Creativity And Ideas And Opportunities Flashcards
It’s easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out of date.”
— Roger von Oech
The brain kills creativity due to categorization
True or false
What is creativity
Why is creativity a skill not a talent
Creativity is the mental processing involving new association between existing ideas and concepts
It is the ability to generate new ideas and concepts
It is the ability to generate useful appropriate and valuable products or process
Creativity is not a talent
It is a skill because skills can be learned and skill is within while talent is inherent
State three domains creativity occurs in
Domain of knowledge: example because the physics people do physics,they made a telescope
Domain of the individual:
The person is inspired form the environment and from within
Domain of social context :
Exampl -Something created in Ghana May not have value here but when sent to the US it may have high value
Like beads sold jn ghana cedis when sold online or in the US market can be sold higher
Explain the types of creative behavior
Creation: pure invention
Synthesis: joining unrelated things
Modification:improvement or new application
Synthesis example: mobile phones and computers
You join a chip and a battery and a screen and other things together to get a mobile phone or on one mobile phone you can get different apps that are unrelated to each other
Modification example: iPhone
State and define two techniques for fostering creativity
Brainstorming
A creativity technique used by groups to generate a large number of ideas for solving a problem.
Focus Group Discussion
Involves an open and indepth discussion of ideas led by a facilitator. The group could have between 8 and 14 participants
State five basic rules of brainstorming and five guidelines for focus group discussions
Guidelines for Focus Group Discussion
●Consider nothing as a bad idea.
●Give feedbacks after constructive dialogue.
●Encourage free expression of without consequences.
●Ensure that members respect each other and build on the strength that diversity provides.
Basic Rules Of Brainstorming
●All members must contribute
●No criticism
●All ideas are captured
●There should be a facilitator who writes ideas in brief.
●No repetition of ideas
●No idea is discarded – all ideas are written down
Name five creativity enhancers and five creativity detractors
CREATIVITY ENHANCERS
●Elevating creativity importance throughout the organizations
●Offering tangible rewards to those generating ideas
●Protecting people who make honest mistakes and are willing to learn from them
●Investing in resources that help employees to sharpen their creative skills
●Listening attentively in order to acknowledge and provide early support to ideas
CREATIVITY DETRACTORS
●Not attempting to hire creative people
●Being pessimistic, judgmental and critical
●Punishing mistakes or failed ideas
●Pigeonholing employees(meaning sticking employees in their respective programs so if there’s a problem in marketing sometime from accounting can’t help to solve because they’ve been prevented from doing so)
●Maintaining a stiff organizational culture with no room for different behaviors
Being inattentive,acting distant and remaining silent when employees want to discuss new ideas
How should your management style enhance creativity
MANAGEMENT STYLE AND CREATIVITY
●Encourage risk taking
●Provide autonomy
●Encourage productivity - “sweat equity”
●Supportive supervision, climate, and work group
●Participative leadership
What is innovation?
What’s the diff between innovation and invention
The process of doing new things,
It is creativity in action
It is the useful application of creative chess
Innovation is a process and creativity is the result
Invention is not previously known to exist
Innovation is invention plus useful applications
State and define the types of innovation
Product Innovation: New good or service substantially improved
●Process Innovation: new or improved production or delivery method
●Marketing Innovation: improvement in the Marketing Ps(Pricing,Packaging,Product,Promotion,Process,Placement)
●Organizational Innovation: new organizations, business practices and organizational behavior
●Business Model Innovation: new way of doing business
State four ways of protecting creative ideas
Keep ideas to self, especially at infancy stage
●Investigate the people and companies you intend to work with
●Rely on referrals as much as you can
●Use non-disclosure agreements and seek legal advice in doing so
●Use analogies to present your idea
●Copyright your idea, if possible
●Follow your gut
Who invented the Lion lights system
Richard Turere
At the age of 13 years, Richard Turere, a Kenyan boy, became a hero after inventing a technology for saving cows from being eaten up by lions.
