The Role Of Formal Education In Innovation And Entrepreneurship Essay.

Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

Creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship are related to each other at the same time very much different from each other. Creativity is the raw idea or concept of an individual that exists inside them, the unique special idea that is completely different from the others are creative ideas. When these ideas are given life as a practical approach is given, when concepts and creative ideas turn into reality it is innovation. Innovation is a new product or service that brings disruption of any magnitude in the market. Entrepreneurship is the added value that a new business brings (Nambisan et al. 2017). It is the starting of a unique business where the entrepreneurs will bear all risks and their business will not only have the idea of profit but also have a significant impact on the lifestyle of people. People with this kind of mindset do not necessarily have to do business they are found in day-to-day lives and even in the corporate. Many leaders support and many reject such concepts of work style. The essay will discuss some of these factors and argue for the necessity of formal education or skills for work or business.

In an organization, there are two kinds of managers the first one is those who strongly support or believe that formal education or learned concepts are not always needed. However, best results can only be gained from utilizing common sense and having control over resources such as an individual’s instinct, intuition, and the ability to improvise. For these people, the general belief is that innovation does not need anything prior it is something that is supposed to pop up at some time in someone’s mind. Usually made up on the fly and with the addition of real-world luck is what leads to innovative business. However, there is another kind of believer that exists. They believe that the applications of learning that are acquired from the formal study that is included in books, structures, and classrooms can benefit more (Zhu 2015). This approach believes that this will not only equip the innovators with skills and knowledge but will also help them in applying the various theories, models, concepts, formulas, and every other thing to their ideas to make the innovation more successful.

As many management experts have explained and strongly recommend that luck alone and working on instincts alone cannot develop any kind of innovation. Every aspect of work be it normal service or business or simply innovating a product would simply require planning and multiple stages in working and implementing those ideas. It is important to have formal education and practice as there is a lot that can be learned from there which can be dedicated towards these phases of product innovation and development (Afuah 2020). The general belief is that formal education is a process where the basic foundations are laid for any individual. A human being with an idea is incomplete however when that idea gets support from formal educational models and knowledge then the human being can implement or convert the idea in the creative sense into a practical or rather realistic idea (Mintzberg 2017). That idea can be further developed into a product or service or even a method that can change the way business is done. Formal education does not only teach mathematical formula and other things however they teach various things that can be applied in real life for practical purposes at the same time it teaches how these things can be applied and when they can be applied. For example, the SWOT analysis and the Porter 5 forces if an individual does not know the SWOT analysis model and the Porter 5 forces model then they will try to innovate a product in the unknown market and launch without knowing anything and hopefully, the product launch happens (Phadermrod, Crowder and Wills 2019). Lady luck may indeed make the launch successful but eventually, the brand or the idea will succumb to the unknowns. If these were known to the individuals, then the knowledge could have been utilized correctly, and using the Porter's 5 Forces model a market analysis could have been done this would have allowed the individual to be more prepared to face and compete in the market. A SWOT analysis could have allowed knowledge on the basic strengths and weaknesses along with probable threats and opportunities which could have been utilized and once again playing to the strength and protecting the weakness part along with countermeasures for the threat and development and growth towards opportunity would be possible (Burke and Noumair 2015). Overall it means that formal education would most certainly support the individual in establishing themselves as well as their business model. They will be more ready to handle the various situations that may or may not happen in the pursuit of success. at the same time it is also true that various parts of the formal education may perhaps be irrelevant to the specific job however it is not useless are not required matter. For example for a management specialist doing a marketing project, the education or knowledge calculus may be irrelevant but it may be required by another subject specialist. At the same time, it is to be understood that formal education has plenty of importance in the innovation of the product. For example, A creative person has an idea of making a product that is an innovation in the technology field and is about to bring disruption to the market however without the knowledge of engineering nor marketing, or other subjects the person cannot even start the planning phase even the individual does it as mentioned earlier it may not work as there could be various defects with the product (Anderson 2016). At the same time, there could be flaws in the planning of marketing.  Apart from models and structures, there are plenty of other important things that formal education teaches. The first matter is discipline, the most used word in the school, and teachers and parents are responsible to teach this aspect. Discipline is the number one factor that makes or breaks a project or business in general. In the workplace, the mentality of innovation and creativity may allow the employees to think outside the box and work with creative methods (Edwards-Schachter et al. 2015). This can be a double-edged sword as the methods may bring the best quality performance and output in the most efficient way or it may turn out to be the polar opposite at the same time it may not be the correct method. At first, it will not show the results, or any kind of predictive analysis will be absent so when proceeding with these factors it may fail however this is where knowledge and formal education play a role (Pervan, Curak, and Pavic Kramaric 2017). If the individuals have enough formal education then they will be able to figure out what are the possibilities and the probability of the outcome of their proposed creative innovative method and based on that they can either start working or reject the idea. Formal education can never be considered to be useless or irrelevant in the process of innovation. It will always provide the individuals with knowledge and skills practiced in nature that can enforce the ideas and ambitions of the individuals who have the desire and passion for innovation and entrepreneurship (Parker 2018).

