Are Creativity and Innovation is a key to becoming a Successful Entrepreneur?

Are Creativity and Innovation is a key to becoming a Successful Entrepreneur?

Creativity is the ability to create or making, develop and produce something new and different than the current products or services or reapplying existing ideas but of course creativity is not ability to create out of nothing because only God can do that. It can be through imaginative skill, so creativity can be something very simple as sketch to very complex. In the simple words, creativity may be inventive and/or innovative or neither!.

Creativity is also an attitude, the ability to accept change and newness, a willingness to play with ideas and possibilities, a flexibility of outlook, the habit of enjoying the good, while looking for ways to improve it, we are  socialized into accepting only a small number of permissible or normal things.

Creativity is also a process.  Creative person work hard and continually to improve ideas and solutions, by making gradual alterations and refinements to their works. Contrary to the mythology surrounding creativity, very few of creative excellence are produced with a single stroke of brilliance or in a frenzy of rapid activity.  Much closer to the real truth are the stories of companies which had to take the invention away from the inventor in order to market it because the inventor would have kept on tweaking it and fiddling with it, always trying to make it a little better, (Harris, 1998).

In making things better, the goals are usually to improve productivity and efficiency, achieve speed, enhanced comfort and convenience, influence returns positively, and so much more.  Creativity can produce various alternative leading to the evolution of a completely new idea, new production processes, or a total departure from the conventional. Whatever the goal, creativity is an indispensable tool in the life of all successful entrepreneurs.

Creativity and innovation are considered to be overlapping constructs between two stages of the creative process; both are necessary for successful enterprise (Martins & Terblanche, 2003).

Creativity is the starting point for innovation. Creativity is however necessary but not sufficient condition for innovation. Innovation is the implantation of creative inspiration.

Innovation is come from creative thinking, without creativity, is hard to doing innovation for something. This because, innovation is making something not only new and different, but also better than what already exists. To be innovate, entrepreneur must think out of the box and think different compare usually thinking to create amazing products and services. Innovation involves creating value by bringing together resources that are hard to come by. Innovation have not limitation where only big company can doing that, but it also can applies to small business, existing business and any types of business ventures. Most of big company produce innovation product is come from small business. Innovation can define: 

Innovation: A process of intentional change made to create value by meeting opportunity and seeking advantage.

This short definition has several key elements that are worth considering:

• Process: Innovation is a process (implying, among other things, that it can be learned and managed)

• Intentional: That process is carried out on purpose

• Change: It results in some kind of change

• Value: The whole point of the change is to create value in our economy, society and/or individual lives

• Opportunity: Entrepreneurial individuals enable tomorrow's value creation by exploring for it today: having ideas, turning ideas into marketable insights and seeking ways to meet opportunities

• Advantage: At the same time, they also create value by exploiting the opportunities they have at hand

The Process of Applied Creativity

A process model ofcreativity, innovation and entrepreneurship

We can see how the greatest impact of combination creativity and innovation can change the world history such as Bill Gate introduce personal computer, Alexander Graham Bell as telephone founder, Thomas Edison as electric light bulb founder, Steven Job as Apple founder where produce innovative products and Avicenna or Ibn Sīnā as anesthesia, medical thread and syringe founder. 

As conclusion, creativity and innovation is a great asset to become successful entrepreneurship. Using this asset, that entrepreneur can have many ways to successful in any situations even in the critical situation. At a time when finance is expensive, bordering firm liquidity crisis, the need for creativity, and innovation and creativity is more urgent than ever before and as competitors fall by the wayside, a reward for successful products and processes is greater. So, entrepreneur in entrepreneurship using creativity and innovation and then putting something new and better to work!

I would like to share video from Youtube to show the effective of creative idea and innovation can give more benefits and competitive advantages to entrepreneur to challenge their competitors and then to increase their sales and market share. I hope you'll enjoy watch this video :).

