CREATIVITY & INNOVATION MANAGEMENT

Unit 1

1. What is creativity?
 When Panasonic India wanted to expand into the volume segment of air-
conditioners, the maker of consumer electronics and appliances conducted a
feasibility study among middle income consumers who had fitted window ACs in
their house. The team also met non-users who did not have ACs but aspired to buy
one. The Indian arm of the Japanese consumer electronics and appliances
maker zeroed in on a couple of key insights: one, window ACs are noisy, noisier
than the more expensive split ACs and they tend to block valuable window
space. This feedback suggested that the company has to give consumers the
benefits of a split AC at a lower price. With this challenge in mind, cross-functional
teams in Panasonic across R&D, manufacturing, design, product planning, sales &
marketing worked together to generate a basic concept of a box-shaped split AC. From
market survey to design to product development took around 16 months. Result: a
brand called Cube was launched in January 2011. Today, says Panasonic, the
Cube is an integral part of its AC line-up and accounts for roughly a fifth of the
company's AC sales. Panasonic is now considering a launch of this product in south
East Asian markets.

Creativity refers to the ability to come up with new ideas, the ability to think widely,
to have a free and open mind and to approach matters in a new way.

 A vignette, “A virtual-reality platform for nervous public speakers,” adapted from

the book “Disrupt” by James Bidwell

Public speaking can be very nerve-racking, especially for those who have had little
practice at it. VirtualSpeech is a virtual reality (VR) platform that will help inexperienced
speakers gain confidence by enabling them to practise in front of a virtual crowd using
Google Cardboard.

To begin, users download the app and upload their slides and notes for their upcoming
project. Then they choose a training scenario such as a 15-person office or a 400-
person conference. Next they put on their Google Cardboard headset which immerse
them in a realistic 3D environment. The user can then practise their speech to an
animated audience, input by the developers using a green screen and real people
portraying a range of behaviours and reactions. They can even set varying levels of
sound and visual distractions and train themselves to be accustomed to whatever
situation. Currently available on Android, iOS and Gear VR, VirtualSpeech immerses
the user in 360-degree sound to provide as realistic an experience as possible. This
room gives the user the chance to practise for an interview in front of a small panel of
people. Users select the job sector or company they are hoping to apply for, then cycle
through questions specifically designed for those scenarios. The platform provides
interview questions from various companies from different sectors.

Generally, it is advised to practise in front of a full-length mirror. But it demands focus

on the presentation and you watching yourself. The VR practice experience is more
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 effective than just rehearsing in front of a mirror, or even a friend. It gives you a lifelike
replication of the experience. Visit the website www.virtualspeech.co.uk for more
details.

To get started, there are just two simple rules:

 Everything is possible
 Everything is allowed

Remember that creativity lies in the power to do unusual (useful) things. Not everything
might be useful at first sight and it never should. This is about developing a basis to be
creative.

Artistic ability includes skills and talent to create fine works of art: painting,
drawing, sculpting, musical composition, etc. Creativity ability is the skill and
talent to use our imagination to create and solve. A better artist is creative. But, you
don't have to be an artist to be creative.

2. Creativity versus innovation

Innovation is the ability to convert creative ideas into reality by designing an
appropriate solution. The main difference between creativity and innovation is the
focus. Creativity is about unleashing the potential of the mind to conceive new
ideas. Those concepts could manifest themselves in any number of ways, but most
often, they become something we can see, hear, smell, touch, or taste. However,
creative ideas can also be thought experiments within one person’s mind.

By identifying an unrecognized and unmet need, an organization can use innovation

to apply its creative resources to design an appropriate solution and reap a return on its
investment. Organizations often chase creativity, but what they really need to pursue is
innovation. Theodore Levitt puts it best: “What is often lacking is not creativity in the
idea-creating sense but innovation in the action-producing sense, that is, putting
ideas to work.”

3. Innovation versus invention

There is a subtle difference between the words, “innovation” and “invention” but an
important one to understand.

 Invention is the new ideas for products or processes.

 Innovation is all about the practical application of new inventions into marketable
products or services.

It is innovation rather than invention that really counts.

Innovation may be defined as “change that adds value,” whereas invention may be
best defined as something “new, novel and without precedent.” Notwithstanding the
above, most inventions are in fact created by making improvements to existing things.
Indeed there are few totally new inventions. However, whereas novelty is an essential
part of an invention, novelty is not an essential part of an innovation.

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Although invention is a prerequisite for many innovations, it is only when an
invention is exploited commercially that it results in innovation.

Organizations serious about fostering innovation have to wrestle with two main
issues: risk-taking and failure aversion. All innovation involves risk and all risks include
the possibility of failure. Failure should never be seen as a black mark; it is a learning
experience. Leaders and their organizations cannot be afraid of failure or they will never
incorporate the innovation they need to truly meet customers’ needs.

