Looking for SRE Success? Then Find the Intrapreneurs!

SRE & Intrapreneurship is a combo that rivals some of the best pairings in history; Bert & Ernie, Disco & Polyester, TCP & IP. But what is Intrapreneurship? Who/what are Intrapreneurs? Is that just a typo - swap around a couple of vowels and call it good?

Simply put an Intrapreneur is an Entrepreneur working for an established company.

To expand on that a bit further an Intrapreneur:

• Desires to start something new, to create something that didn't exist before
• Is innovative in how they approach business and technical challenges
• Scoffs at the expression "it's always been done this way"
• Takes risk in spite of fear
• Is comfortable going against the grain
• Has a high tolerance for ambiguity
• Strongly questions the status quo
• Does not get discouraged by naysayer resistance, hearing why ideas won't work
• Looks at what exists today and asks why, what doesn't exist and asks why not

The benefits of hiring and retaining Intrapreneurs are slightly obvious, but significant. They can be summarized as product innovation, operational effectiveness & overall corporate growth acceleration. Employees gain autonomy, creativity, and meaning in their work which results in higher morale & retainment. Intrapreneurs have a strong sense of ownership of the company - they are no longer just punching a timeclock to color in the lines they've been given, they're drawing pictures from scratch. Companies that foster an Intrapreneurial environment will most likely achieve a competitive edge in their industry. Without it they will most undoubtedly fall behind.

So what does it take to attract Intrapreneurs? How do you know if your environment fosters Intraprenuership? To determine this you must answer the following questions:

• Do you reward risk taking?
• Do you encourage employees to challenge the status quo?
• Do you accept failure as an outcome?
• Do you focus on the removal of bureaucratic barriers?
• Do you trust your team(s) with autonomy?

If you answered yes to these questions then, congratulations, you've got the foundation needed to support Intrapreneurship! If not then, congratulations, you have identified focus areas moving forward.

So how does all of this tie back to SRE? Well let's do a quick exercise: look at the bullet list at the start of this article and swap SRE for Intrapreneur. As you can see there is a strong correlation between the characteristics of an Intrapreneur and the SRE discipline. Both are looking for a better way, have a desire to shake up the status quo for something significantly better. Both are willing to swim upstream to make it all happen. Both desire a new vantage point. 

To be clear I'm not making the argument that Intrapreneurs aren't beneficial elsewhere in a company - they are! I'm just taking the position that the growth of the SRE movement will rely heavily on our ability to recruit and retain Intrapreneurs, more so than most other areas of business and technology. Inside of SRE we are changing the way business gets done in fundamental ways. We must surround the movement with talent that has the Intrapreneurial mindset & grit that this work requires.

Attracting Intrapreneurs and fostering an Intrapreneurial environment is paramount to the future success of SRE. We cannot afford to slip into the ruts of the well-worn corporate landscape if we are to be successful.  

Josh does PM stuff for Microsoft Azure SRE, and is a self-identified Intrapreneur.