In the intense competitive business environment, running own entrepreneurial venture is highly required. This is the key of coping up with volatile environment. Running own entrepreneurial venture is one of the most emerging trends in market as it provides the entrepreneurs with the freedom to pursue their own vision and thereby attain success from business. With the assistance of entrepreneurship, people can also be able to explore enormous opportunities to learn new things (Scarborough 2016). Creativity and innovation are two of the most important factors in terms of running an entrepreneurial venture in an effective manner.
Kirzner (2015) commented that innovation is the major factor, which helps in running own business in a unique way. Innovation supports in producing exciting products by making in-depth analysis of target market. This is the mode of keeping the customers happy and satisfied. The risks, faced by Match Box Architects (MBA) in running entrepreneurship will be discussed. MBA is one of the famous architects of England, committed towards providing well-designed spaces and buildings. This is the way, through which the company can mitigate the issues, through innovation and creative thinking will also be discussed in the paper. The fundamental aim of this paper is to figure out the significance of creative thinking and innovation on mitigating critical business related issues. Certain recommendations will be provided to MBA in order to mitigate the issues, faced by them in recent times. Approaches of adapting critical thinking and innovation will also be given.
Key issues faced by MBA:
Established in 2009, MBA is the famous Architects in England, who have executed holistic approaches in order to provide sustainably-designed buildings to both domestic and industrial sector. The company have enjoyed a considerable growth over the past few years by the hand of extremely skilled staffs. Their team is highly proficient towards making extremely well-designed buildings that can provide brand value to the clients. The fundamental mission of the company is to challenge the existing status quo with the assistance of executing effective construction process (Matchboxarchitects.co.uk, 2018). The company is highly committed towards developing multi-dimensional team who possess the ability to change the building environment in future. However, as the UK business environment is intensely competitive and highly volatile, MBA is facing certain issues in the way of running their business with utmost proficient. Subsequent discussion will help to uncover the issues and how it can be mitigated through innovation and creative thinking.
Over budget and lack of high quality products are one of the most significant issues, being faced by MBA in recent times. It is true that, their team delivers well-designed building in accordance with the requirements of clients. Still, excessive cost is the crucial issue, which is generating dissatisfaction among the clients. Moreover, the quality of their building is also not up to the mark which often leads them to redo their tasks (McGuire 2014). At the same time, the company is also being criticised for not maintaining healthy communication with the clients. It has been reported against the company that, they are not able to keep the clients happy and loyal which is the key of accelerating the public image (Hitt and Duane Ireland 2017).
The excessive cost of their building is making it difficult for the customers to initiate their decision making process. They are being intensely criticised by their customers regarding their failure to work as per the commitment. In addition to that, they are also failing to keep the customers in the track which is highly imperative to amplify the level of trust among them. Blockage in process is a crucial issue, facing by MBA in recent times. As discussed by Rawlinson (2017) this is the reason, for which customers are being constantly dissatisfied towards them. Such failure to keep the commitment is leading the clients to complain regarding the cost and value of their product. At the same time, the process of reimbursement is also very slow which is also diminishing the trust and resulting in lower public image of the company. Such issues are becoming unavoidable day by day. Poor time management is another vital challenge of MBA which is also leading the clients to complain for not delivering products as per the proposed time (Sigala and Kyriakidou 2015).
Systematic approach to promote creative thinking:
Creativity is the key factor in mitigating critical organisational issues. Therefore, MBA should embrace creative thinking throughout the organisation which is extremely significant towards overcoming critical issues. The higher authority of MBA must put ample stress on the significance of creativity (Runco 2014). The staffs must understand the significance of generating innovative idea as the key of diminishing the criticisms of clients. As opined by Amabile and Pratt (2016) through this way, MBA can also lessen the rate of failure. Generating brainstorming ideas is a time consuming process. Thus the higher authority of MBA must allocate certain time in order to emerge new ideas (Liedtka 2015). For instance, they can slot a particular time at the end of meeting session. This can help the staffs to get things done by making open discussion. A suggestion box can also be placed around the workplace in order to allow the staffs to come up with a problem by generating new ideas (Mittal and Dhar 2015).
Training is highly required to improve the level of productivity among the employees. It is important to train the staffs in order to apply innovative techniques. This is the mode of enabling the staffs to generate brainstorming ideas by applying mind-mapping strategy. Lack of quality is the impending issue of MBA (Burns 2017). This means that, they need to change their work process. Thus, the employees must be encouraged to explore new ways of designing buildings. This can help to avoid the issues, related to lower quality of products (Anderson et al. 2014). The managers must be extremely supportive towards the ideas of staffs which can generate a positive vive among the and thereby improve their productivity. Certain risk must be taken in order to embrace critical thinking in an organisation. Thus, it is important to allow the staffs to learn new things from mistake. This is the way, by which the creative flow within a team can also be stimulated. Hjorth, et al. (2018) said that motivation is one of the most important factor to keep a productive workforce and thereby deliver high quality of projects to the clients. Thus, the manager of MBA must provide reward to the most creative team. Awards scheme must be introduced to recognise the creativity of individual employee (Weisberg 2006). Design thinking is a critical approach to organisational problem solving. It supports in solving problem in a systematic way. Design thinking can be regarded as the practical method of solving problem by executing effective strategies. This is the best professional practice which deals with defining problems and generating ideas accordingly in order to solve the problem (VanGundy 1988).
