Opportunity Innovation and Entrepreneurship

OPPORTUNITY
INNOVATION AND
ENTREPRENEURSHIP

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
OPPORTUNITY..............................................................................................................................3
INNOVATION................................................................................................................................5
ENTREPRENEURSHIP..................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................12
Background of Steph Croft Simon............................................................................................12

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Steph Croft Simon was pursuing her BSc in Sociology at Bristol University like any
common girl when she developed severe allergies due to her wrong eating habits and neglect.
She then went on through the process of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition where she
identified the need for healthy organic food. She adopted incremental disruption theory of
innovation and has been able to successfully integrate her skills with the personality to emerge as
a star entrepreneur.
INTRODUCTION
Opportunity, innovation and entrepreneurship are three different attributes and yet need to
be present in an individual collectively so that they can be referred as entrepreneur (George and
et.al., 2016). In order to become a successful entrepreneur it is necessary to interlink and excel in
all the three different aspects. The current report will evaluate these three attributes in relation to
Steph Croft Simon who is the owner of a successful entrepreneurship of Nom Foods and the
personality of Steph will be evaluated accordingly. Lastly, a conclusion summarising the key
aspects will also be presented in the report.
MAIN BODY
OPPORTUNITY
The meaning of opportunity, in context of entrepreneurship can be broadly categorised as
the identification of those new and innovative ideas, goods or services which can be exchanged
at a greater price then what they are really worth for. For an entrepreneur, it broadly indicates a
chance to convert something new or innovative into a profitable business against which revenue
can be earned (Ploum and et.al., 2018). There is a proper framework that can be used by
entrepreneurs to recognise the opportunity when it arises and then use it convert into an actual
business. The journey of Steph Croft Simon towards establishment and creation of Nom Foods
can also be categorised in a similar manner along with the process.
The first stage is of existence of an opportunity where there should be some imbalance in
the present status quo of society or economy and some desires or needs should be left unfulfilled
(Baručić and Umihanić, 2016). This creates an existence of a viable opportunity which can lead
to the creation of a business out of it. Steph Croft Simon identified the need of the people to eat
tasty healthy food without compromising on the health aspect i.e. they wanted to preserve their
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health but at the same time they also wanted the taste to be same or even be more better. This is
basically the origin of opportunity that can be successfully converted for Steph.
The second stage is the screening stage where the different opportunities that exist are
screened amongst all the existing opportunities that have been identified. Here the background
knowledge on the products, the different cognitive characteristics that are associated with the
product etc. is identified and taken into consideration so that it can be evaluated that which of
these identified opportunities can be used to generate maximum profit (Yitshaki and Kropp,
2016). In the case of Steph as well, she analysed that the best way to increase the healthy food
consumptions was to launch a new brand that can help people. Thus the careful screening led to
the process of using taste aspect integrated with the healthier food as the best opportunity.
The third stage is the evaluation stage where the different essential factors are evaluated so
that their influence and impact on the overall characteristics for opportunities can be evaluated
and compared helping in selection of the best opportunity amongst all the available ones (Asante
and Affum-Osei, 2019). Steph was able to evaluate amongst the different strategies that were
available before her that in order to make her idea successful, she needed to use different
flavours and spices that are similar to the ones that are used by other companies producing non
healthy food. Additionally, the use of this technique also gave a personal touch to the product
and addressed individual aspects and desired of the targeted population.
The last stage of this process is the exploitation stage where the opportunity has adequately
been assessed and evaluated and now it is time to launch the business idea or the business itself.
This is the stage where actual business opportunities are integrated with the physical being and is
a crucial stage since whatever has been planned must be executed accordingly (Kuckertz and
et.al., 2017). For instance, Steph has also categorised its process where initially only one flavour
and food item was launched but slowly it was expanded to variety of products types and flavours
thus incorporating individual preferences as well.
Therefore the analysis of the different stages of the overall process indicates that how a
business idea or opportunity is identified and evolved so that is can develop into a practical and a
viable idea and then implement it as a business unit. Hence the concept of opportunity was
evaluated and discussed in context of entrepreneurship especially with reference to Steph Croft
Simon.
