The business needs you down there at the coal face right now. There’s not enough staff, you haven’t got time to train anyone else right now and, hell, you can do the job quicker anyway.

The problem with this mindset for the intrapreneur is that it’s not scaleable. You are not creating a framework for your business to grow.

Work smarter not harder. You are simply rushing from one crisis to another like an entertainer spinning plates hazardously on the end of bamboo poles.

With each stage of growth the crises are getting harder for you to manage. You are losing site of the horizon. The plates are about to come crashing down. You need help.

How can an intrapreneur keep a clear view of long term objectives whilst maintaining control over the inner workings of the company?

Well, it is possible to develop the work smarter not harder theory. The secret lies in breaking day to day activities into a series of self-contained tasks in such a way that they take care of themselves – almost.

These ‘mini-systems’ link together like the mechanism of a clock. On their own, fairly inert. But when working in harmony they can achieve great things.

Doesn’t it therefore make sense to try and mimic the workings of a timepiece to simplify, automate and co-ordinate the multitude of processes within the business?

Define  “mini-system”

A mini-system refers to any activity or process within a business which has a specific entry and exit point. For instance, a mini-system could refer to:

- How staff answer the telephone

- How employee inductions are managed

- Procedures for grievances and dismissals

- How visitors are treated

- How management accounts are prepared for the weekly management meeting

- How stationery is ordered

- How the petty cash system works

- How information from the production department is received and processed

- Credit control procedures

There are in fact hundreds of potential mini-systems within any business. They are yours to create. They can range from minor detail stuff to heavyweight decision making processes. Whatever category they fall into, they will have some common traits:

They will…

- have a specific entry and exit point

- achieve something useful

- be a self contained unit

- link to other mini-systems at both ends

- have a defined objective

- be measurable

We now understand what a mini-system is and how it can help the intrapreneur in the business. So let’s establish our blueprint for building mini-systems and start the journey to work smarter not harder.

Step 1. Identify a mini-system opportunity. In a small business start up, you will use your experience to create the first handful of mini-systems proactively. As time moves on, you will also have to be reactive and set up mini-systems in response to a specific need or crisis.

Step 2. Create the mini-system. One may look quite different from another. As long as they exhibit the common traits mentioned above, you will have an effective mini-system ready to take its place in the business clockwork.

Step 3. Manage the mini-system. In the early days you, the intrapreneur, may need to manage it yourself but your aim is to put someone else in place, properly trained, to take responsibility.

Step 4. Manage the people who manage the mini-system. You are now on the road to scaleability. You can now repeat steps 1 to 4 without taking your eye off that horizon.

In fact as the business grows, the intrapreneur may end up managing the people who manage the people who manage the mini-systems. Like astronauts being catapulted into space looking back on earth, the perspective changes as every mile passes. The earth gets smaller. Other planets come into vision. The view evolves continuously. You can then ensure that they work smarter not harder.

Step 5. Interrogate the people and the mini-systems. Because you have introduced the notion of scaleability, you can now step back to get the astronauts’ view of what is going on. It looks different doesn’t it? Look for continuous improvements.

Step 6. Keep going. Return to step 1 and do it all over again.

Incidentally, have you noticed that this process is actually our first mini-system itself?

We’ve left a lot of questions unanswered of course. How to we measure and evaluate these mini-systems? How do we introduce each one into the workplace? How do we communicate what is going on so that people feel at ease and empowered? How do we train employees to manage the mini-systems effectively?

And perhaps most importantly of all, how do we link together our mini-systems to create our well oiled clockwork business administration?

We have, however, laid the foundations for effective intrapreneurship by allowing scaleability to move the business forward and limit the growing pains. As an intrapreneur, we have started to work smarter not harder.

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Hans von Bülow the virtuouso concert pianist was due to visit the Konzerthaus in Vienna to play Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. His beloved Steinway piano was enroute. But there was some concern that it wouldn’t fit through the stage door.

To damage the Steinway trying to get it through would be a disaster. So the bright young floor manager suggested that they build a full size replica piano in the workshop and use it to test whether the Steinway would fit through the stage doors.

A week later, after some expense and effort, the replica piano was ready for testing. Stage hands were assembled, management looked on anxiously, though none as anxiously as the bright young floor manager. Problem was they couldn’t move the replica piano because it wouldn’t fit through the workshop doors…..

