Innovation And Entrepreneurship: Importance, Process, And Forms

Questions:

How important creativity and innovation are to the success of entrepreneurial ventures.

The term ‘entrepreneurship’ conveys different meanings to different people. The term conceptually and in practice too does not connote any stereotypical model. The etymology has been derived from the French word ‘entreprendre’ that literally means ‘to undertake’. It indicates the minimum behavioral features of an entrepreneur. As per the view of economic functions, there are three of the main characteristics of an entrepreneur which are highly required. These are innovation, risk taking and the will to venture into new business operations in order to profit more (Anderson, Poto?nik and Zhou 2014). Hence, Entrepreneurship is nothing but the application of certain skills, knowledge and competencies in a professional manner so that a new idea is monetized in the entrepreneurial context. This is a process by which a set if people or an individual can diversify from the existing condition in order to facilitate growth, generate more wealth, social good and employment.

Three of the primary approaches to entrepreneurship are found from the literature regarding the topic. First of all, the functional approach says that there is always a dynamic quality needed in the key decisions on production, investment, location, innovation development and research. Seen from this perspective, then entrepreneurship would come up as a psychological trait that is closely connected with creativity, originality and dynamism (Belitski and Desai 2016). This particular approach also involves state enterprises, multi –national firm managers and also the owner –operates companies along with the subsidiaries of multinationals.  The second approach takes the company or the firm to be responsible and the key economic factor.  The third and last conceptual approach concentrates on the owner driven firms or enterprises. According to this approach the owner of the company is the one person who is considered to run the firm as well as generate innovation and creativity.

In the early 1980s, one of the biggest trademark fields of America was losing its ground consistently for two decades. Moreover, in the later parts of the 1970s and the 1980s the industries were being deregulated by the President Carter. The external environment was such that required the management of the country to adopt a more innovative approach I the businesses. Toward the first half of the 1980s, the workers of America made service providing as their means of earning livelihood which later became known as the service industry (Edwards-Schachter et al. 2015). As the 80s ended, entrepreneurship was in the air in its full forma and the managers of the companies began taking quality more seriously than quantity and the process more important than the products. The scenario did not stay limited to America only but its effects same to be felt across the world. This was the foundation of the breed of creativity and innovation.

Towards the beginning of the year 2010, as the businesses shifted and changed a lot, it is equally important and amazing to examine the impact creativity and innovation had left on the business industry. Notably, innovation had become essential for the start –up companies because in the highly competitive industry, it is the only way to operate sustainably. In order to address the fluctuating buyers’ preferences and the changing buyer’s decisions, a company is bound to research the market trends and respond the needs of the customers who are the very basis of the business (Litchfield,  Ford and Gentry 2015). The competition in the market has significantly increased and gaining the competitive edge over the market rivals is the main focus of every organization and nobody is ready to leave space for others. However, innovation is incomplete without creativity. Hence creative inspiration also have to be planted in the minds of the employees in a particular organization.

Answers:

Creativity on the other hand, generates from the willingness and the ability to create, invent new forms and produce something new using the imaginative skills. Some of the ideas are brilliant and astonishing whereas there are also some ideas which are simple but unique. Creativity is not an attitude bur the capacity to adopt to the change of new and the inner will to provide a flexible outlook , pay creative ideas and possibilities along with the habit to enjoy the good and at the same time find out suitable ways for innovation (Khajeheian and Tadayoni  2016). It is a process and a creative person has to be concerned about the ways of serving the best to the customer and at the same time developing new products with new ideas. The person needs to have the ability in bring something new to the market and able to provide solutions to critical situations. The entrepreneurs are inclined towards more adaptation and the establishment of new values to the product and the business.

Since innovation is the key to success of an organization and places the entrepreneurs as the dreamers, there are certain elements which form the basis of innovation in entrepreneurship. The main focus of innovation is gaining utmost competitive advantage and taking the organization to some other level. It is the innovative approach that makes ne entrepreneur distinguishable from others. Hence, innovation must aim at rejuvenation, renewal and redefinition of the company. According to the perspective of some scholars, the most important elements of innovation are: challenge: The organization will have to find out the area of change and accept the challenge of changing. Customer focus: The main of the organization have to be to focus on the value they are providing to the customers (Huggins and Thompson 2015).That will work as the push Creativity : There has to be sharing and acknowledging the ideas. Communication: There has to be transparent flow of communication among the members of the organization.  Collaboration: Without collaboration innovation can never occur. The employees will have to collaborate among themselves.  Completion: There must be to shortage of implementing new ideas.  Contemplation : The learning and sharing of different ideas and lessons should be there. Culture : The culture of the organization needs to be the playing field of innovative ideas.