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INNOVATION
The term innovation basically means the creation of any new idea or concept, products or
services. The act of innovation is not simply instant despite the overall idea that it givens where
the individuals do not simply think of any new product (Christensen and et.al., 2018). It is an
integrated approach that requires both time and resources to come up with a financially and
strategically viable but yet innovative idea or products or services. The emergence of Nom Foods
was also a carefully thought after and need based innovation that led to the creation of the
opportunity. There are different theories of innovation that can be used or accessed.
Disruptive innovation can be understood as the one that creates value by disrupting the
existing market or by creating new one completely from the scratch (Vecchiato, 2017). These
innovations are not good or even satisfactory for the existing market segment thus leading to
lower returns in the initial phase but after the market that has been created exceptionally is
attracted, the returns soar up.
Sustaining innovation on the other hand can be understood by the different types of
innovations that currently exist in market and focus is on the improvement of the existing
markets rather than creation of some entirely new markets (Presbitero, Roxas and Chadee, 2017).
Amongst disruptive and sustaining innovation as well, there can be two categories of radical
and incremental innovation. The radical innovation is extremely rare to happen where a
completely new technology is launched that disrupts the current business models that have been
implemented and leads to the creation of some new models. These amounts to only 10 % of the
total innovation as these are very difficult to formulated and execute (Flor, Cooper and Oltra,
2018). The incremental innovation on the other hand indicates that the innovation is built and
launched gradually through a series of smaller changes that are built over time and mainly by
improvement in the existing products and methods that are prevalent. These are referred as
incremental innovations because of their easy nature and the cost effectiveness that helps in the
easier revenue generation and comparatively much lower risk.
The current entrepreneur in study, i.e. the owner of Nom Food can be said to have adopted
the disruptive style of innovation as she was able to create an entirely new market with her
idea. She was able to identify the lack of tasty and yet healthy food and this appealed to a large
segment of people who realised the opportunity of consuming healthy food without any comprise
in the taste after all (Sheng and Chien, 2016). Further, it can also be identified that amongst the
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two categorises of radical innovation as against the incremental innovation, it can be adequately
said that the innovation style adopted by Steph Croft Simon is incremental innovation where
she gradually brought innovation in the products of Nom Foods by regular improvement
(Kobarg, Stumpf-Wollersheim and Welpe, 2019). Therefore it can be categorised that Steph
Croft Simon falls in the category of Incrementally Disruptive innovator where the changes are
being made in an incremental manner and this ultimately leads to a disruption in the existing
market and manner of operation thus creating disruptive innovation as well.
Thus the aspect of innovation was also studied in detail with regards to the practices that are
adopted by the Steph Croft Simon that indicates that she has adopted a planned and systematic
approach towards generating innovation in the products that are being sold by her brand Nom
Foods which is an innovation in itself.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The term entrepreneurship can be defined as the ability to identify the opportunities
available and to mould the innovations or technologies into the commercially viable products
and services which are earning more returns than their literal value (Frederick, O'Connor and
Kuratko, 2018). This definition of entrepreneurship is adequate in indicating that the concept if
opportunity as well as innovation are included within the concept of entrepreneurship only.
There are a number of categories in the type or style of entrepreneurship i.e. ethnic,
institutional, cultural, feminist, social, nascent, project- based or millennial (Burns, 2016). The
entrepreneurship idea of Nom Foods tends to be more towards the millennial style of
entrepreneurship as it is based on the idea and practices that are more preferred by millennials of
UK.
An entrepreneur can be defined as the person who engages in the process of developing an
entrepreneurship and is the major owner or idea generator bases on which the entrepreneurship is
functioning (Malecki, 2018). Such an entrepreneur is required to have a certain set of
characteristic that can be used to determine the overall personality. The Ocean Model or the Big
5 Model can be used to analyse the different traits of an entrepreneur and to also compare it with
Steph Croft Simon.
 Openness: Openness refers to the acceptance and appreciation of the new and innovative
ideas that are unique and creative and basically involves exploration of the unknown.