Define stumbling block and its role in diminishing co-development:
A stumbling block is regarded as a crucial organisational issues, which restricts in attaining organisational goals and objectives. This is basically an obstacle in the way of promoting sustainable development of a company. Such blocks create limitations for companies to attain desired outcome from business. Lack of trust and mutual understanding are the imperative outcome of stumbling block (Hong et al. 2018). Certain restrictions in an organisation leads the employees to lose trust over the employers which results in a conflicting situation in an organisation. This also hampers the bonding among the employees and thus restricts them from co-development. Lack of trust among the employees also restricts them to explore critical organisational issues. At the same time, the employees can also show reluctant attitude towards following the instruction from upper management. This hampers regular flow of organisational procedure (Ramos et al. 2018).
One of the greatest negativity of stumbling block is that it affects the organisational environment which in turn hampers the productivity among the employees. Such negative organisational culture restricts the higher authority of an organisation to conduct training session for the employees which affects the skill and competency level among them. Strong team bonding plays a pivotal role in the way of attaining organisational goals and objectives (Galindo and Méndez 2014). Therefore, lack of trust and mutual understanding impedes the employees from sharing innovative ideas and working together to deliver project within the dead line. This can have a firm impact on diminishing the co-development of the employees. Mind-set, false assumptions and perception are some common mental blockage which restricts critical thinking in an organisation. Mind-set is considered as a certain set of ideas which hampers the ability of people to work beyond the conventional setting (Eghenter 2018).
Design thinking & CPS structured technique:
Design thinking is regarded as the process of utilising the principles of design and thereby solve critical organisational issues. This, also can be regarded as the mode of exploring the internal opportunities of an organisation and adapt innovation accordingly for the sake of improving the business process. As MBA is facing crucial issues, in terms of maintaining the quality of production, it is imperative for them to execute this design thinking approach. This can help them unlock cultural change in the organisation and thereby create innovative products and service and amplifying productivity among the staffs. Osborn-Parnes Creative problem Solving (CPS) is a structured technique which has been invented with the intention of solving crucial organisational problems in a creative way. There are four different stages of CPS framework, which include clarify, ideate, develop and implement ((Liu et al. 2017).
Figure 1: Osborn-Parnes Creative problem Solving (CPS)
(Source: Amabile and Pratt 2016)
Clarify is the initial stage of creative problem solving process. It is the prime responsibility of the management of MBA to define the fundamental goal among the employees. The challenges, faced by the firm, must also be defined among the staffs. This can help them to have a clear understanding regarding the fundamental objectives of their responsibilities. Ideate is the second step of CPS, which deals with identification of ideas. The management of MBA should urge the employees to generate ideas that can help in mitigating the challenges. Develop is the third important step of CPS (Del-Corte-Lora 2016). In this stage, MBA should take necessary action in order to change those ideas into action plan which is the key of creating high quality of buildings (Anderson et al. 2014). Implement is the final step of CPS where, MBA must formulate a strong action plan and thus solve the issues in a consistent manner.
Conclusion:
Based on the discussion, it can be concluded by saying that creative thinking and innovation are two of the most important factors in terms of accelerating workplace engagement. This is the key of improving the morale and trust among the employees. MBA is facing certain issues in terms of delivering high quality of building in a timely and cost effective manner. This is resulting in dissatisfaction among the employees which ultimately leading to negative public image of the company. Therefore, Innovation can be considered as a precise activity of entrepreneurs which is very much needed in MBA to create new products or modifying existing product line and thereby accelerate the statistics of profit. As they are facing certain issues, related to improper quality of buildings, critical thinking will help them to explore the opportunities which are essential for attaining a strong position in market. Creativity, on the other hand, can be referred as the way of generating innovative ideas which helps in maintaining consistency of business.
The skills and ability of the staffs must be utilised properly to attain organisational success. It is recommended for MBA to initiate relaxing working environment which can support in diminishing the boredom among the employees. As delivering a project in a timely and cost effective manner is a collaborative approach, it is recommended for MBA to implement team building strategy. This can also help in strengthening mutual trust and understanding among the employees. It is recommended for the management of MBA to utilise the skill and competency level of the staffs. This is the key of mitigating organisational challenges. It is imperative to allow the staffs in decision making process.
MBA should initiate innovation and creative thinking throughout their organisation. This is the mode of generating commitment among the employees to fix an impending problem. Through this way, the employees can be motivated to generate and share brainstorming ideas which ultimately leads to fix impending problems. The employees must take part in decision making process which can help them to share their own values and perception. The provision must be created for the employees to express their own perception. This can support in accelerating the accountability among them. Meeting can be conducted in order to allow the staffs to express their perception. This can act as a motivational factor for the staffs to accelerate their commitment towards work.
Innovation, in the same way, plays a pivotal role in terms of satisfying the clients. Integration of innovation in MBA will help the staffs to explore unique ways to fix the problem. This is the mode of exploring multiple solution to a single problem. Therefore, innovation can help the staffs of MBA to offer the clients with a range of solution. As the clients are becoming dissatisfied by the company, innovation will help them to encourage the staffs to generate innovative ideas and thereby come up with a strong solution. One of the greatest benefits of innovative working ambience is that, it supports the employees to diminish the distress of failure and thus try new technique to make effective design of the buildings. It is the prime responsibility of the manager of MBA to consider the challenges of trying new things to keep the staffs, innovative and productive.
As per Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Process, creativity is one of most important skills which can be learned or enhanced. It is imperative to make a certain balance in between divergent and convergent ideas of the staffs. This means that the staffs must hold the ability to figure out contracting thinking to overcome challenging situation. Open ended questions must be asked to the staffs, which can help them to ask multiple questions, which can help them to explore information and thereby get ideas to mitigate issues.
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