Personal Reflection on Entrepreneur Creativity Potential - Essay Example

ENTERPRENEUR CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION al Affiliation ENTERPRENEUR CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION Personal Reflection on Enterpreneur creativity Potential The contemporary business environment demand person with high level of creativity and innovation as one way of surviving within tough market conditions. Evidently, the business environment is dynamic and rapid changes within the market demands creative and timely attention. Managers must respond to real-time problems and ability to make the right decisions influences the success of their organizations. As a learner, my goal is to become a skill entrepreneur who can respond to the needs of a challenging work environment and to support the development goals of my organizations (Thompson, 2004). A personal reflection helps a learner to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses as far as creativity is concerned, which is crucial for adjustment. In this essay, I make a personal analysis on my entrepreneur potential by using the FACETS model to evaluate my creativity and innovativeness. The FACETS model is an important tool for measuring the ability of a person to remain creative and innovative within the work environment. One important aspect of this model is “Focus” which can further be subdivided into action, time and target. From the Bolton Thompson Enterpreneur test, my Focus score is outstanding, which depict my character as a person with high time focus and one committed to action (Thompson & Downing, 2007). Time consciousness helps me to respond to issues in time. As shown in the time management exercise, I am concerned particularly about the time and resources need to achieve my set goals. As a result, I am able to direct all my actions to accomplish set targets in as little time as possible. This closely relates to the “Advantage” aspect of the FACETS model. My FACETS test score shows that I am entrepreneurial with an average score. Therefore, I am keen to take advantage of opportunities that arise within my immediate environment (Thompson, 2002). However, since my score is not outstanding, I still have to improve especially as far as detecting opportunities is concerned if I have to become an creative person. The third aspect of the FACETS is “creativity” that shows the interdependence between focus, advantage and creativity. Creativity depends on the ability of a person to focus on their goals and to take advantage of the available opportunities. Evidently, managers within organizations use their creativity to spot opportunities that are advantageous to the organization, while they use focus to choose on the opportunities that provide highest benefits for the organization. The creativity tests shows that I posses a high IQ and that my brainstorming skills are crucial in coming up with creative ideas. In my classes, I have understood the skill necessary to take advantage of available opportunities (Coyne & Coyne, 2011). Although I feel sometimes lazy to take advantage of available opportunities when they pose challenges to achieve, I am always determined to focus on continuous improvement as eye the best position within the industry. My talent chain score shows that I have many ideas and the skills essential to implement them. However, my weakness hails from inability to appreaciate the opportunities. As theories point out, creativity is something that I can through continuous improvement in my weak areas. Ego, in the FACETS models refers to personal temperament and the way it helps a person to take advantage of opportunities. The inner and outer ego influence the way a person springs into action during when opportunities emerge. My inner ego provides me with motivation to work on my projects and to ensure that I achieve my target goals (Kraus & Curtis, 2000). So far, I have mastered the value of emotional intelligence and the way it helps a person to persevere the challenges of achieving set goals (Hager, Holland & Beckett, 2002). From my Enterpereneuiral tendency test, it is clear that I have a strong personal need to succeed and I am eager to explore new ideas. The average low score in my outer ego shows that I have average confidence especially when taking risks when the results are unsure. The last two concepts of the FACETS model, team and social skills, are directly related. As I prepare to work in a management position, I understand that it is impossible to work alone while implementing the organizational goals. Therefore, team formation is a crucial aspect of a person since it allows them to work with others in harmony (Ray, 2006). (Janetski, 2005 (Martins & Terblanche, 2003). Communication is one of the important aspects within the creativity test. In the creativity, my strength emanates from my ability to communicate effectively within a group, to face them courageously and articulate my ideas. This is a skill that I have mastered by interacting within study groups. Although, my social scores shows that I may prefer to work alone, it is clear that I am strong to accomondate the ideas of others within a group setting. In many groups, I act as an intermediary when various problems occur to ensure that the team benefits from working together. According to the Belbin Test, the ability of a person to identify problems within a team and provide suggestion is crucial for creativity and innovation. This is one of my strengths that have made me a leader in many groups that I have engaged in. On the other hand, learning within a diverse environment has helped me to master social skills by having an opportunity to interact with different types of people (Dewett, 2004). Different people have unique social attitudes and this influences the way they work with others (Bassett‐Jones, 2005: Lorbiecki & Jack, 2000). My ability to work with different people is crucial in ensuring that I can work in a modern work environment (Ivancevich & Gilbert, 2000). Therefore, my team and social skill scores are high, depicting my personality as a creative entrepreneur. In conclusion, my ability to focus on the opportunities within the immediate environment contributes to my creativity and innovation. However, my weakness lie in my fear to take up hard tasks that may challenge my success. Self-motivation and confidence, part of the Ego, helps me to have a positive attitude on every step I make. Besides, team formation and social skills will assist me to work within a diverse work environment, which is crucial in within the modern business