The importance of intrapreneurship (or corporate entrepreneurship) for Colombian companies, looking ahead to 2026 and the long-term future, lies in its ability to act as a strategic engine for innovation and an essential mechanism to ensure competitiveness and continuous evolution in an increasingly dynamic and challenging global environment.
Intrapreneurship: what it is and why it is key to the future of business
Intrapreneurship is defined as the practice of encouraging and supporting entrepreneurial initiatives within an existing organization. It has become established as one of the most effective strategies to foster innovation, improve competitiveness, and ensure continuous evolution within companies.
Its strength lies in allowing organizations to reinvent themselves from within, leveraging the talent, creativity, and vision of their own employees to generate value on an ongoing basis. This is the main difference between intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship, as the former takes place within an already established structure.
Characteristics of successful intrapreneurship
When applied systematically as a business strategy, intrapreneurship generates productivity and significant competitive advantages. It thus becomes a renewal strategy that enables the creation of new forms of business or even the formation of new companies, including innovation in products, processes, and management systems.
The most successful intrapreneurship projects can evolve into independent business units, generating additional revenue and diversifying the corporate offering. We can find important examples of intrapreneurship within companies both globally and in Latin America, where these initiatives generated successful micro-ventures that transformed entire sectors.
A strategic imperative for Colombia
Intrapreneurship is particularly vital in Colombia, given the country’s economic structure and the urgent need to adapt to the pressures of the global market. Companies in Colombia are increasingly affected by rapid technological change and the globalization of markets, and intrapreneurship emerges as a strategic solution to address the challenges and opportunities of greater international competition.
Historically, Colombian organizations have primarily adopted traditional business models based on an economic orientation driven by basic factors of production. In this context, the implementation of innovation management systems supported by intrapreneurship becomes imperative to close technological gaps with leading global firms, improve productivity, and achieve sustained growth in the short, medium, and long term.
Intrapreneurship acts as a powerful driver of business growth and adaptability, fostering a culture of agility and the assumption of calculated risks. And although entrepreneurial activity among employees in Colombia is still incipient—an estimated fewer than 2% of workers have carried out entrepreneurial activities within organizations—the concept has enormous potential to become a transformative tool for the country’s economic development. In addition, it represents an invaluable way to leverage employees’ creative potential, leading to greater engagement and talent retention in an increasingly competitive labor market.
The pillars of an intrapreneurial culture
For intrapreneurship to reach its potential, Colombian companies must focus on building organizational factors that actively promote intrapreneurial behavior. Based on our experience in cultural transformation, we identify five key pillars:
Organizational culture: innovation and creativity must be at the center of corporate values, fostering curiosity and openness to change. According to Colombian business leaders, this is the most relevant factor for the success of intrapreneurship.
Visible support from senior management: leaders must demonstrate real and tangible commitment to intrapreneurship, reflected both in the allocation of resources and in a genuine openness to listen to and support new proposals.
Tolerance for risk: it is essential to create a psychologically safe environment where employees feel comfortable sharing ideas and taking calculated risks, understanding failure as a valuable opportunity for organizational learning.
Resources and autonomy: good ideas need fuel to become reality. This involves providing funding, tools, dedicated time, and an organizational structure flexible enough for intrapreneurs to develop their innovation projects.
Recognition systems: recognizing and rewarding intrapreneurial efforts is crucial to reinforcing motivation and building a sustainable culture. This can take the form of monetary incentives, public recognition, or professional benefits such as internal growth opportunities and specialized training.
By implementing these strategies and fostering a culture that genuinely values initiative and calculated risk, intrapreneurship becomes an indispensable competitive advantage for Colombian companies to remain current and relevant in the global market. It is not merely about adopting a new organizational practice, but about profoundly transforming the way companies understand innovation, talent, and the future.
To implement intrapreneurship models in your organization, we invite you to explore our success stories and cultural transformation services in our specialized section.
By Hernán Tello, Partner at Olivia Colombia.