FROM IDEAS TO REALITY

Lets Answer Some Key Questions
 Explain the difference among creativity, innovation and
entrepreneurship?
 Describe why creativity and innovation are such an integral
part of entrepreneurship.
 Understand how the two hemispheres of the human brain
function and what role they play in creativity?
 What are the barriers to creativity?
 How entrepreneurs can enhance their own creativity?
 Describe the steps in creative process.
 Discuss the techniques for improving the creative process.

INTRODUCTION
 Entrepreneurship is the ability to create new and
useful ideas that solve problems and challenges
people face everyday.
 Entrepreneurs achieve success by creating value in
the marketplace when they combine resources in
new and different ways to gain a competitive edge
over rivals.

FREITAG BAGS
 22 years old MARKUS FREITAG with his brother
DANIEL, design a waterproof bag.
 There are 127 rainy days in a year in ZURICH,
SWITZERLAND.
 They used truck tarpaulins, seatbelts, bicycle
inner tubes and airbags for making bags.
 Freitags came up with a creative product, one that
has won numerous design awards and is sold
worldwide.

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION
&ENTREPRENEURSHIP
 Creativity involves generating something from nothing.
 Entrepreneurship is a constant process that relies on
creativity, innovation and application in the
marketplace.
 Entrepreneurship is the result of a disciplined,
systematic process of applying creativity and innovation
to needs and opportunities in the marketplace.
 Entrepreneurs are those who connect their creative ideas
with the purposeful action and structure of a business.

“CREATIVITY”
A NECESSITY FOR SURVIVAL
 Creativity and innovation are integral parts of
entrepreneurship.
 Entrepreneurs require to cast off the limiting assumptions,
beliefs and behaviors and to develop new insights into the
relationship between resources, needs and values.
 Entrepreneurs must always be on guard against
traditional assumptions and perspectives about how
things ought to be.
 A paradigm is a preconceived idea of what of the world is,
what it should be like, and how it should operate.
 These ideas become so deeply rooted in our minds that
they become immovable blocks to creative thinking.

CAN CREATIVITY BE TAUGHT?
 Research shows that anyone can learn to be creative.
 “Every person can taught techniques and behaviors
that help them generate more ideas”. Says JOYCE
WYCOFF
 “Innovation and creativity are not just for artists”. Says
WYCOFF

CREATIVE THINKING
LEFT BRAIN: RIGHT BRAIN:

BARRIERS TO CREATIVITY
 Searching for the one “right” answer.
 Focusing on “being logical”.
 Blindly following the rules.
 Constantly being practical.
 Viewing play as frivolous.
 Becoming overly specialized.
 Avoiding ambiguity.
 Fearing looking foolish.
 Fearing mistakes and failure.
 Believing that “I’m not creative”.

ENHANCING ORGANIZATIONL
CREATIVITY
Entrepreneur must establish an environment in which
creativity can flourish _ for themselves and for their
workers.
DEVELOPING A CORPORATE CULTURE THAT BOTH
FOSTERS AND REWARDS CREATIVITY IS CRITICAL
BECAUSE COMPANIES MUST BE ABLE TO CHURN OUT
INNOVATIONS AT A FAST PACE SINCE TECHNOLOGY
HAS SHORTENED PRODUCT LIFE CYCLES.
Entrepreneur can stimulate their own creativity and
encourage it among workers by:
 Embracing Diversity .
 Expecting Creativity.

ENHANCING ORGANIZATIONL
CREATIVITY (cont.)
 Expecting And Tolerating Failure.
 Encouraging Curiosity .
 Viewing Problems as Challenges.
 Providing Creativity Training .
 Providing Support .
 Developing a Procedure For Capturing Ideas.
 Rewarding Creativity.

10 Secrets For Leading Creativity
leaders of innovation has identified the following
characteristics:
 They Think.
 They are Visionaries.
 They Listen To Customer.
 They Understand How To Manage Ideas.
 They are People Centred.
 They Maintain a Culture Of Change.
 They Maximize team Synergy, balance and focus.
 They hold themselves and others accountable for
extremely high standard of Performance.
 They Refuse to take ‘’no’’ for an Answer.
 They Love what they do and fun doing it.

