The Corporate Communications Intrapreneur: 12 Attributes of a Communications Professional Who Creates Business Value
For many organisations, the communications function is still viewed primarily as a support function.
A business unit has a problem. A brief is sent to Communications. The communications team develops a campaign, organises an event, issues a press release, manages social media or engages the media.
The work gets done.
But increasingly, that is not enough.
The modern communications professional needs to move beyond simply executing communications activities to becoming someone who understands the business, identifies opportunities, solves problems and creates measurable value.
This is the mindset of the corporate communications intrapreneur.
An intrapreneur operates like an entrepreneur but from within an organisation. They identify opportunities, take initiative, develop ideas, build internal support, secure resources and deliver solutions.
For communications professionals, this means treating communications not as an end in itself, but as a strategic tool for helping the organisation achieve its objectives. And this requires a significant mindset shift.
Here are 12 attributes that define a corporate communications intrapreneur.
1. They Solve Business Problems
A communications intrapreneur doesn’t wait for someone to hand them a communications brief.
They start by asking:
What problem is the business trying to solve?
- Perhaps the organisation is facing stakeholder resistance to a major project.
- Perhaps employees don’t understand a strategic transformation.
- Perhaps regulators are becoming increasingly concerned about an issue.
- Perhaps a new product or initiative isn’t gaining the required stakeholder support.
The communications professional’s role is to understand the underlying problem and determine whether and how communications can contribute to solving it.
This requires moving beyond:
“What communications activity should we do?”
to:
“What outcome does the organisation need, and what intervention will help achieve it?”
That is a fundamentally different mindset.
2. They Are Business Opportunity-Minded
Great communications professionals don’t only look for problems.
They look for opportunities.
- An emerging stakeholder conversation could represent an opportunity to strengthen relationships.
- A new regulatory development could create an opportunity for thought leadership.
- A business expansion could create an opportunity to build reputation and stakeholder confidence.
- A corporate milestone could become an opportunity to demonstrate leadership in the industry.
The intrapreneurial communications professional constantly asks:
Where can communications create strategic advantage?
They see beyond the routine and pay attention to what is happening around the organisation.
3. They Take Initiative
Intrapreneurs don’t wait to be told what to do.
They anticipate.
- They identify emerging issues before they become crises. They notice stakeholder concerns before they become resistance. They recognise opportunities before competitors do.
- They bring ideas to the table.
They say:
“I have noticed this. Here is why I think it matters. Here is what I recommend we do.”
This kind of initiative builds credibility because leadership begins to see Communications not simply as a function that responds to requests, but as a function that actively contributes to organisational thinking.
4. They Market Ideas, Not Activities
One of the biggest mindset shifts for communications professionals is learning how to sell the idea, rather than the activity.
It is easy to say:
- “We need a campaign.”
- “We need an event.”
- “We need media coverage.”
- “We need a series of videos.”
But senior business leaders are more interested in the why.
- Why does this matter?
- Why this and why now?
- Why should we fund this expense rather than income generating activities?
- What problem will it solve?
- Who needs to be influenced?
- What behaviour needs to change?
- What business objective will it support?
The activity is simply the vehicle.
The value lies in what the activity is designed to achieve.
A communications intrapreneur therefore markets solutions and outcomes, not a list of communications deliverables.
5. They Speak the Language of Business
If communications professionals want a stronger voice at the leadership table, they need to understand the language spoken around that table.
That means understanding concepts such as:
- Revenue. Cost. Growth. Risk.
- Regulation. Productivity. Investment.
- Reputation. Customer value. Stakeholder confidence.
You don’t have to become a finance professional or an operations expert.
But you should understand how the organisation makes money, manages risk, creates value and achieves its strategic objectives.
More importantly, you should be able to explain how communications contributes to those objectives.
Instead of saying:
- “This will generate strong engagement.” or “This will go viral”
You might say:
“This intervention is designed to increase stakeholder confidence in the project, reduce resistance and support the organisation’s ability to secure the required approvals.”
That is business language.
6. They Align Communications With Organisational Goals
Communications should not operate in isolation from organisational strategy.
The starting point should be:
What is the organisation trying to achieve?
Then:
What role can communications and stakeholder management play in achieving it?
- This requires communications professionals to understand the organisation’s strategic priorities and translate them into communication and stakeholder objectives.
- If the organisation wants to enter a new market, communications should understand what that means for reputation, stakeholders, employees, regulators and customers.
- If the organisation is undergoing transformation, communications should understand the behavioural and stakeholder challenges that could determine whether the transformation succeeds.
Strategic communications begins with organisational strategy—not with a content calendar.
7. They Secure Funding for Their Own Ideas
An intrapreneur doesn’t simply wait for someone to allocate a budget.
They can build a compelling case for funding an idea, initiative, campaign or agenda. They know how to get up from their seat in the office, walk the corridors to get support for the projects and ideas they have to make a tangible difference.