Turere who grew up in his home near the Nairobi National Park, tried out many things to save their livestock from lions from the age of 11. After many failed attempts, he discovered that lions fear lights, giving birth to his current ”Lion Lights” system.
What are the senses of an entrepreneur
Here are the 5 (+1) senses of successful entrepreneurs:
Taste - they like the taste of success
Sight - they have an eye for opportunities
Hearing - they listen to customer needs
Smell - they can smell trouble
Touch - they add a personal touch to things
6th sense…
How to spot opportunities?
Keep an eye on trends with Google Trends and check the ‘‘trending’’ sections on social networks. By being informed about current trends you can train yourself to be able to predict and spot future trends
Follow niche forums and subreddits on Reddit to see what people are talking about and what bothers them - you may find your next business idea there
Network, talk to people and listen - which brings us to the next sense:
You listen to customers’ needs
Not listening to customer needs is one of the top reasons why companies die. In fact, stats show that 14% of companies fail because they ignore their customers. Most often, they make things people don’t want, ignore requests and recommendations, or simply fail to provide good customer service.
Successful entrepreneurs don’t jump on every single customer request but do listen and take customer feedback into account. By listening to your buyers, you can not only come up with new product ideas but also discover how to improve what you’ve already built. As Bill Gates says:
[Customers] can’t always tell you what they want, but they can always tell you what’s wrong.
What New Product and Service Opportunities do the following Changes in the Environment Provide:
1.Structure of population and income
2.Social
3.Technologies and advances
4.Government policies and regulations
When all think alike, then no one is thinking.”
— Walter Lippman
“Capital isn’t so important in business. Experience isn’t so important. You can get both these things. What is important is ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn’t any limit to what you can do with your business and your life.“
Harvey Firestone
True or false
Structure of Population and Income:
Number of teenagers higher than number of elderly and children
People have higher purchasing power
Cyber cafes, Cineplex’s, recording studios
Social:
Increase incident of housebreaking
Increase interest in fitness
Increase mobility of population
Increasing predominance of dual-income families leaves less time to cook at home
Examples-Passenger cars, household furniture, DVD
Grills, alarm, sensor, security systems
Fitness center, dancing class, in-house exercise equipment, health food store,
Restaurants, food delivery services
Technological Advances:
Advances in your field of study
Development of the internet
Increase pressure to improve economic performance
Example: Biotech-related pharmaceutical products, food products, veterinary products
E-commerce, improved communication
Online marketing, cost control services
Hand phone, laptop computers
Government Policies and Regulations:
Increased driving standard
Smoke emission control, helmet, seatbelt
What is an idea?
State six sources of business ideas
A mental impression or thought
●Not all ideas can be converted into successful businesses
●A successful idea is an opportunity
Existing businesses
●Franchises
●Corporations
●Customers
●Competitors
●Distributors, wholesalers, retailers
●Networking
●Consulting
●Former employees
What is an opportunity
A favourable set of circumstances that creates a need for a new product, service, or business (Barringer and Ireland, 2008).
●Anything that has value and is anchored in a product or service that adds value to the end user or buyer
●Opportunities are created or built using ideas & entrepreneurial creativity
State four essential qualities of an opportunity
State four ways of developing successful business ideas
Opportunity is not just an idea . It should be attractive
Opportunity should be durable
Opportunity should be timely
Opportunity should be anchored in a product ,service,or business that creates,adds value for its buyer or end user
.Opportunity recognition
●Market assessment/feasibility analysis
●Writing a business plan
●Conducting industry analysis
●Developing a business model
State four forces that create opportunity
Explain feasibility analysis
State some reasons for feasibility analysis
1.Changing trends
2.Knowledge and information gaps
3.Chaos,confusion ,inconsistencies
4.other vacuums in an industry or market
Feasibility analysis is the process of evaluating a business idea to determine its viability.
Reasons For Feasibility Analysis
●It helps determine if an opportunity is worth pursuing.
