Importance of the Economy and Society Investing on Creativity and Innovation
Discuss about the Importance of Creativity and Innovation.
Creativity and innovation have become crucial skills for achieving success in the developing economies. Creativity is the ability to come up with new ideas while innovation refers to implementing such ideas. The two aspects of entrepreneurship play the key role as they are the backbones of the business enterprises. While business activities form the key pillar of any economy which the society depends on, it is important that people embrace new ideas of developing business and exploring new opportunities and then innovating them. The modern business world has become more dynamic with management challenges hence a need for creative insights. Having creativity is what sustains the operations and livelihood of a business. This report focuses on the importance of investing in creativity and innovation, the benefits, and the challenges faced by the Bangladesh government as it invests in them. Bangladesh is one of the developing countries, hence it is important to assess how investing in creativity and innovation can help the country to improve on their economy.
Creativity and innovation is the core aspect of any growing economy as they help to eliminate redundancy in business practices. They contribute to a healthy economy especially in the modern business world which is faced with a lot of dynamics. The two aspects provide an approach to developing new opportunities and advantages through the production of new products and services which improve effectiveness. The World Development Report indicated that the industries which are a creative help to boost the economy and development. A creative economy involves the use of new media, audiovisual products, and performing arts and contributes much in terms of job creation, income generation, and export earnings. For instance, in 2013, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reported that the developing countries earned an annual growth of 10% from the exports of creative goods. A creative economy provokes the creation of job opportunities for its citizens which in return means an improvement in the overall well-being of the communities and quality of life hence promoting a sustainable development. Creativity and innovation enhance the livelihoods of the citizens as they open up wider opportunities for business transactions (Mesquita & Sarmento, 2011). Social innovation helps to solve certain challenges such as unfair trade, restorative justice, and mobile money transfer. It enables people to avoid the narrow ways of thinking about business engagement and social enterprises and make them realized the interconnectedness of various stakeholders and business factors. It is through creativity and innovation that a country will invent new and improved products which will earn a competitive advantage in the global market, hence advancing the income earned thereof.
How Bangladesh Can Facilitate the Creativity and Innovation
Creativity is a continuous process which has no limits. For the country to facilitate the process, it is important to identify the problems facing the economy such as corruption, poverty in rural areas, poor infrastructure, and poor tax collection rates, unemployment, poor education standards, and inequality in the distribution of resources. Some practices can make the process systematic. Communication is a key aspect of growing the economy. The government can encourage open communication among the owners of companies to ensure that business people are aware of what their fellow business associates are dealing with. This can lead to the generation of new ideas due to the stimuli they receive. The idea of a company hiding information concerning what they deal with and how they do it from other people is not professional. Thus, the government should encourage sharing of information to stir up creativity and innovation and hence expand the companies to new markets. Encouraging individual action is also essential in provoking creativity and innovation.
Encouraging the use of the internet by building the basic digital infrastructure whereby companies can take the resources and invent new products and services. The government should capitalize on the nation. It should embrace a welfare state model whereby the government invests in the creativity initiatives by giving start-ups capital and connect its people with research labs and universities. This will ensure that the business enterprises in the country are linked with the new scientific knowledge and facilitate maximum growth potential. This welfare state model of innovation should encourage the infusion of entrepreneurship and capital at all the stages of growth. By linking the investors with the global research institutions, they will be able to explore in a wide capacity and enumerate new ideas of innovation hence implement them in their businesses and help in developing the economy in the long run.
By implementing policies such as the intellectual property rights policy which promotes the awareness of the social, cultural, and economic benefits of IPRS (Lundstedt & Colglazier, 2013). This policy stimulates enhancing the environmental protection so that the resources are put into beneficial and maximum use, food security to avoid exploitation of the consumers and access to healthcare.
Benefits Bangladesh Could Get If It Invests On Boosting the Creativity and Innovation
It will boost the economy of the country in a great way. When the companies in Bangladesh embrace creativity, the value brought forth by every new product invented cannot be measured. A new product may face challenges at first implementation and release into the market. However, as it gains prominence and when its benefits win the customers’ confidence, they tend to ignore the old products and embrace the new ones. This is not only in the producing country but to the global market. Thus, after gaining a world-wide fame, the foreign income it earns will improve the economy of Bangladesh (Abrahamson et al, 2013). Promoting creativity and innovation will also attract new investors who will earn the country foreign income. As the country promotes creativity and innovation, global investors will also get attracted to hire innovative ideas from India and earn foreign income as well.
Benefits Bangladesh Could Get If it Invests on Boosting the Creativity and Innovation
Creativity leads to the invention of new products. While new products are invented, their demand for labor increases which means the creation of employment opportunities. The creative industries will always have opportunities for new employees hence this will curb the problem of unemployment. Additionally, creativity always enables to reach new opportunities for production and emerging competitive businesses (Mesquita & Sarmento, 2011). This is because it will turn the country into a place where people can work with no boundaries. While people are allowed to exploit new ideas, they get new opportunities to exploit and this enlarges their global capacity to transact businesses hence the creation of greater job opportunities (Sachs, 2011). This is because the employees will not be stuck in unproductive ruts which limit the boundaries of employment opportunities. Thus, as people exploit new opportunities, more gaps in the production process in the companies are created which call for more workers.
Bureaucracy
Bangladesh operates under a bureaucratic system which was formed during the industrial era of military and economic crisis about a century ago. Although some changes have been made to correct it, there are still many areas which need to be rectified in order to reduce the severity of the system (Abrahamson, Ryder & Unterberg, 2013). This system makes the potential investors both local and foreign to withdraw the ideas due to the prolonged delays in approving the projects by the authorities. Some of the challenges induced by the bureaucratic system include political interventions, lack of government incentives, and freedom in decision making (Beule & Nauwelaerts, 2013). While various business associates may have great ideas for innovation, they may just withhold them and fail to innovate them due to fear of bureaucracy.
This is a vice facing the country as it is ranked high in corruption at the global level. An entrepreneur may have great creative and innovative ideas but the bribes demanded by the authorities to enable him or she implement the idea becomes a challenge. Scams and dishonest in the government authorities instills fear and redundancy to the aspiring business innovators (Grant & Grant, 2016). Thus, however, an investor may be creative and innovative, there are no motivating factors to boost their ideas in the business sector.
The work culture in Bangladesh demands that people appear physically at workplaces more than what their output is (Isar & Anheier, 2009). In the modern world, people are allowed to work from home or wherever they want as long as the value of output is maintained to the relevant standards (Aurifeille, 2005). This allows them to have free time from workplaces which are a great opportunity to explore new ideas of innovation. However, in Bangladesh, the presence at the workplace is valued more than what the employees are able to produce and this becomes a challenge in creativity and innovation (Cruickshank, 2014). A person who is forced to stay at work for the stated amount of time is less to be creative and innovative than one who is allowed to work from their place of choice, as they are free to do their research of innovative ideas.
Conclusion
Creativity and innovation go hand in hand in promoting the operation and expansion of a business enterprise. A creative company is a flourishing company as it enables a company to explore new ideas, markets, and technology and when invented, bring forth increased productivity for expansion of the economy. A country like Bangladesh can facilitate creativity and innovation through maximizing the use of the internet for exploration and implementing supportive policies. This will benefit the country by creating job opportunities and improving the economy. However, the country is faced with various challenges such as corruption, bureaucracy, and old-fashioned work culture which hinders creativity and innovation. For the country to realize the benefits of these two aspects of entrepreneurship, it is important to address such challenges.
References
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