Not any other time in the recorded history of business is the shift in trends in consumerism, consumer behavior and consumer trends changing like today. Every wake and turn is a new product and service to suit the market trends and to fit to its needs. Businesses are being faced with a hard dilemma on maintaining a market position if not gaining an extra mile in their line of operation.
The whispers in the business circles and top leadership or management is about what is in the offing as not any one of them knows what is going to be the next big thing in the market. Every chief executive officer is holding his or her cards close to the chest with each releasing a new product with a keen eye on what the competitors will respond with. It is enough to say that business environment is getting tougher and tougher by the turn of the day and the biggest beneficiary of this trend is the consumer as he stands to improve in terms of quality and prices. The statement that consumer (customer) is king seems to take new meaning as they dictate the business to their wants and needs. A slight change in their preferences can prove to be a huge disaster in the levels of their revenues and profit margins especially when the business ignores the needs or is not quick to adjust to the market demands.
The big question to every management of the business or the company should be: what really informs the drastic change in preference and consumer tastes? The answer seems most obvious, the world more that ever has adopted a technology that seems at the core of people’s lives, the World Wide Web (internet). Persons from all over the world are increasingly being connected at a cheaper price than previously and at a faster rate than ever. Not at any time in the recorded human history has communication got convenient, cheaper and easier than the current times. This has played as both being an advantage and a disadvantage to business across the globe. The notable advantage is that it is now easier and cheaper to engage the consumer in the levels of tastes and preferences and to showcase the new products and services. New technology has also enabled easier modes of distribution. The major disadvantage is that the consumer is increasingly adding up to his knowledge of new products and services available in markets around the globe. Businesses are shifting global. This takes the meaning that businesses are finding new market and audience in newer territories and continents and countries. Businesses that had claimed a certain territory and colonized it with their products and services are increasing experiencing a disruption from new entrants into their markets causing the obvious loss or drop in turnover or revenue or unprecedented competition. Some recorded instances have seen a total closure of the business resulting from them not embracing the change.
Information is wealth to any business establishment. It is out of conducting a good research that the business is able to get hold of critical information. Research is important to any business establishment. It can be termed as the basic essentials to any business. Without research, it is difficult to know the exact position of the enterprise in regards to competition, innovation levels and the overall business position. Currently It is at the core of any business enterprise and only smart managers are investing more resources in the field of research in order to get a leverage in terms of market development and also the market position. Businesses that are not making a significant investment in the field of research are increasingly experiencing an increased level of turnovers and losses and also/ultimately closing down. The World Wide Web has made research for businesses easier and convenient. Research is made easier especially in regards to reaching a wide market therefore making the information derived more concrete and well informed. Convenience of research is brought by making the research being less expensive since the consumers can be engaged on various online platforms such as popular social media networks. The internet has too made research convenient in that data about consumers is always available online. There exist millions of blogs and consumer forums on the internet that the companies can know how their particular goods and services are being received on the market and learn about emerging consumer trends. The internet has also proven effective in lines with how company can predict their performance in the far future as they can engage blog platforms to exactly how they are being received in the market.
Understanding innovation
Innovation can be termed as the process in which the company comes up with a new idea, then develops the product to meet the demands, and needs of the market. It is the basic process of developing a never before seen product for the market or improving the product or service it offers (Dutta, Lanvin and Wunsch, 2015). Innovation takes two forms. These forms can be explained as the act of improving a product or service by the business or the process of improving the product or service by the business. In some other instance, innovation takes the form of improving a process involved in the production of a certain good or service for the business. The action of improving the process of production can be attributed to an introduction of a new technology for the purpose of increasing the output for the business or the need for more efficiency in the line of production or the general want for the business or enterprise to engage in a cost cutting measure while keeping their productivity to an agreed level.
New product development
This happens when the business sees a gap in a certain product or service in its market and then gets into the process of obtaining the market advantage before every other business in the territory. The products or services are often unique and never again seen in the market. Usually some features of the product do require some form of protection under the law to avoid replication in a process commonly referred to as patenting as described by Lemly (2016). This gives the business an advantage and it always results to a civil suit in the event that the product is reproduced or put into commercialization by any other business.
Product/ service/ process improvement
This is advised by the need to redefine how a product or service for the business takes its original form. It is what keeps on happening to products and services dictated by the trends in the markets, consumer behaviors, and general shifts in consumerism. It is what gets the business a step ahead of competition and brings uniqueness to the business conclusively bringing a market advantage to the business. Innovation is required in every level of business from the product or service design to the redefinition of a process.
Market innovation
Market innovation is the process by which the business engages in changing or improving how it engages the market with its products and services. It takes the form of the marketing team or department trying to implement new market ideas for the market with the aim of winning a large market share, winning back a lost market share or invading and colonizing a new market with its products and services. Market is essential for any business as it is the ultimate target and engaging it closely with methods, whether new or methods that have been tried and tested is extremely important.