Steph Croft Simon can be said to be open about the views as she was able to envision
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Nom foods and was ready to take the risk of investing into this new idea (Azucar,
Marengo and Settanni, 2018).
 Conscientiousness: It is the act of self discipline that one imposes on themselves where
the impulses are regulated and controlled leading to a focused and rigid approach. Steph
is definitely less on the conscientiousness aspect as she decide to drop her schooling and
begin Nom Foods all during her brief time in which she was in hospital shoring she is
spontaneous.
 Extraversion: Extraversion basically segregates extroverts from the introverts stating that
people who are able to easily communicate with other tend to be more successful
entrepreneurs (Husnain and et.al., 2016). In the present case, Steph Croft Simon is as
much of an extrovert as is necessary which makes her easily adjustable with the people
and helps in forming relations as well.
 Agreeableness: Agreeableness indicates amiability of an individual i.e. their capability to
get along with other people in a harmonious manner. This is necessary to positively
develop relationships and skills with other people and have benefitted Steph immensely
in the setting up of Nom Foods successfully.
 Neuroticism: The ability to accept and process the negative situations and emotions in
people is also an important characteristic in them determining the decision making and
emotional stability of an entrepreneur (Cavell and et.al., 2020). Even after such a major
setback in her health, Steph was able to maintain a positive outlook towards the
opportunities in her life which is a major trait showing her strong personality.
Therefore the assessment of the different entrepreneurial skills indicates that Steph Croft
Simon of Nom Foods is an exceptionally strong personality and it is her skills and nature along
with intelligence and persistence that have made her succeed in the venture of Nom Foods.
CONCLUSION
The analysis done in the report above helps in clearly indicating that the three aspects are
critical for the success of an entrepreneur. The analysis of the entrepreneurial opportunity
recognition process helped in understanding that how Steph was able to recognise an opportunity
and make it financially viable. It was also identified that Steph has adopted incremental
disruptive approach to innovation and lastly, Big 5 personality model was used to evaluate the
traits of Steph Croft Simon and she was found to depict the traits of a successful owner in her.
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This report collectively indicates the overall necessity of evaluation and consideration of these
three aspects for an entrepreneur and takes decisions accordingly.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Asante, E.A. and Affum-Osei, E., 2019. Entrepreneurship as a career choice: The impact of locus
of control on aspiring entrepreneurs' opportunity recognition. Journal of Business
Research, 98, pp.227-235.
Azucar, D., Marengo, D. and Settanni, M., 2018. Predicting the Big 5 personality traits from
digital footprints on social media: A meta-analysis. Personality and individual
differences, 124, pp.150-159.
Baručić, A. and Umihanić, B., 2016. Entrepreneurship education as a factor of entrepreneurial
opportunity recognition for starting a new business. Management: journal of
contemporary management issues, 21(2), pp.27-44.
Burns, P., 2016. Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan Limited.
Cavell, T.A., and et.al., 2020. Attachment Tendencies, Big 5 Personality Traits, and Self‐
Efficacy as Predictors of Mentors’ Relationships with Aggressive Children. American
journal of community psychology.
Christensen, C.M., and et.al., 2018. Disruptive innovation: An intellectual history and directions
for future research. Journal of Management Studies, 55(7), pp.1043-1078.
Flor, M.L., Cooper, S.Y. and Oltra, M.J., 2018. External knowledge search, absorptive capacity
and radical innovation in high-technology firms. European Management Journal, 36(2),
pp.183-194.
Frederick, H., O'Connor, A. and Kuratko, D.F., 2018. Entrepreneurship. Cengage AU.
George, N.M., and et.al., 2016. A systematic literature review of entrepreneurial opportunity
recognition: insights on influencing factors. International Entrepreneurship and
Management Journal. 12(2). pp.309-350.
Husnain, M., and et.al., 2016. The impact of electronic word-of-mouth on online impulse buying
behavior: The moderating role of Big 5 personality traits. J Account Mark, 5(190), pp.1-
10.
