Intrapreneurial culture means rethinking how your business pushes forward into new areas, innovates and embraces fresh, creative thinking. Anyone with the drive to start up a business - that essence of ambition combined with curiosity - is by nature entrepreneurial. But, once a business has passed that initial start-up phase, recruited its core team and established a rhythm of working, the entrepreneurial hunger can give way to the day-to-day grind. Intrapreneurship is a way of bringing entrepreneurship back to business. It’s about nurturing that spirit, wherever in an organisation it happens to spark up. Here are our five top ideas for creating your own intrapreneurial culture.

1. Give everyone on your team the space and encouragement to think like entrepreneurs. Be bold enough to set time aside for all your employees to explore new ideas, to discuss, to research and to make external connections. Depending on the sort of business you run, this could simply mean a ‘Better business suggestion box.’ Or, it could mean inviting staff to submit propositions to, for example, increase transactions by 20% in sixth months. Award the person who writes the best proposition an extra day of holiday and the chance to pursue their innovative ideas…

2. Be completely open-minded. Sometimes a seemingly off-the-wall idea can lead you somewhere amazing. By relinquishing control you may unearth a vein of pure entrepreneurial spirit. Mining that talent and energy could be the thing that lifts your business to the next level.

3. Make sure people feel involved. An open, transparent approach will encourage intrapreneurial activity. Inviting employees to have their say on issues like premises, product lines, marketing techniques etc., will give them a sense of agency and inspire self-starters. As well as being good for your team’s intrapreneurial spirit, this approach will encourage people to iron out the little niggles that hound many businesses.

4. If you spot that an individual who has that entrepreneurial flair, don’t be afraid to approach them one-to-one and harness their talent with a defined project. Sometimes, presenting people with a clearly defined challenge can help them to push themselves to bigger, better achievements.

5. When your quest to embed an intrapreneurial culture in your business pays off and you win a new piece of work or launch a new product, be sure to publicly reward the people at the heart of the project. This may be something as simple as an all-company email of congratulations, but recognising the people who have give extra will encourage both them and their colleagues to repeat their fabulous intrapreneurial performance!

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Let us know what you think in this quick survey:

Do you encourage entrepreneurial thinking in your employees?

Survey results will be published in next month's Mentoring and Enterprise Monthly newsletter.

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