Using innovation science to minimize entrepreneurial risk

Most universities today encourage their students to experience entrepreneurial activities such as workshops, boot camps, internships, pitch events, competitions, and startups. Although these activities are extremely popular, the resultant startups have very low success rates - typically less than 2%. This situation may be improved by enhancing competencies in both the art and science of innovation such that students will “succeed sooner” rather than “failing fast.” The results of a 2013 survey are presented revealing a large gap between perceived and actual competencies in innovation; and, that less than half of the participants had the innovation skills necessary to have a reasonable chance of being successful in an entrepreneurial activity. What competencies they had were skewed toward the art rather than the science of innovation, a system-level science that studies the behavior of complex systems that are multidisciplinary often including engineering, technology, design and business. Three innovation science methods (Outcome Driven Innovation, I.D.E.A.S! brainstorming and Mind Genomics) illustrate both why innovation is a science and how it may be applied to minimize the risk of entrepreneurship. The paper concludes with a forward-looking overview of the International Association of Innovation Professionals (IAOIP), a global organization that is supporting and certifying innovation professionals, that was founded in January 2013 by the senior editors of the International Journal of Innovation Science (IJIS) now in its sixth year of publication.