●Helps to screen ideas before committing resources
Explain the role of feasibility analysis in developing successful business
State four components of feasibility analysis
Product or service feasibility
Industry or market feasibility
Organizational feasibility
Financial feasibility
What is product feasibility and state four uses
PRODUCT FEASIBILITY
It involves assessing the overall appeal of your product to potential consumers using concept and usability testing
It helps us:
●Get the product right the first time
●Avoid any obvious flaws in the product’s design
●Get additional insights into our product
●Develop an early adopter community
●Use our time & capital more efficiently
Explain concept testing
How can it be done
What feature of the product can be tested?
What is usability testing? What is another name for usability testing
What is a prototype?
CONCEPT TESTING
●Involves showing a preliminary description of product/service, to prospective customers to gauge their interest, desirability and purchase intent.
●Can be done by soliciting views through questions (e.g. questionnaires).
●Features of the product/service such as price, location , and buying interaction should be tested
Usability testing
Involves developing a prototype for potential customers to use in order to measure the product’s or service’s ease of use, as well as their perception of the usage experience.
●This is also referred to as ‘beta test’, ‘user test’ or ‘field trial’.
●A prototype is an original, functional model of our product that potential customers can see, test and use.
What does industry or market feasibility analysis involve?
What issues are to be considered under industry attractiveness?
Involves assessing the overall appeal of the market for our product via:
●Industry attractiveness
●Market timeliness
●Identification of a niche market
Issues To Consider:
Size Of The Market
Growth Rate
Maturity
Profitability
Profit Margins
Industry Trends
Opportunities
Threats
Competition
What is market timeliness?
It could be what or what?
State two advantages each of first movers and second movers
Involves gauging the timeliness of the product/service offered. It could be:
Improved product (is the window of opportunity still open?)
New product(do I want to be a first or second mover)
FIRST MOVER ADVANTAGES
Set industry standards
Develop brand image
Market power
SECOND MOVER ADVANTAGES:
Learn from mistakes
Low initial investment
Under identifying a market niche,What is a niche market
State two things a niche must be.
niche market is a portion of a larger market segment that represents a narrower group of customers with similar interests.
The niche must be:
●large enough to support the proposed business
●Small enough to avoid initial direct head-to-head competition with industry leaders
What is ORGANIZATIONAL FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS
ORGANIZATIONAL FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS
It is the process of determining whether the proposed business has sufficient:
●Management expertise(MANAGEMENT
•Do they have the passion?
•Do they understand the market?)
●Organizational competence(ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETENCE
•Do they have the required skills?
•Do they have competitive advantage?)
●Resources to successfully launch its business(Are the resources sufficient?
•Are office space and labour available?)
What three things does financial feasibility involve?
Under financial feasibility,what four things must you consider?
Overall financial attractiveness of the proposed venture should consider what four things?
This involves evaluation & estimation of the following:
●The initial capital requirement,
●The financial performance of similar businesses and
●The overall financial attractiveness of the proposed venture .
Consider the following:
●Total start-up capital needed: cash needed to make the first sale
●Financial Performance of similar businesses: compare potential financial performance to performance of similar already established businesses
●Proposed financial attractiveness of the venture: start up cost, pro-forma income statement, balance sheet and financial ratios
Overall financial attractiveness of the proposed venture should consider:
.The amount of time required to earn the return
●The risk assumed in launching the business
●The existing alternatives for the money to be invested
●The existing alternatives for the entrepreneurs time and efforts
Example of a franchise
Explain durability as a quality of an opportunity
Give an example of knowledge and info gap
Who is the early adopter community ?
What is a first mover and second mover
Differentiate between financial feasibility and organizational feasibility
Franchise example-company A gives Company B the right to produce their product according to the standards of Company A. KFC outlets in diff areas produce chicken according to the standard of the KFC main branch
Durable means the sustenance of the opportunity over a period of time
Knowledge and infor gap-example long distance education and online education
Early adopter community:consumers who have tested your product and anticipate your final release of the product
First mover is the first Person to introduce to product
Second mover is the one who capitalizes on gaps in the prototype of the first mover
