entrepreneur

1. LESSON 3.2: CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Creativity is the ability to develop new ideas and to discover new ways of looking at
problems and opportunities. Innovation on the other hand, is the ability to apply
creative solutions to those problems and opportunities to enhance or enrich people’s
lives.
Entrepreneurship is the result of a disciplined, systematic process of applying creativity
and innovation to needs and opportunities in the marketplace.
Introduction
“The alternatives are to ‘make change’ or ‘be changed,’” says Langdon Morris, co-
founder of InnovationLabs and an expert on innovation. “Making change brings
considerable advantages, but being changed carries a huge load of negative
consequences. The choice isn’t really a choice at all. You’ve got to pursue innovation,
and you’ve got to do it to obtain long lasting benefits.”
 retaining a competitive edge
 encourages innovation
 develops skills and staff
 better business opportunities
 improves staff morale.
1. An edge over rivals, very important becuase it keeps entrepreneurs outperfom
competitors
2. Drives improvements and may help unleash a new ideas
3. Ex. adapting to new tachnologies and process to improve the business will result to
enhanced staff and skills. Ex. This could be either by getting involved with other
companies to expand, or simply new contacts which lead to sales growth.
4. Keeping change a part of your ongoing strategy will enable you to keep competitive –
and also grow as a company
5. Change can encouarge change in like the organizational structure to provide everyone
a healthy working environement means they know the company leaders are doing their
best to create better circumstances for employees
Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Creativity is thinking new things, and innovation is doing new things. However,
having a great new idea is not enough. It should be transformed into an actual product,
service, or business venture, and this is entrepreneurship.
Successful entrepreneurs develop new ideas, products, and services that solve
a problem or fill a need and, in doing so, create value for their customers and wealth for
themselves.
Creativity is not only a vital source of competitive advantage but also a
prerequisite for survival. When developing creative solutions to modern problems,
entrepreneurs must go beyond merely relying on what has worked in the past.
Innovation should be pursued to obtain long lasting benefits.
Note: Without innovation there is therefore no learning, no progress and nothing ever
changes. When you translate this into a business, over time that business will stagnate,
lose its competitive edge and eventually fail.
Entrepreneurs must always be on guard against traditional assumptions and
perspectives about how things ought to be because they are certain killers of creativity!
As the global COVID-19 pandemic shows signs of improvement in some
countries, most businesses have slowly started to return to normal operations.
However, this is not true for all firms as the crisis induced by the pandemic resulted in
permanent closures of businesses across the globe.
We may ask then, what is the impact of the crisis on firm survival during the pandemic?
According to World Bank (2021), firms that survived the COVID-19 crisis are
older and more productive; they also tend to be innovators, use digital technology, and
operate in less burdensome business environments.
The use of technology, which has become particularly relevant during the
COVID-19 crisis as a way to offset the physical remoteness imposed by the social
distancing requirements, is critical for survival. The role of mitigating factors, such as
innovation and digitalization, is stronger for smaller firms.
Can Creativity Be Taught?
There is no such word as “limit” in creativity.
Importance of Innovation
Differentiate innovation from invention?
According to Meriam-Webster, invention can refer to a type of musical
composition, a falsehood, a discovery, or any product of the imagination; a device, a
machine, an apparatus, or process originated after study and experiment, and is usually
something which has not previously been in existence.
While innovation can refer to something new or a change made to an existing
product, idea, or field. For example, one might say that the first telephone was
an invention, the first cellular telephone either an invention or an innovation, and the
first smartphone an innovation.