environment. Creativity and innovation helps one to achieve high results amidst of many challenges that are inevitable within the current business environment. Creativity and Innovation in Brand Design Creativity and innovation influences brand design and the way certain brands perform in the market. Kingsdown Water Company is one of the organizations that have used creativity to develop their product design. While the company brand was performing well, the company decided to alter their bottle design to make it more attractive. Although the organization recognized that changing the bottle image that customer were already satisfied with may affect sales, they decided to make the bottle better by adding a silver crown and developing more detailed labels (Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby & Herron, 2012). This way the company managed to make a brand that speaks for itself, and one that suits the market demands. On the other hand, innovation in Manchester Art Gallery came as a result of detecting flaws within the business. In year 2006, the company felt that there was quality inside the gallery but the situation was not reflected on the external image of the structures. Many customers were turned off by poor signage and unattractive external appearance. (Rust & Zahorik, 1993). Those who visited felt that it was a challenge to access different sites due to poor posting. Creativity within the management was crucial in detecting the minor details that the company had ignored. They had capitalized in ensuring that they have quality on the inside, while their outside communicated something different. Therefore, the decided to refurbish the walls by providing white paintings with proper advertisements. Therefore, they created a new image for the company. Next, challenges within the market can trigger creativity and innovation as depicted in the University os Sussex. The University of Sussex was once the best institution of learning since its founding in 1960s. However, as the height of competition increased and the learners gained more options to choose from, it became a challenge to attract enough undergraduate applicants within the institution. In fact, the number of applications were declining year as more competitive learning institutions emerged (Henry, 2006). Besides, economic challenges made it impossible for learners to choose institution with high fees. In response, the organizational leaders detected the big threat to their undergraduate programs and decided to embark on an integrative approach to redesign their service provision process. One objective of creativity within an organization is to detect changes in consumer prefers. Detecting changes ensures that an organization can redesign their product, service or process to win the customer loyalty (Teece, 2010). The creativity in Kingsdown and Manchester Art Gallery can be tied to ability of managers to engage innovative advertisement of the products. Their strategy to brand their image with quality design shows their focus on positive action and the ability to foresee opportunities. Ability of the company to take advantage of the available opportunities helped to satisfy their customers and hence win their loyalty (Bilton, 2007). From this perspective, effective management is essential in forging innovative products that can increase value for both the customers and the organization. On the other hand, University of Sussex shows the need for creative leaders to respond to challenges within the market within the shortest time possible. Such problem solving skills depict the highest level of creativity and innovation. The outcomes of creativity and innovation within an organization is always positive. Creative and innovative managers in Manchester gallery has increased customer satisfaction through effective product marketing As a result, the company experienced a 30% increase in the number of customers, which contributed to increase in revenue generated. In Kingsdown, it is clear that customers have positive attitudes with companies that listen to them (Stockdale & Crosby, 2004). The organization added value to the customers by providing them with products that satisfy their demands (Cronin, Brady & Hult, 2000). By freshening up the tired product that was no longer smart for customers, the managers managed to positive impact change. Such managers can be termed as focussed managers who eye every opportunity to add value to their organizations. Creativity and innovation in Kingsdown contributed to the long-term success of the organization. Similarly, the University of Sussex achieved customer satisfaction through creativity and innovation. Focus was one of the strategies that the company used to identify the advantages of exploring opportunities (Lawson & Samson, 2001). The company improved the quality of learning, which has become an attractive feature for many learners in the modern learning environment (Ivancevich & Gilbert, 2000). Besides, the organization focussed on approaches to mobilize funds for their learners to ensure that they can learn at minimum cost. The two strategies sought to create customer-satisfaction by providing best services at the least cost (Meuter, Ostrom, Roundtree & Bitner, 2000). Resultantly, the organizations achieved a 22% increase in undergraduate applications. Therefore, the ability of a company to create innovative services results into customer attraction and shift in into profitable position. In conclusion, entrepreneur creativity and innovation is necessary tool for pushing organizations into success. In times of rapid changes within the business market, creative ideas help managers to design the best products, services and processes that win customer loyalty. The ability of managers to understand the market dynamics contributes in identification of challenges that may close the path to success. Therefore, creative managers can spring in time to save their image during challenges by increasing customer satisfaction and promoting productivity. Creativity and innovations are the vehicle to customer satisfaction, which is a challenge for many modern organizations. Bibliography Amabile, T. M., Conti, R., Coon, H., Lazenby, J., & Herron, M, 2012, assessing the work environment for creativity. Academy of management journal, 39(5), 1154-1184. Bassett‐Jones, N, 2005, The paradox of diversity management, creativity and innovation. Creativity and innovation management, 14(2), 169-175. Bilton, C, 2007, Management and creativity: From creative industries to creative management. 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