The start –up companies are considered as the key actors of the development of new business ideas and marshalling of the resources along with bringing new products into the market. In a highly competitive business environment, the enterprise and the entrepreneur must look out for new and better ideas persistently and make the necessary arrangements so that new goods and services are welcome. However, innovation can take any form. First of all, innovation includes change in the business processes that improves the organization a lot. These improvement ultimately pays off by higher production and sales in the organization. It subsequently decreases the cost and increases the demand in the market. Secondly, innovation in the products and services of the organization also increase the flow of revenues in the organization. The progressive kind of innovation is predominant whereas the radial innovation creates new markets. The demand of the product gets increased subsequently and that ultimately attracts investors and multiplies the employment rates profiting the society. Thirdly, innovation in the workforce and the management in an organization paves way to anticipate new techniques for betterment.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the early 1980s

Hence, innovation is the method by which an entrepreneur transforms the opportunities available in the market into something profitable and workable. It is the application of some creative ideas which would prove useful for the organization in many ways. In other words, entrepreneurship is concerned with the new ness in the products, services, ideas, process and management. Entrepreneurship is about building an enterprise rather than watching an already built one.

There are success factors for innovation in an organization. Therefore, it is obvious that it will have failure factors too. There are few universal organizational constraints against innovation. These are absence of failure –analysis systems, lack of patenting initiatives, and absence of identification of innovative ideas as main issues. Other than these, there are poor change management system, less focus on the commercialization, inadequacy of recognition and rewards, delays in procedures, inability to link innovation with the career growth. These are few of the most occurring constraints that might block the way of innovation in an organization.

Suggestion for strengthening innovation and creativity in Entrepreneurship

However, where there problems, there are solutions for resolving those problems. Innovation just not requires capacity only but the political economy too for reformation. It involves the creation of the constituency for the innovation where the industry, citizens, academia and governments are the partners of the entire process. The government can easily drive innovation through the appropriate skill development and educational policies. The immense growth in the information and communication technologies along with the vast penetration of media, there are huge scope for the use of these channels to facilitate innovation and establish suitable stages for participation. A systematic reformation from the side of higher education system that includes marketable vocational education too is needed. The collaboration of the government and the educational institutions is the basis of effective industry.

Identify and describe an entrepreneurial idea that can lead to a successful business venture for YOU.

I am the product manager of FoodStuff New Zealand and have been provided with the responsibility of product innovation in the company. FoodStuff began as a humble enterprise in the year 1922 and now has acquired the position of the largest and most thriving business of New Zealand. The company solely believes that the people, passion and knowledge are the foundation of the business. We have high standards as an organization and we see ourselves to be a whole member of the communities of the society. The simple formula that we apply is to step into the future while carrying out the accomplishment of our objectives in the business. I believe that the people of the organization are the ones who set us apart from other companies in the similar industry. They know and understand that only the fresh products cannot be the unique factor for the brand, it is also about the well behavior and friendly conversation that the customers receive while shopping. There are almost 30,000 people connected with the wholesale and the retail business of Foof Stuff Company (Foodstuffs.co 2018). Hence, in this way we have become the largest employer in the entire country of New Zealand. The career opportunities the company has provided includes the supply chain management, logistics, strategic planning and financial services too.  The company also observes its corporate social responsibility by donating abundantly in many ways. In December the company has released about its programs and missions in the near future that is a huge list. It aims at strengthening the environment of New Zealand and the sustainability of the company summarizes many projects (Kandampully, Bilgihan and Zhang 2016). The company basically deals in products like grocery and liquors. Therefore it can be categorized under the food and beverage industry and the Australia base Woolworths (NZ) can be considered as the biggest competitor of the FoodStuff Company.

Innovation and creativity in the 21st century

The food tourism is one of the most growing trends around the whole world. The travelers and residents are equally searching for memorable and unique food and beverage experiences. The food and beverage sector of New Zealand has a thriving and booming growth. There are so any opportunities for any company which has decided to enter in this industry. Recently the industry has focused more on the production of organic food which are healthy and cost –friendly too. People are being health –conscious day by day and searching for substitutes of alcohol or carbonated drinks. Hence, it can be a strong area where the company can innovate from (Liu et al. 2017). The Foodstuff Company mostly sells organic food to satisfy the needs of the customers. Therefore, it can innovate in the beverage section and provide the customers something which is tasty and healthy too. According to my views we should revolutionize the traditional concept of morning tea/ coffee and replace it with herbal beverages with lime, chamomile and lavender combination. It would be a revolutionary drink that has not been brought in the industry before and leave the competitors completely awestruck.

Discuss and apply the entrepreneurial process by which you have identified it using MARS workbook 1.

Since the FoodStuff company is seeking for innovative ideas to innovate its products that would be market penetrating and creative too. There are certain steps in the entire entrepreneurial process through which I have identified the idea. The Steps are as follows:

First of all, in this activity, the business idea needs to be described. This activity has helped the company to examine the basis of the answer provided about the target market and the target customers along with the problem the idea can solve. The target market of the idea of an herbal morning drink is based on the target market of youths and the aged people too of the age group of 25-65. The idea of a herbal morning tea is founded on satisfying the questions such as “is the customer problem the company will solve is validated by a measurable fact “, “Can the customers who are suffering from this problem be identified?”, “Does the idea impacts on the lives and business of the customers?”, “Is there any evidence which links the target customer with the customer problems. I have found that there were people coming with chronic liver and kidney damage issues and the major cause of their problem has been found to be excessive intake of alcohol or hard beverages. Hence, I have proposed this idea of an herbal morning drink that is neither tea based nor coffee based. It has innumerable nutritious qualities and can reduce the health issues up to greater extent.

