Chapter# 2

CHAPTER 2
Inside the Entrepreneurial Mind:
From Ideas to Reality
 Chapter 2
Inside the Entrepreneurial Mind
From Ideas to Reality

“The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”

Linus Pauling
• Creativity – the ability
to develop new ideas
and to discover new
ways of looking at
problems and
opportunities;
thinking new things
• Innovation – the ability to apply creative solutions to
problems or opportunities to enhance or to enrich
people’s lives; doing new things.
 Entrepreneurship
 Entrepreneurship – the result of a disciplined,
systematic process of applying creativity and
innovation to the needs and opportunities in the
marketplace.
Entrepreneurs connect their creative ideas with the
purposeful action and structure of a business.
Failure: Part of the
Creative Process!
• For every 3,000 new product ideas:
▫ Four make it to the development stage.
▫ Two are actually launched.
▫ One becomes a success in the market.
• On average, new products account for 40% of
companies’ sales!!
• Creativity is an important source of building a
competitive advantage.
 Can We Learn to Be Creative?

Yes!
By overcoming paradigms and by suspending
straight thinking long enough to
consider new and different alternatives!
What is paradigm?
• Paradigm is preconceived idea of what the
world is, what it should be like, and how it
should operate.

OR

• The way you see something, your point of

view, frame of reference or belief.
How the human brain works?

• There is two types of

hemispheres of brain
that tends to specialize
in certain functions.
• Left brain
• Right brain
Left brain thinking vertically. It handles
our language, logic and symbols.
Right brain takes care of our body’s
emotional, intuitive, and spatial functions.
 Left-Brained or
Right-Brained?

Entrepreneurship requires both left-and right-

brained thinking.
▫ Right-brained thinking draws on different
reasoning, the ability to create a multitude of
original, various ideas.
▫ Left-brained thinking counts on convergent
reasoning, the ability to evaluate multiple ideas
and to choose the best solution to a problem.
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 Barrier of creativity
1) Searching for one right answer:
The first mental lock of creativity is that we are
looking for the one right. In fact each question has
more than one right answer. But we do not look for
other answer and did not search for other answer.
2) Focusing on ” being logical” :
Logic is the valuable part of creativity process,
especially when evaluating ideas and implementing
them. However, in early imagination phases of the
process, logical thinking can restrict creativity.
Barrier of creativity
3) Blindly following the rules:
Another mental lock is that we follow the rules
blindly and are not thinking new things.
Sometimes creativity depends on our ability to
break the existing rules so that we can see new
ways of doing things.
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4) Constantly being practical:

imaging impractical answer to “what if”
question can be powerful way to creative ideas.
Suspending practicality for while frees the mind
to consider creative solutions that otherwise
might never arise.
 Barrier of creativity
• 5) viewing play as frivolous:

A playful attitude is the

fundamental to creative thinking.
Play gives us the opportunities to
reinvent reality and to reformulate established ways
of doing things. Creativity results when
entrepreneurs take what they learned at play,
evaluate it, confirm it with other knowledge, and
put it into practice.
Barrier of creativity
• 6) Becoming overly specialized:

creative thinker tends to be “explorer” ,

searching for ideas outside their areas of
specialty. Defining a problem as one of
“marketing” or production”, or some other area
of specialty limits the ability to see how it might
be relate to other issues.
Barrier of creativity
• 7) Avoiding ambiguity:

