Technology Entrepreneurship

Dr. Ram Babu Roy

RMSoEE, IIT Kharagpur

Note: This study material has been prepared using various sources available on internet, research papers, books
etc. for the purpose of classroom discussions only.
 Some key concepts
• Discovery – new knowledge, ideas, concepts
• Invention – purposeful implementation of those ideas into
technologies, business models
• Creativity – imaginatively recombining existing but apparently disparate
ideas into new ideas
• Innovation – Exploitation of inventions to create economic and social
values through useful implementation into products, services,
experiences and their commercialization
• Entrepreneurship = innovation + Creativity +…
What is creativity?
• The use of imagination or original ideas to create something new;
inventiveness
• Ability to transcend traditional ways of thinking or acting, and to
develop new and original ideas, methods or objects
• Ability to produce original and unique thoughts, ideas, and
possibilities, to help solve a problem
• Creativity is the spontaneous development of new ideas and
out-of-the-box thinking.
Creativity
• Creativity is the ability to think in new ways and apply fresh
perspectives to old problems.
• “the capability or act of conceiving something original or unusual.”
• Shawn Hunter - Out Think: How Innovative Leaders Drive Exceptional
Outcomes (Wiley, 2013)
• A critical skill in business that enables people to adapt and create
unique approaches that may be even better suited than tried-and-
true methods.
• Creativity is a necessary prerequisite for innovation, but they are
not the same thing.
Types of creativity
sitting quietly and reflecting high level of skill is often
on their situation required

Deliberate Spontaneous

Emotional designing packaging, writing blog

posts
Artistic pursuit, musician, or leisure
time activity

Cognitive Knowledge workers (researchers,

lawyers, doctors)
Newton and the apple

uses focused attention and

formed connections between tend to be
information stored in the brain more
instinctive

People who are good at taking insights derived from each type of creativity excel at thinking outside
the box and applying new approaches to their work.
Exercise
• Create a customer persona of the firm you are considering for the group
assignment
• one end user from customer segment who best exemplifies your End User Profile.
• absolute clarity and focus on making your target customer successful and happy
• Describe Key Demographic details, Context story, Goals, Needs, and Pains
• Create a brochure of the product/service under consideration
• Highlight the features of the product
• Value mapping (feature vs benefits) to the customers
• Technology being used
• Other important aspects etc.
• Prepare a list of information to be put in the brochure
• Prepare a template to present those information on a sheet of paper to attract a
paying customer
• Prepare a typical use case scenario
How to inspire original ideas
• By changing the way that you think about problem-solving, you can
reinvent your framework and generate more solutions.
• What it means to practice creativity and innovation management
• act of balancing creativity and innovation in your workplace
• powerful ways to disrupt and adapt, and to create the next great idea, which
is increasingly important in today’s ever-changing world.
• Creativity - typically centered around original thought and knowledge,
which unleashes potential and is an integral part of idea generation.
• Innovation- used to turn the creative idea that you come up with into
a viable solution.
How do I brainstorm creative ideas?
• Rapid ideation: Everyone writes down as many ideas as possible within a set
time limit.
• Brainstormers won’t be able to self-censor as easily with the element of speed.
• None of these ideas have to be fleshed out or thought through 一 even scraps or
fragments are fine.
• Generating the bad ideas can open the door for good ones. This can be done to get the
juices flowing.
• Brainstorm using different mediums and settings: colorful sticky notes, a
whiteboard and markers etc.
• Figure storming: Pick a famous person and try to guess how they would solve
the problem - to approach your problem from a different perspective.
• Starbursting: Identify who, what, when, where and why in regards to the
problem -> understanding the problem inside and out -> finding a solution
 Creative Industry
• Special features - an opportunity for internationally competitive,
high-quality products
• Examples - advertising, art & antiques, architecture, crafts, design,
designer fashion, film, interactive leisure, music, visual and
performing arts, publishing, television and radio, theatre, games
and online entertainment
• Bringing together artistic inputs together - inherently problematic
• Consumer approval remains highly uncertain until all costs have
been incurred
• Assemble, distribute, and store creative products
• Long-term contracts, outside contractors; agents emerge as
intermediaries, negotiating contracts and matching creative talents
 Aspects of Creative Industries
• Vital, exciting and rapidly changing field of activity
• Creative ventures facing high fixed costs turn to nonprofit firms
• A tool for innovation and value addition
• Significant potential for wealth creation
• Nature of contracts - "option"
• Up-front payments and real option contracts with successive transfers of decision
rights
• Winner-take-all character of many creative activities - brings wealth and
renown to some artists while dooming others
 Introduction to innovation
• What is innovation?
– Invention is not Innovation
– Novelty + Value
– Culture of rapid prototyping and experimentation, accepting failure

• What is ‘more’ innovation?

