It’s a changing world out there and being part of a start-up is the new cool in town. But to be honest, innovation is one of the most abused words of our time. Practically everyone seeks it, many claims to have achieved it but only a few can understand what it actually means and what it takes to accomplish something truly unprecedented and disruptive. So do you have your innovation check-list before jumping on the train of success?
Yes, it does start with a bulb, lighting in the brain.
It’s all about the idea in the beginning. And that’s all you need to get you all fired up and motivated. If it’s amazing, you will know it. Ground-breaking ideas are not forced, they are not pretentious and they feel scary. They can pop at any given time. You will most probably have no clue on how you’re going to get things done and you will understand early on that there’s a risk to it. The greater the idea, the bigger the risk. So what do you do next? Well, what every successful entrepreneur, start-upper should do. Risk management!
Learn, learn, learn.
The more you investigate (and invest time) on the field you’re interested in developing your idea, the better understanding you are going to have of your next steps. Make sure that you have a knowledge of what has been done up to now, how it was done, what worked and what didn’t. This way, you start charting those unchartered waters.
Find the right partners
There’s a cliché old saying that you might have heard. ‘Alone you will go faster but together, you’ll go further’. It’s cliché for a reason. It’s tested and it works. It might be your idea but teaming up with the right strategic partners and with people who might have a greater knowledge of the field, can help bring the idea to life. Understandable, it’s your idea and no one takes will ever take that away from you. But accept their help, better yet, seek it, ask for it. Developers, IT professionals, marketers, designers, data analysts, accountants, you name it. In other words, professionals.
There’s a place made to innovate
It’s the Microsoft Innovation Centre at the EUC and it provides you with enormous potential. The reason for it is that it was meant to be used not just as an idea generator but as an idea implementor. It gives you state of the art technology facilities and access to valuable academic and industry information. It’s the powerful hub where your desired community of the 21st-century dreamers meet, to teach and to learn and it’s where you will meet your future partners-in-shine! You should already be there!
It’s a simple start list for a start-up but it will get you from point A to point B, and once you set the foundation, all you need to left is start building it up in concrete. That might take even more time, and a lot of ‘revisiting the idea architecture plan’. But you will get it finished!