Ambiguity can be powerful

creative stimulus; it encourages
us to “think something different’. Ambiguity, however,
requires us to consider at least two different, often
logical relation feelings at same time, which is a direct
channel to creativity. Ambiguous situation force us to
stretch our mind beyond their normal boundaries and to
consider creative options we might otherwise ignore.
Entrepreneur often find business opportunities by
creating ambiguous situation.
Barrier of creativity
• 8) Fearing looking foolish :
The fool’s is to whack at habits and rules that
keep us thinking in the same old ways.
Entrepreneurs are the top-notch “fools”. They are
constantly questioning
and challenging accepted
ways of doing things and
assumptions that go with
them.
• 9) Fearing mistakes and failure:
Creative people realize that trying something new often
leads to failure.
A famous inventor Charles F.
Kettering, explains, “You fail
Because your ideas aren’t right,
but you should learn to fail
intelligently. When you fail,
find out why failed and each
time it will bring you nearer to
goal. Entrepreneurs equate failure with innovation
rather than defeat.
 Barrier of creativity
• 10) Believing that “I am not creative”:
Some people limit themselves because they believe
that they are not creative. But a successful entrepreneur
recognize that thinking” I’m not creative” is merely an
excuse for inaction. Everyone has within him or her
potential to be creative; not every one tap that potential,
however successful entrepreneurs find a way to unleash
their creative powers on problems and opportunities.
• Conclusion:
By avoiding these 10 barriers, entrepreneurs
can unleash their own creativity and the creativity of
those around them as well.
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Tips for Enhancing Organizational

Creativity
Enhancing organizational creativity:
1) Embracing diversity:
One of the best ways to
cultivate a culture of creativity
is to hire a diverse workforce.
2) Expecting creativity:
Employees tend to rise-or-
fall to the level of expectations
entrepreneurs have of them. One of the best ways to
communicate the expectation of creativity is to give
employees permission to be creative.
 Tips for Enhancing Organizational
Creativity
3) Expecting and tolerating failure:
Creative ideas will produce failures as well as
successes. People who never fail are not being creative.
Creativity requires taking chances, and managers
must remove employees’ fear of failure.
4) Encouraging curiosity:
Entrepreneurs and their
employees constantly should
ask: what if” questions and
take a “maybe we could…”
attitude. Doing so allows them
to break out of assumptions that
limit creativity.
 Tips for Enhancing Organizational
Creativity
5) Viewing problems as challenges:
Every problem offers the opportunity for
innovation. Entrepreneurs who allow employees
to dump all their problems on their desks to be
“fixed” do nothing to develop creativity within
those employees.
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6) providing creativity training :

Almost everyone has the capacity to be
creative, but developing that capacity requires
training. Training accomplished through books,
seminars, workshops, professional meetings can
help everyone learn to tap their creative
capacity.
 Tips for Enhancing Organizational
Creativity
7) Providing support:
Entrepreneurs must give
employees the tools and the
resources they need to be creative.
One of the most valuable resources
is time.
8) Developing a procedure for capturing ideas:
Workers in every organization come up with
creative ideas; however, not every organization
is prepared to capture those ideas.
 Tips for Enhancing
Organizational Creativity
9) Rewarding creativity :
Entrepreneur can encourage
creativity by rewarding it when
it occurs. Financial rewards can
be effective motivators of creative behavior, and as
well as nonmonetary rewards.
10) Modeling creative behavior:
Creativity is “caught” as much as
it “taught”. Companies that excel
at innovation find that passion for
creativity starts at top.
Tips for Enhancing Individual
Creativity
 Tips for Enhancing
Individual Creativity

 Allow yourself to be creative

 Give your mind fresh input every day
 Recognize the creative
power of mistakes
 Keep a journal to record your thoughts and
ideas
 Listen to other people
Tips for Enhancing
Individual Creativity
 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 Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
 Preparation
• 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.
 How can you prepare your mind for creative
thinking?
• Adopt the attitude of a lifelong student
• Read…a lot…and not just in your field of expertise
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Preparation
• Clip articles of interest to you and create a file for
them
• Take time to discuss your ideas with other people
• Join professional or trade associations and attend
the meetings
• Invest time in studying other.
The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
Investigation
• This step requires developing
a solid understanding of the
problem, situation, or decision
at hand. To create new ideas and concepts in a
particular field, an individual first must study
the problem and understand its basic
components. Creative thinking comes about
when people make careful observations of the
world around them and then investigate the way
things work.
The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
Transformation
• Involves viewing both
the similarities and the
differences among the
information collected.
• Two types of thinking are required:
▫ Convergent – the ability to see the similarities and
the connections among various and often diverse
data and events.
▫ Divergent – the ability to see the differences
among various data and events.
 Transformation
• How can you transform information into
purposeful ideas?
▫ Grasp the “big picture” by looking for patterns
that emerge.
▫ Rearrange the elements of the situation.
▫ Use synaptic, taking two seeming nonsensical
ideas and combining them.
▫ Remember that several approaches can be
successful. If one fails, jump to another.
The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
Incubation
• Allow your subconscious needs
to reflect on the information
collected.

