Creativity in Entrepreneurship

1

Foreword

• Education provides the foundation for creativity, flexibility, and wealth creation in the society.

2

Overview

• Discussion of the various definitions of creativity and its relevance to entrepreneurship

• The role of educational institutions in the success of entrepreneurial culture

• Current endeavors taken in the developing countries to encourage entrepreneurial skills

• Suggestions to encourage creativity in Entrepreneurship development programs, based on the learning of this class

3

What is creativity?

• Creative behaviors possessing an element of

newness, novelty, and difference (Herrmann,

1996)

• Creativity is an act, an idea, or product that

changes an existing domain, or that transforms an

existing domain into a new one, and creative

person is whose thoughts or actions bring these

changes. (Csikszentmihalyi)

4

What is creativity?

• Wallas’ description of creative thinking, suggests a

model in four stages:

– Preparation: problem definition

– Incubation: resting phase, subconscious mind

– Illumination: idea of a solution comes to mind

– Verification: solutions are tested

5

Creativity and Innovation

• Creativity leads to innovation

• “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship.

The act endows resources with a new capacity to create

wealth. Innovation, indeed, creates a resource.” (Drucker)

• Entrepreneurship is all about innovation

• Innovation is economic or social, rather than a technical

term

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Entrepreneurship

• “Entrepreneurship is a way of thinking, reasoning and acting that is opportunity obsessed, holistic in approach and leadership balanced.”

• Entrepreneurial qualities

– commitment and determination, leadership, opportunity obsession, tolerance of risk, ambiguity and uncertainty, creativity, self-reliance and ability to adapt, and the motivation to excel, ability to use failure experience as a way of learning

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Entrepreneurship and Creativity

• Creative in figuring out a way to work in a joint venture

• Creativity comes in writing an amazing sales letter or visualizing the perfect logo

• For practicing innovation, they need to be aware ofchange, and creatively use it to their advantage

– The Unexpected, Incongruities, Process Need,Industry and Market Structures, Demographics.Changes in Perception, New Knowledge (Drucker)

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Entrepreneurship and Creativity

• Tolerance for ambiguity is related to certain

entrepreneurial styles

• “Creative destruction”

– procedures and destroys or reallocates amassed

resources

• Creative in identifying the gap in the market and

think up a product

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Role of Educational Institutions

• Until 1970, very few universities offered entrepreneurship courses

• 1980s, entrepreneurship emerges as an important element in the dynamics of modern economics in US

• In US, from a base of 16 in 1970, the number of schools offering entrepreneurship courses had grown to over 400 by 1995

• What is the position of our country?10

Nurturing Creativity

• Several techniques to encourage creative thinking

– Ask Questions, Lateral Thinking, Six Thinking Hats,

Brainstorming, Mind Maps etc

• Technology and business incubators

– “complete innovation system”

– Provide financial, marketing and design support

– Generation of new creative ideas and business plans

– joint and cross-disciplinary learning

11

Efforts in Developing Countries

• Strategy of Entrepreneurship Development programs (EDPs). – Accelerate the industrial development by enlarging the supply of

entrepreneurs

– Industrial development of rural and less developed areas

– Enlarging the small and small-medium enterprise sector

– Providing productive self-employment to a number of young men and women

• EDPs are functioning in India as a “School for Entrepreneurs”

• Provided with the many benefits and advantages 12

Efforts in Developing Countries

• Diploma holders of science, engineering and

technology are being identified and selected for

entrepreneurial training

– have technical competency needed to start the new

ventures

• Attainment of technological self-reliance is the

immediate goal

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Recommendations

• Entrepreneurship education should encourage students to challenge everything

– there is no single right answer to choose

– Most educated people are quite good at linear thinking

– The creative person couples this depth with lateral creativity

– Innovative thoughts require more than logical thinking

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Recommendations

• Programs should encourage activity-based

projects

– increases creativity, positive attitudes toward science,

perception, logic development, communication skills,

and reading readiness

– Provides deeper understanding about how they can

work better as individuals and together as a team

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Recommendations

• Teamwork should be encouraged in these programs

– People who makeup teams have valuable experience of different domains

– Working in teams focusing on ideas for change, encourages commitment to that process

– Fun to brainstorm in teams, humor and laughter are outcomes, which spur creativity

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Recommendations

• Different techniques to enhance creativity must be incorporated in the courses

– awareness of the different tools available such as TRIZ and Thinker Toys

– practice the proper uses of brainstorming

– encouragement to use tools for coming up with new ideas

• The class should be structured to have elements of surprise for the students

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Recommendations

• Use of IT tools to promote creativity and thinking,

should be incorporated in studies

• Program should try to present familiar information

in unfamiliar context

– presenting information in new and innovative ways to

help students look for new possibilities

• Programs should be exciting and fun

– humor encourage innovative thinking 18

Recommendations

• Business and technological incubators should be

established

– Constant creativity and innovation in an appropriately

rich environment where novel ideas can be launched

and tested

• Programs should entail approaches and activities

that build the self-confidence of the students

– Needed most in the verification step (Wallas)

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Summary and Conclusion

• Creativity plays a very significant role in Entrepreneurship

• Educational institutions play a vital role in enhancing creative skills of individuals and teams

• The various techniques and tools used to enhance creativity in Entrepreneurial institutes in US can be applied to enrich the entrepreneurial culture of developing nations

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21

The Innovation Process

• Types of Innovation

– Invention

– Extension

– Duplication

– Synthesis

• Sources of Innovation

– Unexpected occurrences

– Incongruities

– Process needs

– Industry and market

changes

– Demographic changes

– Perceptual changes

– Knowledge-based concepts

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Type Description Examples

Invention Totally new product, service,

or process

Wright brothers—airplane

Thomas Edison—light bulb

Alexander Graham Bell—telephone

Extension New use or different

application of an already

existing product, service,

or process

Ray Kroc—McDonald’s

Mark Zuckerberg—Facebook

Barry Sternlicht—Starwood Hotels &

Resorts

Duplication Creative replication of an

existing concept

Wal-Mart—department stores

Gateway—personal computers

Pizza Hut—pizza parlor

Synthesis Combination of existing

concepts and factors into a

new formulation or use

Fred Smith—Fed Ex

Howard Schultz—Starbucks

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Major Innovation Myths

• Myth 1: Innovation is planned and predictable

• Myth 2: Technical specifications should be

thoroughly prepared

• Myth 3: Creativity relies on dreams and blue-

sky ideas

• Myth 4: Big projects will develop betterinnovations

than smaller ones

• Myth 5: Technology is the driving force of

innovation success

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