Inside the

Entrepreneurial
Mind:

From Ideas to Reality

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

3.Explain the differences among creativity, innovation, and

entrepreneurship.

5.Describe why creativity & innovation are such an integral part of

entrepreneurship.

7.Understand how the two hemispheres of the human brain

function and what role they play in creativity.

9.Explain the 10 “mental locks” that limit individual creativity.

11.Understand how entrepreneurs can enhance the creativity of

their employees as well as their own creativity.

13.Describe the steps in the creative process.

15.Discuss techniques for improving the creative process.

 CREATIVITY,

INNOVATION,

AND

ENTREPRENEURSHIP
 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 those problems
and opportunities to enhance or to
enrich people’s lives.

*Creativity is thinking new things.

*Innovation is doing new things.

 “Entrepreneurs succeed by
thinking and doing new things or
old things in new ways.”

*Successful entrepreneurs come

up with ideas and then find ways
to make them work to solve a
problem or to fill a need.

*Sometimes creativity involves

generating something from
nothing.
*Creative ideas often arise when
entrepreneurs look at something
old and think something new and
different.

*Entrepreneurship is the result of

a disciplined, systematic process
of applying creativity and
innovation to needs and
opportunities in the marketplace.

*Innovation must be a control

process because most ideas don’t
 CREATIVITY

– A NECESSITY FOR

SURVIVAL
 *When developing creative
solutions to modern problems,
entrepreneurs must go beyond
merely using whatever has
worked in the past.

*Entrepreneurs must always be on

guard against traditional
assumptions &
perspectives about how it should
operate.
 Paradigm
– a preconceived idea of
hat the world is, what it should be lik
and how it should operate

--- they act as logjams to creativity

 Paris Once Bird
in the in a in the
the Spring Time a lifetime the hand
 We see what we expect to see

essful entrepreneurs are those who

tantly pushing technological & econo
boundaries forward must always ask
“ Is it time to sacrifice the Queen?”

ccess – even survival – in this fierce

mpetitive, global environment requir
entrepreneurs to tap their creativity
nd that of their employee) constantl
 CAN CEATIVITY BE TAUGHT?

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Creative

Thinking
all starts in the brain.
The brain has two
hemispheres.

Left brain
—guided by
linear vertical thinking.
 Right brain
— unconventional,
unsystematic and
unstructured thinking.

—the heartof the

creative process.
ose who have learned to develop the
ht-brained thinking skills tend to:

ways asks the question,

s there a better way?”
hallenge custom, routine, and traditi
e reflective, often staring out window
ep in thought.
ay mental games
 ze that there may be
than one “ right answer”.

mistakes and failures as mere

tops” on the way to success.

te seemingly unrelated ideas

roblem to generate innovative solut

e “ helicopter skills”.
 BARRIERS
TO
CREATIVITY
A Whack on the Side of
the Head,
Roger von Oech

4.Searching for the one

“right” answer

…there may be (and usually

are) several “right”
answers
ocusing on “being logical”

…discourages the use of one the min

t powerful creations: intuition
3. Blindly following the rules

Sometimes creativity
depends on our
ability to break the existing
rules so that we
can see new ways of doing
things.
4. Constantly being practical

Imagining impractical
answers to ‘what if” questions
can be powerful stepping-
stones to creative ideas.

Ex. Thomas Edison

 A playful attitude is
fundamental to creative
thinking.

There is a close relationship

between the “haha” of humor
and the “aha” of discovery.

Play gives us the

opportunity to reinvent reality
and to reformulate established
and so can entrepreneurs.

Watch children playing and

you will see them invent games,
create new ways of looking at
old things, and learn what works
(and what doesn’t) in their
games.

For instance, a group of fund-

raisers discussed the
arrangements for an upcoming
6. Becoming overly specialized
Creative thinkers tend to be
explorers, searching for ideas
outside their areas of specialty

7. Avoiding ambiguity
Ambiguity can be a powerful
creative stimulus, it encourages
us to “think something
different”
Ex. Tom and Sally’s
8. Fearing looking foolish

Creative thinking is no
place for conformity.

Entrepreneurs look at old

ways of doing things and ask,
“Is there a better way?” By
destroying the old, they create
the new.
9. Fearing mistakes

Creative people realize that

trying something new often
leads to failure; however, they
do not see failure as an end.

It represents a learning
experience on the way to
success.

