1. Title: Thinking outside the Box L/O: To identify the main types of creativity that entrepreneurs use To explore the process of creative thinking and consider how creative you are

2. What do we mean?
Thinking creatively means coming up with an idea that is unique and did not exist before.

3. What makes a good business idea?
Good business ideas…
Solve a problem
Offer a better, cheaper way
Simple & practicable
Can be delivered quickly
Have a clear focus
Anticipate trends & exploit growing markets
TrueCall – an end to nuisance calls?
Students to write this

4. Example - Glasses Direct
Entrepreneur: James Murray-Wells
Felt ripped-off by prices charged by high street opticians
Researched supply-chain
Simplified customer purchase & lowered price
Focused on glasses
Focused on e-commerce

5. Two More Examples King of Shaves Green Thumb Entrepreneur: Will King
Will had sensitive skin & was fed up with razor burn during wet shaving
Girlfriend suggested using oil on skin during shaving – a new product was born!
Green Thumb
Entrepreneur: Stephen Waring
Meet someone at a wedding in the US who ran a lawn treatment service
Stephen was first into the market with the same idea in the UK – launched as a franchise

6. Good ideas need customers
There is no point creating a product or service unless someone wants to buy it!
Gap in the Market
Market in the Gap?
…but is there a

7. Good sources of business ideas
Business experience
Good way of getting insights into what works + more realistic business plan
Less need for market research
Personal experience
Day-to-day activities, interests & hobbies
Bad experiences or frustrations
Observations
Watching closely what happens to customers (including in other markets)
Look for poor customer service

8. Remember that
There are very few original business ideas. Well-worn ideas work too, with a fresh approach
Good ideas rarely come in a flash - they take time to develop
The idea doesn’t have to be yours – you can copy someone else so long as it is legal
Good ideas rarely come from committees!

10. Creative thinking for business ideas
Blue skies thinking
Lateral thinking
De Bonos Six Hats
Mind-mapping

11. 1. Blue Skies Thinking Kind of brainstorming
No limits in what is suggested and no preconceptions about what the answer might be
Encourages contributors to throw in as many ideas as possible
Only when the flow of ideas has stopped is commercial potential considered
Lets try it with the Making St Chads Park more popular.
You have 5 minutes.

12. 2. Lateral Thinking About reasoning that is not immediately obvious
Ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic
Sometimes called “thinking outside the box”
Tries to come up with new and unexpected ideas

13. 3. Thinking Hats Thinking hats (created by De Bono) is a
technique to help focus and organise ideas.
There are 6 different coloured hats
Each hat represents a different style of thinking
The hats are ‘put on’ one at a time to think about a problem

14. 3. De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats
Neutrality
(white Hat)
Considering purely what information is available, what are the facts? Quantitative data on a market (e.g. sales) would be considered with this hat on
Feeling
(red hat)
Instinctive gut reaction or statements of emotional feeling (but not any justification). Many entrepreneurs rely on their instinctive or gut feel with their business idea
Negative judgement (black hat)
Logic applied to identifying flaws or barriers, seeking mismatch. The black hat encourages the entrepreneur to think about the things that might go wrong with an idea
Positive Judgement (yellow hat)
Logic applied to identifying benefits. This is the opposite of the black hat – what are all the positives or upsides from the idea. What is the best that might happen?
Creative thinking (green hat)
Statements of provocation and investigation, seeing where a thought goes. This is the hat which encourages lateral thinking.
Process control (Blue hat)
Thinking about thinking. The blue hat encourages the entrepreneur to consider and evaluate the ideas coming from the other five hats!

15. Lets try it with the new I-Phone 6
3. Six Thinking Hats
Lets try it with the new I-Phone 6

16. Protecting a business idea

17. Why protect a business idea?
Keep control of intellectual property
Maintain “unique selling point”
Maximise return on investment
Reduce threat of competition

18. Patents Strict rules: process must be Key benefits New Innovative
Capable of industrial application
Not be excluded (various categories)
Key benefits
Right to take legal action
Protection for up to 20 years
Able to licence right to use patent

19. Trademarks Something that identifies a product Must be distinctive
Symbol
Name
Logo
Must be distinctive
Protection last for 10 years

20. Copyright
Important protection for many industries – e.g. media, design, publishing
Protection is automatic for any original work
Lasts for 70 years after authors death
Can control how copyrighted work is exploited (e.g. licence, royalties)
Widely used as a way of protecting creative work of all kinds

21. Homework