Entrepreneurship is something that is of high importance in driving economic development. It is because of this phenomenon that immense opportunities are create and more and more employment options are generated, which in turn has a positive effect on various aspects including revenue generation, per capita income, lifestyle, and so on. Entrepreneurship is same as doing any other business venture, but has some of the characteristics that distinguishes it from a traditional approach.

1. Innovation is one such characteristic which involves critical examination of current business scenarios and devising new ways to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
2. Resource optimization also features in the list, whereby an entrepreneur makes full use of resources to generate efficient business processes.
3. Risk taking is at the root of entrepreneurship and revolves around the ability and courage to take new risks.
4. New niches and enterprises are created, providing exciting job opportunities for people.
5. And on top of all is creativity, which is a must have skill and characteristic of an entrepreneur.

Fig1 : Entrepreneurship Phenomenon

The role of creativity in entrepreneurship

Creativity is a crucial skill for an entrepreneur, and helps in devising interesting processes and products. Now the question is what makes creativity so crucial and impactful for an entrepreneur. Let’s have a look and try to understand the importance of creativity:-

1. Optimal utilization of employee potential: An entrepreneur utilizes full employee potential by encouraging creativity in workplace. There might be an ocean of ideas which are being dormant and ready to be utilized. By tapping on such creativities, an entrepreneur can reap results in the form of profitability, financial strength, and effective decision making.
2. Competitive advantage: Creativity leads to generation of novel and innovative ways of doing business. Exploring new niches and generating new ideas lead to efficiency and eventually give an entrepreneur the required edge over the competition.
3. Product development: Creativity encourages new ways of developing an existing product or service, thereby optimizing business activities in the organization. A creative entrepreneur knows how to make improvements in the deliverables of an enterprise.
4. Changing the status quo: Creativity enables an entrepreneur to get new perspectives towards business processes or financial/operational problems. It is creativity that helps an entrepreneur to abandon status quo and follow a path of immense discoveries. Creativity ignores ‘’usual’’ or ‘’normal’’, and lets an entrepreneur think outside of the box. Traditional solutions are shut and new, interesting, & versatile options are explored. It leads to ‘’Thinking the Unthinkable’’.
5. Developing new niches: It is also very important for an entrepreneur to analyze the traditional business approach and come up with new aspects of doing business activities. This can lead to a change in the methods of manufacturing or service delivery or supply chain, and so on. This all generates new niches for a potential business and leads to success.

It should also be noted here that creative thinking is not the only attribute needed for successful entrepreneurship. Some of other areas pointed out by researches include Interpersonal skills, personal traits, practical skills, critical thinking, and so on. Nevertheless, creativity is a must have skill in an entrepreneur. If simply put – creativity involves thinking freely but focusing on the major question to be answered, the product to be developed, or the areas to be improved.