Chapter 1 Creativity and its Importance in Business Changing times Definitions of creativity How ideas arise Importance of creative thinking in business Paradigm shifts 1

Managers can face difficult problems . Questions such as "how does one stimulate growth in sales and profits when there is no growth to be had?" may be at the back of manager's minds. Or even, "How can we ensure that the business will survive?" They cannot, however, assume, Like Dickens' Wilkins Micawber that "something will turn up". Challenging assumptions is at the heart of Creative Problem Solving

DEFINITIONS OF CREATIVITY (1) Creativity is an ability to come up with new and different viewpoints on a subject. It involves breaking down and restructuring our knowledge about a subject in order to gain new insights into its nature. Defining creativity is complicated because the concept has many dimensions. 2

DEFINITIONS OF CREATIVITY (2) Wertheimer…’restructuring our knowledge’ Kelly and Rogers…’understanding how we think’ Maslow…’primary versus secondary’ Rickards…’personal discovery process’ Gilliam…’making new connections’ Amabile…’novel and useful ideas’ 3

DEFINITIONS OF CREATIVITY (3) ‘Being creative is seeing the same thing as everyone else, but thinking of something Different “ Charles Cave http://members.ozemail.com.au/~caveman in a business context : “creativity is the production of new ideas that are fit for a particular business purpose” (Pryce,2005) 4

INVENTION AND CREATIVITY Invention is an act of creativity that results in a device, process or technique that is novel enough to produce a significant change in the application of technology. 5

HOW IDEAS ARISE Curious or inquiring. Generating ideas is not a chance process. Ideas appear to arise when people are actually looking for them. It happens to people who are Curious or inquiring. Engaged in a search for opportunities, possibilities, answers or inventions. 6

Innovation and Business Development Breakthrough innovation should not be the focus of attention since it may be too radical for some markets. Evidence points to over a 90 % failure rate among new products launched into the market place and that the majority of these are based on radical technologies. Such statistics seem to indicate that, in order to remain competitive, organizations should seek to develop new products via incremental technologies. 7

Successful innovation Successful innovation depends on the ability to mobilise : technical resources knowledge and other inputs needed in the innovation process. This includes sources of knowledge, such as networks of firms, concentrations of R&D and business services. 8

IMPORTANCE OF CREATIVE THINKING Logical thinking is a series of steps that extend what we know already, rather than being truly new. The need for creative thinking arises from the inadequacies of logical thinking. It is a method for producing insights that might not be obtained through conventional or traditional methods of logical thinking. 9

THE NEED FOR CREATIVE THINKING IN BUSINESS Increasing number of problems have few or no precedents Fewer tried and tested ways of approaching them Creativity is a vital asset for leadership Business problems are usually open-ended Planning, organising, leading, controlling 10

How creative thinking may be used in management How to make more effective use of a manager’s time How to improve a product’s appeal to customers How to improve motivation amongst staff How to appeal to customers’ wants and needs How to cut costs through more efficient/effective production methods How to identify new and profitable product-market opportunities How to get skilled and experience staff to stay with the company without paying them excessively high salaries 13

PARADIGM SHIFTS The need for creative thinking often becomes paramount when a paradigm shift occurs or is likely to occur. A paradigm is a set of rules and regulations that guide our actions when solving problems. Transport – from trains to airplane to spaceships 12