That means being able to articulate:
- The problem or opportunity
- Why it matters – how it impacts the bottomline or aligns with corporate strategy
- The proposed solution – what will be delivered
- The resources required – time, cost and people
- The expected outcomes – the impact in tangible and measurable terms
- The risks of doing nothing – scenarios
- How success will be measured – metrics and KPIs in business-relevant terms not in communications terms
This is an important capability because good ideas without resources often remain just ideas.
The communications professional who can make a compelling business case is far more likely to secure executive support and turn ideas into initiatives.
8. They Justify Spend and Demonstrate ROI
Being busy is not the same as being valuable.
Communications teams can produce an impressive amount of activity without necessarily creating meaningful impact.
An intrapreneurial communications professional therefore asks:
- What are we investing?
- Why are we investing it?
- What do we expect to change?
- How will we know whether it worked?
Not every communications outcome can be reduced to a single financial number.
Reputation, trust, influence, stakeholder confidence and relationship quality can be difficult to quantify.
But that doesn’t remove the responsibility to demonstrate value.
The objective should be to establish a clear connection between investment → intervention → outcome → organisational value.
9. They Operate Internally Like an External Consultant
One of the advantages an external consultant brings is objectivity.
They are expected to diagnose the problem, challenge assumptions, provide expertise, recommend a solution and help deliver it.
- Internal communications professionals should develop the same capability.
- Being an employee should not mean becoming an order-taker.
- A strong internal communications adviser should be willing to say:
“I don’t think that is the right approach and here is why.”
They should be able to challenge weak assumptions, ask difficult questions and provide an independent perspective.
- The goal is not to become difficult.
- The goal is to become valuable enough to be trusted with the difficult conversations.
10. They Don’t Have a “Tick-the-Box” Approach to Work
One of the biggest traps in communications is confusing activity with achievement.
- The press release was issued.
- The event happened.
- The social media posts went live.
- The stakeholder meeting took place.
The report was published.
But what changed?
- Did stakeholders understand the issue better?
- Did perceptions improve?
- Did behaviour change?
- Did the organisation gain greater support?
- Did a risk reduce?
- Did a relationship strengthen?
- Did the business objective move forward?
- Are investors expressing interest?
- Is our brand more visible?
- Have our regulatory relationships improved?
- Do we have a stronger share of voice on this issue?
- Has media coverage become more balanced?
- Has productivity and compliance improved?
A communications intrapreneur doesn’t stop at:
“We did it.”
They ask:
“Did it work?”
11. They Can Influence Without Authority
Communications professionals frequently have responsibility without formal authority.
They may need to influence senior executives, business units, employees, regulators, partners, community stakeholders, journalists or other groups over whom they have no direct control.
This makes influence one of the most important capabilities in communications.
Influence comes from a combination of:
Credibility + relationships + evidence + empathy + strategic thinking + problem-solving capability + emotional intelligence + curiosity + passion for excellence in delivery + focus on results delivery
The intrapreneur doesn’t depend on hierarchy to get things done.
- They build trust.
- They understand different stakeholder motivations.
- They create coalitions.
- They make a compelling case.
- They are passionate about what they do
- And they bring people along.
12. They Deliver End-to-End Solutions
Perhaps the most important attribute of the corporate communications intrapreneur is the ability to see the whole problem.
They don’t automatically separate communications from stakeholder management, reputation, issues management, employee engagement, media relations or business strategy.
They see how these disciplines connect.
A complex business challenge might require:
Strategic thinking → stakeholder analysis → issues management → leadership alignment → communications → engagement → measurement.
- The communications professional becomes a problem solver who can orchestrate the different interventions required to achieve the desired outcome.
- Very often, a problem would require the communications professional to facilitate the process of internal alignment around how to manage an issue that involves external reputation or organizational effectiveness.
- The ability to proactively seize the opportunity to make a difference is what separates a communications intrapreneur from others just functioning routinely.
This is what it means to deliver an end-to-end solution.
From Communications Supplier to Strategic Business Partner
The evolution of corporate communications requires a shift in mindset.
The traditional model asks:
“What communications activity do you need?”
(This question will always meet resistance or come up with suboptimal solutions because you are prescribing treatment for an undiagnosed problem. And doing so without finding out the context or condition of the business or organization in question)
The intrapreneurial model asks:
“What are you trying to achieve, what is standing in the way, and how can communications help solve it?”
That shift changes everything.
- It changes how communications professionals engage leadership.
- It changes how they prioritise their work.
- It changes how they make business cases.
- It changes how they measure success.
And ultimately, it changes how the organisation perceives the communications function.
The future belongs to communications professionals who can combine communications expertise with business thinking, strategic problem-solving and stakeholder influence.
Because the most valuable communications professional isn’t necessarily the person who produces the most communications.
It is the person who can look at a difficult business challenge and say:
“I understand the problem; And I see an opportunity to help through strategic communication and stakeholder engagement and this is how we are going to go about it.
That is the mindset of a corporate communications intrapreneur.
They think like an entrepreneur. Create value. Drive impact.
And those who operare like intrapreneur within their organizations are more likely to thrive as communications entrepreneurs once they leave paid employment because the same skills required to be an intrapreneur are transferrable to entrepreneurship.