Hot SourceOmolabake Fasogbon
A number of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises(SMEs) have continued to fizzle out due to their failure to embrace innovation and creativity as major business enablers.
CEO/ Lead Innovator at Lalaa Consulting,Demola Aderibigbe stated also that most times, small businesses fail because of their ignorance regarding innovation, being misconstrued as a finacially tasking technological efforts, hence, ignore it.
A 2023 report by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that 80% of small businesses in the country do not survive beyond five years.
Aderibigbe, during a training session in Lagos for SMEs across sectors implemented under- Academy of Creativity, Innovation & Disruption (ACID) initiative, maintained that small businesses must deliberately up their game to carve out a market share and rival larger industry incumbent.
By innovation and creativity, the creative strategist meant that players must be able to think and imagine solutions to be strategically applied to businesses.
He disclosed that ACID was conceived to bridge an identified gap of innovation knowledge amongst SMEs, decrying that most small players ignore a critical aspect of training and development,despite they need it to scale even more than the established players.
“We have always rendered our services to top giant, however, we saw a need to engage the beginners who we feel need us more. Unfortunately, the first thing an average SME thinks when he hears innovation is technology and then big budget. However, this do not necessarily mean technology or huge financial investments. The fundamental element of innovation is imagination, which every business owner already possesses. The challenge is applying this imagination strategically,” he clarified.
He further emphasised the need for a quick shift in conventional business education delivery to achieve desired effect, citing how Lalaa’s humor-based and gamified approaches to engaging businesses have transformed businesses, both budding and industry bigwigs.