Enhancing Individual Creativity
Techniques of enhancing individual Creativity
 Allow Yourself To Be Creative.
 Recognize The Creative Power of Mistakes.
 Keep A Journal Handy To Record Yours 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:
This step involves getting the mind ready for creative thinking. Preparation might
include a formal education , on-the job training, work experience , and taking
advantage of other learning opportunities.
• Investigation:
This step requires developing a solid understanding of the problem or situation ,
decision on hand. To create new ideas and concepts in a particular field , an
individual first must study the problem and understand its basic components.
• Transformation:
Transformation involves viewing the similarities and the differences in the
information collected . This phase requires two types of thinking:
1. convergent thinking.
2. divergent thinking.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS (cont.)
 Incubation:
 The subconscious needs time to reflect on the information
collected. To an observer , this phase of the creative process would be
quite boring; it looks as though nothing is happening. Incubation
occurs while the individual is away from the problem, often
engaging in some totally unrelated activity.
 Illumination:
 This phase of the creative process occurs at some point during the
incubation stage when a spontaneous breakthrough causes ‘’the light
bulb to go on’’.it take place after five minutes _or five years. In
illumination stage , all the previous stages come to produce the
‘’Eureka factor’’-the creation of the innovative idea.
 Verification:
 Validating the idea as accurate and useful, for entrepreneurs, may
include conducting experiments, running simulations, test
marketing a product or service, establishing small-scale pilot,
programs and other activities designed to verify that the new idea
will work and is practical to implement.
 Implementation:
 The focus of this step is to transform the idea into reality. Plenty
of people come up with creative ideas for promising new products
,but most never take them beyond the idea stage. What sets
entrepreneurs apart is that they act on their ideas.

Techniques For Improving The Creative Process
 BRAINSTORMING:
A process in which a small group of people interact with very little structure with the goal of
producing a large quantity of novel and imaginative ideas.
FOR BRAINSTORMING SESSION TO BE SUCCESSFUL ,ENTREPRENEUR SHOULD FOLLOW
THESE GUIDELINES:
 Keep the group small- five to eight members.
 Company rank and department affiliation are irrelevant.
 Limit the session to 40 to 60 minutes.
 Appoint someone to the job of recorder.
 Use a seating pattern that encourages communication and interaction.
 Through logic out the window.
 Encourage all ideas from the team, even wild and extremes ones.
 Establish a goal of quantity of ideas over quality of ideas.
 Forbid evaluation or criticism of any idea during the brainstorming
‘’Sometimes you get a brainstorm ,
sometimes you just get the clouds.’’.

Techniques For Improving The Creative Process
Encourage participants to use ‘’idea hitch-hiking’’, building new ideas on those already
suggested.
 Mind-Mapping
A graphical technique that encourages thinking on both sides of the brain, visually displays the
various relationships among ideas, and improve the ability to view a problem from many sides.
The Mind-mapping process works this way:
 Start by writing down or sketching a picture symbolizing the problem or area of focus in the
center of a large blank page.
 Write down every idea that comes into your mind, connecting each idea to the central picture.
 When the flow of ideas slows to a trickle, stop! don’t try to force creativity.
 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 :
The process of creating a model of an idea, enabling an entrepreneur to discover flaws in the idea
to make improvements in the design.
The three principles of rapid prototyping are the three R’s :
Rough
Rapid
Right

Protecting Your Ideas
Patents
A grant from the federal government’s Patent and
Trademark Office to the inventor of a product, giving the
exclusive right to make, use, or sell the invention in this
country for 20 years from the date of filing the patent
application.

The patent process:
Establish the invention’s novelty.
Document the device
Search existing patents
Study search results
Submit the patent application
Prosecute the patent application

Trademarks
Any distinctive word, phrase, symbol, design, name,
logo, slogan, or trade dress that a company uses to
identify the origin of a product or to distinguish it from
other goods on the market.

Trade Dress:
The unique combination of elements that a company
issues to create a product’s image and to promote it.

Copyrights
An exclusive right that protects the creators of original
works of authorship such as literary, dramatic, musical
and artistic works.
Registering copyrights does give creator greater
protection over their work.
A valid copyright on a work lasts for the life of the
creator plus 7 years after his or her death.

CRUX:
Creative process is a tenant of the entrepreneurial
experience . Creativity results in value and value
provides a competitive advantage. Entrepreneur
protects their creative ideas with patents,
trademark and copyrights to sustain a competitive
edge.