Consider these companies that use the innovative principles to achieve their
strategic goals (Examples adapted from ET dated 1 Aug 12):

 When LG was looking to launch a well-differentiated refrigerator, it turned to its

potential customers for help. After an initial round of market research, the third-party
experts along with specialists from LG's R&D, design and marketing teams directly
interviewed the customers to understand their needs. For instance, in a country that
has a large number of vegetarians, LG produced refrigerators equipped with a
large vegetable tray to hold more vegetables and a convertible box with
independent temperature control for vegetables and fruits. Another insight led to
the development of a 'beauty & care box' as many Indian consumers tend to
keep their cosmetics and medicines in the fridge to keep them cool amidst
humid conditions. Such innovations helped increase refrigerator sales by about 30%
since 2009. Models customised for India are also being exported to markets in the
Middle East.

 When Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) launched the Brio compact in September
2011, the company sent its engineers to target markets in India to observe the
traffic environments and talk to people about how cars impacted their lifestyles.
Customers consistently talked about three key needs: a feeling of presence (the
show-off value of the car), a spacious interior and high fuel economy. Also during
the development stage, Indian women were taken to Japan to simulate entries into
and exits out of the car when clad in a saree. Doors and seats were accordingly
designed, to make the Brio more accessible to women dressed in the traditional
Indian attire (as well as to men in mundus, veshtis and dhotis). The second insight
was the need for a fabric that breathes for the car interiors, an important factor
considering the hot and humid conditions and the tendency of people to wear half-
sleeve shirts. Honda was keen to ensure that contact of skin with the interior fabrics
would not rub the consumer the wrong way. Honda researchers also concluded that
Indians are almost fanatical about symmetry, be in buildings or in furniture laying
patterns at home. The researchers of the company even visited the Taj Mahal to see
the symmetry in the monument. The cockpit of the Brio has been symmetrically
designed as have the length and width of the car and the dimensions of the
wheelbase.

Creativity is important in today’s business world but it is really only the beginning.
Organizations need to foster creativity. Driving business results by running ideas
through an innovation process puts those ideas to work for companies and their
customers.

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4. Creative abilities
Many of us think that we are either creative or we are not. Yes, some people may be
slightly more predisposed to thinking creatively than others, but creativity is a muscle that
can be exercised and improved upon. Here are six ways to stimulate creative thinking.

 Consume content that's way outside your comfort zone

We all love reading about stuff in our industry, but typically this doesn't boost creativity.
If you're lucky, it might help with motivation or inspiration. If you want to get your
creative juices flowing, start consuming content you wouldn't normally consume. Read
blogs outside of your industry. Read books outside of your normal genre of choice.
Grab lunch with a complete stranger (just make sure they're not a bad stranger).

 Sit in silence for sometime; be with you

 Write a 500 word article with no topic whatsoever

This is a fun exercise to get your thoughts focused or come up with interesting ideas.
Open a blank document and just start typing. No headline, no topic, no editing, and
most importantly no self-critiquing. Just let your fingers start typing and let your brain
decide what words get written next. Usually you will end up with some pretty weird and
crazy stuff but that will always give you a boost of creative energy afterwards.

 Go to see a movie in a movie theatre

Movies on the big scene are one of the last few places you can enjoy a complete
sensory-captive experience. The giant bright screen, sound-rumbling surround sound,
smell and taste of freshly popped popcorn and the plush comfortable, so, whenever
you leave a movie theatre then, your mind will always be spinning with thoughts and
ideas.

 Eat differently
There are studies upon studies that discuss how our diet affects the way we think.
Want to start thinking differently? Start giving your body different (and healthier) fuel.
You'd be shocked how much more creatively you can think and act when you eat a
healthier diet.

 Do the brainstorming exercise

Get at least one other person to join you for a 45-60 minute brainstorming session. No
technology and no criticism whatsoever. Bring a topic or idea you want to brainstorm to
the table, and just start discussing about it. Write down all your ideas (on actual paper)
and don't critique a single idea. It's important to do this in person and to make
absolutely sure you don't have any negative energy or feedback throughout the
process. You may end up with 100 horrible ideas, but you'll have one or two good
ones. Plus, you'll get better at this the more you do it.

You don't have to be a creative thinker to be able to think outside the box, you just
need to do more stuff that stimulates creative thinking. Even the most creative people
need help getting inspired.

5. Determination of creativity
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At the start of an exam, a student asked, “Professor, this is the same exam question as
last year!” To which the professor replied, “Correct, young man, but we need to find new
answers.”

Four Ways to Measure Creativity

Assessing creative work has been a bugaboo for a good long time. In schools it's the
constant refrain: “How can you grade creative writing?” or “It’s a poem: however it
comes out is right.” In businesses and elsewhere, people demand innovation and are
stymied with understanding how to measure it.

