In today’s constantly changing business environments, many business firms still like to implement strategies on a yearly basis to hit the core of the plans and strategically improve the planning and processes. Unfortunately, these processes might not help in achieving the desired results as this basically focuses on solutions that will provide a ‘tested and used’ outcome.
Traditional planning put forth a sheet that already defines how the industry will be in the upcoming years, but the reality is exactly the opposite. In this, fast running world, firms need to be nimble, innovative and entrepreneurial to survive the changing dynamic environment.
Rational thinking might benefit the organization if the environmental conditions (market need, economic conditions and demographic factors) are stable. But, this strategy won’t help the business organizations if they are looking to achieving long-term benefits. In this situation, Entrepreneurial thinking is what that will increase the productivity of the organization.
Entrepreneurial thinking is defined as a process of conceiving non-standard approaches by entrepreneurs and teams thinking through opportunity discovery and opportunity creation while chasing the ultimate goal of creating value. Many academic firms argue if opportunities are discovered or created. This argument can be clearly and profoundly sidelined by taking the example of Apple. Apple incorporation embraced the opportunities by developing a series new age devices like Macintosh, iPad, iPhone, iTunes and a series of technological advancements when people didn’t even think of combining an electrical typewriter, with a gaming console and calculator.
The industrial world is filled with examples like these when associations started to focus on training, resources and energy to achieve corporate entrepreneurship and changed the approaches to their businesses to create demands and achieve success in an organized way.
We are talking about Opportunity Creation and Opportunity Discovery in our entire article. Don’t you want to know what these actually mean? Let’s have a look at the exact and precise meaning of what these terms showcase explicitly.
Opportunity Discovery:
Efficient understanding of the market is the key to discovering opportunities in the constantly running corporate world. In this case, the market doesn’t limit itself to the customer market only, but covers a broader area including supply markets, sales markets, complementary markets, and even unrelated markets. The roads to unearth the new market spaces for inside the corporate world are as follows:
- Alternative Industries
- Strategic Groups
- Customers
- Complementary Offerings
- Functional or Emotional Appeal, and
- Organized Timelines
By exploring these untouched roads, organizations can find new ways, new approaches to satisfy and fulfill customer needs. Also, combining strategies can differentiate the customer specific product from the rest of the products of the industry. It is a systematic process that requires constant innovation for the generation of new ideas and combines them to form out beneficial potentials – and all of this does not come out of thin air.
Opportunity Creation:
Opportunities are what define the success of any business organization. Creating opportunities is as important as grabbing them. It is basically foreseeing of the market trends and predicting what the customers will want and which products will satisfy those desires despite of the current market polarisation.
Moving ahead with this strategy will obviously create fore casted risks for the entrepreneur since he is presenting the market with something new, which at first, might not be taken handy by the typical orthodox customers. The integrated models of the same – old techniques might prove to be successful until threatened by the external factors. A well designed Opportunity Creation process ensures a steady flow of high-quality opportunities that drive long term growth above and beyond the baseline.
To understand this better, let’s take the example of consumer electronics giant NOKIA. Many won’t know the fact that NOKIA in its early days was started as Pulp, Cable and Rubber mill in the year 1865. But, the way the organization molded it business and created its own name in communication, information technology and electronic goods is a great example of corporate entrepreneurship and opportunity creation. One can say in simple terms that Opportunity Creation is the lifeblood of the innovation journey.
To Conclude:
Companies and organizations should be able to adapt to the threatening factors that keep shaking the foundation of ‘following the herd’ system that is quite dangerous in today’s competitive market. Innovation through discovery and creation of opportunities is a must required tool to be implemented during the transitional period to avoid fatal consequences. Reinvention must be kept as a highly prioritized mark with the entrepreneurial thinking to achieve success whilst going through a transformation.
Written & Compiled by Faber Kishlay Krishna & Faber Mayuri Pandya
