August 30, 2018
Surendra Jagwan
Introduction
Entrepreneurship
is the ability to create and build something from practically nothing.
Fundamentally, it is creative activity manifested by initiating and building an
enterprise or an organisation. It is knack of sensing an opportunity where
others see chaos, contradiction, and confusion. Entrepreneurship can be viewed
as n creative and innovative response to the environment and an ability to
recognise, initiate mid exploit an economic opportunity.
Creativity and
Innovation
There is a
popular notion that creativity is a mysterious process performed by gifted or
brilliant mind. It is largely a product of sweaty trial and error. To be
creative a person must work hard to generate multiple solutions. Creativity is
a prerequisite for innovation and it can be developed in any individual
especially when there is concern for excellence. It is an accepted fact that
concern for excellence is a common trait of most of the entrepreneurs. Hence,
to become an entrepreneur one should develop creativity in oneself. Creativity
is defined as the ability to bring something new into existence. The emphasis
is on the "ability" and
not the activity of bringing something new into existence. A creative person
must conceive of something new and envision how it will be useful to the
society. The action for putting the conceived idea to use is another issue.
Even if no effort is made to follow up the conceived new idea, the person is a
creative person.
Innovation is
the process of doing new things or doing old things through new techniques. While creativity relates to the ability to
conceive, innovation means doing new things. Ideas have little value until they
are converted into useful products or services. Innovation transforms creative
ideas into useful applications. Hence, creativity is a pre-requisite to
innovation.
Stages in
Creativity
According to
Schumpeter: "Entrepreneurs need ideas to pursue but ideas hardly
materialize accidentally." Ideas normally pass through a long evolutionary
process. In other words, ideas evolve through a creative process whereby a
person with imagination germinates ideas, nurtures them and develops them
successfully. A simple model of how the creative process works is shown in Fig.
This model reveals that there are five stage of the creative process:
(a) idea germination, (b) preparation, (c)
incubation, (d) illumination and (e) verification. It should be noted that
these stages are different but interrelated. In fact, in each stage a creative
individual behaves differently to move an idea from the initial stage of
germination to the last stage, i.e., verification.
An overview of the stages in creativity
is given below:
Idea
Germination. The
germination stage is the sowing stage of the process. History reveals that most
creative ideas can be traced to an individual's interest in or curiosity about
a specific problem or area of enquiry.
Preparation. Once a seed of curiosity has taken
the shape of a focused idea, the creative person will make a thorough search
for appropriate answers. If it is a problem that has to be solved, he would
begin by seeking information about the problem and by looking at how others
have tried to solve the same problem in the past. If it is an idea for a new
product or service there is need to carry out appropriate market research.
While scientists will carry out laboratory experiments, designers will start
engineering new product ideas and marketeers will study consumer buying habits.
An individual with an idea will thereafter think about it and concentrate his energies
on rational extensions of the idea and how this can be converted into a
saleable product or service.
Incubation. Creative people and people with
vision often concentrate intensely on an idea, but, in most cases, they simply
allow ideas time to grow without international effort. Most ideas evolve in the
minds of people with imagination and foresight while they go about other
activities. The idea once sown and given substance through preparation is put
on back-burner. This means that the subconscious mind is given enough time to
assimilate information collected from diverse sources.
Incubation is a
stage of mulling it over while the subconscious intellect controls the whole
creative process. This is, no doubt, a crucial aspect of creativity because
when imaginative people consciously focus on a problem, they behave rationally
in their search for systematic solutions. In this context, one may refer to the
art of synectics which means a joining together of different and often
unrelated ideas. This means that when a person has consciously worked to
resolve a problem without success, allowing it to incubate in the subconscious
mind will often lead to a resolution.
Illumination. Illumination occurs when a certain
idea resurfaces as a realistic creation. Most creative people normally pass
through numerous cycles of preparation and incubation, searching fur full
meaning of the idea. When a cycle of creative behaviour fails to result in a
catalytic event, the cycle is repeated until the idea takes shape or
disappears. This stage is most crucial for entrepreneurs because ideas by
themselves carry little practical living in a world of illusion from creative
people who find a way to creative value.
Verification. An idea illuminated in the mind of
an individual still has little meaning until verified as realistic and useful.
The significance of entrepreneurial effort lies in the fact that it is
essential to translate an illuminated idea into a verified, realistic and useful
application. In fact, verification refers to the development stage of refining
knowledge into application. During this stage, many ideas will be rejected as
they do not appear to be fruit-bearing or having practical relevance. It is
often found that a good idea has already been developed or the eager
entrepreneur finds that competitors already exist in the market. Inventors
often face such a situation when they seek patent protection only to discover
similar inventions already registered.
Innovation and
Invention
Innovation
implies doing new things or doing things that are already being done in new
ways. It may occur in the following forms:
·
Introducing
a new manufacturing process that has not yet been tested and commercially exploited.
·
Introduction
of a new product with which the consumers are not familiar or introducing
a new quality in an existing product.
·
Locating
a new source of raw material or semi-finished product that was not
exploited earlier.
·
Opening
a new market, hitherto unexploited, where the company products were not
sold earlier.
·
Developing
a new combination of means of production.
Shumpeter has made
a distinction between ‘an innovator’ and ‘an inventor’. An inventor discovers
new methods and new materials. On the other hand, an innovator is one who utilizes
or applies inventions and discoveries to produce newer and better quality goods
that give greater satisfaction to tin- consumers and higher profits to the
entrepreneur. An inventor produces ideas and an innovator implements them for
economic gain. An inventor adds to the knowledge of the society while an
innovator adds to their satisfaction by means of newer and better products and
services. It is an innovator who commercially exploits an invention.