▫ Walk away from the situation.

▫ Take the time to daydream.
▫ Relax – and play – regularly.
▫ Dream about the problem or
opportunity.
▫ Work on the problem in a different environment.
The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
Illumination
• This phase of the creative process occurs at same point
during the

incubation stage when a spontaneous breakthrough

causes “the light bulb to go on". It may take place after
five minutes __ or five years.
The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
Verification
• Validate the idea as accurate
and useful.
▫ Is it really a better solution?
▫ Will it work?
▫ Is there a need for it?
▫ If so, what is the best application of this idea in the
marketplace?
▫ Does this product or service fit into our core
competencies?
▫ How much will it cost to produce or to provide?
▫ Can we sell it at a reasonable price that will
produce a profit?
The Creative Process
Preparation Investigation Transformation

Incubation Illumination Verification

Implementation
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 or
services, but most never take them beyond the
ideas stage.
Techniques for Improving
the Creative Process
Brainstorming:
The goal is to create a large quantity of
novel and imaginative ideas.
Brainstorming Guidelines
• For a brainstorming session to be successful,
entrepreneurs should follow these guidelines:
• Keep the group small – “five to eight members”
• Make the group as diverse as possible
• Emphasize that company rank is irrelevant.
• Have a well-defined problem, but don’t reveal it
ahead of time.
• Limit the session to 40 to 60 minutes.
Brainstorming Guidelines
• Take a field trip.
• Appoint a recorder.
• Use a seating pattern
• Throw logic out the window
• Encourage all ideas from team
• Establish a goal of quantity of ideas over quality
of ideas
• Forbid evaluation or criticism of any idea
• Encourages participants to use “idea hitch-
hiking’,
Techniques for Improving the Creative
Process
 Mind-mapping
▫ A graphical technique that encourages
thinking on both sides of the brain,
visually displays relationships among
ideas, and improves the ability to see a
problem from many sides.
The mind mapping process works this way:
• Start by writing down or sketching a picture
• Write down every idea that comes into your mind
Techniques for Improving the Creative
Process
 Force Field Analysis
 A useful technique for evaluating the
forces that support and oppose a
proposed change.
 Three columns:

 Center: Problem to be addressed

 Left: Driving forces

 Right: Restraining forces

 Score each force (-1 to +4) and add them.

Techniques for Improving the Creative
Process
 Rapid Prototyping
 Transforming an idea into an actual model
that will point out error and lead to design
improvements.
Protecting Your Ideas
• Patent – a grant from the Patent and
Trademark Office to the inventor of product,
giving the exclusive right to make, use, or sell
the invention for 20 years from the date of
filing the patent application.
The Six Steps to a Patent
6. File the patent application

5. Complete the patent application

4. Study search results

3. Search existing patents

2. Document the device

1. Establish the invention’s novelty

Protecting Your Ideas
• Trademark – any distinctive word, symbol,
design, name, logo, slogan, or trade dress a
company uses to identify the origin of a product
or to distinguish it from other goods on the
market.
• Servicemark – the same as a trademark except
that it identifies the source of a service rather
than a product.
Protecting Your Ideas
• Copyright – an exclusive right that protects the
creators of original works of authorship such as
literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works.
• Copyrighted material is denoted by
the symbol ©.
Conclusion
• The creative process is a tenant of the
entrepreneurial experience.
• Success, and even survival itself, requires
entrepreneurs to tap their creativity.
• The seven steps of the creative process
transform an idea into a business reality.
• Creativity results in value, and value provides a
competitive advantage.
• Entrepreneurs protect their creative ideas with
patents, trademarks, servicemarks, and
copyrights to sustain a competitive edge.

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