Technological Advancements in Business

PART 1

Personal Entrepreneurial Skills

Business has changed significantly over the years owing to the advancement of technology along with the change in the structure of the marketplace. It is notable that a large section of change in business activities is due to the prevalence of creative technologies that one way or the other enhance the level of thinking and innovation amid people (Nieuwenhuizen, 2009). Entrepreneurial innovation is what that is concerned in this project. The focus of this report is to present an evaluation of the skills and abilities on an individual level, which can be used towards enhancing the creative potential of my personal entrepreneurial capabilities (Lumsdaine & Binks, 2006). This can further be done through analysing the entrepreneurial traits I have been able to achieve personally from the test conducted in this regarded. Furthermore, the study will also focus on conducting an analysis of the various cases that has been acquired from Design Council case studies and likewise a better comprehension must be gained regarding innovation and creativity to an extent. This would also be able to provide a brief understanding of the importance of innovation and creativity and how the same can be effectively used. Entrepreneurship is one of the key domain of studies in the present-day environment. It revolves around the concept of initiating business and start-ups by personal level expertise and individual creativity. It needs to be mentioned that there is certain specific skills and expertise that is required for effective execution of entrepreneurship activities (Nieuwenhuizen, 2009). Some of the major skills that are required for an entrepreneur include focus, patience, resilience, creativity and vision to invest in long-term plans, skills of managing people within the business and can ensure self-reflection among others. Furthermore, another key skill that is required for ensuring effective execution of entrepreneurship activities includes the ability to take quick and effective decisions based on situations (Anderson, 1996). Apparently, entrepreneurial ventures mainly work by personal abilities and skills of individuals with sole ownership of the business in most of the scenarios. Correspondingly, decision-making in this domain often centred towards individual decision making by personal skills, abilities, experience and knowledge. In this regard, it is notable that on a personal level I have been an individual who loves managing people and involve in group task as a leader where I can be able to steer people towards a direction with motivational activities and proper guidance. Furthermore, I as an individual is also quite proactive regarding decision making (Lumsdaine & Binks, 2006). This can be justified by the fact that I have a bold nature of thinking and is not afraid of making decisions, which can go both ways regarding profit and loss is concerned. This is one of the key characteristics of mine which can help me in my future endeavours relevant to entrepreneurship. Again, as an individual, I also have the skill to focus and vision for long-term benefits, growth and goals. This is also one of the key skills that are required to attain success for start-ups.

In this study, the focus has been on understanding the importance of creativity in entrepreneurship and the importance of the same in attaining success in personal ventures. In this context, it can be determined that creativity in entrepreneurship is one of the most crucial aspects. Apparently, the mind of an entrepreneur needs to be on the constant verge of getting new ideas and look for opportunities which are more in benefits and less in risk. Creativity in this domain can be justified by the fact that individuals need to constantly involve towards analysing the overall work process and likewise seek for getting better results with the implementation of effective ideas. Furthermore, the prospect of creativity can also be seen about risk taking an approach where efforts are made towards implementation of conceptual ideas that involves risk. The importance of creativity and innovation in entrepreneurship can also be justified by the fact that with innovative ideas an entrepreneur can be able to gain competitive advantage within the marketplace. It can also be helpful towards defining or creating new opportunities and ideas that can certainly be a growth potential for the business. About creativity in entrepreneurship, I have personally taken the test that revolves around the FACETS framework. The results can further be analysed to get an understanding about my personal abilities relevant to creativity and innovation. As per the FACETS score provided above, as an individual have better results regarding focus and inner ego with points of 10 and ten respectively. This shows that I am quite focused regarding achieving my goals and my inner ego would help me more in the same. About some of my characteristics of Entrepreneurship, it can be noted that I have good results regarding teamwork, social behaviour, enabler and creativity among others. In these qualities, I have attained results or points in between 6 to 9, which are entrepreneurial in nature. Regarding advantage and out ego, my score is very less and fall in between 1 to 4, which are non-enterprising in nature. Hence, there is a need for improvement in this context. As per the scores provided above, it can be clearly seen that the figures in between 90-100 are outstanding about my personal qualities as an entrepreneur. It is notable that as per the score provided my entrepreneurial characteristics mainly include abilities of teamwork and enabler with scores ranging in between 70-80. However, my real potential for entrepreneurship lies with basic entrepreneurship qualities and social entrepreneurship with scores ranging in between 60-70. Therefore, these qualities need to be primarily helpful in my entrepreneurial ventures. About my qualities of a basic entrepreneur and the team entrepreneur, results have suggested that I am a team entrepreneur when compared to a basic entrepreneurship. This shows that I have better prospects for teamwork than other forms.

