Vignettes for Assignment 1

 

Entrepreneurial start-ups, micro and small-medium enterprises make a substantial contribution to national economies.  Many such enterprises typically operate in industries and sectors where the influence of lockdowns over the past year due to the global pandemic have led to very different experiences.  For example:

 

• Retail

• Hospitality – hotels, restaurants

• Fast food

• Delivery services

• Software/technology

• Care homes

• Religious groups

• Other?

 

We witness winners and losers:

• Winners have experienced increased demand for their services

• Losers have struggled to survive until they are able to resume business as usual

• Many have been pro-active in accelerating creativity and innovation to thrive.

 

Your role, as future leaders, is to be responsible for promoting or sustaining entrepreneurial mindset to support continuous innovation.  In each of the scenarios below consider how this might be achieved?

 

You are required to critically analyse the two scenarios below:

 

• Imagine the future of a struggling start-up, micro or small enterprise as a thriving business.  Using two different techniques (analogy/attribute/gap for example) explore how you might generate ideas to achieve success?

Hint: All the techniques, analogy, attribute, gap analysis are explained here: https://beds.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=cb0d652d-41c0-4d4a-9592-acf400ded4c9

 

• For organisations that have struggled to survive until lockdown eased, how might an entrepreneurial mindset be developed to ignite creativity and innovation?  You will need to critically analyse and recommend a systematic approach using two alternative approaches (e.g. CPS, techniques, design thinking, hackathons etc)