Creativity and Innovation 2

Areas of Creativity

•    Idea creativity -

Thinking up a new idea or concept, such as an idea for a new product or service or a way to solve a problem.
•    Material creativity-

Inventing and building a tangible object such as a product, an advertisement, a report, or a photograph.
•    Organization creativity -

Organizing people or projects and coming up with a new organizational form or approach to structuring things. Examples: Organizing a project, starting a new type of venture, putting together or reorganizing a work group, and changing the policies and rules of a group.
•    Relationship creativity -

 Innovative approach to achieving collaboration and  cooperation, with others. The person who handles a difficult situation well or deals with a particular person in an especially effective manner is being creative in a relationship.
•    Event creativity -

Producing an event such as an awards ceremony, or annual meeting. The creativity here also encompasses decor, ways in which people are involved, sequence of happenings, setting, and so forth.
•    Inner creativity -

 Changing one's inner self. Being open to new approaches to how we do things and thinking about ourselves in different ways. Achieving a change of heart or finding a new perspective or way to look at things that is a significant departure from how one has traditionally looked at them.
•    Spontaneous/Unplanned creativity -

 Acting in a spontaneous or spur-of-the-moment manner such as coming up with a witty response in a meeting, a quick and simple way to settle a dispute.

Innovation and the Entrepreneur

Innovation is the process by which entrepreneurs convert opportunities into marketable ideas. Innovation is a key function in the entrepreneurial process. Researchers and authors in the field of entrepreneurship are, for the most part, in agreement with Peter F. Drucker about the concept of innovation:
“Innovation is the specific function of entrepreneurship. It is the means by which the
entrepreneur either creates new wealth-producing resources or endows existing resources with enhanced potential for creating wealth.”
Innovation is the process by which entrepreneurs convert opportunities into marketable ideas. It is the means by which they become catalysts for change. The innovation process is more than just a good idea. The origin of an idea is important, and the role of creative thinking may be vital to that development. However, a major difference exists between an idea arising from mere speculation and one that is the product of extended thinking, research, experience, and work. More important, a prospective entrepreneur must have the desire to bring a good idea through the development stages. Thus innovation is a combination of the vision to create a good idea and the perseverance and dedication to remain with the concept through implementation.
Most innovations result from a conscious, purposeful search for new opportunities. This process begins with the analysis of the sources of new opportunities. Drucker has noted that because innovation is both conceptual and perceptual, would-be innovators must go out and look, ask, and listen. Successful innovators use both the right and left sides of their brains. They look at figures. They look at people. They analytically work out what the innovation has to be to satisfy the opportunity. Then they go out and look at potential product users to study their expectations, values, and needs. Most successful innovations are simple and focused. They are directed toward a specific, clear, and carefully designed application. In the process they create new customers and new markets. Today's cameras combined in a cell phone are a good example. Although these cameras are highly sophisticated, they are easy to use and appeal to a specific market niche: people who want instant photography. Above all, innovation often involves more work than genius. As Thomas Edison once said, "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration:' Moreover, innovators rarely work in more than one area. For all his systematic innovative accomplishments, Edison worked only in the electricity field.
Types of Innovation
There are four distinct types of innovation, these are: invention, extension, duplication and synthesis. Invention has been described as the creation of a new product, service or process. Extension is said to be the expansion of a product, service or process. Duplication has been defined as replication of an already existing product, service or process. Finally, the combination of existing concepts and factors into a new formulation has been identified as synthesis.

Case Study

One way new products are developed is to take a current product and modify it in some way. Another way is to determine how a previously developed product can be marketed or used by a particular group of customers. The 3M Company is famous for many products, among them adhesives and abrasives. In one of 3M's most famous innovative stories from the 1980s, a 3M manager, who was a member of a church choir, wanted to mark the pages of his hymnal so he could quickly find them. A bookmark would not do because the piece of paper could easily fall out. The manager needed something that would adhere to the page but not tear it. Back at work, the manager asked one of the members of the research and development department if an adhesive existed that would do this. One did, but it never had been marketed because the company found that the adhesive was not strong enough for industrial use. At the manager's request, a batch of the glue was prepared and applied to small pieces of paper that could be used as book marks.
As the manager who had requested the product began to think about the new product, he concluded it had uses other than as a bookmark. Secretaries could use it to attach messages to files, and managers could use it to send notes along with letters and memos. In an effort to spur interest in the product, the manager had a large batch of these "attachable" notes, now called Post-it Notes, made and began distributing them to secretaries throughout the company. Before long more people began to ask for them. The manager then ordered the supply cut off and told everyone who wanted them that they would have to contact the marketing department. When that department became inundated with calls for Post-it Notes, it concluded that a strong demand existed throughout industry for these notes, and full production began. Today Post-it Notes is one of the largest and most successful product lines at the 3M Company.