Ex. Charles F. Kettering

10. Believing that “I’m not
creative

…merely an excuse for

inaction

Everyone has within himself

or herself the potential to be
creative; not everyone will tap
that potential, however.
 ENHANCING
CREATIVITY
Enhancing Organizational Creativity
Enhancing Individual Creativity
 Enhancing Organizational
Creativity
• Right organizational environment can
encourage people to develop & cultivate
them
• Ensuring that workers have the
FREEDOM and the INCENTIVE to be
creative is one of the best ways to achieve
innovation
 EXPECTING CREATIVITY
• One of the best ways to communicate the
expectation of creativity is to give
employees permission to be creative

• Ex. Brainstorming board

 TOLERANCE FAILURE
• Creativity requires chances and managers
must remove employees’ fear of failure
 ENCOURAING CURIOSITY
• Entrepreneurs and their employees
constantly should ask “what if…”
questions and to take a “maybe we
could…” attitude
• Doing so breaks out the assumptions that
limit creativity
 VIEWING PROBLEM AS
CHALLENGES
• Every problem offers the opportunity for
INNOVATION
• Instead of the Entrepreneur fix all the
problems, let the employees take part in
finding the solutions
(EMPOWERMENT)
 PROVIDING THE
CREATIVITY TRAINING
• Everyone has the capacity to be creative,
but developing that creativity requires
training
• Training: books seminars
workshops
professional meetings
..helps everyone learn to tap their creativity
 PROVIDING SUPPORT
• Entrepreneurs must give employees the
tools and the resources they need to be
creative
• Entrepreneurs should remember that
creativity often requires nonwork phases,
and allowing employees time to
“daydream”
• Ex. 15% of time on pet projects
 REWARDING CREATIVITY
• Encourage creativity by rewarding it when
it occurs
• Financial rewards
• Non-monetary – more powerful

• Ex. Idea lottery

 MODELING CREATIVE
BEHAVIOR
• Creativity is “caught” as much as it is
“taught”
• Entrepreneurs set examples of creative
behavior, taking chances, and challenging
the status quo (will soon find their
employees doing the same)
 ENHANCING
INDIVIDUAL CREATIVIY
 ALLOW YOURSELF
TO BE CREATIVE
• One of the biggest obstacles creativity
occurs when a person believes that he or
she is not creative
• Give yourself the permission to be creative
is the first step toward establishing a
pattern of creative thinking
 GIVE YOUR MIND
FRESH INPUT EVERYDAY
• Stimulate your mind
• Do something different each day:
“listen” to a radio station
take a walk through a park or shopping
center
Pick up a magazine you have never read
 KEEP A JOURNAL
• Create ideas are too valuable to waste so
always keep a journal to record them as
soon as you get them
READ BOOKS OR TAKE A CLASS
ON CREATIVITY
• Creative thinking is a technique that
anyone can learn
• Understanding and applying the principles
of creativity can improve the ability to
develop new ideas
 TAKE SOME TIME OFF
• Relaxation is a vital to the creative
process
• It is often this time, while the subconcious
works a problem, that the mind generates
many creative solutions
 THE
CREATIVE
PROCESS
The Creative Process

Joe Designer Inc.

Step i. Preparation. It involves

creative thinking and might
include formal education, on-
the-job training, work
experience and taking
advantage of other learning
opportunities.
creative thinking?

•Have the attitude of a student.

Educating is a never ending
process.
•Read a lot.
•Clip articles and create a file
•Discuss your ideas with other
people
•Join associations and attend
meetings
•Study other countries and their
culture and then travel there.
problem or decision.

Step iii. Transformation.

Viewing the similarities and
differences in the information
collected. Requires two types of
thinking: convergent and
divergent. Convergent thinking
is the ability to see the
similarities and connections
among various data and events.
Divergent thinking is the ability
How to increase the ability
to transform information to
purposeful idea?

•Evaluate parts of the

situation and grasp the “big
picture” . look for patterns.
•Rearrange the elements of
the situation.
•Remember that several
approaches might be
successful.
Step iv. Incubation. Reflect on the
information gathered. It occurs
while the individual is away from
the problem and is engage in an
unrelated activity.
How to enhance the incubation
phase of the creative process?
•Walk away from the situation.
•Take time to daydream.
•Relax and play regularly.
•Dream about the problem or
opportunity..
•Work on the problem in a different
during the incubation stage. All
the previous stages come
together to produce the “Eureka
factor”- the creation of the innovative
idea.

Step vi. Verification. Validating

the idea as accurate and useful.
It may include experiments,
running simulations, test
marketing a product or service
and others to verify if it will work
 TECHNIQUES FOR
IMPROVING THE CREATIVE
PROCESS
• Brainstorming- interaction of people
to produce imaginative ideas.

 Guidelines for a successful

brainstorming:
 Keep the group small.
 Have a well-defined problem.
 Limit the session to 40-60 minutes.
 Appoint someone to be
the recorder.
 Use a seating pattern.
 Encourage all ideas from
the : team.
 Establish a goal of
quantity of ideas over
quality of ideas.
 Forbid evaluation or
criticism of any idea
during brainstorming
session.
• Mind-mapping- graphical
technique that
encourages thinking on
both sides of the brain.

Mind-mapping process
 Write down or sketch the
picture that symbolizes
the problem in the
center of the blank page.
 Write down every idea
that comes into your
 Don’t try to force creativity
when the flow of ideas slows
to trickle.
 Allow your mind to rest for a
few minutes and then begin
to integrate the ideas on the
page into a mind map.
• Rapid Prototyping- process
of creating a model of an
idea to see its flaws and to
make improvements in the
design.

3 principles of rapid
prototyping:
 Rough
 Rapid
 Right