - Is the free time an individual can use any way she or he wants, eg lunch time, evening and weekends (from the perspective of an employee). Nondiscretionary - Is the time that an individual cannot control totally by himself or herself. For example, scheduled class time, opening/closing of banks (that keep your money). To improve management of discretionary/non-discretionary time:
Make a daily: things to do list” or keep a calendar.
Say “no” to request for time that keep one from finishing projects already under way.
Make use of technology: computer, telephone, recorders
Delegate
Keep a flexible schedule that allows for unexpected events
Questions your choices, “Is this the best possible use of my time at the moment?”
Establish priorities that determine what / when to allocate time (goals, schedules
Understand your productivity cycle, and allocate tasks to yourself based on when you are best suited to perform them (eg some people work best at night, others during the day after a cup of coffee)
Haron Wachira
Information Technology Associates Ltd
7th Floor, Eden Square (AIG House), Chiromo Road, Westlands
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