Innovator or Inventor-Which Trait Does an Entrepreneur Require the Most By innovating a product or business idea, an entrepreneur can create a novel business segment and thus run a business with that

Today, traditional businesses have stepped ahead of times by switching to the online mode and having expanded their reach to a gigantic population. Numerous changes have taken place after the arrival of the internet and shopping is one of those significant variations in the consumer market. Shopping, which enables an individual to travel and buy commodities, has now swapped by online shopping stores such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon and eBay. The online shopping stores offer various benefits to the users such as one's own convenience, delivery at one's doorstep and heavy discounts on commodities. On the other hand, traditional stores don't offer any such benefits and thus shoppers get enticed toward online e-commerce sites.

In a study conducted by ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India), it says, "Helped by fast increasing data consumption and improvement in logistics, over 120 million Indian consumers are expected to shop online, clocking annualized growth of 115 per cent in 2018 as the e-commerce platforms slug it out with discounts and other attractive deals in a wide range of products from clothes, mobile phones, air-conditioners to a whole lot of consumer items."

Besides online shopping stores, there are other business formats, which have progressed with the changing times and have attained a fresh business status.

Innovating Old Business Models or Inventing New Products

For establishing a business, it is not significant to come up with a unique idea. Apart from engaging in new product invention, an entrepreneur can also make for an untapped market or alter an existing business model through innovation skills, which can result in a somewhat new product or trend.

By innovating a product or business idea, an entrepreneur can create an entirely new business segment and thus run a business with that. For instance, Uber Technologies picked the idea of taxi booking and innovated it by introducing an application for users to get a taxi through the click of a button! Similarly, OYO developed its business model by assessing problems in hotel bookings and then came up with its own hotel booking solutions.

According to OYO's Annual Report Card 2018, "OYO has also seen global stayed room nights (Annualised based on December run-rate) increase from 6 million in December 2016 to 13 million in December 2017 to 75 million (99 million based on December 2018 peak) in December 2018 (with a growth of 5.7 times on a year-on-year basis)."

This shows that innovating an idea and implementing it accurately can generate positive results in the business.

Another suitable example is that of Tesla Motors, which built its business model on an all-time popular notion—electric cars. Electric cars were invented in the late nineteenth century and since then many people have invented electric cars but none of them has created electric cars for commercializing purpose. It is Elon Musk, Chief Executive of Tesla Motors, who reestablished Tesla Motors and made electric cars for commercialization purposes, rather than keeping it merely an invention.

So, an entrepreneur can employ her/his innovation skills to establish an enterprise effectively. On the other hand, coming up with an invention can be beneficial for society as a whole but cannot turn into a foolproof business model. As in the latter situation, the business owner needs to stay ahead of time, receive patent rights and assess the usability of the product in the near future.

This article was originally published by Jaspreet Kaur.