GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers
Entrepreneurs are not wild risk takers. On the contrary, they are risk managers, balancing risk with return and de-risking ventures and decisions as best as they can. Risk management generally falls into categories of 1) legal risk, 2) operational/business risk and 3) personal and corporate financial asset risk. But, another infrequently considered risk, particularly for intrapreneurs i.e. employees trying to act like entrepreneurs in their organizations, be they academic or non-academic, is career risk. Shifting from a full time employee to a part time one to run a strartup, for example, is even riskier to your career.
Here is the sickcare intrapreneur innovation roadmap.
Here is why it’s so hard to be a physician intrapreneur
Here is a physician entrepreneur survival guide
Consider a full time faculty member or corporate employee with benefits who is thinking about their career risk if they try to innovate or practice intrapreneurship or run a startup.
Career risk factors include:
- Failure risk to their organization that will impact their performance review
- Promotion (and tenure) risk and the opportunity costs
- Job security risk
- Reputation damage risk
- Career derailment risk
- Salary risk
- Re-entry or future employment risk
- Personal liability risk
- Peer pressure risk
- Social or emotional isolation risk
- Emotional risk of personal failure
- Financial opportunity cost risk
One way to innovate and mitigate your career risk is to be a good rebel, not a bad one.
Here are three things rebels do better:
- First, they recognize that other people look at us with more respect, not less, when we break social norms.
- The second thing rebels assume is that rules can be changed—and they change them.
- Third, rebels embrace the unfamiliar rather than being threatened by it.
Like all risks, career risk cannot be totally eliminated, only managed or mitigated. Before you decide to pursue your next entre/intrapreneurial venture, include a career risk assessment and mitigation strategy before making the leap.
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