Inside the Entrepreneurial Mind: From Ideas to Reality

Topic 2

Learning Objective
Upon completion of this chapter the students will be able to
Explain the difference among creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship Understand how the two hemispheres of the human brain function and what role they play in creativity. Understand the mental blocks that limit individual creativity Understand how entrepreneurs can enhance their own creativity and that of their employees as well. Describe the steps in the creative process. Discuss techniques for improving the creative process Describe the protection of intellectual property involving patents, trademarks and copyrights

Creativity and Innovation

Creativity thinking new things
the ability to develop new ideas and to discover new ways of looking at problems and opportunities;

Innovation doing new things.

the ability to apply creative solutions to problems or opportunities to enhance or to enrich peoples lives

One of the view of entrepreneurship is the ability to create new and useful idea and solve problems by implementing these ideas. Simply having a great new ideas is not enough, transforming the ideas into a tangible product, service or business venture is the essential next steps. The idea of instant photography came from a 3 years old daughter of Edwin Land, the innovator of Polaroid camera.

Entrepreneurship and Creativity

Managers at the Cleveland Museum used a similar kind of creative thinking to ensure the success of a dazzling exhibit of ancient Egyptian treasures. Taking a different approach to marketing, managers held a free private showing to the towns taxi drivers. Impress the cab drivers, they reasoned, and the cabbies would recommend the new exhibit to their tourist. Thats exactly what happened. During the exhibits run in Cleveland, the museum enjoyed shoulder-to-shoulder attendance, thanks to the talkative cab drivers and creative museum managers. The Principle of an Oregon middle school solved a maintenance problem (girls putting lipstick on and pressing their lips to the mirrors) by having the doorkeeper demonstrate to a group of girls how difficult it was to clean the mirrors (by dipping a long-handled squeegee in the toilet and cleaning one of the mirrors).

Failure: Just Part of the Creative Process!

Innovation must be a constant process because most ideas dont work and most innovations fail. Trials and lots of errors is implanted in entrepreneurship 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?

The self-imposed mental constraints and other paradigm (A preconceived idea of what the world is, what it should be like, and how it should operate) that people tend to build over time push creativity out of the door. Need to suspend conventional thinking.. By overcoming paradigms and by deferring usual thinking long enough to consider new and different alternatives!

Yes!!

Left-Right Brain
Left Brain Characteristics
Follows a logical pattern Is objective Sees things as true or false, black or white Views time chronologically, hour by hour, day by day Seeks details Holds short-term memory Thinks critically, perhaps negatively, asks why?

Right Brain Characteristics

Follows intuitive feeling Creates patterns, without following a step-by-step process Is subjective Views time in a total sensea lifetime, a career, a project Sees the whole rather than the details Thinks positively, asks why not? and breaks rules

Left-Brained or Right-Brained?
Entrepreneurship requires both left-and rightbrained thinking.
Right-brained thinking draws on different reasoning, the ability to create a multitude of original, diverse ideas.
Those who have learned to develop their right-brained thinking skills tend to: -challenge custom, routine, and tradition -realize there is more than one right answer -have helicopter skills to rise above daily routine -ask the question, Is there a better way?

Left-brained thinking counts on convergent reasoning, the ability to evaluate multiple ideas and to choose the best solution to a problem.

Left-right conflict

Rotating Wheels

Can you count the black dots

Impossible Object

Whom do you see

Barriers to Creativity
Searching for the one right answer.
There may be several correct answer.

Focusing on being logical

Need to use non-logical thinking.

Blindly following the rules Constantly being practical Viewing play as laughing
Children learn when they play, so does the entrepreneur.

Barriers to Creativity
Becoming overly specialized
terming problems as only marketing, or production The roll-on deodorant came from ball-point pen

Avoiding ambiguity
Ambiguity can be a powerful creative stimulus

Fearing looking foolish

Entrepreneurs are top-notch fools, because they constantly questioning and challenging accepted ways of doing things

Fearing mistakes and failure Believing that Im not creative

Tips for Enhancing Organizational Creativity

Embrace diversity Expect creativity Expect and tolerate failure Encourage creativity View problems as challenges Provide creativity training Provide support Develop a procedure for capturing ideas Reward creativity Model creative behavior

Tips for Enhancing Individual Creativity

Allow yourself to be creative Give your mind fresh input every day Recognize the creative power of mistakes Keep a journal handy to record your thoughts and ideas Listen to other people Talk to a child Keep a toy box in your office Read books on stimulating creativity or take a class on creativity Take some time off

The Creative Process

Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation

Illumination

Verification

Implementation

Techniques for Improving the Creative Process

Brainstorming
Goal is to create a large quantity of novel and imaginative ideas.

Mind-mapping
A graphical technique that encourages thinking on both sides of the brain, visually displays relationships among ideas, and improves the ability to see a problem from many sides.

Rapid prototyping
Transforming an idea into an actual model that will point out flaws and lead to design improvements.

Protecting Your Ideas

Patent a grant from the Patent and Trademark Office to the inventor of product, giving the exclusive right to make, use, or sell the invention for 20 years from the date of filing the patent application.

Protecting Your Ideas

Trademark any distinctive word, symbol, design, name, logo, slogan, or trade dress a company uses to identify the origin of a product or to distinguish it from other goods on the market. Service mark the same as a trademark except that it identifies the source of a service rather than a product.

Protecting Your Ideas

Copyright an exclusive right that protects the creators of original works of authorship such as literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works. Copyrighted material is denoted by the symbol .