Why focus on Intrapreneurship?

Intrapreneurship is the “secret sauce” that allows individuals to find opportunities in and for their organizations that others don’t see.  It is what encourages them to take the personal responsibility for success or failure.  Intrapreneurs share many of the characteristics of entrepreneurial people, but their means of expressing their entrepreneurial spirit is different.  Intrapreneurship is not about using entrepreneurial behaviors to start a new business, it is about using entrepreneurial behavior within an existing organization to create positive changes that benefit that organization.

In today’s economy, employees and employers need to be adaptable and able to act with technological insight and clarity. Every organization needs intrapreneurial people.  Intrapreneurs identify opportunities others miss, use their leadership and technical skills to gather resources and then derive satisfaction from satisfying the opportunity they have identified.

The characteristics of successful intrapreneurial behavior can be taught as can strategies to apply this behavior in the context of an existing organization. Marymount University’s School of Business and Technology is uniquely qualified to promote intrapreneurship and foster its development among its students and the broader community. The SBT is the only combined business and technology school in the Greater Washington region. We provide a multidisciplinary education to our students, both undergraduate and graduate, that not only  combines technical skill development with management and leadership development, but also develops an intrapreneurial mindset and related skills. Our liberal arts tradition and commitment to a broad education provides social context, while the specialized skill development of our business and technology programs provides technical skills.

At Marymount, we believe that the skills and mental agility needed for successfully starting a business are the same as those for succeeding as part of an established organization. The entrepreneurial mindset is not just a start-up mindset.  It is a collection of skills and behaviors that everyone needs to participate in the modern economy.