Embracing Intrapreneurship: How SMEs Can Foster In-House Innovation

As more and more idea labs and business incubators are founded by corporations, and many companies encourage employees to take time out of their work days to innovate, the idea of intrapreneurship – the practice of a company either establishing an umbrella group and funding startups helmed by employees, or investing in employees’ innovative ideas – is becoming not just popular, but crucial to a business’s long-term plans.

- Abhijeet Mukherjee

In this business landscape where constant disruption and evolving technology have become the norm, companies now view innovation as one of the most vital ways to remain relevant. Large multinationals have gone to great lengths to establish programmes and policies that foster greater innovation from employees, placing more emphasis on intrapreneurship and changing internal hierarchies so that creativity and innovation can be a more fluid, organic process.

But what about small businesses? Innovation is as necessary for small businesses as it is for larger companies. In Malaysia, SMEs account for 97% of operating businesses, provide 67% of employment, and contribute 36% of the annual GDP – facts that prompted the Malaysian government to allocate more money to their High Impact Programmes, which are designed to support small businesses.