The Sunday Mail
Entrepreneurship Matters
Dr Kudzanai Vere
The world looms and blooms due to innovation. What keeps entrepreneurship relevant and essential to socio economic transformation is innovation that resides at its core. Value addition and the bearers gives it that distinction. Innovation speaks of coming up with something new or novel.
Joseph Schumpeter, one of the entrepreneurship fore-runners had a two-pronged view of innovation. He took innovation as any new policy that an entrepreneur undertakes to reduce the overall cost of production or increase the demand for his products.
You can clearly see that according to him, there are two basic areas though with their subcomponents where innovation plays tall, that is the production and the distribution side of products and services.
While there are other forms of innovation, entrepreneurial innovation cuts across a number of institutional spectrums. Every entrepreneurship endeavour has these critical arrears that requires this critical component of innovation.
Conventional organisations, entrepreneurship endeavours and even government institutions success, longevity and dominance are hinged on entrepreneurial innovation.
John Baptiste Say defines entrepreneurship as a process of shifting economic resources from an area of lower to higher productivity or greater yields. It is through innovative acts that these resources are converted.
Identified from observations and studies are the following areas that calls for innovation in most enterprises, businesses or institutions.
Entrepreneurial innovation should be visible in these organisational areas, production, finance, operations, marketing, research and technological.
Production
Production entails the configuration of resources (material and immaterial) into some form of output. It’s actually a process of producing something that has value to humankind. The production process itself is a result of innovation before we even talk of the products being chunked out of the whole process.
Talk of smart phones, their functionality is almost the same but their models and manufacturers are different.
There is great entrepreneurial innovation embedded in these production processes so as to come up with a unique product for the market.
It is innovation that makes a Samsung phone different from an iPhone.
You can look into the motor industry, your home and office air conditioners, that’s innovation at play. All these can function almost the same but their DNA is different. Entrepreneurial innovation exposes ingenuity, a virtue which sustains top performers in the marketplace.
Your production process and products must stand out as distinctive features that defines your brand.
Finance and accounting
Those in the accounting field are obsessed with international financial reporting standards updates.
These are necessary processes in the making of proper and sound financial statements for without which you will not be in a position to handle current developments in the market. As we speak, there are issues to do with the Covid-19 impact on financial statements. Besides Covid-19, there are other improvements and updates that have been and will continue to be affected on the way funds and figures are handled both in private and public sector.
Recently you have heard of the roll-out of IPSAS (International Public Sector Accounting Standards) training to all accountants in the public sector in Zimbabwe.
Entrepreneurial innovation is often times stimulated by some market challenges demanding solutions. The accounting and finance sector of your business is not spared.
Operations
As you venture into that market or as you continue to exist, make sure you have that distinctive edge that’s brought by your unique approach to work. Learn to innovate around your operations to make them different from the next company. Do it the same old way, you will always get the same old results.
Your operations department is charged with making things happen. This is where the wheels of your organisation are turned into motion.
For your organisation to be known by what it does in the marketplace, there is work that must have been done and it is the duty of this department to act. Operations entails everywhere within your organisation where work is done especially at the functional level of it.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing are both business functions within an organisation that has a bearing on revenue. Technological innovation has made both functions digital to those organisations with a high propensity to tech issues.
Embracing technology within these functions brings your institution into the league. It is now incumbent upon your organisation to innovate around the digital space for you to be outstanding.
Time for hard copy marketing flyers is quickly being flashed out and it’s turning to be a huge cost to many though there are those who love their old way of doing things.
In large corporates such functions are allocated to a department with departmental heads charged with driving revenue and growth but with small and medium enterprises, the same can be done by one person as a function.
No matter the size of your business, sales and marketing is an imperative. How you execute this function makes you unique in the marketplace.
People should not bump into your business. Make effort to be known out there and make an impact to the societies you serve.
Research and development
For your organisation to remain afloat and still be relevant to the markets that it serves, research and development is key. You cannot afford to remain operating at yester-year standards and remain viable. There is every need to close the gap between where you are and where you should be with some research and subsequent development along that trajectory. Most organisations overlook this important function but at their peril. You will always be following behind trailblazers in the market and getting what’s left by others with no choice.
For such a function to be effective, there is every need to have innovative entrepreneurial minds behind it. Do what others have never done. Take that path that has never been travelled and leave an indelible mark. While some are busy in their laboratories experimenting on vaccines, others are now focusing on the Covid-19 cure prototype. What is your organisation doing in terms of research and development? Your levels of innovation always separate you from the masses.
Information technology
Most tech companies are in the top 20 of the world’s largest public companies according to the Forbes 2020 ranking by market value. Ask them the secret to such astounding levels of performance, the response is none other than entrepreneurial innovation and continuous improvement. Every organisation which is innovating around effective use and application of information technology is making waves. The world is now revolving around technology and you should not give it a damn. I am glad that there are giants in the sector who have taken it upon themselves to continuously transform it for the better.
Technological
Technology entails the application of scientific knowhow and expertise which will often times result in the development of machinery and equipment that brings ease of doing work. This is one area whose survival is solely upon innovation. Look at the first car that was ever made and compare it with the current makes. It speaks volumes of the technological evolution that has taken place.
If you have been to a heavily automated manufacturing industry, you will agree with me that innovation has done unimaginable wonders in the world of business. How machines are interlinked, each performing its own unique task but, in the end, they are bringing out one complete product.
Even within your organisation, you need to embrace technology to be able to stand the stiff competition that was brought by the use of efficient machinery. Technology have made work easy but it is important to keep on improving such technology in a unique way.
Entrepreneurial innovation has proven to be a panacea for a number of organisational and institutional performance ills. It cuts across all the organisation’s functions and it remains key for growth and substantiality.
The writer, Dr Kudzanai Vere is an international voice in the areas of entrepreneurship & business, personal and organisation development. Have trained executives, directors, line managers and operatives in practical business management and growth. He can be contacted on +263 719 592 232 or email [email protected]. You can visit his website www.kudzanaivere.com
