Is your company entrepreneurial and innovative?

Do you have the entrepreneurial and innovative skills required to take your business to the next level? Take the Skills Check, score your responses, and see if your capabilities add up.

By Colin Benjamin and Amanda Gome

Take the Skills Check, score your responses, and see if your capabilities add up. Answer our 10 questions (where a ranking of three means you strongly agree) and see how you rate.

(1) Our top team encourages shareholders and team members to enjoy taking up the challenges of change.

(2) We have a formal opportunity search program to ensure that we are always ahead.

(3) Our customers regard us as more flexible, adaptive and responsible than competitors in the industry.

(4) We work closely with our major customers to find business solutions that are mutually rewarding.

(5) We undertake specialised creative and strategic thinking exercises to build rapid response capacity.

(6) We are recognised in our industry for innovation.

(7) We invest heavily in new patterns of production, distribution and exchange for first mover advantages.

(8) Innovation, creativity and entrepreneurism provide us with a constant source of new business projects.

(9) We recycle ideas and techniques from other firms to create new customers in emerging territories.

(10) Each of our business units is given time and resources to work on ways to generate new business growth.

How did you rate?

• 10-15 You and your company lack an entrepreneurial mindset.
• 16-25 Mmmm, borderline. It could be a good idea to hire an entrepreneurial team around you, and get some mentors on board.
• 26-30 Congratulations. You have a good chance of winning a SmartCompany award