1. What is an entrepreneur?

I.
II.
III.

Entrepreneurs are people that notice opportunities and take the initiative to mobilize
resources to make new goods and services.
Entrepreneurs also notice opportunities and take initiative to mobilize resources; however
they work in large companies and contribute to the innovation of the firm.
Entrepreneurs often become entrepreneurs

2. Who are entrepreneurs?

I.
II.

Original thinkers
Risk takers

III.

Take responsibility for own actions

IV.

Feel competent and capable

V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.

Set high goals and enjoy working toward them

Self employed parents
Firstborns
Between 30-50 years old
Well educated 80% have college degree and 1/3 have a graduate level degree

3. What is innovation??
Innovation is the profitable implementation of ideas
American perspective:
Implement new ideas that create value
Innovation is the first appearance or use of a particular practice. It is the commercially successful
exploitation of ideas. This definition associates innovation with a tangible outcome.
Successful innovation is about creating value. It does so either by improving existing goods,
processes or services (incremental innovation), or by developing goods, processes or services of

value that have not existed previously (radical innovation). However, both kinds of innovation
require doing the following:

have an understanding of and insights into consumer needs

develop imaginative and novel solutions

In addition, innovation is generally associated with the following:

the willingness to take risk

accepting high levels of ambiguity and uncertainty

original thinking

a passion to drive the idea through to conclusions

the ability to inspire passion in others

Innovation is the process and outcome of creating something new, which is also of value.

Innovation involves the whole process from opportunity identification, ideation or

invention to development, prototyping, production marketing and sales, while
entrepreneurship only needs to involve commercialization (Schumpeter).

Today it is said to involve the capacity to quickly adapt by adopting new innovations
(products, processes, strategies, organization, etc)

Also, traditionally the focus has been on new products or processes, but recently new
business models have come into focus, i.e. the way a firm delivers value and secures
profits.

Schumpeter argued that innovation comes about through new combinations made by
an entrepreneur, resulting in

a new product,

a new process,

opening of new market,

new way of organizing the business

new sources of supply

4. What is invention??
People who create inventions are called inventors
Inventors can live anywhere in the world and be any age

INVENTION VS INNOVATION:
THE DIFFERENCE
In its purest sense, inventioncan be defined as the creation of a product or introduction of a
process for the first time. Innovation, on the other hand, occurs if someone improves
on or makes a significant contribution to an existing product, process or service.
Consider the microprocessor. Someone invented the microprocessor. But by itself, the
microprocessor was nothing more than another piece on the circuit board. Its what
was done with that piece the hundreds of thousands of products, processes and services that
evolved from the invention of the microprocessor that required innovation.

STEVE JOBS:
THE POSTER BOY OF INNOVATION:
If ever there were a poster child for innovation it would be former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. And
when people talk about innovation, Jobs iPod is cited as an example of innovation at its best.
But lets take a step back for a minute. The iPod wasnt the first portable music device (Sony
popularized the music anywhere, anytime concept 22 years earlier with the Walkman); the
iPod wasnt the first device that put hundreds of songs in your pocket (dozens of manufacturers
had MP3 devices on the market when the iPod was released in 2001); and Apple was
actually late to the party when it came to providing an online music-sharing platform. (Napster,
Grokster and Kazaa all preceded iTunes.)
So, given those sobering facts, is the iPods distinction as a defining example of innovation
warranted? Absolutely.
What made the iPod and the music ecosystem it engendered innovative wasnt that it was
the firstportable music device. It wasnt that it was the first MP3 player. And it wasnt that it was
the firstcompany to make thousands of songs immediately available to millions of users. What
made Apple innovative was that it combined all of these elements design, ergonomics and
ease of use in a single device, and then tied it directly into a platform that effortlessly kept
that device updated with music.

Apple invented nothing. Its innovation was creating an easy-to-use ecosystem that unified music
discovery, delivery and device. And, in the process, they revolutionized the music industry.

INNOVATION ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH

Given the choice to invent or innovate, most entrepreneurs would take the latter. Lets face it,
innovation is just sexier. Perhaps there are a few engineers at M.I.T. who can name the members
of Project Chess. Virtually everyone on the planet knows who Steve Jobs is.
But innovation alone isnt enough. Too often, companies focus on a technology instead of the
customers problem. But in order to truly turn a great idea into a world-changing innovation,
other factors must be taken into account.
According to Venkatakrishnan Balasubramanian, a research analyst with Infosys Labs, the key to
ensuring that innovation is successful is aligning your idea with the strategic objectives and
business models of your organization.
In a recent article that appeared in Innovation Management, he offered five considerations:
1. Competitive advantage: Your innovation should provide a unique competitive position for
the enterprise in the marketplace;
2. Business alignment: The differentiating factors of your innovation should be conceptualized
around the key strategic focus of the enterprise and its goals;
3. Customers: Knowing the customers who will benefit from your innovation is paramount;
4. Execution: Identifying resources, processes, risks, partners and suppliers and the ecosystem in
the market for succeeding in the innovation is equally important;
5. Business value: Assessing the value (monetary, market size, etc.) of the innovation and how
the idea will bring that value into the organization is a critical underlying factor in selecting
which idea to pursue.
Said another way, smart innovators frame their ideas to stress the ways in which a new concept is
compatible with the existing market landscape, and their companys place in that marketplace.
This adherence to the status quo may sound completely antithetical to the concept of
innovation. But an idea that requires too much change in an organization, or too much disruption
to the marketplace, may never see the light of day.

A FINAL THOUGHT:
While they tend to be lumped together, invention and innovation is not the same thing. There
are distinctions between them, and those distinctions are important.
So how do you know if you are inventing or innovating? Consider this analogy:

If invention is a pebble tossed in the pond, innovation is the rippling effect that pebbles causes.
Someone has to toss the pebble. Thats the inventor. Someone has to recognize the ripple will
eventually become a wave. Thats the entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs dont stop at the waters edge. They watch the ripples and spot the next big wave
before it happens. And its the act of anticipating and riding that next big wave that drives the
innovative nature in every entrepreneur.