A bad case of overplanning and losing site of the horizon. Small business planning can be a delicate balance between planning and just getting on with it.

Small business usually comprises two types of individual:  planners who don’t do much and do’ers who don’t plan much. The Intrapreneur (i.e. the entrepreneur on the inside of your business) must find the right balance between the two.

How? Simply, the Intrapreneur must learn to do both at the same time and all of the time.

Small business planning is more a state of mind than a written document. But it can’t function on its own. It needs to sit alongside the real action. It needs to see what’s really going on in the business and make adjustments to itself as it goes along.

The Intrapreneur wears his business plan like a suit. It follows him round whilst he is ‘doing’. He moves around the business being curious. Adding value. Exchanging information. And all the while he is mentally updating the plan. A little adjustment here, a little adjustment there.

It is only at the end of the day, perhaps when others have gone home, that he downloads these thoughts into his planning document. (His small business planning procedure ensures that he doesn’t change the official document on the fly but proposes changes at the next review meeting).

If he has a real need to sit behind a desk for long periods then he does so in the privacy of his own home.

Small business planning and small business ‘doing’ can – and must – happily co-exist in equal measure.

The Intrapreneur who can grasp this grasps the business.

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Your small business needs effective leadership.  Possibly your most important asset besides your product is your intrapreneur.

You have decided that you are entrepreneur not intrapreneur.  Your business needs an intrapreneur – the entrepreneur inside the business. But how can you identify such a key component of your team? You can’t afford to get this one wrong.

To help, I have highlighted 30 ways to spot an intrapreneur, those key traits which mark him out as the special one, the one that your business can’t do without.

An Intrapreneur ………

• wholeheartedly embraces the entrepreneur’s vision for the company

• earns respect, not demand it

• energises and excites people

• is prepared to admit when he is wrong

• listens to others’ ideas and opinions and takes action on them

• recognises the boundaries of his own capabilities

• is consistent

• exudes positivity from every pore

• never brings domestic crises to work with him

• is prepared to take risks

• defaults to saying “we”, not “I”

• exhibits positive attributes such as fairness, integrity, compassion, loyalty

• understands the full spectrum of business activities

• makes consistenly good business decisions

• deflects praise onto his team

• is a good time manager

• is not afraid to ask for help

• naturally attracts trust and loyalty

• believes in the carrot, not the stick

• makes sacrifices without hesitation

• understands the numbers

• preaches empowerment

• understands that if you never fail, you’re not pushing the boundaries hard enough

• communicates at all levels and in all directions

• seeks never ending improvements, no matter how small

• thrives on change and hates maintaining the status quo

• takes humour seriously

• is not prescriptive or controlling

• loves his staff as much as his customers

• constantly reviews his business planning process

Effective leadership in small business relies on  – the intrapreneurs.

An impossible brief?

Almost.

“An Entrepreneur is someone who has the skills, passion and financial backing to create wealth from new business opportunities and is willing to take full responsibility for its success or failure.”

“An Intrapreneur is someone who manages that business with entrepreneurial flare in line with the expectations of the shareholders.”

Immediately we can start to see a difference.  The Entrepreneur is typically a visionary who spots an opportunity in the marketplace and has the passion, guile and contact base to set the wheels in motion.  The Intrapreneur has passion and drive but also has the operational skills of running the “clockwork” of the business to enable a good idea to be turned into commercial reality.  He is the “inside entrepreneur”.

Both “preneurs” set themselves aside from employees in a number of ways but perhaps the most significant is in their relationship with the business.  It’s a question of committment over involvement. Employees are involved, “preneurs” are committed.  A little bit like the egg and bacon breakfast, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed.

I’m busy setting up a new business and haven’t got time to worry about this.  What’s this got to do with me?

There is a very simple answer to this:

Not every small business needs an Entrepreneur, but every business needs an Intrapreneur.

In the same way that the seed of a business idea needs an Entrepreneur to shape and cultivate it, so the Entrepreneur needs the Intrapreneur to pluck from his grasp those seeds of opportunity, convert them in to a viable commercial plan and then manage that plan to a profitable reality.

Without the intrapreneur, ideas entrepreneurs and small business are doomed to fail.

So before you go any further, ask yourself which you are, Entrepreneur or Intrapreneur, and take action accordingly.