Intrapreneurship Benefits for Business

Intrapreneurship isn’t a new concept—business leaders have been talking about it since the 1970s —but companies that actively pursue it are still uncommon. That’s a shame because some of the most successful companies in the world, like Google, Apple, and Tesla, have realized some of their greatest successes through intrapreneurship programs. But what exactly are intrapreneurship’s benefits for business?

Many famous and successful products found their start in intrapreneurship, but intrapreneurship’s benefits for business go beyond just coming up with new products. Today, we will break down the benefits of having a culture of innovation and intrapreneurship, including: 

1. Bottom-line growth

2. Improved employee retention 

3. The ability to attract top-end talent

So, kick back and relax, grab a snack, you aren’t going to want to miss this one. 

Intrapreneurship benefits for business: Growth

Intrapreneurs create value and spur growth. Their ideas are vital to a company’s ability to react to industry changes and keep up with the competition with a pipeline of new products and services. And unlike most entrepreneurs, they have the resources and support of a whole organization behind them, allowing them to pursue bold ideas that might be too risky for a startup.

The more a company values innovation, the more ideas they develop and the bolder they get. Intrapreneurship, coupled with an effective innovation management program, can turn into a steady pipeline of new ideas from which the best ones can be chosen to pursue. By cultivating a solid intrapreneurship program, you unleash your company’s potential to generate the ideas that will allow it to grow.

Intrapreneurship can also benefit business through innovation within the company's internal operations. Firsthand knowledge and experience with the company’s internal processes, combined with an entrepreneurial drive, can lead to improvements that make operations more efficient and increase profitability.

It’s not just that intrapreneurship has benefits for business, though a lack of intrapreneurship can lead to stagnation and failure to adapt to changing business environments. Companies without intrapreneurs don’t innovate, and companies that aren’t innovative get left behind by those that are.

Intrapreneurial culture, morale, and retention

In addition to the bottom-line value of intrapreneurship, it’s good for employee retention. Starting an intrapreneurship program is a real, tangible action that shows employees that their contributions are valued. The impact on morale and productivity is enormous—plus, you don’t want an employee with a promising idea to leave the company and go all Mark Zuckerberg on you.

Intrapreneurship makes employees the owners and drivers of their own projects, letting them do work that is challenging, interesting, and meaningful to them. When employees get to do work they’re passionate about, they’re happier, more productive, and more likely to love their jobs. The positive impact of intrapreneurship and business growth is evident when it drives engagement, morale, and retention. And that passion inspires and motivates other employees, creating a positive cycle of job satisfaction.

Intrapreneurship also improves employee retention by enhancing their career opportunities. Future innovative leaders develop their management and organizational skills while working on the projects that come out of an intrapreneurship program. Sometimes, intrapreneurial projects even lead to new product lines or business functions, growing the business and providing new internal opportunities for employees.

Intrapreneurs have to think creatively and solve problems beyond the scope of everyday work tasks. They must be highly motivated and capable of driving projects forward into the unknown. By engaging these employees with intrapreneurial projects, future leaders and high performers stand out and can be identified.

Intrapreneurial employers attract intrapreneurial talent

In the same way it benefits retention, intrapreneurship benefits business by putting it in the best position to attract top talent in the industry. Consider the companies everyone seems to want to work for—think Google, Apple, and Tesla again. These companies are known for their intrapreneurial cultures. It makes sense that the most skilled and creative professionals—often those who might otherwise be drawn to entrepreneurship—would want to work for an employer that encourages intrapreneurship and gives them the freedom to pursue their ideas. 

It’s not brain science or rocket surgery—dynamic, innovative companies attract dynamic, innovative employees. So what kind of employees do you think a stagnant, boring company attracts?

Reap all the intrapreneurship benefits for business with rready

rready helps organizations make more innovative, supportive work environments that take advantage of intrapreneurship’s benefits for business. With the KICKBOX Intrapreneurship program, based on a proven methodology used by more than a thousand companies globally, we can help you build an innovation management strategy that will drive intrapreneurship from idea generation to implementation.

Learn more

• Intrapreneurship vs Entrepreneurship - What's The Difference?

• 7 Types of Intrapreneurship You Should Know About in 2025

• The Challenges of Intrapreneurship