Introduction to Innovation

and Entrepreneurship
Course Code: EP21201

Offered by Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship

(A course to expose you to various aspects and processes required for

skills in Entrepreneurship)
 What is Innovation?
• Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of
new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO
56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entity realizing or redistributing value".
It has a focus on newness, improvement, and spread of ideas or technologies.
• Innovation often takes place through the development of more-effective products,
processes, services, technologies, art works or business models that innovators make available
to markets, governments and society.
Innovation is related to, but not the same as, invention.
• Innovation is more apt to involve the practical implementation of an invention (i.e. new / improved
ability) to make a meaningful impact in a market or society, and not all innovations require a new
invention.
• Technical innovation often manifests itself via the engineering process when the problem being solved
is of a technical or scientific nature. The opposite of innovation is exnovation.

Source : Wikipedia
 Innovation versus Invention
Invention Innovation
• Marked by discovery or state of • Marked by first use, in manufacturing or in market
new existence, usually at the lab • Innovation is composed of two parts :
or bench (1)The generation of an idea or invention and
(2) the conversion of that invention into a
business or other useful application
• Innovation = Invention(1) + Exploitation(2)

The term ​“creative” refers to the ability to think and act in novel ways.
Invention requires creativity in the sense that it depends on the inventor’s ability to create a vision of what
they think they are able to build, and to make something happen that no one else has ever done before.
An inventor’s creative vision is constrained by the framework of reality by figuring out how to do
something in a novel way, working within the constraints of what is possible through science.
Historic Innovators
• Leonardo Da Vinci
• James Watt
• Thomas Alva Edison
• Alexander Graham Bell

• Can you recall the inventions of each?

• These inventions -> innovations
 Historic Inventions
Source : History.com Source: Britannica
Printing Press (Gutenberg’s Machine, Mainz, 1440) Stone Tools (Homo habilis)
The Magnetic Compass (China 14th Century) Dagguerreotype (1830s)
Paper Currency (China 9th Century) Saxophone (1846)
Steel (Bessemmer Process 1850s) Bessemmer Process (Bessemmer and Kelly) 1840s
Electric Light (Thomas Edison, 1879 patent) Celluloid (Hyatt 1860s)
Domestication of Horses Edison Cylinder phonograph 1857
Transistors (1947, Bell Laboratories) Wright flyer 1903
Magnifying Lenses Iconoscope television camera and kinescope receiver (1923)
The Telegraph (Samuel Morse) Integrated Circuit jack Kilby 1958
Antibiotics (Penicillin by Alexander Fleming 1928) Apple Personal Computer
The Steam Engine (2698, 1700s by James Watt) Space travel
Self Driving cars, Lab grown meat, wearable Electronics,
Virtual Superstars, Private space flight, mind controlled
prosthesis
Historic Indian Innovations
Source: Indiatimes Article (26 Jan 2018)
• Ancient Dentistry (7000 BC)
• Ayurveda (5000 BC)
• Ancient flush toilet systems (2500 BC)
• Ruler (scale) – 2400 BC
• Weighing scale – 2400 BC
• Plastic surgery (Sushruta 600 BC)
• Pythagorean Theorem (700 BC - Baudhayana Sulba Sutra)
• Crucible steel (200 BC)
• Cataract Surgery (200 AD / different from Greek method 200 BC)
• Spinning Wheel (Charkha) 500 AD
Inventions can be by chance (accident)
• Microwave Oven
• Penicillin
• Anaesthesia
• Artificial Sweeteners / Botox
• Potato Chips
• Implantable pacemaker
• Popsicles / corn flakes / chewing gum / play doh
• Radioactivity
• Stainless steel
• PTFE (Teflon)
 Innovation as a process

"Innovation is the multi-stage process whereby organizations transform ideas into

new/improved products, service or processes, in order to advance, compete and
differentiate themselves successfully in their marketplace"
• Idea Generation and Mobilization
• Advocacy and Screening
• Experimentation
• Commercialization
• Diffusion and Implementation
Innovation is the specific function of entrepreneurship, whether in an existing
business, a public service institution, or a new venture started by a lone individual
in the family kitchen. It is the means by which the entrepreneur either creates new
wealth-producing resources or endows existing resources with enhanced potential
for creating wealth. – Peter Drucker
What is Entrepreneurship?
• entrepreneurship /ɒntrəprəˈnəːʃɪp/
• noun
the activity of setting up a business or businesses, taking on financial
risks in the hope of profit.
"the new business opportunities have encouraged entrepreneurship on
a grand scale“ [Oxford Languages]
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of value. With this
definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing
risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which
may include other values than simply economic ones. [Wikipedia]
 Entrepreneurship as process
1. Idea generation 1. Self Discovery - is to learn what a person enjoys doing and examining
their strengths and weaknesses
2. Decision making and business
planning 2. Identifying opportunities - relates to looking for needs ,wants,
problems and challenges that are not yet being met or dealt
3. Project Creation effectively.
4. Management and Control 3. Generating and evaluating ideas : concerned with using creativity and
past experience to devise new and innovative ways to solve a problem
or meet a need.
4. Planning - the plan phase which involves researching and identifying
resources needed to turn the idea into a viable venture.
5. Arranging startup capital - Attracting new investors , venture
capitalists and partners to arrange sufficient funds to start an
enterprise.
6. Start up - Launching the venture ,developing a customer base and
adjusting marketing and operational plans as required.
7. Growth - Make the enterprise growing by adapting to new
circumstances.
8. Harvest - Sell the product in the market and earn the revenue to grow
further.
The Innovation and Business interlink
 Various Innovation Models

