University services for fostering creativity in high-technology firms

Innovation is commonly hailed as a fundamental factor in ensuring long-term firm survival, which is, in turn, used as a way of measuring business success. This article proposes that creativity is a vital element in the path towards innovation and discusses good practice for publicly funded services designed to support and advise potential and nascent entrepreneurs. It describes the model used by the Ideas Institute for Business Development and Creation and presents three case studies where personalised, individually tailored mentoring has marked the difference in ensuring a competitive edge for its client firms by stimulating creative intelligence among entrepreneurs and by providing the necessary tools to embark upon the road to continuous innovation.