Foundation Degree Innovation and Enterprise Essay: Year 1

This essay, written for a Foundation Degree in Business and Management, explores the quote: "As an individual activity, idea generation techniques are a great way to shake up your routine and spark new thoughts. As a collective or organisation, structured ideation can be transformative as a tool for problem solving and collaboration." It discusses the importance of innovation and idea generation, delving into techniques like mind mapping, social listening, and cooperation. The essay reviews relevant literature, evaluates the pros and cons of each technique, and justifies the selection of cooperation as a key tool for generating unique ideas through team effort, emphasizing the development of communication skills and diverse perspectives. It concludes with recommendations for effectively utilizing cooperation and minimizing errors in idea generation.

Innovation and
Enterprise

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Discussion of statement .............................................................................................................3
Discussion of relevant literature.................................................................................................4
Evaluation of options..................................................................................................................4
Justification ................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................5
RECCOMENDATION ...................................................................................................................6
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Application of unique and creative ideas to various aspects of an organisation which
provide increased additional value to the firm and gives advantage to their consumer is termed as
innovation. The present report includes discussion about quote related to innovation and idea
generation with relevant literature and evaluation of options. Justification of the discussion along
with conclusion and recommendation are given in this report.
MAIN BODY
Discussion of statement
“As an individual activity, idea generation techniques are a great way to shake up your
routine and spark new thoughts. As a collective or organisation, structured ideation can be
transformative as a tool for problem solving and collaboration.”
The above statement describes that the process of idea generation and various tools and
techniques related to idea generation provide assistance in coming up with unique solutions to
perceived or existent barriers and opportunities (Greiner, 2020). Idea generation or ideation is
the procedure of forming developing and communicating new idea which becomes the
foundation of innovation strategy. Ideation not only enhances thought process of the individual
but also provides creative tools to members of a team which can be used for idea generation in
any organisational situation.
Discussion of relevant literature
According to Bureau (2020), idea generation plays an important role in success or failure
of an entrepreneurial undertaking. This is because various activities such as product development
and barriers faced by enterprises such as changes in business environment can be effectively
addressed with the help of various idea generation.
Mind mapping: This ideation technique is centred around showcasing information in the
form of connections and relations with various components and portions of information. Various
portions of a data set are connected with the help of images and links (Idea Generation –
Techniques, Tools, Examples, Sources And Activities, 2020) . This ideation technique increases
creativity and enhances the thought process as human brain process information by connecting
various ideas.

Social listening: This ideation tool is based around socialising with industry experts,
communicating with employees consumers and every individual beyond close social circle to
understand their view pints and reactions.
The 5 W's: What, where, why, when and who are termed as the five W's which help
gaining a profound knowledge about any subject which is being discussed.
Co-operation: This process involves including people with differing preselective in the
discussion to generate new ideas (Taghizadeh, Rahman and Marimuthu, 2019).
Evaluation of options
Mind mapping is a significant ideation tool used for exploring a new idea in a profound manner
to understand it's effectiveness.
Pro's: This technique helps in visualisation of various ideas which enhances innovative
thinking. Mind mapping allows individuals to effectively engage with multiple ideas at the
same time. Connecting various ideas helps monitor innovation strategy effectively
(Birudavolu and Nag, 2019).
Con's: This technique is not useful in case of ideas requires detailed study of the
subject. Mind mapping is a time consuming technique as the map needs to modifies constantly.
The 5 W's revolve around understanding an idea with the use of five elements which requires
asking questions related to the idea.
Pro's: Utilisation of this ideation technique also helps in understanding the topic in a
detailed manner. This technique does can be completed in less time with simple resources.
This tool improves the problem solving skills.
Con's:This technique is affected by prejudice of individual. This ideation tool has
limited potential and can not be reused for the same idea.
Co-operation is one of the most useful ideation technique and involves a team effort for
generating ideas (Greiner, 2020).
Pro's: This process is one of the most effective procedures for idea generation as various
viewpoints are able to address wide range of barriers which can be overlooked by limited
perspective of an individual. This technique improves leadership skills and communication
skills of the team
Con's: This is a time consuming process which can result in disputes between various
members of the team.

The most useful ideation technique is co-operation as it focuses on generating unique
ideas through team effort.
Justification
The justification for selecting co-operation technique as an essential an effective idea
generating tool is that co-operation is centred around collaborating with various individuals who
offer different opinions about the idea. Apart from this communication skills of each team
member is developed through corporative thinking (Borgianni and et. al., 2020). Involvement of
individuals from various educational, economical and ethnic background bring different
approaches associated with the idea which creates an innovation strategy with minimum errors.

CONCLUSION
Various ideation techniques are used in order to formulate new ideas. Every idea
generation technique offers certain obstacles which need to be understood in order to construct
an effective idea. Cooperation involves collaborating with various individuals during discussing
about an idea and is one of the most useful ideation technique.
RECCOMENDATION
In order to effectively utilise cooperation technique, communication skills of the team
members need to be developed. In order to reduce disputes teamwork abilities and presence of a
strong leader is necessary so that new idea is generated swiftly with minimum errors.

REFRENCES
Birudavolu, S. and Nag, B., 2019. Business Innovation and ICT Strategies. Palgrave Macmillan.
Borgianni and et. al., 2020. Forms of stimuli and their effects on idea generation in terms of
creativity metrics and non-obviousness. International Journal of Design Creativity and
Innovation, 8(3). pp.147-164.
Greiner, D., 2020. The basics of idea generation. CRC Press.
Taghizadeh, S.K., Rahman, S.A. and Marimuthu, M., 2019. Idea generation leveraged from
value co-creation process enhances new service development performance. Journal of
Strategic Marketing, 27(6). pp.483-504.
Online
Idea Generation – Techniques, Tools, Examples, Sources And Activities, 2020 [Online]
Available through <https://alcorfund.com/insight/idea-generation-2/>