In our view, innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that in the end results in the introduction of new goods or services; or at the very least results in improvement in offering goods or services. In short innovation results in the creation of value.
On the other hand entrepreneurship is the willingness of an individual or group of people to take risks and organize and/or develop business opportunities from ideas in an ever-evolving market. Entrepreneurship involves turning a great idea into a business opportunity. It follows therefore that entrepreneurship begins with innovation.
Innovation helps one to stay ahead of their competition. Innovative thinkers are often able to predict the market, thus enabling themselves to keep up with ever-changing consumer and customer needs. If your business doesn’t innovate it is almost inevitable that you will watch innovative companies bring new ideas to the marketplace and you will have to scramble to keep up.
At Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) we have a clear goal-setting. We hold that goals must be clear enough to align team members, and also loose enough to allow team members the autonomy on how to reach those goals. It is that autonomy and the ability it allows for combining ideas and bringing in new perspectives that enables real creativity to happen.
Breeding a culture of innovation within CEDA also entails an open line of communication with employees. Enabling and entrenching innovation requires creating open communication systems that facilitate idea exchange, coordination and collaboration.
It is important for leadership to allow for direct, frequent, constructive and supportive feedback from staff members, including from the most junior member of staff. This means eliminating and bringing down walls that create opaque bureaucracy, red-tape and inaccessibility. Additionally, leadership should have in place an equitable, generous rewards and recognition system.
Most important in a leadership position is to develop listening skills. It is often said listening is a skill. That is not an exaggeration. An ability to listen means that the leader is also flexible and open to change. There should also be a hunger to succeed and an ability to recognize potential and talent.
One of the toughest challenges that we have to deal with at leadership level has to do with recruitment of talent. It is not easy to get people who are talented that also have the right attitude and a good value system. Equally hard for us at CEDA is retaining such talent because as a quasi-public entity we simply cannot compete with the private sector, especially commercial banks that need exactly the same skills set like us.
Other than unemployment and its related evils, one of the biggest challenges facing Botswana has got to do with the entitlement culture among many of our people. There is a feeling among our people that one needs connections for them to access services or to succeed in life. This is wrong and it is the root cause of a culture of entitlement consuming our people.
That culture delays progress. And if we can get rid of it, we will achieve much as a people and country.