There are four different ways to assess creativity, each designed for different
settings:

 Measuring how creative a person is - The Guilford Model

 Measuring how creative a work is - The Taxonomy of Creative Design
 Measuring creative work against a programme - The Requirements Model
 Measuring the social value of creative work - Csikszentmihalyi’s Model

Notably, in each of these cases, what we mean by "creative" changes a little. Sometimes
"creativity" refers to divergent production (how much one produces, or how varied it is).
Sometimes "creativity" refers to novelty in form. Understanding this--understanding the
reason for measuring creativity or the kind of creative work one aims to assess--is the first
step to demystifying the creative space. Each definition is included in the measures
below.

 The Guilford Measures: measuring a person's creativity

Psychologist J. P. Guilford devised four measures of a person's divergent production.
Each of the measures can be practised and improved, and each focuses on creative
output in the context of a prompt (any prompt) that asks for a quantity of responses.
Here’s an overview of the measures:

Fluency: how many responses

Flexibility: how many types of responses

Originality: the unusualness of the responses

Elaboration: the detail of the responses

So, if I were to ask five people to take two minutes to use circles as a starting
point for drawings, I might receive the following responses:

These responses might be evaluated in the following way:

Anna drew the most drawings, even though her drawings were all faces.
She has the highest fluency.

Benji drew the most types of responses, even though he has fewer total responses
than Anna.
He has the highest flexibility.

Carol drew two wheels and a ball--nice geometry.

No prize, alas.
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 Darlene drew only two responses, but no one else drew a balloon or a bomb.
She has the highest originality.

Edward drew only three faces, but with more detail than the others.
He has the highest elaboration.

The Guilford approach (like all approaches here) is not comprehensive in

measuring "creativity," but it achieves a kind of psychometric evaluation of an
individual--it measures a kind of productivity quotient, if that’s what you’re going
for.

Strengths: Measures output in a clear, quantifiable way.

Weaknesses: Tells nothing of the relevance or value of the creative output.

6. Collective creativity
Do great leaders possess a key that unlocks the best in their colleagues and taps
into the creativity hidden in their teams? Do organizations like Google and Pixar
have some secret management techniques that evoke genius and inspiration?

The research shows that innovative organizations are communities that have three
capabilities, Creative Abrasion, Creative Agility and Creative Resolution. Creative
Abrasion is about creating an environment that fosters respectful but passionate
debate and discourse that arouses great ideas. Creative Agility is about a leader
and organization’s willingness and ability to experiment and test new ideas. And
Creative Resolution is about the willingness to combine even opposable ideas to
get to the best possible solution. The real genius of today’s best leaders isn’t
necessarily their charisma, ambition or ideas, but their ability to create an effective
micro-culture within their organization, “one that is patient and inclusive,” and
inspires and evokes wellsprings of creativity from the team around them.

Our society is experiencing a paradigm shift that we value from mass produced products
to personal and customized product. The shift is also observed with mass media that
increases number of channels to reflect wide variety of personal interests. End-users are
also starting to be connected by the network, forming online communities to share
personal interests. Furthermore, end-users are beginning to create and share content
from snap shots of ideas found in daily life. Current popular online services such as You
Tube rely on end-user contribution and collaboration. Through this shift, an emerging topic
in the design disciplines called collective creativity has surfaced.

Collective creativity is an approach of creative activity that emerges from the

collaboration and contribution of many individuals so that new forms of innovative
and expressive art forms are produced collectively by individuals connected by the
network.

7. Pixar and Collective Creativity (excerpted from Harvard Business Review of

September, 2008)

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Questions
 How is creativity defined at Pixar?
 What is the most important thing in the creative process?
 What is the role of the leader in managing risks associated with a creative process?
 What are the core tenets of a creative process?
 How are people encouraged to give their opinions?
 What is the hiring process at Pixar?
 How does a leader participate in the creative process at Pixar?
 How is it ensured that the present culture will continue at Pixar?

(Pixar, also referred to as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American computer animation

film studio based in Emeryville, California that is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney
Company. Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the Lucasfilm computer
division, before its spin-out as a corporation in 1986, with funding by Apple Inc. co-
founder Steve Jobs, who became the majority shareholder. Disney purchased Pixar in
2006 at a valuation of $7.4 billion, a transaction that resulted in Jobs becoming Disney's
largest single shareholder at the time.)

 The Taxonomy of Creative Design: measuring how creative a work is

The Taxonomy of Creative Design refers to changes in form and content, and it can be
used to analyze or assess the novelty or the derivation of a creative work. It looks at a
creative work as a product. It classifies creative work as an imitation of another work,
a variation on a single work, a combination of two or more works, a transformation of a
work into a completely new form, or a creation that is previously unrecognizable. It
takes the scientific approach of reduction to a creative work in order to understand its
component parts.