What is the difference between an entrepreneur and an executive? The same person can play both roles. But when they are in the specific role of entrepreneur/intrapreneur, they behave differently than the person executing strategy.

The boolean equation and the attached x,y chart show “managers/executives” how we define entrepreneur/intrapreneur v other business behaviors.

The core is expressed in a simple boolean formula: R&&M == E/I

R = Reject the Status Quo
M = Make something
E/I = Entrepreneur/Intrapreneur

The y axis = Status Quo. This is binary. You accept a status quo or you reject it. You can’t sort of accept of reject. Rejecting the status quo means that you think something—no matter how good it is—could be better.

The x axis = Maker. This is a theoretically infinite scale. This is a person who makes, does, produces, builds, executes.

Donut Person resides at 0,0. They do nothing, challenge nothing. They are a “zero” in terms of the organization.

Dissenter resides at 0,1. They reject, question, challenge a status quo but they don’t take action to change it. Cass Sunstein in his book, Why Societies Need Dissent, argues that this is an important role in terms of forcing the “establishment” to think again. (To use Kahneman language, it puts the group in System 2 thinking). Interestingly, Sunstein says that even if the dissenter never speaks but the group is aware of the dissenter, it forces this System 2 thinking in the group.

Doer resides at 1-∞,0. This person accepts the status quo, the doctrine, and executes. This person can add exceptional value…until conditions change and the status quo is tottering. When doctrine, strategy needs to change, the pure Doer can become an unintentional existential threat to the organization. Interestingly, in high compliance cultures (i.e., most large, bureaucratic companies) this point is usually lost or supressed.

Entrepreneur/Intrapreneur resides at 1-∞,1. (In an original version, to keep the D alliteration, I called this person the Developer. Like a property developer who recognizes value in a piece of land and works to build something even more valuable than what is currently on that location) This has three trajectories that map to Clayton Christensen’s distinction between Sustaining and Disrupting Innovation. In sustaining innovation, a product or service may be new—possibly even radically new and unexpected—but the market remains essentially the same. The degree of novelty affects whether you name this “Sustaining/evolutionary” or “Sustaining/revolutionary.” Disrupting innovation results from a new technology or new way of organizing work that creates a new market and disrupts existing markets.

By the way, one person can be all of these over the course of time. And, all of them at the same time relative to different status quos; for example, a disruptive entrepreneur in tech, may accept the diet of childhood and never challenge it.