Intrapreneurs are often described as ”dreamers that do”, and in this blog I want to explore both who they are and what they do.
This exploration will be open, but the main focus will be on government and more specifically the military, law enforcement, and intelligence services.
There are three main reasons for this:
- It’s extreme. Law enforcement and armed forces are often huge organisations that rely on both coherence and disruption in order to function and to adapt to changing needs, demands and situations. Given their monopoly on violence and their duties, the consequences of failed or successful intrapreneurial endeavours can be more important than in other types of organisations. Hopefully though, learnings from and about intrapreneurs with a license to kill can still be of interest to others.
- It’s understudied. At least it seems to be. Most of the researched intrapreneurship is either in other types of government services or corporations. However, the few relevant exceptions that I have found so far are among the field’s most interesting. I promise to share them with you. One hope I have of this blog is of course to learn about research and cases that I haven’t found so far. Please do comment or contact me.
- It’s practical. This fall, I happen to write a thesis on governmental intrapreneurship in Intelligence Analysis. I hope that this blog can serve both as an exhaust and as a catalyst for that work.
However, since most literature on intrapreneurship and my own personal experiences have nothing to do with military or law enforcement, a lot will be 100% civilian.
Do you wonder why this post’s picture and this site’s favicon is a rocket on a fishing rod? It’s obviously free to interpret but there’s also a very interesting story relating to it, that I hope to tell you more about soon.