It is fair to say that Steve Jobs, the Apple chief executive, was on to something when he said that innovation made all the difference between leaders and followers.
This key characteristic of any self-respecting entrepreneur has led to Oprah Winfrey keeping a well-manicured hold on her domination of the US television talk-show sector since the 1980s, helped Bill Gates to turn personal computers into essential household items, and even helped Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield to deliver their range of ice-creams to the world.
Come this September, innovation is a mindset that the Abu Dhabi School of Management, the first business school in the city to focus entirely on entrepreneurship, hopes to hand down to every student who passes through its doors.
The school will be open to aspiring entrepreneurs from around the world but will aim to attract a sizeable Emirati contingent, says Mohamed Rashed al Hameli, the director general of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ADCCI).
In keeping with the Abu Dhabi Government's Economic Vision 2030, which aims to steer the emirate away from an over-reliance on oil, the school will also help more Emiratis to open their own businesses, Mr al Hameli says.
The management school is financed by ADCCI and has a curriculum structure adopted from Babson College in the US state of Massachusetts. Babson's MBA programme was named the world's top entrepreneurship course this year by the Financial Times.
The Abu Dhabi school is being launched at a time when young people need to harness business skills more than ever, says Shahid Ansari, the provost and dean of faculty at Babson.
"We believe very strongly that in many parts of the world, including the Middle East, there is a huge problem with respect to youth employment.
"The traditional model of business education that assumed people would get a job in a major corporation, or in government, is no longer valid. We have something to offer that the world desperately needs."
Referring to recent turmoil in several countries of the Mena region and to the need for nations to have thriving industries and economies, Mr Ansari says that although an entrepreneurial mind is vital to helping a business grow, it has too often been overlooked.
"Business education and the industry in general have focused too much on what we [at Babson] call predictive analytical logical thinking," he says. "While it's important to have people trained in logical thinking, entrepreneurs think in a very different way; as if they are cognitively ambidextrous, so to speak."
Entrepreneurship is a mindset, he adds. "Clearly, what we have to do is create the right mindset."
It is a school of thought shared by Mr al Hameli and Ahmed al Mutawa, the chief executive of the Khalifa Fund to Support and Develop Small & Medium Enterprises. "I think there is a big need to build the culture of entrepreneurship in the UAE," says Dr al Mutawa. The Khalifa Fund has provided loans to almost 2,000 Emiratis since its launch in 2007.
"This [school] is important," Dr al Mutawa says. "It will definitely attract people who will be interested in entrepreneurship. It also fits within the ecosystem we're trying to build in the UAE, regarding entrepreneurship."
All of which raises the question: is there a difference between business and entrepreneurship? Dr al Mutawa, Mr Al Hameli and Mr Ansari think so.
"What happens with analytical [standard business] thinking is that people forget to act. They just keep analysing. We call it paralysis through analysis," says Mr Ansari. "What entrepreneurs do so well, in the face of extreme uncertainty, is that they're not afraid to act; and that's the skill I believe has been missing and is sorely needed in the industry.
"That's what we're trying to build. That capability to allow someone to act in the face of uncertainty."