– Incremental – improves upon existing technology, evolutionary, short term gain
– Radical/Breakthrough – explores new technology, revolutionary, steady and
predictable long term gain
– Open – user innovation, distributed, crowd-sourcing
– Disruptive –unexpected, address/create new market, value, needs

• Why is innovation so difficult? – long development time, lack of

coordination, risk averse culture, limited customer insights, poor idea
selection, inadequate measurement tools
What is innovation?
• Innovation is applied creativity, in which the spark of a new idea is
turned into a novel solution or process.
• “Innovation is the implementation or creation of something new that
has realized value to others.”
• An innovation makes a demonstrable, often disruptive difference
in a product, service or industry. It is a fundamentally new,
tangible shift and departure from the conventional.
• Broad categories: business model, product, process, and marketing
• Marketing innovation creates new markets or increases existing
market share.
• New, positively-disruptive ways for brands to engage with their consumers.
• Promoting an existing product for a different use
 Open Innovation
• Innovating more with fewer internal resources
• Saving time
• Reducing risk
• Identifying new markets
• More collaborative
• Accessing of external ideas
• Sharing of internal ideas for feedback
Does innovation start with creativity?
• Innovation cannot happen without creativity.
• Develop skill to find creative solutions to your problem -> quickly
lends to leadership roles
• Ability to think, create, and implement creative solutions takes
practice
• Build a creative practice and grow your creativity via ideation,
empathizing, prototyping and seeking inspiration.
• Creativity can indeed spark innovation, and innovation can, in turn,
motivate entrepreneurship.
Create an innovation process (example)
• Encounter a problem that needs to be resolved.
• Define the problem correctly.
• Choose a brainstorming activity to spark your creativity.
• Gather relevant material and work through it, considering
different solutions and approaches that you can take to solve
the problem.
• Discuss your idea with your teammates to gauge its viability.
• Walk away from the problem before returning to it.
• Start implementing your idea.
 Ways to Succeed

• Making smart young people confident they can do something

new
• National development strategy for entrepreneurship
• Common strategic intent at the national, regional and local
level
• Growth and internationalisation of creative enterprises
• Development of marketing communications and design know-
how
 Fostering the Culture of Innovation
• How do we foster such qualities which are embedded into the minds of people
or our employees and lead to business or process improvement?
• How do we recognize such minute concepts and ensure that such pattern of
thinking is sustainable in the organization?
• Building and encouraging an innovative organization to notice innovations

• Look for applications of these innovations in the business

• Encourage employees
• Human beings generally have a tendency of being recognized
• Employees feel empowered to project their creativity and lead innovation.
 Quality Control Circles
• Encouraging creative and analytical thinking leading to innovative concepts
• Enhancing employee engagement throughout the organization
• Guiding an organization in a direction to achieve ultimate quality results
thus improving overall productivity
• Combining the efforts of one or more departments or business areas
• Ideas are to be passed to next level for further vetting to ensure that the
idea has substance to the current and future business needs
• Else, commended for his/her efforts and is encouraged to pursue better
innovative ideas
 Creating ‘Entrepreneurial Ecosystem’

• Economic growth is the world’s top priority

• The only way to generate growth is through greater numbers of
innovative entrepreneurs
• Can innovation be taught?
• Can entrepreneurs be trained?
• “Entrepreneurship and Innovation CAN be taught!” - Charles
Hampden-Turner - a prophet of innovative pedagogy
 key challenges
• Increase Productivity
– Operational Productivity - Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Theory of
Constraints (TOC), Business Process Management
– Resource Productivity - production, product design, value recovery, and supply-
circle management
• Continuous Improvement Culture
• Create an Innovation Culture
• Developing Talent and Ability to Innovate
• Design and Build New-Growth Factory – Go from R&D (inhouse) to
C&D (Connect & Develop)
• Collaboration
 What is required?
• Human-centered, design-based approach to helping organizations
innovate and grow
• Uncovering latent needs, behaviors, and desires
• Envision new companies and brands, and design the products,
services, spaces, and interactive experiences
• Help to build creative culture and the internal systems required to
sustain innovation and launch new ventures
 Few Examples
• IDEO and Apple
• Introduction to innovation, idea of design thinking
• To explore the Apple way of innovation – deep
commitment to “insanely great products”
• “Look and feel” of Apple product
• Apple’s management system
• Managerial dilemma – relationship between Steve Jobs
and Apple
 IDEO’s Innovation System
• How does it work? - What is the difficulty in implementing such
system?
– Prototyping
– Brainstorming
– Market research
– The role of failure
– Knowledge management
• Project choices affects the way IDEO competes and its system evolves
• Emphasis on prototyping – facilitates communication, ensure
coherency
• Sophisticated model-building – a waste of time, so go for Rough, Rapid
and Right – leading to more robust designs
 IDEO’s Innovation System
Process Organization Culture Management

Deep Dive -Intense Flat, little hierarchy Status comes from Few titles
brainstorming ideas

Structured with Diverse team Failure is accepted Low key

distinct phases

Well-defined Small organizational Informal, playful Hire people who do

methodology units environment not listen

Prototype-driven Collocated teams Crazy and messy but Train clients

(rough, rapid, right) disciplined

Active client Workplace designed Communications Lead by example

management by employees through pictures and
prototypes
Fail often to succeed Clients are trained in Self motivated Demand unusual ideas
sooner conference room

