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Faculty and Staff Intrapreneurship

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Faculty and staff members, particularly but not only in research centers, of higher education institutions can be the quintessential intrapreneurs. They focus on opportunities to garner funding from outside sources (typically foundations, government agencies, or corporate sponsors), to support their work in creating new knowledge, activities, or products, by supporting themselves, their labs, staff, and research. They have the intrapreneur’s advantage of infrastructure to support their work, including in sponsored research, accounting and finance, payroll, and HR, resources which are outside their core competencies, and which they pay for only in success as part of F&A rates. They also have the ability to tap into other academic colleagues across the university, perhaps in other universities, as well as through business and industry partnerships, and collaborating with government, perhaps particularly economic development agencies.

Unlike typical entrepreneurs, they don’t have the upside of ownership (nor the downside of not being paid in many cases), and unlike many corporate intrapreneurs, they often don’t have the salary flexibility to be rewarded by pay raises commensurate with the value they bring to academia or their customers. Certainly there are opportunities to create spinoff companies in some areas, but not in others, and most academicians aren’t interested in leaving their academic pursuits to pursue spinout ventures though they may be able to participate in some. Because they don’t have ownership interests (save for occasional IP interests) they also don’t typically engage in the founder’s dilemma decision making – do they maintain control or spin out for growth.

This last, the lack of decision making power about growth, control, wealth, and related factors, is probably the greatest weakness of academic intrapreneurship. While entrepreneurs are driven by opportunity recognition, growth, income potential, ownership, control, and more, academic intrapreneurs are driven by discovery, potential for social impact, opportunities to educate students, for recognition for peers, and related motivations. In many research centers funded by “soft money” they are also motivated by the ability to continue funding their employment and employment of their team. Adding the opportunity for true ownership, in addition to traditional academic motivations, might increase innovation in academic institutions in some circumstances.

Higher Education Intrapreneurs

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James Schmeling is a nationally-recognized academic executive leader responsible for co-founding two, and developing a total of three, highly successful and impactful academic research centers and institutes at two universities. He collaboratively wrote, won, and implemented over $90 million in grant funding to conduct research, outreach, education, and training, reaching over 44,000 individuals directly in the most recent center, and he has focused on academic research center establishment, collaborative team building, engagement with government, business and industry, and more. He personally developed partnerships and collaborations with many of the largest and most innovative business, industry, government, non-profit, and academic organizations in the nation.

One of his passions is intrapreneurial startups within universities. James consults with university leaders, research administrators, faculty, and staff on creating centers and institutes within universities and colleges. Startup communities are everywhere. Many people think the role of universities (in addition to teaching!) is to do basic research and, sometimes, to partner with communities, governments, business and industry and others to commercialize their research by spinning off patents, maybe spinning out companies to commercialize patents, or to commercialize specific products invented at their university. Very few people think about the potential of university team members to step out of their typical roles and create more or different value for themselves or their universities, let alone for their communities, or business and industry partners! Some people think about academic entrepreneurship – inventing things and then creating companies to commercialize their inventions or intellectual property. And, even fewer people think about universities faculty and staff as members of startup communities. In fact, Brad Feld specifically says in Startup Communities don’t look to universities for entrepreneurial leadership. James thinks Brad is wrong.

James is passionate about these communities:

I’ve built three university centers with awesome colleagues during my career in higher education. (So far!) It’s been exciting to build these “businesses” inside universities. I want to share how to do this with people who want to do it! And I want to help universities build their capacity to help people do this for the benefit of the university and their goals, and to help their people realize their full potential to contribute. It’s a bit about entrepreneurial DNA and a bias toward action. It’s a bit about who you work with. And it’s a bit about those things you’re passionate about. Sometimes it’s about what needs to be done right now. I and my colleagues have built these ventures inside universities to do the things we love, that are important to us, to, as Gaping Void says, Make a Dent in the Universe. We’re going to help you do the same thing. Convince those you need to convince to support you (or at least step out of the way!) and your vision. Find like-minded team members in your university, your community, or anywhere in the world. Fund your work, find partners, build products and services, and more!

Simply put, we’ve done it. Over and over. We love what we do inside our universities and organizations and with partners in business and industry, government, communities, and local, regional, national, and international stakeholders! We want to help you do what you love to do, inside the institutions you love, or outside of them. (And we’ll simultaneously help them find you, work with you, and build together.)

Reinventing the wheel doesn’t make sense when there are rich resources around you. People who’ve learned the hard lessons and want to share them. Conveners and mentors who are ready to help. A community that shares collective wisdom for collective impact.

No one else is teaching people inside universities how to pursue their goals to build resources, centers and institutes, products and services. Or teaching entrepreneurial startups, communities and governments, or business and industry where to find the talent and expertise they need, whether short term projects or long term engagements. The university community is rich with opportunity and expertise. Faculty and staff know how to build classes and curricula. Some know how to turn their expertise into consulting. Others have expertise in building products and commercializing them. James and his colleagues will teach your university or you personally how to build opportunities, leverage research proposals and grants, bring together the teams for bigger impact, and then how to turn those pieces into bigger opportunities. And he’ll make connections for those who want to tap into this rich community of expertise and networks. He is available to consult with individual faculty, staff, universities, or research leaders.