Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Lecture 3: Inside the Entrepreneurial Mind: From Ideas to Reality

Department of Information and Communication Technology

 Outline of the Lecture
❖ Definition of the creativity and innovation
❖ Can we learn to be creative
❖ How human brain works for innovation
❖ Elements for creativity
 Creativity and Innovation
Creativity – the ability to develop new ideas and to discover
new ways of looking at problems and
opportunities.
Innovation – the ability to apply creative solutions to
problems or opportunities to enhance or to
enrich people’s lives.
 Failure: Just Part of the Creative Process!
For every 3,000 new product ideas:
❖ Four make it to the development stage.
❖ Two are actually launched.
❖ One becomes a success in the market.
On average, new products account for 40% of companies’ sales!!
 Can We Learn to Be Creative?

Yes!!

By overcoming paradigms and by suspending conventional

thinking long enough to consider new and different alternatives!
 Right-Brained, Creative Thinkers
❖ Always ask, “Is there a better way?”
❖ Challenge custom, routine, and tradition.
❖ Are reflective. (deep thought)
❖ Are prolific thinkers. (Productive, creative, innovative)
❖ Play mental games.
Right-Brained, Creative Thinkers (Contd.)
❖ Realize that there may be more than one “right” answer.
❖ See mistakes as pit stops on the way to success.
❖ Relate seemingly unrelated ideas to a problem.
❖ Have “helicopter skills.”
Right-Brained, Creative Thinkers
❖ Understand that failure is a natural part of the creative
process.
❖ Relate seemingly unrelated ideas to a problem.
 Left-Brained or Right-Brained?
Entrepreneurship requires both left- and right-brained thinking.
❖ Right-brained thinking draws on divergent reasoning, the ability to create a
multitude of original, diverse ideas.
❖ Left-brained thinking counts on convergent reasoning, the ability to
evaluate multiple ideas and to choose the best solution to a problem.
 Linear
Creat ivit y
(Logic/Knowledge)
Focus

Dept h

Sk ills

Hard Work

Experience
Lat eral Creat ivit y Growt h
(Intuitive/Imagination)
Breadt h I nnovat ion Uniqueness Expansion

Analogies Out -of-t he-Box Non-Logic

 Elements of Creativity
❖ Unique (original)
❖ Valued (useful)
❖ Intent (purpose)
❖ Continuance (implementation excellence)
Questions to Spur the Imagination
❖ Is there a new way to do it?
❖ Can you borrow or adapt it?
❖ Can you give it a new twist (turn)?
❖ Do you merely need more of the same?
❖ Do you need less of the same?
Questions to Spur the Imagination (Contd.)
❖ Is there a substitute?
❖ Can you rearrange the parts?
❖ What if you do just the opposite?
❖ Can you combine ideas?
❖ Can you put it to other uses?
Questions to Spur the Imagination (Contd.)
❖ What else could you make from this?
❖ Are there other markets for it?
❖ Can you reverse it?
❖ Can you eliminate it?
❖ Can you put it to another use?
❖ What idea seems impossible, but if executed, would
revolutionize your business?

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Tips for Enhancing Organizational Creativity
❖ Include creativity as a core company value
❖ Embrace diversity.
❖ Expect creativity.
❖ Expect and tolerate failure.
❖ Create an organizational structure that nourishes creativity.
❖ Encouraging creativity
❖ Encourage curiosity (interest)
❖ Create a change of scenery periodically

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Tips for Enhancing Organizational Creativity
(Contd.)
❖ View problems as opportunities
❖ Provide creativity training
❖ Provide support
❖ Develop a procedure for capturing ideas
❖ Viewing problems as challenges
❖ Providing creativity training
❖ Providing support
❖ Modeling creative behavior
Tips for Enhancing Organizational Creativity
(Contd.)
❖ Talk and interact with customers
❖ Look for uses for your company’s products or services in other
markets
❖ Reward creativity
❖ Model creative behavior
Tips for Enhancing Individual Creativity
❖ Allow yourself to be creative
❖ Give your mind fresh input every day
❖ Observe the products and services of other companies,
especially those in completely different markets
❖ Recognize the creative power of mistakes
❖ Notice what is missing
Tips for Enhancing Individual Creativity
❖ Keep a journal to record your thoughts and ideas
❖ Listen to other people
❖ Listen to customers
❖ Talk to a child
❖ Do something ordinary in an unusual way
Tips for Enhancing Individual Creativity
❖ Keep a toy box in your office
❖ Do not throw away seeming “bad” ideas
❖ Read books on stimulating creativity or take a
class on creativity
❖ Take some time off
❖ Be persistent
 Increasing Personal Creativity
❖ Idea file or notebook
❖ Network
❖ Read voraciously
❖ Think in opposites
❖ Look for new uses for old things
 Barriers to Creativity
❖ Searching for the one “right” answer
❖ Focusing on “being logical”
❖ Blindly following the rules
❖ Constantly being practical
❖ Viewing play as frivolous
 Barriers to Creativity
(continued)
❖ Becoming overly specialized
❖ Avoiding ambiguity
❖ Fearing looking foolish
❖ Fearing mistakes and failure
❖ Believing that “I’m not creative”
Tips for Enhancing Individual Creativity
❖ Allow yourself to be creative
❖ Give your mind fresh input every day
❖ Keep a journal handy to record your thoughts and ideas
❖ Read books on stimulating creativity
❖ Take some time off
 The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
 The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
 Preparation
Get your mind ready for creative thinking.
❖ Adopt the attitude of a lifelong student.
❖ Read … a lot … and not just in your field of
expertise.
❖ Clip articles of interest to you and save them.
❖ Take time to discuss your ideas with other people.
 Preparation

Get your mind ready for creative thinking.

❖ Join professional or trade associations and attend
their meetings.
❖ Study other countries and their cultures.
❖ Travel to new places.
❖ Develop your listening skills.
❖ Eliminate creative distractions.
 The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
 The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
 Transformation
Involves viewing both the similarities and the differences among the
information collected.
Two types of thinking are required:
❖ Convergent – the ability to see the similarities and the
connections among various and often diverse data and events.
❖ Divergent – the ability to see the differences among various
data and events.
 Transformation
How can you transform information into purposeful ideas?
❖ Grasp the “big picture” by looking for patterns that emerge.
❖ Rearrange the elements of the situation.
❖ Use synectics, taking two seeming nonsensical ideas and
combining them.
❖ Remember that several approaches can be successful. If one
fails, jump to another.
 The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
 Incubation
Allow your subconscious to reflect on the information collected.
❖ Walk away from the situation.
❖ Take the time to daydream.
❖ Relax – and play – regularly.
❖ Dream about the problem or opportunity.
❖ Work on the problem in a different environment.
 The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
 The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
 Verification
Validate the idea as accurate and useful.
❖ Is it really a better solution?
❖ Will it work?
❖ Is there a need for it?
❖ If so, what is the best application of this idea in the marketplace?
❖ Does this product or service fit into our core competencies?
❖ How much will it cost to produce or to provide?
❖ Can we sell it at a reasonable price that will produce a profit?
 The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
End of Lecture 3

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