ENTERPRISE54 – Innovation is the lifeblood of enterprise. Want proof? According to Max Weber, the foundations of the British Industrial Revolution (1770s to the 1820s) can be traced back to the Puritan Ethic of the Puritans of the 17th century, which produced modern personalities attuned to innovation and committed to a work ethic, inspiring landed and merchant elites to the benefits of modernization, and a system of agriculture able to produce increasingly cheap food supplies. Okay, enough of history…back to creativity, innovation and enterprise. The summary of the trip back into the British Industrial Revolution reemphasises the introductory sentence of this article: creativity and innovation drives enterprise. It is what sets apart and sustains iconic companies a la Apple, Ferrari, Ralph Lauren, Amazon, Facebook, Mara Group among others. These thriving businesses were built on creativity, innovation and a committed work ethic while a thousand other companies have gone under. This raises questions like: did these super-successful companies tap from a secret vine of creativity? Or is there some hidden body of knowledge on the subject matter? Below a cross-section of quotes from business leaders shed light on how creativity and innovation make businesses tick.

1. “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.” – Peter Drucker, author and management consultant

2. “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” – Steve Jobs, former CEO, Apple

3. “We used to write this down by saying, ‘move fast and break things.’ And the idea was, unless you are breaking some stuff you are not moving fast enough…I think there’s probably something in that for other entrepreneurs to learn which is that making mistakes is okay. At the end of the day, the goal of building something is to build something, not to not make mistakes.” – Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO, Facebook

4. “Where do you put the fear when you choose to innovate? The fear is there, but you have to find a place to put it.” – Seth Godin, author and entrepreneur

5. “Innovation almost always is not successful the first time out. You try something and it doesn’t work and it takes confidence to say we haven’t failed yet. … Ultimately you become commercially successful.” – Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School professor

6. “I’m always doubtful. Everything I do is always doubtful. When you’re trying to differentiate, there’s going to be this gut sense, is this right? If you’re not having doubt, then you’re not pushing it hard enough, or you’re not looking at the details close enough. You need to be feeling that doubt every single day.” – Tony Fadell, founder, Nest

7. “Because, you know, resilience – if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you’d be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn’t a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.” – Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO, Amazon

So, what have you learnt about creativity and innovation? You are welcome to share your comments below…