Unit 2 (Creativity)

TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEURSHIP
(ENT600)
UNIT 2:
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION
IN
TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 1

Introduction
• Discovery of opportunity at the right

time and place is the corner-stone of
any entrepreneurial success
• Technopreneurs need to be creative in

discovering new opportunities (in terms
of products or services) either through
invention or innovation.

What is Creativity?
• Creativity can be defined as the production of

new and useful ideas as well as the ability to
discover new ways of looking at problems and
opportunities.
• It is the ability to use imagination to develop

new ideas, new things or new solutions. These
generation of ideas should lead to improve
efficiency or effectiveness of a system
(Adapted from Fredrick et al., 2006 and Dorf and Byers, 2005)

Creative ideas often arise when creative people
observe established solutions, practices, or
products and think of something new or different.
Examples ►Creating the “NEW”

o Knowledge
o Products
o Processes
o Services
o Markets
o Business models
o Raw materials
Creativity & Role of Teams
• Technology entrepreneurship is at its best when

the creativity of a pool of people are
consolidated as a team effort.
• Hence, creativity should be encouraged among

team members or within an enterprise.

Six Resources of
Creative Team/Enterprise
1. Knowledge in the required domain and fields i.e. in-
depth knowledge of your industry.
2. Intellectual abilities to recognize connections, redefine
problems, and envision and analyze possible practical
ideas and solutions.
3. Inventive thinking about the problem in novel ways.
4. Motivation towards action.
5. Opportunity-oriented personality and openness to
change.
6. Contextual understanding that supports creativity and
mitigates risks.
Creativity Techniques
 PROBLEM REVERSAL – look at the opposite

of things, see things inside out, backwards or
upside down.
 FORCED ANALOGY - gain new insights by

forcing a relationship between almost anything.
 ATTRIBUTE LISTING - break down the “thing”

into smaller parts or characteristics and develop
ideas to improve on them.

Cont…Creativity Techniques
 MIND MAPPING - starts in the centre of the page

with the main idea, and works outward in all
directions, producing a growing and organized
structure composed of key words and key images.
 BRAINSTORMING – generating ideas based on

the principle of suspending judgments.
 LATERAL THINKING - exploring multiple

possibilities and approaches from different
perspective rather than pursuing in a conventional,
logical, step by step single approach. i.e. by
changing concepts and perceptions, and
generating new ones.
Three Components of Creativity
Creativity has three basic components:
• Knowledge
• Creative thinking skills
• Motivation

Cont…Three Components of Creativity
1. KNOWLEDGE
• Knowledge refers to a confident
understanding of a subject with the
ability to use it if applicable. It
encompasses expertise, skills,
familiarity and practical & theoretical
understanding of a subject.
• Knowledge is gained by an individual

through study or experience
Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM
ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 10
(2009)
2. CREATIVE THINKING SKILLS

Creative thinking skills is the use of creative intelligence to approach
problems and find solutions
Four styles of creative intelligence:

• Intuitive – focuses on results and relies on past experience to
guide actions
• Innovative – concentrates on-problem solving, is systematic, and
relies on data
• Imaginative – is able to visualize opportunities, is artistic, enjoys
writing, and thinks “out of the box”
• Inspirational – focuses on social change and the giving of self
toward an end

3. MOTIVATION
Motivation is in two forms:
 Extrinsic Motivation
 comes from outside a person, whether the
motivation is a ‘carrot’ or a ‘stick’
 Intrinsic Motivation
 a person’s internal desire to do something.
Satisfaction is derived from overcoming the
challenge.

Phases of the Creative Process
 Phase 1: Background or Knowledge

Accumulation
• Study the background of the subject matter
• This may requires extensive reading,
discussion with experts, practitioners,
academicians, researchers in the field,
attending workshops and seminars, exploring
various unrelated areas etc.
• These explorations expose entrepreneurs to a
variety of perspectives on the subject matter.
Cont…Phases of the Creative Process
Phase 2: The Mind Incubation Process
 An individual immerse himself or herself in the
data, allowing the subconscious mind to muse or
ponder on the information gathered.
 “Sleep on it” …getting away from the subject
matter and letting the subconscious mind working
on it allows creativity to spring forth.
 Incubation can be induced by: engaging in
‘mindless activities’ such as painting the house or
cutting grass, meditate or play sports or board
games. The rationale is new ideas often emerge
when we are busy doing something unrelated to
the matter.
 Phase 3: The Idea Experience

• This is when the person discovers the solution or the
idea. The idea may appear out of the blue or it may
comes incrementally.
• At this phase, the person begins to formulate the
solution.
• Most of the time it is difficult to tell the movement from
phase 2 to phase 3.
• To expedite movement to idea experience a person can
try to daydream and fantasies about the project and
always keep a notebook to record emergence of ideas
at odd hours.