Tesco Homeplus Virtual Subway Store in South Korea

References:- 

1. http://resources.talcie.org/topics-and-activities/creativity-innovation-and-entrepreneurship
2. http://www.scribd.com/doc/52577690/Creativity-Innovation-and-Entrepreneurship
3. http://www.venturenotebook.com/2011/03/what-is-relationship-between-creativity.html
4. http://www.academia.edu/349573/Start-up_Success_in_a_Small_Island_State_A_Study_among_Entrepreneurs_in_Malta
5. http://afham.rabbani.my/?p=40 
6. http://kik.unimap.edu.my/?page_id=52

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Why Malaysia has to be innovative?

Why Malaysia has to be innovative?

Often we hear the instructions to turn to more innovative, think outside the box and be more creative. But in reality, only command instructions. Because there is no real direction for realizing the aspiration.

Moreover, so far we do not have an institution that highlight skills innovation students in the field. This makes it difficult for us to apply the field of innovation for developing countries.

However, in line with the transformation program, introduced the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who wanted the area of ​​innovation in line with the transformation of the country, a body established operators to drive this innovation field.

Special Innovation Unit (Unique) was established to 'recruit' young talents who are creative and innovative capabilities to translate themselves in a program called Genovasi, which refers to the generation of innovation (Genovasi).

What is innovative? 

According to businessdictionary.com, Innovative can be define as:-

The process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay.

To be called an innovation, an idea must be replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need. Innovation involves deliberate application of information, imagination and initiative in deriving greater or different values from resources, and includes all processes by which new ideas are generated and converted into useful products. In business, innovation often results when ideas are applied by the company in order to further satisfy the needs and expectations of the customers. In a social context, innovation helps create new methods for alliance creation, joint venturing, flexible work hours, and creation of buyers' purchasing power. Innovations are divided into two broad categories:
(1) Evolutionary innovations (continuous or dynamic evolutionary innovation) that are brought about by many incremental advances in technology or processes and
(2) revolutionary innovations (also called discontinuous innovations) which are often disruptive and new.

Innovation is synonymous with risk-taking and organizations that create revolutionary products or technologies take on the greatest risk because they create new markets.

According to BloombergBusinessweek, the innovation level in Malaysia:

No. 21 – Malaysia

Overall score: 1.12  
Innovation inputs score: 1.01  
Innovation performance score: 1.12
GDP (Purchasing Power Parity): $397.5 billion  
Foreign Direct Investment: $50.1 billion

“Like many export-dependent Asian countries, Malaysia has been hit hard by the global recession. On Mar. 10, the Malaysian government announced a new $16.2 billion stimulus package that will include $1.35 billion for infrastructure projects that could help the country's manufacturers become more innovative. The projects include the expansion of airports in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, and a high-speed Internet network.”

We can see, Malaysia government very supportive to make Malaysia more innovative which invest a lot of dana as stimulus package. This happen because government want to achieve Vision 2020, Malaysian Ideal introduced by the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir bin Mohamad during the tabling of the Sixth Malaysia Plan in 1991. The vision calls for the nation to achieve a self-sufficient industrialized nation by the year 2020, encompasses all aspects of life, from economic prosperity, social well-being, educational world class, political stability, as well as psychological balance.

“Many East Asians in the tropical region used to live a comfortable life almost entirely focused on the here and the now. Nature and the climate made it possible not to worry too much about the future. We were able to harvest several times a year and did not have to accumulate food to survive bitterly cold winters. Buildings were wooden and not very durable – it sufficed if they served immediate needs, why build something that would last a hundred years? Although this was, by modern yardsticks, a poor life, most people knew nothing else and were quite satisfied. Poverty is always relative and often it is only when the money economy arrives that people suddenly awake to the fact that they are ‘poor’. This life ‘in the present’ was suitable for a rural nation with only insignificant relations with the surrounding world. But today, with nations participating in a fiercely competitive global economic game, living merely in the present will no longer do. There has to be long-term visions and planning, a goal to move towards to give people a sense of direction.”
Mahathir. [Somun 147]

Innovation is important on different levels and is also important for different reasons. For Malaysia, innovation is an important driver of economic growth and improvement.

