Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Ideas
Unlike invention which is radical and revolutionary, innovation is incremental and evolutionary Innovative ideas of new products and services have often originated at unexpected places banks did not come out with credit cards Entrepreneurs are innovators, not necessarily opportunists People have innovated for scores of reasons, the notable are:
To face competition To survive To stand out in a clutter To solve major problems

Idea Generation

Some Current Approaches

Focus groups group of people providing information in a structured format not only for generating ideas but also for screening ideas Brainstorming no criticism, freewheeling encouraged, quantity sought, combination and ideas of others can be used to bring out other ideas Reverse brainstorming criticism allowed Problem inventory analysis like focus groups but the focus is on obtaining new solutions by focusing on the problems Gordon method developing new ideas without knowing the actual problem or its exact nature Checklist method use of checklist to give direction to the specific ideas eg:
Modify? New twist? Change; color, meaning, characters, motion, logo, odor, shape, etc or give any other change Combine? Purposes? Benefits? Ideas? Units? Appeals?

Some Current Approaches

Free association develop a new idea through a chain or words Forced relationships developing a new idea by looking at product combinations Collective notebook method Heuristics thought process progression Attribute listing developing ideas looking at the positives and negatives Big-dream approach thinking big

Creative techniques for decision making and problem solving

Decision making under duress Use of decision aids like DSS The Delphi Technique forecasting using experts The Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

Creative techniques for decision making and problem solving

Economic rationality models (ABC, EVA, MVA) Devils Advocacy (DA) Dialectical Inquiry (DI) Radical alternatives networking, gurus, imitation E-brainstorming

Osborns Creativity Model

3-phase model that stimulates freewheeling, novel ideas, curiosity and cooperation to spurn out innovative ideas Can be used for all types of groups
Fact-finding phase Idea-finding phase (unrestrained brainstorming) Solution-finding phase

Product Selection or Development

Idea Generation
Own idea Someone elses idea

Search and screening

Trends and expectations

Evaluation
Growth and stability Marketability Company position and production

Service Development
Service idea is analyzed at four levels: Customer benefit concept (expectation and the perceived benefit) Service concept (bundle of benefits to the customer and its relative importance to him)
General service concept Specific service concept

Service offer (giving detailed shape to the service concept) Delivery systems (people, equipment, processes, facilities, interface, time, controls)