2. Levels of Innovation
There are various levels of the degree of innovation base on the uniqueness of
ides; breakthrough innovation, technological innovation, and ordinary innovation.
The fewest innovation is the breakthrough innovation. Examples of a
breakthrough innovation are penicillin, steam engine, computers, automobiles, internet,
etc. These innovations are protected by strong patents, trades secrets, and/or
copyrights.
Technological innovations occur more frequently than breakthrough
innovations. Examples are flip watch for containing pictures, personal computers, voice
and text messaging. These are meaningful innovations thus need to be protected.
Ordinary innovations occur most frequently. These are innovations that
extends an existing innovation into a better product or service or one that has a
different, or better, market appeal. In general an ordinary innovation involves taking an
existing part of the business and introducing changes that increase efficiency, reduce
costs, increase sales or add value significantly in another way.
LESSON 3.3: CREATIVITY: THE HUMAN BRAIN AND WHAT ROLE IT PLAYS IN CREATIVITY
The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)
ACER defines creative thinking as: the capacity to generate many different kinds
of ideas, manipulate ideas in unusual ways and make unconventional connections in
order to outline novel possibilities that have the potential to elegantly meet a given
purpose. Note: This framework has been developed to address the challenges associated
with teaching and assessing creative thinking.
ACER’S CREATIVE THINKING FRAMEWORK
ACER’s framework focuses on creative thinking rather than creativity. Some of the
reasons for this are:
 creative thinking underpins creative output
 creative thinking strategies can be taught
 it is possible to focus on creative thinking as the key element in a task,
whereas creativity tends to involve a hybrid set of skills.
Note: ACER’s creative thinking framework identifies key factors that underpin the
development of creative thinking with a focus on observable skills and teachable
creative thinking strategies. The main aim of this framework is to support the
development of standardized assessments that can be delivered in the classroom and in
doing so, support teachers in developing and evaluating students’ creative thinking skills.
Strand 1 Generation of Ideas
Creative thinking is, at its core, a generative process. This
strand acknowledges the importance of the production of
many different ideas, sometimes called ideational fluency
(Guilford, 1950) to the process of creative thinking.
ASPECT 1.1
the generation of ideas is a prerequisite for developing a
creative solution. The inclusion of this aspect recognises
that the more ideas are produced, the more likely it is that
a truly creative idea will be among them.
ASPECT 1.2
The notion that if a greater number of ideas is produced it
is more likely that a creative one will be among them relies
on the belief that distinct ideas will be produced. If many
ideas are produced, but they share fundamental
similarities, it is likely that the level of creative thinking
exhibited by each idea will be similar.
Note: When a large number of ideas are produced, one or
more could be combined to construct a creative product.
Strand 2 Experimentation
A key element of creative thinking is the ability to ‘play’
with ideas, both previously existing, and newly-generated.
Critical to this process are the ability to consciously
consider ideas from multiple perspectives, and to think
creatively within the constraints of a task. This can lead to
‘new’ ideas in the form of processes such as adaptation
and synthesis (Lassig, 2013).
ASPECT 2.1
Creative thinking necessarily occurs within the constraints
imposed in order to meet the purpose of the task. A
challenge of creative thinking is to think flexibly enough to
find novel ways to move within the constraints.
ASPECT 2.2
Manipulating ideas requires flexible thinking. Creative
thinkers know how to manipulate the elements of a task
or prompt in different ways to generate new ideas. They
combine, subvert, twist or graft elements together in
unlikely ways to open up new possibilities and radically
different ways of thinking about something.

3. Note: The notion of being able to think creatively about the boundaries of a task, and
how they might be moved, shifted or changed is reflected in the common phrase that
creative thinking involves ‘thinking outside the box’.
Strand 3 Quality of Ideas
Creative thinking does not exist in a vacuum. This aspect is
about ensuring that the ideas generated are of high quality.
A strength of the ACER approach is that not only is the
importance of the solution as a creative product
acknowledged, but the key features of a product that
demonstrates creative thinking are specified.
ASPECT 3.1
While definitions of creativity are contested, there is
fundamental agreement that it includes the notion of the
end result being fit for purpose.
ASPECT 3.2
The idea that a creative product must be new is also
fundamental to existing definitions of creativity (Plucker et
al., 2004; Sternberg & Lubart, 1999).
ASPECT 3.3
The idea that a creative product must be new is also
fundamental to existing definitions of creativity (Plucker et
al., 2004; Sternberg & Lubart, 1999).
Note: Fundamentally, this aspect acknowledges that creative thinking has a purpose,
and if the end product is of no value, then if does not fully demonstrate creative thinking.
ACER’S CREATIVE THINKING FRAMEWORK
The assessment of creativity and
creative thinking has typically been
characterized in relation to the ‘4Ps’ first
identified in the 1960s (Rhodes, 1961).
These ‘Ps’ are the person, the process,
product and press.
Notes:
Each element is a characteristic part of
the whole of creativity and cannot be separated
from the others.
Let’s explore the Ps in detail:
1) Person:
To understand creativity, we must also understand what makes People
creative: what are their characteristics, their habits, their thoughts.
2) Product
These are the ‘things’ that are the result of creative activity. What makes one
product creative (a song) and another not? How many products can we say are the result
of creativity?
3) Process
The process is all about HOW people are creative do what they DO. But
Processes can also be Products… new ways of doing old tasks
4) Press
The press as the environment around the creative person and recognizes that,
if the climate around a person is not conducive to creativity, it soon dies.
The human brain shows that each hemisphere of the brain processes information
differently and that one side of the brain tends to be dominant over the other.
The left brain is guided by linear, vertical thinking (from one logical conclusion to the
next), whereas the right brain relies on kaleidoscopic, lateral thinking (considering a
problem from all sides and jumping into it at different points).

