Start-ups

6 BUSINESS MENTORING

‘How can business mentoring add value to innovation?’ asks Steve Burrows FBCS CITP, director of several small businesses including his consultancy, SBA.

Innovation starts with an idea – an obvious and trite statement. The idea often comes from a person who has seen a gap in current offerings because they are not close to the solutions currently offered in the marketplace. In short they are often naive about the sector, industry or technology to which their idea contributes; it is this lack of understanding and preconception that enables them to innovate.

Sometimes the idea comes from a technologist who sees a technical solution to a problem, but as a technologist, doesn’t have the business skills to turn it into a commercial ...