Team Administrator

In business sector around the world, innovation idea is seen as the key brand differentiating factor with the ability to generating new brand and create a whole new market or to transform an industry, whereas the acts of entrepreneurship is often associated with true uncertainty especially when it involves bringing something new to the business. Nevertheless, in today 21st century, innovators and entrepreneurs are the engines of any organisation within a competitive business environment.

Given the pace of change in today’s working place, the ability to constantly question and refresh what to do – innovate – is an integral part of a long tern survival. If businesses as well as not-for-profit enterprises want to remain relevant for their client/supporter, they need to update their products and services to keep in line with the influx of new ideas and information that are characteristic of this era.

Innovation and entrepreneurship in Centrepoint explores the struggles of homelessness charities in fostering innovative activities to eradicate this growing phenomenon within young people aged 15 to 25, and identifies the key business lessons for this sector in expansion, thus in need of a dynamic change. Innovation will provide a specific analysis of the innovation process, explaining why it is important, how it can be incorporated in the organisation’s culture and what barriers are likely to be.

The lines bellow explain an in depth analysis of centrepoint strategy which is to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship within its employees, developing therefore various services to a local level, including the added value of the charity sector in their delivery as well as providing effective and better services to vulnerable young people. This piece of work demonstrates how essential is to have and encourage creativity and entrepreneurship within an organisation workforce.

It will also appeal to supporters and community development organisations seeking new perspectives on today’s fierce competitive business environment and entrepreneurship in homelessness enterprises. INTRODUCTION I work as a Volunteer Team Administrator within Centrepoint (App1) which is the leading charity that helps homeless and socially excluded young people rebuild their lives.

My role (App2) includes the provision of comprehensive administration to the C;I team (post correspondence, word processing, maintaining mailings/databases, diaries and photocopying). Assisting ; supporting the C;I team with the preparation of timely and accurate monitoring and performance returns on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. Sharing information, plan work, cover sick leave and work together with other administrative staff within Centrepoint with the agreement of line manager.

The aim of this charity is to raise awareness of the causes and consequences of youth homelessness and social exclusion, this by conducting research and, examining policies and offering practical solutions with provision of a safe home, creating firm foundations by responding to young people in all spheres of their lives should it be practical, personal, social, educational and work. This organization provides some 2000 homeless young people with accommodation a year and support to fulfil their potential as well as supplying series of services to local authorities.

Additionally, Centrepoint works with in local partnerships and individual agency to tackle youth homelessness better. As a company, Centrepoint operates within an environment in which it has to abide by rules, regulations and policies that are mostly dictated by the government; furthermore, in order to interact with its counter part, Centrepoint has to adapt to changes occurring economically, socially and at a technological levels.

At Centerpoint, we operate within a system of values and working standards that will help its desired working culture and operating style which are responsiveness, constructiveness, accountability, being creative, realistic, working with young people and learning from experience. Being of a flat structure, the company encourages and values personal initiative and person to person communication within its personnel and amongst its clients or customers.

By encouraging personal initiative, creativity, innovation and the development of entrepreneurship skills within its workforce, the business fosters strategic success and associate satisfaction. What is innovation? According to N, Wilson. ; C, Gurling. (2007) innovation is a successful exploitation of new ideas, whereas T, Lewitt. (2005) attributes this variation as: “Just as energy is the basis of life itself and ideas the source of innovation, so is innovation the vital spark of all human change, improvement and progress”

At its core, the word innovation at workplace refers to changes based on the examination on how things are presently done with the intention to finding new and better ways of doing them. The major goal of innovation is to solve a problem. It can be applied to any part of the business from service delivery to payroll system etc…. In centrepoint context, innovation is linked to performance through service improvements in efficiency and quality.

Innovation adds value to the organisation service delivery but can also be confronted to internal opposition since changes could clear the old organisation forms and practices. “Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business service… ” (P, Drucker. 1985). The key challenge of innovation is maintaining the balance between process and innovation products where process tends to involve a model which may develop stakeholder satisfaction through improved efficiencies while product innovation develop customer support.

Innovation works together with entrepreneurship that is defines as “the mindset and process to create and develop economic activity by blending risk taking, creativity and/or innovation with sound management, within a new or existing organisation” (N, Wilson. ; C, Gurling. 2007); researches conduct by Howard Oden show that entrepreneurship can succeed when companies provide their innovators with support, encouragement and an atmosphere to promote novelty.

Centrepoint encourages its employees to experiment the freedom to innovate news products and services in accordance with the company vision and mission, hence with their line manager approval. The company would benefit from its workforce entrepreneurial skills since it could act as a way to prevail some aspects of the charity administration that could impede modernism, allowing the business to remain creative and hence competitive within both homeless and not-for-profit sectors.

As a volunteer professional administrator within Centrepoint, I will attempt to identify a range of innovative opportunities that have arisen within my competencies and which would amplify benefit to the organisation customers or clients, additionally I will provide suggestions on innovation and entrepreneurship concepts based on literatures relating to these subjects. In this report, I will be talking about the initiative idea I had in creating an e-file within the Contracts and Information department that will be revolutionary for the organisation since it will be for a great importance and use for other departments as well.