Innovation and ideas - what makes a successful business concept?

This excellent video interview from Smarta focuses on the key topics of innovation, creativity and developing a viable business idea.

The interview is with Matt Kingdon, the co-founder of a business called ?What If! That business specialises in helping businesses innovate and also invests in innovative joint ventures. The interview makes lots of great points about the nature of business ideas; the difference between innovation and invention; and also about how firms can encourage creativity from the way an office is laid out to how people are managed.

The video is a particularly useful resource for students taking Unit 1: The Innovative Entrepreneur on the BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship.

Key learning points for students:

Innovators: people who have a blind faith in an idea (prepared to work hard), but they are also realists.

Innovation: is not just about a great idea; it is about seeing an idea through (commercialising the idea)

Ideas: you can’t tell whether a business idea is going to be a good one right at the start. An idea has to be nurtured.

Things will go wrong: accepting that things will go wrong is part of the fun.

Make an idea real, quickly: don’t bother writing a PowerPoint about it! Build a prototype; get the idea in front of customers asap; be prepared for criticism.

Innovative skills come much more naturally to a small business than a large business