https://www.viima.com/blog/types-of-innovation

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/10-types-of-innovation-
the-art-of-discovering-a-breakthrough-product/
Some Entrepreneurs and Innovations (Source: Wikipedia)

• Global
o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entrepreneurs

o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_historic_inventions

• Indian
ohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_entrepreneurs

ohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Indian_innovation
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Product Development

• Innovation as a process

• Entrepreneurship as a process

• Product Development

• Service Development

• Types of Products/services
 4 Types of Innovation

Source: HBR; https://hbr.org/2017/06/the-4-types-of-innovation-and-the-problems-they-solve

Sustaining innovation.
• Majority of innovation instances, as most of the time we are seeking to get better at
what we’re already doing.
• Goal is to improve existing capabilities in existing markets,
o there exists a pretty clear idea of what problems need to be solved, and
o the skill domains are required to solve them.
• These types of problems require,
o conventional strategies like strategic roadmapping,
o traditional R&D labs, and
o using acquisitions to bring new resources and skill sets into the organization are usually effective.
• Design thinking methods
o helpful if both the problem and the skills needed to solve it are well understood.
o Examples: Stanford’s d.school and David Kelley, founder of the design firm IDEO
Breakthrough innovation.
• Certain situations, like detecting pollutants underwater, one has a well-
defined problem that is typically very hard to solve.
• These cases needs one to explore unconventional skill domains,
o like, adding a marine biologist to a team of chip designers.
• Open innovation strategies can be highly effective,
o they help to expose the problem to diverse skill domains.
• Thomas Kuhn explained in the The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, we
advance in specific fields by creating paradigms, which sometimes can
make it very difficult to solve a problem within the domain in which it
arose
— but the problem may be resolved fairly easily within the paradigm of an adjacent
domain.
 Disruptive innovation.
• Term coined by HBS professor Clayton Christensen
o concept of disruptive innovation in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma.
• His study of why good firms fail, he found that what is normally considered best
practice can be lethal in some situations:
o listening to customers,
o investing in continuous improvement, and
o focusing on the bottom line
• His observation that when the basis of competition changes, due to technological
shifts or other changes in the marketplace,
o companies can find themselves getting better and better at things people want less and less.
• In such cases, innovating your products won’t help
o one has to innovate the business model.

https://cdnsecakmi.kaltura.com/p/506471/sp/50647100/playManifest/entryId/1_7sq94w23/format/url/protocol/https
/flavorParamId/457711/video.mp4?ts=1465572350
Basic research
• Pathbreaking innovations never arrive fully formed.
• Always begin with the discovery of some new phenomenon.
• No one could guess how Einstein’s discoveries would shape the world, or that Alan
Turing’s universal computer would someday become a real thing.
• As Neil deGrasse Tyson said when asked about the impact of a major discovery, “I don’t
know, but we’ll probably tax it.”
• Notably, Einstein’s discoveries now play essential roles in technologies ranging from
nuclear energy to computer technologies and GPS satellites.
• Large enterprises, like IBM and Procter & Gamble, have the resources to invest in labs to
pursue basic research.
• Others, Experian’s DataLabs, encourage researchers and engineers to go to conferences
and hold internal seminars on what they learn.
• Google invites about 30 top researchers to spend a sabbatical year at the company and
funds 250 academic projects annually.
 4 Types of Innovation (another view)
1. Incremental Innovation
• Existing Technology, Existing Market
• Uses existing technologies within an existing market.
• Goal is to improve an existing offering by adding new features, changes in the design, etc.
• Example: Smartphone market where the most innovation is only updating the
hardware, improving the design, or adding some additional
features/cameras/sensors, etc.
2. Disruptive Innovation
• New Technology, Existing Market
• Disruptive innovation is mostly associated with applying new technologies, processes,
or disruptive business models to existing industries.
• Sometimes new technologies and business models seem, especially in the beginning, inferior to
the existing solutions but after some iterations, they surpass the existing models and take over
the market due to efficiency and/or efficacy advantages.
• Examples:
• Amazon used Internet-Technologies to disrupt the existing industry for book-shops. They had https://morethandigital.info/en/innovation-definition-
the existing market for books but changed the way it was sold, delivered and experienced due to innovation-types-and-meaning/
the use of disruptive technologies.
• The iPhone, where existing technologies in the market (Phones with buttons, keypads, etc.)
were replaced with touch-interface-centered devices combined with intuitive user interfaces.
4 Types of Innovation (another view) … contd.
3. Architectural Innovation
• Existing Technology, New Market
• Architectural innovation is seen with tech giants like Amazon, Google, and
many more at the moment. They take their domain expertise, technology, and
skills and apply them to a different market. This way they can open up new
markets and expand their customer base.
• Examples: digital ecosystem orchestrators like Amazon and Alibaba use
this innovation strategy to enter new markets. They use existing
expertise in building apps, platforms, and their existing customer base
to offer new services and products for different markets. A recent
example for this: Amazon recently entered the medical care field.
4. Radical Innovation
• New Technology, New Market
• The common stereotypical way most people see innovation - it is the rarest
form of all.
• Radical innovation involves the creation of technologies, services, and business
models that open up entirely new markets.
• Example: The best example of radical innovation was the invention of https://morethandigital.info/en/innovation-definition-
innovation-types-and-meaning/
the airplane. This radical new technology opened up a new form of
travel, invented an industry, and a whole new market.
8 Fields of Innovations
1. Product & Product Performance Innovation
2. Technology Innovation
3. Business Model Innovation
4. Organizational Innovation
5. Process Innovation
6. Marketing / Sales – New Channel Innovation
7. Network Innovation
8. Customer Engagement / Retention
 Rajendra Mishra
School of Engineering Entrepreneurship
Course Content

