Creativity and Innovation

One of the most important skills that a good entrepreneur must possess is the wi
llingness to be open to new ideas. Creativity and Innovation are two indispensab
le aspects that a business must recognise in order to grow and gain competitive
advantage. They are becoming as important as key success factors such as finance
and raw materials.
Creativity refers to the generation of ideas that are new and useful. Many manag
ers, especially in small enterprises, fail to recognise where these ideas can co
me from. One can note that employees are the most likely people within the organ
isation that can come up with ideas that will help the organisation in the long
run. This is because, the employees are the ones who are most accustomed to the
product or to the reactions given by customers. However, managers must be aware
that not all ideas are appropriate. They must be responsible enough to recognise
which ideas are worth pursuing and which are not.
Creative ideas can be the result of combined ideas, thoughts, concepts, componen
ts or materials to create an idea worth pursing. It could also be the case that
the project is unique and ideas are brought to a clean slate. These ideas can be
implemented to launch innovative products or even introduce and develop service
s.
Innovation, on the other hand, begins with creative ideas. It refers to the succ
essful implementation of these creative ideas with the organisation. Innovation
is aimed at producing benefits to the organisation. It adds value to the organis
ation in terms of profit, output and effort.
Innovation can be either radical innovation or Incremental. Radical Innovation r
efers to the developing of a totally new product. Incremental innovation, on the
other hand, refers to the upgrading of an already existing product. Many manage
rs think that ideas have to be big ones to make an impact. However, one can noti
ce that the smaller, situation specific ideas are more likely to be more success
ful and are difficult to copy, as what is good for one business may not necessar
ily be good for his competitor. Big ideas are very noticeable by competitors an
d so will give a chance for them to come up with other creative ideas that can b
eat what you have â advertisedâ to them.
Creativity and Innovation are definitely important to SMEâ s as without creativity
and innovation, the organisation cannot grow. A small company must grow if it wa
nts to be successful. Therefore change is inevitable.
Change is inevitable. If you stay as you are, you stay where you are â Dobbins and
Pettman 1997