Testing the target customer assumptions

The meaning of value is elaborated when a particular value is established and their needs are satisfied. A particular customer need arises when the customer has a specific problem that must be addressed. An entrepreneur or an organization must know the problems of the customers and seriously concern about what they want (Liu et al. 2017). The objective of the organization should be to gain detailed description of the nature of those problems. The major question arises that is “how do you know when a customer has a problem?”   In the vast grown consumer world, there are diverse problems that needs to be addressed. Since the consumers possess so many objectives such as functional , environmental, social , family, politics and many others. Scholar suggests that the objectives of the consumers are more difficult to discern than the objectives of the organizations. Hence, I decide to conduct a survey to know the objectives and problems of the customers based on which I have deduced this idea of an herbal morning drink.

The elements of Innovation

This step asks to look for the ways to validate the concept. The best way is to sell the first unit. It can be done either by a consulting engagement or prototype. People usually overestimate how willing they are to use a particular product. The real validation is when a commitment is received to pay for something. It is important to document the work because it allows the entire management team to s hare the information properly and establish a common understanding throughout the members of the organization. The advisors of the team need to have a review of the document and once they are done with it, the value proposition process can be started entrepreneurial processed. In the innovative process of introducing herbal morning drink in the FoodStuff Company, I have used various ways of interacting with the customers.  First of all, the social media process is used to keep monitoring the customer reviews on the company page. The customer’s profiles are maintained individually with the respective data and their backgrounds. Online surveys have been conducted as well as the face to face interviews of the most potential and loyal customers. They have been treated as the most important advisors because they have evaluated the concept of herbal morning drink from the perspective of a customer.

This step asks evaluate the results of the interviews conducted or the data collected for the validation of the assumptions of customer problems. After the evaluation of the results, a strong base for the idea can be found. Along with the customer feedbacks and interview results, the market feedback has also been taken to address the innovative idea that is going to be incorporated in the FoodStuff Company. The results have suggested that most of the young people especially the university goers are trying to restrain themselves from the harmful impacts of alcohol and are trying to promote healthy habits. The aged people who are also suffering from chronic high blood pressure and diabetes problems want to try this type of herbal drink. Hence, all the survey evidence suggest that it will be a suitable idea for the FoodStuff Company, New Zealand.

Describe the value proposition of your product or service

The value proposition is that public capturing statement that aware the users about why should they be interested in the product a particular company offers. However, it is quite complicated to adjust the benefits of a particular product in a single sentence, but it must be done in the most expressive way (Nasiru, Keat and Bhatti 2015). There are some effective tools contributed by the digitalization of market and advancement of technology. 

The value proposition canvas is a special type of canvas which helps to understand the experiences of the customers and the product separately. This tool is aimed at satisfying both the needs of the customers and the company too. It structures the similarities between the similarity of choice between the offerings of the company and the demand of the customers.

The Forms of Innovation

It is one of the most up to date online marketing platform which makes use of the customer personal content journeys so that better engagement is facilitated (Perry-Smith and Mannucci 2017). The FoodStuff Company can establish such a platform that would guide that would guide it throughout each step of the journey of the content so that engagement is heightened. The existing content can be upgraded by this tool so that the company can generate a positive responsive experiences for the consumers.

It is the most important aspect of creating value proposition for a product or services. When the text in the content is decorated colorfully with a creative picture of the product illustrating its brand and the name of the product, its catches the attention of the customers easily (Sarooghi, Libaers and Burkemper 2015). The FoodStuff Company can make use of the web pages of the Facebook profile to describe the launch of the new innovative product that will be available in all the stores of the company along with the nutritional qualities the product carries.

The new health drink can be named after FoodStuff as “HealthStuff”. The value proposition of this product will have four components. These four components will focus on the primary concerns of the customers. The customers will know more about the product and feel the urge to try out the product.

Expertise	Specification	Cost –Effectiveness	Professionalism
HealthStuff is a drink that has clear understanding of all the aspects of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. The drink is focused on providing justification to its name. The major components of the drink are chamomile, lavender, lime, and lemongrass. There are different fruity and flowery flavors also available as per the choice of the customer.	This drink can neither be categorized under the carbonated drink nor under the alcoholic beverages. The sugary components are almost zero. The special herbs used to prepare this drink are exported from rare places in order to retain the quality standards we offer.	It is not highly expensive but is designed to maintain the affordability of the buyers. We know that the primary concern of our customers is quality and not price.	The drink “HealthStuff” is deducted to the satisfaction of the customers. The FoodStuff company has been satisfying the preferences of the people of New Zealand since decades and this new innovation will add to the legacy the company has been holding.

Hence, from the above essay it can be deduced that innovation and creativity is important for any business whether it is an established company like FoodStuff or a new enterprise. Every organization must facilitate their business process according to the market demands and the customer’s experiences.    

Reference   

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