Understanding Entrepreneurship
This term is synonymous with every other business in the 21st century. It takes two forms, entrepreneurship as an art and entrepreneurship as a science. It can be describes as the method taking an idea, developing the idea and putting it into the process of making money. Simply said, it is the process of making an idea unique and realizing the return on the investment from the idea usually a monetary return. As described by Howard, Fredrick and Donald (2016) think of entrepreneurs as part of a problem and the solution to the problem.
Entrepreneurship as an Art
Entrepreneurship can be described as an art in that the entrepreneur thinks of an idea which is unique and never before has it been seen or implemented and makes it in to use. As explained by Prateek (2017) Just as an artist thinks of an idea and puts it into a portrait, the entrepreneur dreams and thinks of an idea and then works it out until the dream becomes a reality. The entrepreneur despite the challenges that he may encounter works through the thick odds of trying to make his or her idea feasible and to produce a result. Entrepreneurship can further be regarded as an art in that the ideas at the first glance, or even after delving deep into them just seem a fantasy and not really workable or in other words the idea seem always from the thoughts of someone dreaming or an insane person. As Shehzad (2015) puts it, from the greatest entrepreneurs of the time like Steve Jobs to Richard Branson, all entrepreneurs speak of their decision and ideas, everybody around them or the persons who get to hear of the idea instantly regards them as being crazy, mad or just people out of their minds or persons who do not understand what they are talking about.
Entrepreneurship as a science
Entrepreneurship can be regarded or classified as a science in that every scientific process has to be engaged in order for the idea to become a reality according to Garud and Gehman (2016). The scientific process involves proper management process and the good incubation process to the entrepreneur. As Blanks (2014) puts it an idea must go through all the process for it to produce a result. Skipping a process might result to the idea not realizing its full potential. Regarding every step and taking time on them the idea will mature at its chosen time. Incubation of an idea by the entrepreneur involves taking it through step by stem and mentoring the idea to the process in which it hatches. Every idea has to be incubated and put through a proper process for it to realize the return on the effort and investment. An idea takes time for it to reach maturity level and all the effort has to be invested regardless of how it seems impossible to return a result.
Merging innovation and entrepreneurship: getting to understand the point of connection between innovation and entrepreneurship
Innovation and entrepreneurship arte connected in every aspect and sense. As discussed earlier, Innovation can be termed as or take the meaning of the process in which the company comes up with a new idea, then develops the idea to address the market needs and demands, it is the entrepreneurs who come up with the said ideas for businesses and then the idea undergoes the required process for it to achieve a result.
It is also to be brought to understanding that in most cases it is the entrepreneurs who are the business owners. Most businesses are made by entrepreneurs thus they are the persons who come up with the innovations. The act of thinking about the business idea and then putting it into practice can be regarded as a process or integral part of entrepreneurship.
However as is the case with giant corporations, they are always on the lookout for new ideas in the market and are fast to adopt the ideas. A common way of spotting an idea and making use of it is the recruitment guide that these corporations invest in throughout the world and offering huge amounts of remunerations and benefits and also promising scholarship options for persons with the ideas, Gillespi, Kate and Lisle, (2015). Another way the corporations absorb talent and innovation is through buyouts for small companies, often in their billions of dollars conducted. After the buyouts, the company is keen to adopt the employees of the company so that they may continue to develop and make better their ideas. This has also been cited by many as a way of dominating a market and keeping away competition. As explained by Macauley and Stewart (2016), there has to be contractual relationships in these kinds of transaction. Many have criticized these habits of buyouts for small startups.
Conclusion
Innovation and entrepreneurship are connected in all aspects and it should always be understood that it is the entrepreneurs who are the innovators.
References
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Garud, R. and Gehman, J., 2016. Theory evaluation, entrepreneurial processes, and performativity. Academy of Management Review, 41(3), pp.544-549.
Gillespie, Kate, and Liesl Riddle. Global marketing. Routledge, 2015.
Lemley, M.A., 2016. Ready for Patenting. BUL Rev., 96, p.1171.
Leotta, F., Mecella, M. and Vassos, S., 2016, May. Ideas matchmaking for supporting innovators and entrepreneurs. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Data-Driven Innovation on the Web (p. 4). ACM.
Macaulay, Stewart. "Non-contractual relations in business: A preliminary study." In The Law and Society Canon, pp. 155-167. Routledge, 2018.
Omar, I.C. and Ghee, W.Y., 2015. Element of entrepreneurship.
Patreek Saxena,2017. ‘ why is entrepreneurship an art,understanding the art of entrepreneurship’. https://www.quora.com/Why-is-entrepreneurship-an-art. Date retrieved 03/05/2018.
Shehzad Sheikh, 2015. “Is entrepreneurship an art or science” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/entrepreneurship-art-science-shehzad-sheikh. Date retrieved 03/05/2018.
Sujarwo, S., 2016. Incorporating enterpreneurship in a production function. Agricultural Socio-Economics Journal, 16(2), pp.79-86.