4. Barriers to Creativity
 Searching for the one “right” answer
 Focusing on “being logical” – sound reasoning
 Blindly following the rules
 Constantly being practical
 Viewing play as frivolous - no serious purpose or value
Enhancing Individual Creativity
 Allow yourself to be creative.
 Forget the “rules.”
 Give your mind fresh input every day.
 Take up a hobby.
 Travel and observe.
 Collaborate with other people.
 Observe the products and services of other companies, especially those in
completely different markets
LESSON 3.4: CREATIVE PROCESS
Steps in the Creative Process
Although creative ideas may appear to strike as suddenly as a bolt of lightning,
they are actually the result of the creative process, which involves seven steps:
1. Preparation or getting the mind ready for creative thinking.
2. Investigation. To create new ideas and concepts in a particular field, an individual first
must study the problem and understand its basic components.
Note: gathering information and materials, identifying sources of inspiration, and
acquiring knowledge about the project or problem at hand
3. Transformation. This phase requires two types of thinking: convergent thinking is the
ability of the entrepreneur to see similarities and connections among various and often
diverse data and events while divergent thinking is the ability to see the differences
among various data and events.
Note: Transformation is a key ingredient in creativity. it has meant that what was
impossible is now possible. It implies uncertainty and venture into the unknown. By the
same token, the idea of the unknown is the oxygen of creativity.
4.Incubation. Incubation occurs while the individual is away from the problem, often
engaging in some totally unrelated activity.
Note: At this stage, you take a step back from the problem and allow your mind to
wander to let it contemplate and work the problem through. You nurture the
unconscious thought process, for example, by staying open to the ideas that come to
you while you do the dishes or go for a walk.
5.Illumination. In the illumination stage, all the previous stages come together to
produce the “Eureka factor”—the creation of the innovative idea.
Note: After a period of incubation, insights arise from the deeper layers of the mind and
break through to conscious awareness, often in a dramatic way.
6.Verification. Validating an idea as realistic and useful may include activities such as
conducting experiments, running simulations, test-marketing a product or service,
establishing small-scale pilot programs, building prototypes, and many other activities.
Note: You evaluate, analyze and build on your idea. You then polish it to make sure that
it's both useful and novel.
7.Implementation. What makes him an entrepreneur is that he acts on his ideas.
Note: The implementation of an idea or solution in the creative process model is when
an individual begins the process of transforming her thoughts into a final product.

5. Techniques for Improving the Creative Process
A. Brainstorming: The goal is to create a large quantity of novel and imaginative ideas.
B. 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.
Note:
1. This technique requires intensive, freewheeling discussion in which every member of
the group is encouraged to think aloud and suggest as many ideas as possible based on
their diverse knowledge.
2. A mind map involves writing down a central theme and thinking of new and related
ideas which radiate out from the center. By focusing on key ideas written down in your
own words and looking for connections between them, you can map knowledge in a way
that will help you to better understand and retain information.
LESSON 4.1: THE IDEA ASSESSMENT; THE IDEA SKETCH PAD
IDEA ASSESSMENT is the process of examining a need in the market, developing a
solution for that need and determining the entrepreneur’s ability to successfully turn
the idea into a business.
IDEA SKETCHPAD is a brainstorming tool that provides detailed questions for you to
plan and elaborate on your idea. It helps an entrepreneur assess ideas in a relatively
short period of time.
5 Key Parameters
 Customers
 Offering
 Value Proposition
 Core Competencies
 People
SOURCES OF NEW VENTURE IDEAS
1. Consumers
2. Existing Products/Services
3. Ditribution Channels
4. Government
5. Research And Development
METHODS OF GENERATING NEW VENTURE IDEAS
1. Focus Group
2. Brainstorming
3. Brainwriting
4. Problem-Solving Analysis