CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

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.

 The Creative Process

 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.