The Economist Intelligence Unit undertook a survey in 2007 which noted that “long‐run economic growth depends on the creation and fostering of an environment that encourages innovation. Innovation is considered an important driver of long‐term productivity and economic growth. It is argued that countries that generate innovation, create new technologies and encourage adoption of these new technologies grow faster than those that do not.”   

  

Innovation is essential to the Malaysia future economic prosperity and quality of life. To raise productivity, meet the challenges of globalisation and to live within Malaysia environmental and demographic limits, the Malaysia must excel at all types of innovation. 

McKinsey is of the mind that competition is key.  We have documented at length how competitive intensity (ideally coupled with robust demand) is the clearest driver of innovation within companies and sectors.  Factors other than competition can and do play a role.  

Many programmes government doing to create environment that encourages innovation. This is why the government has made Innovation and Transformation as the key thrusts in our way forward. Through bodies such as Agensi Inovasi Malaysia, the government is revamping the necessary elements of innovation to ensure that all groups in society, including academia, industry, the rakyat and government itself, collaborate and move in the same direction.

To enable innovators to get their creations to the market, we’re looking at making funding more accessible and streamlined. With more emphasis on deliverables and results, grants and loans given come with more accountability. We’re introducing innovative thinking skills in the education system to produce an innovative workforce that can satisfy future industry needs. Initiatives such as the i-THINK programme will produce students who have critical, analytical and creative thinking skills, a skill set needed in an innovative society.

Malaysia are fostering more collaboration between businesses and the research community to encourage industry-driven innovations that create wealth for all the players as well as the nation. Malaysia are also identifying areas with high national strategic impact potential and formulating strategies to reap the benefits in terms of wealth creation and societal benefits.

However, the government cannot do this alone. It can only provide the framework, direction and policies that facilitate and motivate change and collaborations in industry, academia and the population. True impactful transformation can only happen when the private sector takes the lead in innovation. New ideas, initiatives and alliances must naturally originate from those who know their own areas, and stand to benefit the most from the innovations.

Malaysia is also reaching out to talented Malaysian overseas to encourage them to share their knowledge and expertise with their counterparts in the science and technology sector at home. This to make Malaysia not depend for foreign workers or expertise.  The talented Malaysia overseas can come back to Malaysia with their knowledge and expertise to spread and sharing their knowledge with local. As we can see, government prepare enough facilities to adapt with latest technology to improve innovation culture in Malaysia. 

To be innovative infers that nations and organizations must keep on changing with the environment and time. New or novel products, services and concepts will have to be invented in the shortest possible time in the light of the stiff competition, more so in the global market.

If an organization is complacent with whatever products or services that it produces or provides for, then the “creative destruction” mechanism will disadvantage it or at the extreme, kill its products and services. So Malaysia will have to be innovative in order to survive in the tough competitive environment to remain relevant.

We have to survive and grow economically. The way forward is to be innovative in policies, production and services to stay relevant, if not ahead of other nations in this region.
 

In conclusion, the implementation of this innovation program much to the advantage of the young, thus can realize the dream of being a driver of innovation nation.

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Genovasi-What is Genovasi

What is GENOVASI?

Genovasi, a combination of Generasi and Inovasi or Innovation Generation, is the innovation organisation to propagate innovation and design thinking skills, creating services and solutions that improve the economy and quality of life.

Genovasi will provide young professionals and graduates with a one-of-a-kind opportunity to become Ambassadors via the Innovation Ambassadors Development Programme. Innovation Ambassadors will be catalysts for change to spread the concepts, best practices and applications of innovation.

Genovasi is a unique institution with programmes focused on the cultivation of innovation competencies. Genovasi offers a human-centred learning experience to Malaysians to learn and use innovation for social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development, and to be equipped with future transferable skills to face challenges in life.

Innovation Ambassadors will be expected to bring positive changes to three core areas:

 

 

The Innovation Ambassador Development Programme combines design thinking with business and organisational thinking.

There are two tracks within the programme:

Genovasi is partnering with leaders in innovation to anchor the Innovation Ambassador development programme:

Genovasi - Announcement and Introduction by Malaysian Prime Minister (Video):

 Source: Agensi Inovasi Malaysia

 

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