Introduction
Creativity has been an essential ingredient of economic growth in the post-industrial economy. Innovation in technology, business processes, and industries has led to the “Creative Age” that has fuelled economic growth (Florida 2014). This has resulted in the development of two distinct classes – the creative class and the service class. The former has become the pioneers in entrepreneurial work that creates waves in the economy.
Creativity, therefore, becomes indispensable in creating a business idea. When large, established companies innovate, it is to derive competitive advantage, while when a small start-up innovates, it is to carve a niche for itself in an already competitive market. Why is creativity important? It is important to find something completely new and unique that has not been present in the market. Such innovation is critical to start-ups as they have little money to begin their company.
Therefore, start-ups aim to utilize few available resources to the optimum and gain the maximum benefit. One company that has historically been an innovator is 3M. Traditionally, the company’s growth has been derived from innovation. They have a range of 60,000 products, unique and indispensable for daily work. However, leadership is an essential element that can facilitate or destroy innovative ventures (Anderson, Potočnik & Zhou 2014).
Creativity and innovation in businesses are perceived in different forms, hence, clarity about the terminologies is important. Thus, the terms may be defined as the “process, outcomes, and products of attempts to develop and introduce new and improved ways of doing things” (Anderson et al. 2014 p. 1300). New ideas are created to improve the procedure or product. Consequently, it can occur at an individual level (e.g. Facebook), team level (e.g. Apple computers), or the organization level. Intuitively, creativity and innovation may occur in process development and/or in the case of product development.
There remain various arguments regarding creativity and innovation models but overall there are two distinct models that are followed by most companies – product and business process innovation model. The first model concentrates on developing creative and innovative products as is done by 3M, LG, Samsung, etc. The second aims at creating innovative business processes that would improve the performance of the organization as done by Nike and Google. Hence, the important question that remains is what model of innovation should a start-up employ to gain the confidence of investors? In the following section, a model is provided to help start-ups to gain investor confidence.
Challenge 1
The challenge is to ensure a suitable strategy proposition to the Chinese investors to gain their trust to begin a start-up. For this, I have to create a plan that will not only gain their trust but ignite enough interest so that they help me to work in collaboration with the Chinese students of an acclaimed university. Assuming, that students belong to a technological university, I will aim to provide a product that will bring technological innovation in the industry.
Further, as the investors are from China, I must understand the cultural barriers to innovation that I might face. A cultural understanding of the region where the inventive product is to be adopted should be an essential consideration for the founders of a company (Vuong, Napier & Tran 2013). The Chinese culture has become exceedingly adaptable to innovation and entrepreneurial endeavors (Phan, Zhou & Abrahamson 2010).
Thus, keeping in mind the adaptability of the Chinese transition economy, I propose adopting an open business model that will facilitate innovation and creativity. For this purpose, I propose an infectious disease tester that will help diagnose diseases without cumbersome laboratory investigations. With the rise in the incidence of infectious diseases, it is essential to provide people with a compact device that can help them to see if they have been infected with diseases. Further, it can also help in doing ECG for heart patients and help them monitor their heart conditions regularly, through diagnostic results that explain the graph that an ECG machine provides.
The groundbreaking product proposed for this venture targets the growing old population in developed countries, as well as the middle-aged people in the younger nations like India and China, where health hazards are rising every day. This product would be a major technological breakthrough as it will provide a portable solution to the cumbersome laboratory tests and will help both the medical practitioners and general consumers.
Innovative products are highly appreciated by investors from countries such as China. Further, young students from the universities will find it challenging to work on a product nascent to the healthcare industry. Further, the potential of such a device is immense, as it will help many people to detect the spread of diseases easily. The idea will appeal to the investors as this product, sold to both the medical practitioners as well as the consumers, has the potential to bring huge commercial success. Healthcare is a serious concern in most countries and this device will provide an easy solution to quick and accurate diagnosis of the diseases. This innovative product is not only a commercially viable, but also a new creative idea that could change how healthcare is provided around the world.
References
Anderson, N, Potočnik, K & Zhou, J 2014, ‘Innovation and creativity in organizations a state-of-the-science review, prospective commentary, and guiding framework’, Journal of Management, vol 40, no. 5, pp. 1297-1333.
Florida, R 2014, ‘Europe in the creative age, revisited’, Demos Quarterly , vol 1, no. 1, pp. 1-10.
Phan, P, Zhou, J & Abrahamson, E 2010, ‘Creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship in China’, Management and Organization Review, vol 6, no. 2, pp. 175-194.
Vuong, QH, Napier, NK & Tran, TD 2013, ‘A Categorical Data Analysis on Relationships Between Culture, Creativity and Business Stage: The Case of Vietnam’, International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems, vol 3, no. 1, pp. 4-24.