Creativity and Innovation in Business
Prof. Danny Araneta Cabulay
Dean – Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
Far Eastern University, Manila, Philippines dcabulay@feu.edu.ph Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
For most people, creativity is more easily associated with art than business. But the highest art form is business because one can be very creative, dynamic and revolutionary. Creativity is also related to innovation and change. I am fully aware that many of the things we see around us are products of minds of geniuses, creative thinkers.
It is hard to imagine a business without a creative mind. A creative mind is essential in any type of business. When we get tired
…show more content…
And finally, follow through skills ensures sustainability and development of initiated ideas.
Can we really teach our employees how to be creative? Isn’t it hereditary? Creativity can be developed among employees when we do the following:
a) Ask good questions. b) Get ample exposure. c) Network actively. d) Be a good listener. e) Share your ideas. f) Support good ideas. g) Don’t be contented with the first idea. h) Be more analytical. i) Consider risks.
There are many simple but effective activities we can do in the company that yield results like increased revenues, enhanced public image, higher market share and lower operating costs.
One activity is the dream exercise – an excellent way of awakening entrepreneurial minds of employees. One can create a scenario after another to provide some excitement in the dream itself. Another activity that can be done is the serendipity walk – a visually engaging activity that focuses on the environment, identifying problems within that environment and creating solutions to those problems. The most common activity companies have is brainstorming – a free-wheeling activity with the objective of producing the highest possible number of suggestions to a proposition. In brainstorming, there are no wrong ideas and modification is allowed.
Our university, Far Eastern University has produced
In this video Ken Robinson touches on three main points. His first point he was talking about the education system and one's creativity. He gave two anecdotes about kids that showed that they are willing to take a chance and be creative. If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original. He believes that the education system institutionalizes people, and that people lose the creativity they had.
Creativity or the lack of encouraging creativity can be seen declining as you get lower in the class level in Anyons research. She states “Work tasks do not usually request creativity” and “Creativity is not often requested in social studies and Science projects”. In an article entitled “The Impact of Creativity on the Brain” by Judy Willis M.D; M.E.D posted on the website Radtech.com. “Neuroscience and cognitive science research are increasingly providing information that correlates creativity with intelligence; academic, social, and emotional success; and the development of skill sets and the highest information processing (Executive functions)”. This basically states that if creativity is encouraged then the upper intelligence functions of students are developed which includes social and emotional success. Which shows that if you stifle creativity you basically limit the
In the context of creativity’s stated definition, we will proceed to group our arguments into three themes of factors: cognitive ability, expertise training, and environmental conditions. The human brain is highly adaptable and can continue to develop new cognitive abilities, even past adulthood (Norman, 2015). Proper cognitive expertise and training can help workers produce and operate in ingenious ways (Ginamarie, Lertiz & Mumford, 2004). Finally, the working environment can both motivate or stifle creative output. Managers can influence all three components: expertise, thinking skills, and motivation (Amabile, 1998).
Creativity is often more about the process rather than the end project, it is useful for many reasons:
Paulus & Nijstad (2003) defined creativity as “the development of original ideas that are useful or influential”(p.3). That is to say,
• Amabile: How to Kill Creativity? Harvard Business Review 1998 (course packet; writeup 1. For Feb 5)
“Educators invested in building creative skills risk lowering test scores and jeopardize the jobs they have dedicated their lives to.” This quote caught my eye since test scores continue to be a driving force in education. Teachers are continually prodded to make gains and document growth. If this is in the back of the minds of teachers, how can creativity evolve in the classroom? First, the authors define the seven virtues of creativity:
The term creativity is used for the purpose of describing the ability that is concerned with the process of creating something new or valuable. This ability allows a person to surpass the rules, practices, methods, forms or similar kind of activities that the traditional society may be performing at that time. Creativity is one of the most important things that have allowed the people of the society to move forward and urge for development. All the development that has been made in various aspects of human life can be directly connected with the creativity. All the industry leaders of the world have secured this place because of the level of creativity and innovation that they showed. They used this creativity for creating something new that has allowed them to develop completely new methods for this purpose.
Creativity is one of the most important when it comes to innovation as it is a process. Creativity is about creating new ideas and the process of innovation is making these ideas come to reality. Creativity cannot be a waste of time, if there is no process in place to make these ideas and turn them into something that has market potentials.
As I continued with this practice it became clearer they had been given no power or authority in their roles. They were not ever asked for their input or suggestions, let alone asked to be creative or innovative. This was not a situation of my staff not being creative, but they had been taught through years of previous management that their creativity and ideas were not important. As the world is demanding more out of us, these employees had been programed to do the exact opposite. I needed employees who could handle change and be adaptive, as Robinson states, “organizations everywhere say they need people who can think creatively, communicate and work in teams: people who are flexible and quick to adapt.” (2011, p.2). This left both my staff and me at square one. Just because we had an organization that had tools in place to foster innovation, this department had never felt supported. “A culture of creativity has to involve everybody not just a select few.” (2011,
Creative thinking The free flow of ideas and positive work environment is the perfect catalyst for creative thinking.
To make a business grow and achieve productive and efficient results you need to invoke creativity which has always been an essential business skill. Since long time creativity has been applied to a business world as companies seek to use it in all parts of the organization to make it gain more profits and to be exceptional from others. A business person has to find unique solutions every day and he has to know how to react to situation creatively. Richard Florida (2002) stated human creativity is the ultimate economic resource. The ability to come up with new ideas and better ways of doing things is ultimately what raises productivity and thus living
I agree that creativity and innovation are both very important as they are closely linked to one another. To me creativity is the idea and innovation is putting the creativity into action. By celebrating creativity the employees will be happier and will probably work harder because they want to come up with new ideas and are less scared of failing. The business will also have more success when promoting creativity because it will open up discussion for new ideas, which will give the business an edge against competitor. The is nothing better than the bottom line employees who work with the products every day and know the products and processes best to be allowed to come up with new ideas. The business may lose money to wasted wages from employees who’s creativity does not result in a usable product or process but I’m sure that amount of money will be outweighed by the success of a new product or process that can either save money, make money or be more environmentally friendly. Once the creative ideas are generated and shared, they should be implemented strategically through innovation so that the organization can have a competitive advantage over their competitors.
Effective leaders need to be creative and innovative. Effective leaders need to understand that the blood of the organization which they are leading lays innovation and creativity (Swid, 2015). Creation of new ideas can result in programs which are superior to the already planned or established plans. The responsibility of the leadership is to engage appropriate people in the right times, to the appropriate degree but in creative manner. Employee creativity is also enhanced by leaders who are inspirational. Any business
In today’s knowledge-based economy, innovation has become the principal source of competitive advantages in global business; the success of firms now depends more on their intelligence capability – such as employee creativity – than traditional material assets (Amabile et al., as cited in Zhou, Zhang & Montoro-Sa ́nchez, 2011). The creative capability of individual and collective knowledge workers is the fuel that powers innovation in firms. While creativity leads to the production of new and useful ideas in any domain, innovation is the successful implementation of those creative ideas within an organisation (McLean, as cited in Zhou, Zhang & Montoro-Sa ́nchez 2011). In highly dynamic business environments innovation and creativity have become crucial for creating competitive advantages for the