21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

As an innovation academy student, I was naturally drawn to the title "Innovation and Entrepreneurship". This novel by Peter Drucker outlines some interesting ideas that we've explored in class and almost gives a textbook-esque explanation on the big ideas of ENT3003

1) The main argument of this book is essentially that though small and large businesses have certain things in common, a business is not entrepreneurial without innovation. An enterprise must either: bring something new to the table that consumers need, or change perception as to what it is a consumer needs to draw in customers.


2) I believe this book certainly connected and enhanced my understanding of this class. At the first lecture I went to for this class I had tried to find the relationship between entrepreneurship and innovation, as I knew they were somehow related. This book helped solidify my understanding that the two are concurrent with each other, one rarely comes without the other.


3) As an exercise, I would use some of the ones we've tried in my innovation academy classes, such as picking a topic of something you want to innovate for, then conducting at least 5 interviews of seasoned people in that field to find what they least like about their line of work, or what is least efficient and then building a business or concept around the information you gathered.


4) My "aha" moment with this book was its discussion of entrepreneurship strategies for once the business is already up and running. It explained how enterprises must remain relevant by paying attention to societal trends, which makes a lot of sense. For example as a kid I vividly remember going to Blockbuster almost weekly before they went out of business. The streaming and online rental industries were taking over, however, this business did not keep up with societal trends and was thus driven out of business. Entrepreneurs must adapt to stay afloat, it is not simply having a good idea and running with it indefinitely.