The Hindu Business Line : Intrapreneur, the new HR buzz

New Delhi, Dec. 2From Tirupur to Toronto if there is a common concern that binds employers, then it is to check attrition. In a bid to arrest the flight of its human capital, companies have long been providing various sops. A latest HR concept that is gaining momentum is developing and nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit in an employee.

‘Intrapreneur’ is an employee who has been mentored to become an entrepreneur by the company. Incubating an employee creates a win-win situation for both the employee and the employer. The latter gets to retain his performers, while an employee gets to pursue his entrepreneurial drive even when being on the regular pay-roll.

Apart from creating a team of self-motivated individuals, the company is able to cut down on hiring costs.

Another role

Take a look at a large pharma company which has nurtured a group of employees on its payrolls to act as intermediaries for various divisions. Even when being on regular rolls, these employees get to execute jobs which are usually outsourced.

This helps them don the role of entrepreneurs and be in-charge of their own labour. It also curtails labour union-related issues.

“From managing an employee base of over 1,000, we have been able to cut down the employee base to a core team of 20, which will have its own labour pools. The intrapreneurs have, therefore, become vendors to the company. This, in turn, means savings on hiring cost,” an official of the pharma company said.

According to Mr Rama Subramaniam, trustee of e-Health Technology Business Incubators, a non-profit organisation under the Department of Science and Technology, “creating an entrepreneur out of an employee is like playing an orchestra. Idea alone is not important. Its marketability and implementation are critical to success. We look for employees who have the urge and the zeal to do something different”.

Trait pin-down

According TeleVital President, Prof Shivram Mallavalli, who has nurtured over 200 entrepreneurs, “companies which incubate entrepreneurs usually give them a gestation period of two to three years. Some of the traits that companies look for while translating an idea into an IPO is commitment, resourcefulness and self-motivation”.

An architect in establishing SEED (Software Entrepreneurs and Employees Development), a technology business incubator supporting exclusively IT start-ups, he said the success and failure ratio, like in any new venture, is to the tune of 60:40.

Tirupur-based Tube Knit also follows this practice. Employee-turned entrepreneur, Mr V.M. Thiagarajan who works as a fabric in-charge as well as a yarn supplier says, “besides supplying to the parent company, orders are also executed for other factories.”

While the company gets to concentrate on the fabric aspect, lesser important works are outsourced suitably. At least 30 employees act as in-house entrepreneurs.

The phenomenon cuts across sectors and is mainly seen in IT, manufacturing, textile and logistics.

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