Creative Entrepreneurship

CREATIVE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

Methodologies &
strategies to support the
creative industries sector

Professor David Rae
drae@lincoln.ac.uk







Creative Entrepreneurship
Messages from young creative entrepreneurs
Being young is a challenge in itself not being taken
seriously as business people by banks and
accountants

Focusing on progress and achievement with supportive
peer review really helps

Collaborative action and networking builds confidence

Enterprise bursaries help reduce risk and fund start-up
costs

Creative Entrepreneurship
Questions to address:
Why is there a need for creative entrepreneurship by
young people?
Why the creative industries sector?

What do we aim to achieve?
What do young entrepreneurs want and need?

How can we achieve our goals?
What approaches do we know that work?

Who needs to work together?
What resources and initiatives are required?
Creative Entrepreneurship
Our challenge
As enterprise educators we face the biggest
challenge and opportunity of our generation
in the post 2008 era:

How to provide the confidence, skills and tools
which will inspire and enable young people to
start their working lives and to achieve
economic and social regeneration through
enterprise.
Creative Entrepreneurship
Why is there a need for creative
entrepreneurship by young people?
Worklessness is a major social & economic
problem for the next decade
Corporate & public sectors cannot provide the
jobs required
Creative thinking is required to create the new
jobs
Investing in young people & creativity will show
economic & social returns
Creative Entrepreneurship
Creativity & creative industries


Are the creative industries too narrow or an artificial definition?

Creativity is required in all organisations:
Creative problem-solving
Creating opportunities
Designing & innovating new products, services, experiences
Creative communications & marketing channels
Creative uses of new technology
Creative social enterprises & social spaces

Creative Entrepreneurship
What do we aim to achieve?

Increase entrepreneurial potential & aspirations
of young people?
Enhance creativity in society?
Increase in ventures created?
Provide socially & economically useful services
for communities?
Provide useful jobs?
All of these? Choices affect the actions we take.

Creative Entrepreneurship
What do young
entrepreneurs want & need?
Many have:
Ideas & imagination
Energy & passion
New technology know-
how
Perceive opportunities
we do not
Do not know what
cannot be done
Many require:
Resources
Experience
Self belief
Business skills &
knowledge
Access to business &
social networks
Ability to convince the
bank manager
Creative Entrepreneurship
How? Entrepreneurial learning
a vital capability for the new era
Learning to work as an entrepreneur by
acting opportunistically & creatively
Experiential discovery-led learning by doing
from primary to Higher Education
Applied creativity
Engage business people and communities in
the learning process outside the classroom

Creative Entrepreneurship
Every one of us is
a creative person!

We can have ideas
and do things
with them!
Creative Entrepreneurship
Turning winning ideas > opportunities
1. Problems
& needs
3. Innovations
& solutions
2. Who is it for?
4. How to make
it happen
Creative Entrepreneurship
What can students gain from enterprising
learning?
Purposeful, stimulating & engaging learning
Relevant to their lives & careers
Investigating real problems and exploring opportunities
Personal growth & social confidence, energises them to succeed
Experiential, practical, work and community situated learning
Provides supporting business skills & know-how
Alumni, practitioners and entrepreneurs contribute to learning
Risk, uncertainty and ambiguity to develop students judgement
Feel the enterprise experience emotional engagement
Creative Entrepreneurship
Opportunity centred
entrepreneurship
Acting on
opportunity
Planning to realise
opportunity
OPPORTUNITY
CENTRED
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Creating &
exploring
opportunity
Personal enterprise
What do I want?
Personal goals
Skills & strengths
Confidence & self efficacy
Values & motivations
Creative thinking
Exploring ideas
Seeing needs as
opportunities
Taking initiative
Planning:
Goals
What is success?
How-to?
Who with?
Resources
Networking
Creating & using contacts
Communicating effectively
Self marketing
Learning from experience
Creative Entrepreneurship
A new paradigm for entrepreneurship?
Old e-ship (US/UK?)
Individualist
Neo-liberal capitalism
Opportunity pursuit regardless
of consequences
Business driven: short term
profitability & growth
Value creation solely financial
Exploits & wastes resources
Exclusive role models
Masculine attributes:
aggression, power, conflict

New e-ship (European?)
Individual-team leadership
Networked & collectivist
Socially connected & inclusive
Ethically responsible
Sensitive to resource
conservation & re-use
Multiple forms of value creation
Economically &
environmentally sustainable
Feminine values: relational,
collaborative, intuitive
Grassroots enterprise


This change can be achieved though education, practice & leadership
Creative Entrepreneurship
New connections for creative
entrepreneurship
Connect
People
Students
Educators
Entrepreneurs
& business
networks
Government agencies
Communities
Generate
Ideas
Problems
& opportunities
Purpose & commitment
Confidence to act
Resources
Ventures
Teams
Support
Results
Creative Entrepreneurship
Latent resource entrepreneurship
Find new uses for resources being wasted - e.g. by big
organisations in recession:

Resources (people, property, IP, technology, capacity,
finance, knowledge)
+
Opportunities (creative problem-solving)
+
Facilitation support (people learning in teams)
=
Venture projects (create value, jobs & solve problems)

Creative Entrepreneurship
Examples of what works
Enterprising learning:
Enterprise in the 12-16 curriculum
Junior Achievement/Young Enterprise
in schools
Princes Trust supporting disadvantaged
young entrepreneurs (18-30)
Creative Entrepreneurship
Student business start-up
SPEED: 750 students started businesses 2006-8
Enterprise Inc. student & graduate start-ups (ERDF)
Based on bursaries + support
http://www.emincubation.co.uk/main/Enterprise_Inc
Student enterprise clubs & societies NACUE
www.nacue.com
National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship
www.ncge.com
Creative Entrepreneurship
Creative Entrepreneurship
Creative Entrepreneurship
Creative Entrepreneurship
Creative Entrepreneurship



The aim:
To assist business improvement through innovation

How:
Company-specific development projects with students and graduates
Introduce & exploit new opportunities, markets, products, services
Increase productivity & efficient use of resources
Improve competitive edge: survival and growth
Make money
Enhance graduate employability and retention.
Create and safeguard jobs

What is Access Innovation?
Creative Entrepreneurship
Summary
Our leadership is essential to connect people
& organisations
Support young peoples & student enterprise
clubs & societies
Applied creativity & learning by doing
Use the new technology
Invest resources & support
Collaborative innovation by young people,
education, business, communities & public
sector is the way forward.
Creative Entrepreneurship
Featured book:
Opportunity Centred
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship: from Opportunity to Action
Professor David Rae: Palgrave MacMillan 2007
www.palgrave.com/business/rae/
Chapter 1 & tools downloadable free on website
Lowest price: www.bookdepository.co.uk
drae@lincoln.ac.uk