Blog 4 - Creativity and Innovation

Creativity and innovation are both very important to an entrepreneur. Although people tend to use the terms interchangeable, they are not the same thing. Creativity involves the creation of ideas that results in the improved effectiveness of a system. When being creative we express our desire to break through the norms that have been set in place. It is a process of risk taking, motivation, and the ability to defend the creative ideas that one comes up with to others. Creativity requires that ones imagines things differently from how they presently are.

Innovation, on the other hand, bring the new ideas that we come up with in the creative process closer to actual entrepreneurship. "It is the process by which the entrepreneur either creates new wealth producing resources or endows existing resources with enhanced potential for creating wealth" (Kuratko, 2007). Opportunities are converted into marketable solutions during the innovation process that entrepreneurs participate in. Vision to create a good idea combined with the perseverance and dedication that it takes to stay with the idea through the implementation stages is what innovation is all about. Invention, extension, duplication, and synthesis are all types of innovation.

Both are very important to entrepreneurs because they allow for new ideas to be thought up and brainstormed in creativity, and through innovation the ideas that have marketing potential are thought through extensively and researched then further developed and implemented. Although creativity does not automatically result in new and usable items, innovation can translate an idea into a marketable solution. Innovation starts with a good idea, which often comes out of creativity. Both are very important to entrepreneurs.

~Adrianne Siler