Identifying Business Opportunities

Creativity and Innovation Creativity Innovation Ability to develop new ideas Discovering new ways to approach old problems It’s tough to teach someone to be creative! Applying creativity to new product or services Making something new for society from a creative process

The Importance of Innovation Creative destruction Joseph Schumpeter Small companies can out-innovate their larger competitors, who can spend more. Innovation is necessary because people’s tastes change, and because innovations fail.

Innovation Types Innovation usually comes from something already in existence This is called incremental innovation. Innovation that completely breaks the mold is called radical innovation.

Paradigms Our preconceived thoughts on how the world works When you get up, what do you do every day? What are you going to do after graduation? How will you get to the mall? What are you going to buy to fill a new house? Why do we have paradigms? What do they have to do with being creative?

Cognitive Science Left Brain – Linear, logical thinking Right Brain – Parallel, kaleidoscopic thinking Successful entrepreneurs rely on BOTH halves of their brain.

The Impact of Art and Play How many of you still practice some form of art? We can strengthen and release the right side of our brains, that side that is creative, by painting, sculpting, playing, or dancing. Play brings us back to the frivolous side we had as children, before the structure of rules locked our creativity away.

What Things Keep Us from Being Creative? The Right Answer Syndrome Following Rules Forgetting to Play Forgetting to Enrich Ourselves Fear of Seeming Foolish or Making a Mistake Doubt in Ourselves and Our Ideas Think about this in terms of the culture you want to create at your business!

The Process to Enhance Creativity 1. Prepare! (get some background) 2. Investigate! (understand the opportunity) 3. Transform! (put the pieces together in different ways – convergent and divergent thinking) 4. Incubate! (Rest – let it all gel by itself) 5. Illumination! (The A-Ha! moment happens) 6. Verify! (Make sure) 7. Implement! (Carry it through)

Cognitive Science Convergent thinking: Noticing how things are the same RadarGolf Divergent thinking: Figuring out how things could be better by being different Life Is Good Around the Way Dog

Other Creativity Techniques Brainstorming Small group of people interact about a problem with little structure Mind Mapping Draw your cognitive process from one idea to the next to show relationships Force Field Analysis List prose and cons and give them strength values to reflect how critical each force is.

Protecting Your Ideas Patents On things – typically last 20 years Object must be new, not obvious, and useful Cannot be filed on something that is already distributed or sold Can take 3 years to receive a decision Does not protect you from the cost of patent litigation! Costs around $5K- $20K to register! Trademarks On logos, symbols, phrases, or brand names Perpetual in length of time Costs about $1000 to register

Protecting Your Ideas Copyrights On literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works Like trademark, has a common law component that is enforceable WITHOUT registering with USPTO. Lasts for life of creator + 70 years after death. Costs $35 to $45 to register

Opportunities A chance to assemble resources and earn profits An unmet need that exists Opportunities need to be A ttractive D urable T imely A nchored