Builds on unusual Low employee Based on trust and Tech box: KM system
ideas turnover respect without IT
 Deep Dive
• Increase team’s productivity of generating creative ideas
• Stay focused on the topic
• Encourage wild ideas
• Defer judgment to avoid interrupting the flow of ideas
• Build on ideas of others
• Only one conversation at a time – encourage introverts
• Go for quantity (150 ideas in 30-45 minutes)
• Be visual
• Involve cross-functional people
• Honor to attend Deep Dive sessions
 Design Thinking and Innovation at
Apple: Synopsis
• Apple- one of the most innovative companies
• Transformation from a sophisticated designer and integrator of
hardware and software to pioneering accessing music,
telephone applications, shopping, and e-publishing
• Challenged conventional assumptions of doing business
• Emphasizes experimentation – transforming product, services,
and businesses
Design Thinking
• A problem-solving approach that focuses on the needs of the user.
• Can help you to create a game-changing solution.
• Stay focused on the people you’re serving
• Seek out and consider diverse perspectives
• Allows you to calm your inner critic.
• Reframe your problem and create new, innovative solutions
• Generate meaningful insights from your customers or end users
• Build a culture of innovation at your company
• Bring an attitude of experimentation
• Use prototyping and testing to gauge risk and market interest
 Design Thinking
“Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the
designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and
the requirements for business success.” —Tim Brown, president and CEO, IDEO

can transform the way organizations develop products, services, processes, and
strategy

Key Steps

• Empathize
• Define - What we think is wrong
• Ideate - How we plan to fix it
• Prototype
• Test

Implementation
• A non-linear, iterative
process that teams use to
understand users, challenge
assumptions, redefine
problems and create
innovative solutions to
prototype and test.
 Design thinking
• Conventional problem-solving practices - rational and the analytical approach

• Human abilities – intuitive, recognize patterns, emotionally meaningful as well as functional

ideas, express through means beyond words or symbols

• Design thinking provides an integrated way - a system of overlapping spaces

– Inspiration is the problem or opportunity that motivates the search for solutions.
– Ideation is the process of generating, developing, and testing ideas.
– Implementation is the path that leads from the project stage into people’s lives.

• Uses both analytical tools and generative techniques for business model prototyping, data
visualization, innovation strategy, organizational design

• Iterative approach - delivering appropriate, actionable, and tangible strategies leading to new,
innovative avenues for growth that are grounded in business viability and market desirability.
 Managing Innovation and uncertainties
• Fundamental challenge for innovation - Ability to manage
uncertainty

• Sources of uncertainty
– Technical or functional – does it work?
– Production – can it be effectively produced?
– Need – does it serve the need?
– Market/ Business – is it economically viable?

• How to resolve uncertainty?

– Experimentation
– First principles
– Experience
 No Innovation without Experimentation
• Experimentation by
– Industry/region
– Firm
– Department/Business unit
– Team
– Individual
• Innovation in
– product/service (customer experience)
– Technology
– production/process
– market/channels
– business model
 Apple’s Success
• Share price 1997 $5, Share price in early 2010 $250
• Market cap (early 2010 ) $250 billion
• Revenue: about $35 billion in 2009; approx $50
billion in 2010
• Application store(s): 1 billion downloads in 9 months
after launch
 Ingredients of Apple’s Success
• Why has Apple been so successful?
• Apple’s approach to innovation, management and
design thinking
• Company’s obsession with secrecy???
• Systematic approach to innovation – change,
obstacles, hiring process
 Drivers of Apple’s Success
Strategy Innovation Leadership Execution
Business build Beautiful design Push people to Reuse between
around great user create insanely products and
experience great products software
Ecosystem of Innovative Demand Flawless product
technologies, products and excellence, launches
products, and services management
services present products
Limited openness, Bold business Emphasize High quality of
controlled experimentation simplicity, remove hardware and
experimentation unnecessary software
features
Focus on Customer Go against Ability to manage
consumers, not involvement conventional complex supply
businesses wisdom chain
Platform strategy Simplicity visionary Perfect product
launch
 Where is Innovation at Apple?
• Innovation – all aspects of the company’s work
– Design and functionality of product/services
– Integration – technology, manufacturing, marketing and sales,
business models
• What business is Apple in? Computers? Cell phones?
Innovation itself?
– Difficult to draw boundaries
– “Creating and selling” great user experience
– Broad business platform – barrier for competitors
– CEO or company’s work is the competition
 Steve Job’s at Apple
• Managing innovation at Apple
• Revived the company dramatically
• What is the role of a CEO in encouraging innovation?
• What happens without him?
 Summary
• Evolved through a continuous experimentation – company’s
strategy/competitive environment
• Simple elements, but tight and balanced integration gives
competitive advantage
• Organize for rapid design iterations
• Fail early and often but avoid mistakes
• Leverage the value of early information