Social Intrapreneurship

Social intrapreneurs, also known as corporate changemakers, represent many of the same values as social entrepreneurs, but function within corporations and companies. Social intrapreneurship is becoming increasingly common and has the potential to be a driving force behind corporations or companies towards more sustainable business.

“The greatest agents for sustainable change are unlikely to be [social entrepreneurs], interesting thought they are… They are much more likely to be the entirely reasonable people, often working for large companies, who see ways to create better products or reach new markets, and have the resources to do so.”

The social intrapreneur acts “behind the scenes” of large corporations, developing tools and methods that push businesses in a socially responsible direction. Provided with economic and administrative support from the company itself, he/she is allowed to focus on the entrepreneurial idea alone. Often the challenges of social intrapreneurs lie within the organizations, through for example internal resistance to change.

In an interview Win Sakdinan of Proctor & Gamble compared corporations to “elephants, as they take time to change directions, but when they do, they bring lots of weight or positive leverage.”

Social intrapreneurs may represent strong drivers of positive change. They function from within already financially strong entities with a wide reach, and can benefit from the knowledge and skills already present within the organization.