Kabir, M.N., 2019. Opportunity Development and Commercialization. In Knowledge-Based
Social Entrepreneurship. (pp. 281-310). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
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Kobarg, S., Stumpf-Wollersheim, J. and Welpe, I.M., 2019. More is not always better: Effects of
collaboration breadth and depth on radical and incremental innovation performance at the
project level. Research Policy, 48(1), pp.1-10.
Kuckertz, A., and et.al., 2017. Understanding, differentiating, and measuring opportunity
recognition and opportunity exploitation. International Journal of Entrepreneurial
Behavior & Research.
Leonidou, E., and et.al., 2018. An integrative framework of stakeholder engagement for
innovation management and entrepreneurship development. Journal of Business
Research.
Malecki, E.J., 2018. Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Geography
Compass, 12(3), p.e12359.
Murray, F. and Budden, P., 2017. A systematic MIT approach for assessing ‘innovation-driven
entrepreneurship’in ecosystems. (iEcosystems).
Ploum, L., and et.al., 2018. Exploring the relation between individual moral antecedents and
entrepreneurial opportunity recognition for sustainable development. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 172. pp.1582-1591.
Presbitero, A., Roxas, B. and Chadee, D., 2017. Sustaining innovation of information technology
service providers. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics
Management.
Sheng, M.L. and Chien, I., 2016. Rethinking organizational learning orientation on radical and
incremental innovation in high-tech firms. Journal of Business Research, 69(6), pp.2302-
2308.
Shithila, R.I., and et.al., 2019. Entrepreneurship in the Renewable Energy Sector of Bangladesh:
A Conceptual Analysis for Exploring Opportunity and Challenge. Management of
Sustainable Development. 11(1). pp.5-10.
Vecchiato, R., 2017. Disruptive innovation, managerial cognition, and technology competition
outcomes. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 116, pp.116-128.
Veljanovska, V. and Kurapova, M., 2018. INNOVATION AND
ENTREPRENEURSHIP. Knowledge International Journal. 23(6). pp.1793-1795.
Yitshaki, R. and Kropp, F., 2016. Motivations and opportunity recognition of social
entrepreneurs. Journal of Small Business Management, 54(2), pp.546-565.
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Online
NOM [UK] LTD. 2020. [ONLINE] Available through :< https://www.dnb.com/business-
directory/company-profiles.nom_[uk]_ltd.f569313ef7eb075de0bbb5d7d60ca730.html>
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APPENDIX
Background of Steph Croft Simon
Nom Ld. Has been operating since July 2013 and in the year 2014 itself the owner of the
company was able to achieve the award of Leader of the year 2014 and the major reason behind
this is her ability to identify the existing gap between the availability of the nutritious products.
The company has been able to secure listings from prominent retailers such as Tesco, Ocado,
Holland & Barrett, Whole Foods, Planet Organic etc. and various other local delis, cafes etc. so
that access to their products can increase simultaneously.
Currently, Nom Foods has albeit 13 employees only at present in the UK location of the
company and the revenue that is being generated by the company is approximately $ 148.99
million through its offline as well as online sales. Recently company raised an investment for the
company with the target of $ 100000 and was able to successfully attain this target with an
excess amount of $ 142270 i.e. she was able to generate $ 42270 extra amount which is a huge
investment for a company who is mainly a start- up and is in its initial years (NOM [UK] LTD,
2020). The vision that Steph has given to the company is imminent in the success of the
company and its overall growth.
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Steph Croft Simon, founder and director of Nom Foods. Basically, she is completely
business minded British woman who always be exited to innovate some new things. Nom foods
is also a part Steph Croft Simon’s innovation aspect. In year 2013, she was founded Nom foods
business with different vegan, organic and healthy bars. There are Steph Croft is so creative in
her personal life, because she always be succeeded in creating such things which mostly
positively affect her life (Veljanovskaand Kurapova,2018). With the support of her creativity
skills she has gained great success in its personal life. She was completed her education in the
field of BSc Sociology at University of Bristol. In her an interview, she said that she was too
good in her academic sessions and achieved very appropriate grades or results. Once she said
that her mon was always like to eat organic and healthy food, so this thing of her mother inspired
her for producing or developing healthy, vegan and organic food.