 Phase 4: Evaluation and Implementation

• This phase is the most difficult and requires
courage, discipline & perseverance.
• There are a lot of possibilities of failures.
• Ideas are modified and tested before the best
workable idea is put into a final form and
successfully implemented.

Blocks to Creativity
• Searching for the only ‘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”
The Most Common Idea Stoppers
• “That doesn’t sound too practical”

• “We’ve never done anything like that before.”
• “Let’s get back to reality”
• “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
• “We have already tried that – years ago.”
• “I don’t see anything wrong with the way
we’re doing it now.”
• “Are you kidding?”
• “Where do you get these weird ideas?”

What is Innovation?
• Innovation is the specific instrument of
entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit
change as an opportunity for a different business or
a different service (Drucker, 1985).
• Innovation is the ability to apply creative solutions

to problems and opportunities to enhance or to
enrich people’s lives
• Entrepreneurs innovate by converting opportunities

into marketable ideas (Kuratko, 2004).

Creativity, Innovation & Invention
• Creativity is thinking new things while

innovation is doing new things.
• Invention on the other hand is often a product
of research.
• Invention is the extreme and riskiest form of
innovation and often associated with
development of a new or better product or
process (Burns, 2008).
• Not all inventions lead to a commercially viable
output.

INTENSITY OF
INNOVATION
Incremental Innovation Radical Innovation
• Steady improvements • Fundamental rethink

• Based on sustaining • Based on disruptive
technologies technologies
• Obedience to cultural routines • Experimentation and
and norms play/make-believe
• Can be rapidly implemented • Need to be nurtured for long
periods
• Immediate gains
• Worse initial performance,
• Develop customer loyalty potential big gains
• Create new markets

Examples of Incremental Innovations
• Mobile phone was regarded as a radical

innovation (compared to the traditional
‘stationed’ phone) when it was first introduced
to the market.
• As technology progresses, several features are

progressively added to the phone to enhance
its features & functions.
• These innovations on mobile phones are

considered as incremental innovations.

Cont…Examples of Radical Innovations
• Air Products – oxygen separation technology

• Analog Devices – Air Bag Accelerometer
• Dupont – Biodegradable polymer, display
technology
• General Electric – Digital X-ray
• General Motors – Hybrid vehicle
• IBM – Silicon Germanium Devices, electronic book
• Nortel Networks – Internet software rental
• UTC/Otis Elevator – Bi-directional elevator
• Polaroid – Memory storage device
• Texas Instruments – Digital light processor

Impact of Innovation
Intensity on the Market
• INCREMENTAL INNOVATION LOW
– Low market uncertainty
– Low technical uncertainty
– Low organization uncertainty
UNCERTAINTY
– Low resource uncertainty
• RADICAL INNOVATION
– High market uncertainty
– High technical uncertainty
– High organization uncertainty
– High resource uncertainty
HIGH

Basic Types of Innovation
 INVENTION - Creating a totally new product, service or

process. Examples: aeroplanes (Wright
brothers), light bulbs (Thomas Edison),
personal GPS (Peter Maire)
 EXTENSION - Introducing different application or new use

of existing product, service or process
Examples: laptop, PDAs, walkman
 DUPLICATION - Creative replication of an existing concept

Examples: Franchise businesses such as
Chicken Rice Shop
 SYNTHESIS - Combining existing concepts or factors into a

new formulation or use.
Example: combining functions of a telephone,
video and camera.
Important Technological Innovations
1793 – 1829 1830-1900 1901-1939
•Cotton gin •Telegraph •Air Conditioner
•Practical •Vulcanized Rubber •First Flight

