Reflection 3 "Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Peter Drucker"

The overall premise of the book was focusing on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. It firsts begin by defining what those two are exactly. It goes on to say that the practice of innovation is purposeful and a discipline as well as the practice of entrepreneurship is the institution that is the carrier of innovation. It firsts begin by defining what those two are exactly. It goes on to say that the practice of innovation is purposeful and a discipline as well as the practice of entrepreneurship is the institution that is the carrier of innovation. Entrepreneurship and Innovation are two concepts that are amongst the basis of our United States economic growth. This can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution which served as the transition over from rural agricultural communities to that of industries. This lead to the use of several items such as iron, steel, coal, petroleum and etc.  It goes on to further distinguish the two and talk about the seven sources for innovative opportunity. One of the first things it talks about is the unexpected success and gives examples of various companies and individuals that have benefited from this such as the discovery of Nylon being from somebody leaving the burners on too long.  Lastly, it goes on talk about the strategies that go with entrepreneurship as well as the practices of both. All in all, the general theme is describing the two concepts and what they consist of.

First of foremost, the class is called principles of entrepreneurship and the book talks of innovation and entrepreneurship. I feel as if they align directly with the course. It goes into defining entrepreneurship and then analyzing the various aspects of it.  In this class though, we go a step further and apply the skills we are learning about with the various activities. Then we look at our classmates to see how they interpreted the assignment and applied it to their business venture. It also goes over practices and steps to take in order to in order to for it to apply under the umbrella term.

If I had to design an exercise for this class, it would be incorporating one of the sources of innovative opportunity. The source is the “Innovation based on process need.” The activity would require students to find the “weak link” within competitors in the industry they are trying to join/launch the product in. this would allow them to align and see if their current proposal satisfies that weak link the competitors currently have. If not, then that gives an added dimension to incorporate in their proposal.  Moreover, the assignment would require them to look at their current proposal and see if they can spot their weakest link. This would form them to think of means to combat this weak link and minimize it.

One of my biggest “aha” moments in this book was the various examples of how several companies became what they are today.  One of them aligns with the changes in industry or structure that it talked about.  One of the examples it gave was pertaining to cars.  It talked about how Rolls Royce took on the identity of being a luxury cars amongst the others while Porsche personified being a sports car.  It was pretty cool to see how despite the era they found a way to exploit a change in the market.  It also shows that despite how you may think the market is, there is a possibility to for opportunity if marketed correctly.