The values of social entrepreneurship mainly define the ability of an individual when involving in profit making initiatives. In this context, it has been noted that social entrepreneurship mainly revolves around beliefs of individuals and their cause-driven behaviour. About my results, both the figures are deemed to be in an equivalent position, which further depicts the strengths of my inner values and cause-driven behaviour. Again, results have also suggested that I am an enabler rather than a basic entrepreneur. This is further determined as one of the key factors for successful entrepreneurship. The results are graphically presented hereunder. It is believed that there is a strong relationship between creativity, focus and advantage for successful entrepreneurial ventures. Regarding creativity and focus, I have higher potential as an individual while there is a need for development in the advantage front. Results have also suggested that I have a balanced profile of temperament and talent with scores of 6.2 and 4.8 respectively, which can also be beneficial on the personal front as an entrepreneur. Hence, from the overall analysis, it is apparent that indeed, I have better qualities, which can help my future endeavours of entrepreneurship at large.

Part 2

Design Council Case Studies

This section of the study is focused mainly towards analysing and comparing the similarities and difference about development of product, service and work process among others. In this regard, certain cases can be taken into consideration to add a practical depth to the overall study. Innovation and creativity are the most important aspect of product design. However, both the aspects are often being confused to be one, which not the case. In this regard, it has been noted that creativity mainly determines the abilities or approach of a human mind to conceive new ideas by the potential abilities of the mind. This can be getting ideas by a person’s experiences, skills, knowledge and others (Harvard Business School Press, 2003). On the other hand, innovation can mainly refer to a idea, which was not readily prevalent within the societal context. Innovation can also be regarded as a change in the common rule of nature (Klaus-Peter, 2008). Correspondingly, their case studies have been considered in this study, which revolves around creativity and innovation. These case studies considered includes “Bike hire schemes made secure”, “Anti-theft number plates” and “Alzheimer 100”. Bike hire schemes made secure is the idea that revolves around the concept of securing the entire process of bike hiring. Notably, research has depicted that bike hiring has often resulted into a higher rate of crimes in cities. Correspondingly, an anti-theft security system has been developed with a locking system and mandatory credit card registration for the people, which further resulted in difficulties for people to involve in bike theft crimes. This be a creative approach from the end of bike hiring companies. It has been noted from the case that millions of bikes were stolen in the UK in the year 2006. The bike hiring schemes have been quite popular, and profit for companies in the European market and therefore, adding value to the product to enhance the experience of the customers has been extremely important. The approach of the companies to add security as a part of product innovation has been one of the most significant approaches. The nature of the innovation is most radical since there has been an increasing need for the same to deal with the increasing number of bike thefts in the UK and another European market. About adding value, the innovation has been quite effective as lock and alarm system added as a part of security system will act as a major step towards reducing theft (Refer Appendix 1).

Anti-theft number plates are mainly involved with the idea of restricting vehicle and number theft to a major extent. Notably, stolen number plates are often utilised for selling stolen cars and vehicles further increasing the level of crime rate in cities. Correspondingly, the use of anti-theft number plates includes certain built-in properties from the end of the manufacturers, which made it easily traceable for stolen number plates. This is an innovative idea which is expected to limit the number of stolen number cases. The innovation has been mainly driven by the increasing number of cases of number plates being stolen which can be seen from 40,000 number plates being stolen in the year 2005. The innovation can be regarded as radical in nature as there has been an increase of 25% of number plate stolen cases every year. The innovation has added to the product to a greater level altogether (Refer Appendix 2). Alzheimer 100 mainly resolves around the idea of bringing up measures which can be used daily to control the effects of dementia. This involves maintaining diaries and creating worships where patients can be trained to become self-dependent towards dealing with the day to day effects of the complication. Since Dementia already affects more than 750,000 people in the UK; this creative approach would certain help in taking proper and sustainable care of the patients on a regular basis. The innovation has been driven by the increasing case of dementia in the UK along with the future forecast where is has been determined that the cases of dementia will increase up to two million by the year 2050. The change quite radical since self-management of dementia is an important part towards reducing the number of case of the disease in the future context. It will add value to the treatment process where these practical steps can prove vital (Refer Appendix 3). As per the cases discussed above, it is quite clear that some approach is innovative while some are creative in nature. The study has clearly shown that the steps in cases are mostly radical with an attempt to add value to product or services. Hence, it is crucial for companies to constantly develop their products and services as per the changing demands and preferences of the customers in the market.

References

Anderson, A. H. 1996. Effective Entrepreneurship: A Skills and Activity-based Approach. Blackwell Business.

Harvard Business School Press, 2003. Harvard Business Essentials: Managing Creativity and Innovation. Harvard Business Press.

Klaus-Peter, S. 2008. The nature of innovation and implications on innovation management. Regional Development and Practice–Based Learning, 1-18.

Lumsdaine, E. & Binks, M, 2006. Entrepreneurship from Creativity to Innovation: Effective Thinking Skills for a Changing World. Trafford Publishing.

Nieuwenhuizen, C, 2009. Entrepreneurial Skills. Juta and Company Ltd.