Steamboat
•Safety Elevator •Model T (Ford)
•Steam powered
locomotive for •Internal •Liquid –fueled
passengers and Combustion Engine Rockets
freight
•Telephone •FM Radio
•Phonograph •Jet Engine
•Radio •Xerography
•Helicopter
Cont…Important Technological Innovations
1940-1949 1950-1969 1970 ->
•Color TV •Sputnik 1 (USSR) •Microprocessor
•General Purpose, •NASA •Recombinant DNA

Electronic, Digital
Computer •Integrated Circuit •Laser Printer
•Supersonic Flight •Operable Laser •MRI Scanner
•Transistor •First Man In Space •Space Shuttle
•Instant Camera •Telstar Satellite •Scanning Tunneling

Microscope
•Jet Airliner •Fiber Optics
•Apollo lX

Sources of Innovation
• Within the company or industry

– Unexpected occurrence - unexpected discovery
such as penicillin
– Incongruities – the gap between what is and what
should be; arise whenever a difference exists
between expectations & reality.
– Process needs – require entrepreneurs to innovate
and answer a particular needs such as time-saving
devices
– Structural change – caused by industry and market
changes due to new developments such as
advances in technology.

Cont…Sources of Innovation
• Within the social environment
– Demographic changes – for example
changes in population, consumer preference
and geographical locations.
– Perceptual changes – perceptions can
cause mood swings and major changes in
ideas, for example fitness craze is resulted by
perceived needs to be healthy & physically fit
– New knowledge – the basis of development
of something brand new.

Linking Creativity, Innovation & Entrepreneurship
ENTREPRENEURIAL ENVIRONMENT
INVENTION
Ability to be Ability to spot

CREATIVE OPPORTUNITIES
INNOVATION
SUCCESS Source: Burns (2008)

Linking Creativity & Entrepreneurship
• Creative idea flows to invention and invention

flows to innovation.
• Creativity can also directly leads to innovation.
• Creativity is turned into a practical reality such
as a product through innovation.
• The entrepreneurial context as well as
perception of opportunity are necessary to turn
it into a business reality.
• Hence, creativity must be linked to
entrepreneurship in order to turn it into
commercial opportunity to be exploited.

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TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 1

• Discovery of opportunity at the right

• Technopreneurs need to be creative in

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 2

• Creativity can be defined as the production of

• It is the ability to use imagination to develop

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 3

Examples ►Creating the “NEW”

• Technology entrepreneurship is at its best when

• Hence, creativity should be encouraged among

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 5

 PROBLEM REVERSAL – look at the opposite

 FORCED ANALOGY - gain new insights by

 ATTRIBUTE LISTING - break down the “thing”

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 7

 MIND MAPPING - starts in the centre of the page

 BRAINSTORMING – generating ideas based on

 LATERAL THINKING - exploring multiple

Creativity has three basic components:

• Creative thinking skills

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 9

• Knowledge is gained by an individual

2. CREATIVE THINKING SKILLS

Four styles of creative intelligence:

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 11

Motivation is in two forms:

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 12

 Phase 1: Background or Knowledge

 Phase 3: The Idea Experience

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 15

 Phase 4: Evaluation and Implementation

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 16

• Searching for the only ‘one’ right answer

• “That doesn’t sound too practical”

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 18

• Innovation is the ability to apply creative solutions

• Entrepreneurs innovate by converting opportunities

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 19

• Creativity is thinking new things while

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 20

Incremental Innovation Radical Innovation

• Steady improvements • Fundamental rethink

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 21

• Mobile phone was regarded as a radical

• As technology progresses, several features are

• These innovations on mobile phones are

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 22

• Air Products – oxygen separation technology

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 23

Entrepreneurship Dept, FBM (2009) ENT600/UNIT 2: CREATIVITY 24

 INVENTION - Creating a totally new product, service or

 EXTENSION - Introducing different application or new use

 DUPLICATION - Creative replication of an existing concept

 SYNTHESIS - Combining existing concepts or factors into a

1793 – 1829 1830-1900 1901-1939

•Cotton gin •Telegraph •Air Conditioner

•Practical •Vulcanized Rubber •First Flight

•Phonograph •Jet Engine

1940-1949 1950-1969 1970 ->

•Color TV •Sputnik 1 (USSR) •Microprocessor

•General Purpose, •NASA •Recombinant DNA

•Supersonic Flight •Operable Laser •MRI Scanner

•Transistor •First Man In Space •Space Shuttle