INNOVATION
To Be A Successful
Innovator You Must Be A
Good Entrepreneur
By Eugene Wanekeya
I
t is common knowledge that there is
nothing new under the sun. All the
best innovations the world has seen
thus far have always been improvements
made on already existing concepts.
Nonetheless, innovators hold a special
place in the world as they do not accept to
be limited by such sentiments.
Metaphorically speaking, an innovator
may not be able to invent a unique
alternative to the wheel but they never run
out of new applications for it.
Most innovations come out of a need
to solve an existing problem but in as
much as one may have a newer and better
technological approach to the problem,
getting the respective industry to accept
this new technology is a different ball
game. Innovation is simply the first of
many steps in gaining market acceptance.
Hence, to succeed as an innovator you
must be a good entrepreneur and if you
lack the entrepreneurial skill then partner
up with someone who possesses it. This
however still does not give you as an
innovator the permission to be ignorant
about the business.
Case in point, the late Steve Jobs, one of
the most creative minds of modern times
and the founder of Apple at some point
found himself kicked out of his own
company. If his grasp of the business was
as good as his grasp of the technology
behind the business at the early stages
of his career then maybe he would have
anticipated his board’s plan to pull the rug
from right under his feet.
He learnt his lesson the hard way but
fortunately for him, he got a do over and
was back at the helm of Apple a few years
later and consequently led the company to
become one of the most profitable in the
world.
Good entrepreneurial skills are vital for an
innovator as it helps build the foundation
as well as plot the direction the business
will take. While at their infancy, most
start-ups have a challenge in controlling
While you are a start-up, proof of concept is
much valuable than a perfect product. Where-
as an innovator may have difficulty grasping
this logic, an entrepreneur will easily get it.
The ability to make such decisive decisions is
precisely why your start-up must have a perfect
marriage between innovation and entrepre-
neurship in order to be successful.
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their burn rate and that is precisely why
the number of companies that fail is much
higher than the number of those that
succeed.
Decisions on when to spend and what to
spend on are crucial. For instance, a good
number of innovators spend too much of
their limited resources trying to perfect
their product at the expense of protecting
their intellectual property through taking
advantage of trademark, copyright and
patent laws.
Logic dictates that since there are no laws
enabling innovators to protect their ideas,
it is a smart move to complete a functional
prototype and then file for the necessary
patents. This then gives you the freedom
to pitch to potential investors for capital
to enable you perfect the product and
implement your go-to-market strategy.
While you are a start-up, proof of concept
is much valuable than a perfect product.
Whereas an innovator may have difficulty
grasping this logic, an entrepreneur will
easily get it. The ability to make such
decisive decisions is precisely why your
start-up must have a perfect marriage
between innovation and entrepreneurship
in order to be successful.
Eugene Wanekeya is a Marketing and
Communications Consultant and co-
founder of Dumisha Africa. You can
commune with him on this or related
matters via mail at: [email protected].