Two Different Approaches Believed by Managers

There are always different types of managers that will be running an organization and as we know leaders are of various types each have their own set of beliefs and way of working. Many theorists or management experts believe that it is extremely unethical for any kind of manager to make the employees forcefully work based on their favorite methods (Merchant and White 2017). The method that the manager may prefer may not be preferred by some employees, under no circumstance does this mean that the manager can force or influence their employees to do what they prefer. Managers are meant to motivate and inspire the employees to work more and maintain ethics they should make sure that their work methods are never manipulated (Huettmann, Schmid, and Humphries 2015). At the end of the day, the methods that individuals will obtain to perform their duties are up to the effective or ineffective is the by-product of the methods that the individual chooses whether it is applying and giving formal education importance or to chose free flow of work with the hope of luck on the side.

Conclusion

It is quite evident that formal education will play a major role in every individual’s professional life. Formal education will always enforce the ideas and support the ambitions of individuals. They don't need to teach discipline, punctuality, and other moral values however they are also responsible to teach the various practical approaches of various models and methods along with techniques that will allow the individual to work better. The importance of formal education is a must to understand as this focuses on enforcing ideas, reducing the risk involved in the innovation and innovative methods that individuals take to achieve success. The education will teach various techniques that will have a practical approach and effectiveness in real-life innovative measures.

Reference

Afuah, A., 2020. Innovation management strategies, implementation, and profits.

Anderson, T., 2016. Theories for learning with emerging technologies. Emergence and innovation in digital learning: Foundations and applications, 1, pp.35-50.

Burke, W.W. and Noumair, D.A., 2015. Organization development: A process of learning and changing. FT Press.

Edwards-Schachter, M., García-Granero, A., Sánchez-Barrioluengo, M., Quesada-Pineda, H. and Amara, N., 2015. Disentangling competencies: Interrelationships on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Thinking skills and creativity, 16, pp.27-39.

Huettmann, F., Schmid, M.S. and Humphries, G.R.W., 2015. The first overview of open access digital data for the Ross Sea: complexities, ethics, and management opportunities. Hydrobiologia, 761(1), pp.97-119.

Merchant, K.A. and White, L.F., 2017. Linking the Ethics and Management Control Literatures?. In Advances in Management Accounting. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Mintzberg, H., 2017. Developing theory about the development of theory. In Handbook of middle management strategy process research. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Nambisan, S., Lyytinen, K., Majchrzak, A. and Song, M., 2017. Digital Innovation Management: Reinventing innovation management research in a digital world. MIS Quarterly, 41(1).

Parker, S.C., 2018. The economics of entrepreneurship. Cambridge University Press.

Pervan, M., Curak, M. and Pavic Kramaric, T., 2017. The influence of industry characteristics and dynamic capabilities on firms’ profitability. International Journal of Financial Studies, 6(1), p.4.

Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2019. Importance-performance analysis-based SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management, 44, pp.194-203.

Zhu, C., 2015. Organizational culture and technology-enhanced innovation in higher education. Technology, Pedagogy, and Education, 24(1), pp.65-79.