Intrapreneurship and

Libraries: Need,
Competencies Requirement,
Barriers and Strategic
Approach for Success

JITENDER SHARMA
LIBRARIAN
NIILM CENTRE FOR MANAGEMENT STUDIES,
GREATER NOIDA, DELHI-NCR
 Rationale Behind this Paper

 Topic of the conference “Entrepreneurial Approaches

to Librarianship” forced thinking about relevance of
the topic for librarians
 Trying to understand correlation between
entrepreneurship and librarianship
 Trying to understand need to borrow management
concepts in librarianship
 State of librarians and their intrapreneurship
capabilities in Indian libraries
 Beginning…

 Global economic recession impacted all sphere of life

 Hit hard on the education sector as hiring demand is
less due to slowdown
 Many institutions either closed down or are in the
process of closing down
 Need of additional revenue generation and adopting
innovative methods to remain relevant
 Impact on Libraries…

 Libraries are still considered to be non productive

entities
 Budget shrinking in any academic set up always
starts from library
 Downsizing of staff and cutting down on academic
resources
 Users’ expectations and demand however always go
up
 This need to think on some innovative ways of
revenue generation and be less dependent on
organizational resources
 Entrepreneurship…

 Numerous definitions are available on

entrepreneurship and lot has been written
 Thinking, judgment making, risk taking capabilities,
innovation are some common traits of an
entrepreneur
 Summing up: Entrepreneurship is an inner quality of
dreaming, thinking differently, developing
innovative idea(s), striving hard to make that idea(s)
a reality and taking calculated risk to make this idea
successful
 An Entrepreneur…

 Various definitions are available

 Summing up them all
 An entrepreneur is willing and able to convert a new idea or
invention in to a successful venture
 An entrepreneur always strives for novelty, innovation and is
always willing to take risk or sacrifice for bringing innovation
in an existing system
 Intrapreneurship…

 Lot of overlapping between entrepreneurship and

intrapreneurship
 Entrepreneurship within a firm or large organization
is referred as intrapreneurship
 It is comparatively less risk taking
 Focus more towards bringing innovative practices
and methods in existing system for more efficiency
and additional revenues/resources generation
 Entrepreneurship is like a tree and intrapreneurship
is like its branches
 Intrapreneur…

 An intrapreneur is an entrepreneur who works

within the organization
 Intrapreneur works for innovative accomplishments
 Works for finding new opportunities, developing a
new product, service or technology
 Introduces new process, procedures and make
structural changes so as to bring innovation and
resources generation
 Need of Intrapreneurship in Libraries

 Information is commercially exploitable in 21st century

 It is considered as fifth pillar of production after labour,
land, capital and entrepreneurship
 Libraries being the storehouses of information can easily
make use of the same for commercial sense
 This can make libraries and librarians relevant in these
tough economic times
 This will bring financial rewards and professional
experience for library professionals
 Taking up such challenging tasks will help them in
getting parity with teaching community
 Not possible for all librarians to take up a full scale
entrepreneurship route
 Competencies Requirements…

 Information assimilation, storage and dissemination

is their stronghold
 Requiring basic management skills like developing,
implementing & marketing a business plan, simple
accounting/ finance methods and operations
management skills
 Need of good communication skills both verbal and
written
 Barriers…

 Lack of staff resulting in hampering regular work

and services
 Lack of clientele and lack of marketing skills in
finding and developing new clients
 Dilemma of Users first versus Customers first
 Lack of organizational support for taking up such
ventures and for initial funding
 Tough competition from commercial established
players working on large scales
 The Way Ahead…
Identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
Threat (SWOT Analysis)
Strengths
Sound knowledge in information
acquisition, processing and dissemination
Knowledge of IPR, Patents and related laws
Easy availability of information resources in
library
Availability of qualified staff
Opportunities
Extending professional knowledge to
commercial entities
Joint development of information products
Lack of cut throat competition
No primary responsibilities of funds
generation
Emergence of online education
Weaknesses
Lack of professional entrepreneurial skills
Lack of initiatives by staff
Lack of time
Lack of innovative practices
Library image as public-service institution
Lack of authorities support
Threats
Threat of institutions starting assuming
entrepreneurial income as substitute of
library grant
Similar ventures from other libraries
Risk of being penalized for failure
Competition from professional vendors
Scale of operations
 Strategic Approach…

 Devise a workable and profitable plan and defend the

same before authorities about need of such work with
clear cut achievable goals and also potential risk involved
 Indentify information products that are different or
superior from competition
 Think about collaboration to avoid duplication and gain
more
 Correctly estimate your organization risk taking appetite
 May tie up with commercial entities and extend your
expertise for mutual benefits
 Contents developments for online education can be one
such example
 Conclusion

 Only change is constant, hence change and change

for your skills up-gradation that results in new
innovative products development with potential of
not only serve your existing users but with
commercial viability also
 Intrapreneurship efforts will help librarians not only
keep floating in these uncertain times but will
cement their place and worth in organizations