Topic Hours* Faculty

1. Entrepreneurial motivation/ Introduction 1+2 CSK, MKM
2. Introduction to B Plan 1+1 RBR
Module A 12
3. Design Thinking and Affordable Innovation 2+2
PKD
4. Product Innovation 2+2
BC
5. Digital Technology for Entrepreneurship 2+1
MS
6. Analytics-based opportunities 1 RBR
Module B 14
7. Going to market Strategy 2+2
BB
8. Startup Economics 2+2 PB
9. Market considerations for startups 2+2
MB
Module C: 6
10. Factors influencing success of a business 1+2
MKM
11. Funding options of your business 1+2
TB
 Contents of the course
Topic Description
1. Entrepreneurial motivation/ Introduction
Why should one choose to become an entrepreneur (1hr), Entrepreneurial mindset (1hr), Intrapreneurship (1hr)
2. Design Thinking and Affordable Innovation
Introduction to engineering design process and the concept of frugal engineereing for developing innovative affordable products
3. Product Innovation
Introduction to the bottle necks of new product innovation process (2h), Case/Project (2h)
user interface(to be evaluated at the end)

4. Startup Economics
Economic consideration for starting a venture (1hr), Understanding Feasibility analysis (2hr), Project/ Case discussion (1hr)
5. Going to market Strategy Understanding and delivering Value (1 hour), Product- Market Matrix (1 hour), Delivery Strategy with a Difference (1 hour) Aligning
Projects (1 hour)
6. Market considerations for startups Understanding market, targetinmg customer and positioning product (3 hour) Case Study / project discussion on product for market(
1 hours)
7. Funding options of your business
Bootstrapping (1 hr), angel investors (1hr), incubation and acceleration (1hr), concept of break-even point (1hr)
8. Factors influencing success of a business Business model innovation (1 hr), Business process management (1 hr), competitive advantages (1 hr), Business model canvas (2
hr)
9. B Plan and Analytics-based opportunities Overview of Business Plan Development (1 hr), Preparing Business Concept Document(1 Hr), Entrepreneurship in Data Analytics (1
hr)
10. Digital Technology Entrepreneurship Industry 4.0 landscape and innovations using digital technologies like AI, IOT, Web and Android Applications (2 hr). The basic
technology framework and development platforms (1 hr), along with few examples (1 hr).
 Your journey through the course
Topic Hours* Faculty Dates
1. Entrepreneurial motivation/ Introduction 1+2 CSK, MKM 10/1 (1), 11/1 (2)
2. Introduction to Bplan 1+1 RBR 17/1 (1)
Module A 12
3. Design Thinking and Affordable Innovation 2+1 PKD
4. Product Innovation 2+1 BC
Assessment Week -1
5. Digital Technology Entrepreneurship 2+1 MS
6. Analytics- based opportunities 1 RBR
Module B 14

7. Going to market Strategy 2+1 BB

8. Startup Economics 2+1 PB
Assessment Week -2
9. Market considerations for startups 2+1 MB

Module C: 6

10. Factors influencing success of a business 1+2 MKM

11. Funding options of your business 1+2 TB
Assessment Week -3
Projects and Groups (for the course)
• All students are expected to form groups of 4 members each
• Tentative division (of groups) to be done in initial classes
• Groups will work on projects / ideas to see how something can go
through the journey of Innovation to Entrepreneurship
• Evaluation is based on the process followed and not on the outcome
• Attendance is therefore mandatory in all classes

• Evaluation of theory is based on tests

Thank You

• Wishing you all an enjoyable experience in this course

• Feel free to contact me for any issues

• Feel free to contact faculty (Email on Website https://see.iitkgp.ac.in)

• [email protected]
• [email protected]