She has always liked cooking. Basically, she was always come from the Greek Cypriot
family background, so that homemade food is one of the major parts of their daily lives.
According to Steph Croft Simon, there are healthy and vegan food always keep healthy to
different people and motivate them for doing different things in very energetic manner.She was
learnt cooking in her childhood. From learning cooking to date, she always like to participate in
different food cooking competitive and ordinary programmes. She has accepted that, her mum
and Grandma was very brilliant cook, and she also said that, her Grandma was the best chef than
her mother.Steph Croft like to some traditional food as well, because this type of foods always
give chance her for representing its culture to different people in the market. According to Steph
Croft, a cook always responsible to produce or develop such variety of food who gives great
satisfaction to people who eaten that food. She deep studied about the different ingredients and
nutritionalsfor making the best quality food. Proper quality is very necessary within food items
for positively affecting people who will be eaten that food.
She has different skills and competencies also which mostly give her an opportunity to
gain very appropriate outcomes within her personal life (Leonidou and et.al., 2018). For
example; she has well-developed communication skills, time management skills, decision-
making skills and cooking skills etc. According to Steph Croft, these all mentioned skills are
enough to her for achieving high success in her personal life. These skills and competencies
enable her for developing her personality and professionalism. In her career of entrepreneurship,
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there are mainly communication skills plays very productive role to her, because without well-
developed skills of communication mostly support to everyone for systematically interacting
each other. On the other side, there are skills of time management also plays very excellent role
to her for properly managing her precious time in different daily entrepreneurial activities.
According to Steph Croft, there are every person in the market should be taken different
productive steps towards developing their different skills and competencies for achieving very
appropriate outcomes in their personal life.
Currently she has fully knowledge of the business. Basically, she knows about how to
deal different organisational situations. It is really very necessary task to different entrepreneurs
in the market, because without having knowledge of business, no entrepreneur can be achieved
excellent outcomes in its personal life. Proper knowledge of business always supports Steph
Croft for systematically understanding the market conditions. For example; few years ago, she
has launched her new product named oats bar by analysing the market conditions. Basically, lots
of people within the United Kingdom and alsoin many other European countries like to consume
oats bars in their daily life (Murray and Budden, 2017). So that, business skills of Steph Croft
have supported her for deeply understanding the actual needs, wants and demands of customers.
This understanding of market was the only way to her which has helped for producing new
product according to market needs.
Creativity attribute of Steph Croft is also very perfect, because with the support of
creativity, she was able to create different flavours of her oat bars products. Currently it serves its
oat bars products many of flavours, like; Cacao & Raspberry,Banana, Cinnamon Maple, Salted
Maple and Tomato Pesto etc. These all products are enough to her for attracting lots of
customers in the market. Currently her company Nom Foods is growing in the UK’s business
environment in very fast manner, so this is really great achievement to her as an entrepreneur.
According to Steph Croft, there are lots of things exists within the market which are highly
affects her in both manners positively and negatively. However, she always takes some
productive steps towards removing these all elements, factors or aspects which can negatively
affect her daily operations of entrepreneurship.
She is completely a risk taker woman who always takes different risky steps to gain
excellent outcomes (Shithilaand et.al., 2019). This attribute of Steph Crofts every new
entrepreneur should be developed in its entrepreneurship career, because without taking some
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risk, no person can become successful entrepreneur. Currently Steph Croft like to use different
social media sites, like; Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. because these all sites or platforms of
social media gives her an opportunity to deep analysis the current market trends. After analysing
market trends, she will be able to produce products and services on the basis of existing market
needs and demands. Currently every business within the market tries to understand the market
demand and needs for gaining huge profit in the market. However, with the support of own
different attributes, Steph Croft is able to gain huge competitive advantage in the market.
Steph Croft has claimed that, any person can simply achieve very high in a business or
enterprise by developing its abilities of innovation and creativity (Kabir, 2019). Basically, these
are key abilities which enable to every person for producing products and services which make
fully satisfied to different people in the market.
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