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Innovation/Creativity

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Page 1: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Innovation/Creativity

Page 2: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Innovation/Creativity

• Sources of new product ideas

• Creativity: can it be learned?

• Techniques for fostering group creativity

• Increasing personal creativity

Page 3: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Importance of Innovation to Companies*

20%

80%

Companies say it is important... ...But Few Feel Good at itFind innovation unimportant

Find innovation important to their business

4%

96%

Good at innovation

Think they are bad at innovation

* Based on 1993 study of American Companies

Page 4: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Sources of New Product Ideas

Page 5: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Sources of new ideas

Suppliers

Employees

Management

Distribution

ChannelsGovernment Regulations

Maverick

Competitors

Customers

Technology

Economy

Rapidly Changing

Environment

Page 6: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Japanese Industrial Sector Spend on R&D Outside its Core Sector 1980-86

70

50 50

35 35 35

Textiles Fabricated Metals

Iron & Steel

Commun-ications equipment

Electronics Precision Machinery

Page 7: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Regulatory Changes

Change Product Area

Fire retardant foam

Financial Services Act

New infills for sofas, mattresses, etc

Insurance salesmen had to declare whether ‘tied’ or ‘independent’. leading to new selling techniques

Page 8: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Economic Changes

Economic Change Product Example

Recession

High interest rates

Negative equity

High unemployment

Multiple savings products

New lower-cost foods

Special loans

Home brewing (!)

Page 9: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Environmental/Demographic Changes

Environmental

- Health consciousness leads to Kraft’s ‘fat free’ ice-cream

- ‘Green’ consciousness leads to change in solvent based to water based paints

- Increase in crime leads to new security devices (e.g. remote control security systems)

Demographic

- Ageing of population leads to residential care insurance

- Both parents working leads to new types of convenience foods

- Baby boomers having their own children leads to new types of family car (e.g. Renault Espace)

Page 10: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Technology

Technology New Product/Service/Process

EPOS Revolutionised stock holding at retailers

Genetic Engineering Human ears grown on a mouse’s back

Page 11: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Customers: Product Innovation From Market Needs vs Technological

Opportunities

100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

90%

10% 22%

78%

25%

75%

31%

69%

34%

66%

34%

61%

5%

Materials Computers, railway, housing

Instruments Winners of the Industrial Research Award

British innovators

Weapons systems

Type of innovation

Sample size 10 439 33 108 84 710

Market needs

Technological opportunities

Source: Utterbach

Page 12: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Dangers of using Customers’ Ideas (In The USA!)

If unsolicited idea not handled properly, a subsequent product may be claimed by the person whose idea it was

67%

13%

20%

Evaluation Procedures by Company*

Used legally dangerous evaluation procedures

Rejected all outside suggestions

Used legally sound procedures

* Based on an evaluation of 166 companies Source: U&H

Page 13: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Management

Product Source

Walkman Akio Morita

D.O.S Bill Gates

Savoy’s purchase Lord Forte

Louvre pyramid Mitterand

Body Shop Anita Roddick

Page 14: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Employees: Examples of Companies Where Employee Suggestions Valued

3M

Toyota

Kodak

McKinsey

John Lewis

Page 15: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Manufacturing

Study done by Myers and Marquis (admittedly in 1969) showed 20% of ideas came from manufacturing

- Intimate product knowledge

- Constant efficiency drive

- Boredom factor

- Good for product improvements vs totally new concept

Page 16: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Distribution ChannelsChannel Example

Marks and Spencer Controls most of its suppliers very closely and is key idea-source in developing new sectors (e.g. ready meals)

Doctors Provide constant feedback to pharmaceutical companies

Car Dealerships Regular flow of ideas regarding existing and potential products, back to manufacturer

Page 17: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Suppliers

It benefits suppliers of chemicals and materials to have their products used more widely

Supplier Example

DuPont Invented Teflon for use on cookware

DuPont Invented Lycra for use in clothing

ALCOA Invented aluminium truck trailers (Truck manufacturers were originally reluctant to use them)

Page 18: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Competitors

Competitor Comment

Direct All organisations within a sector watch each others’ moves regarding innovation, to: - stay apace

- simply copy

- improve an idea

Indirect Successful firms also watch organisations outside their direct area for ideas

- in other sectors (e.g. software for newspaper layouts used in desktop publishing)

- in other countries (e.g. Body Shop based many of its product formulations on third world/tribal recipes)

Page 19: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Creativity Can Be Learned

“Inventing is a skill that some people have and some don’t. But you can learn how to invent. You have to have the will not to jump at the first solution because the elegant solution might be around the corner. An inventor is someone who says, ‘Yes, that’s one way to do it but it doesn’t seem to be an optimum solution.’ Then he keeps on thinking”.

Ray Dolby, inventor

Page 20: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

“Problems cannot be solved by thinking within the framework within which the problems werecreated”

Albert Einstein

Page 21: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Left and Right Brain in Creativity

Left Brain

Symbols

Words

Logic

Judgement

Mathematics

Speaking

Right Brain

Sensory Images

Dreaming

Feeling

Intuition

Visualisation

Creative Thinking

Page 22: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Creativity Exercise

Ping pong ball

Tube with diameter 2mm wider than ball

Tube cemented into ground

Objective: Remove the ball from the bottom of the tube without damaging the tube, ball or ground

Page 23: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Creativity Exercise: Implements

- Chisel

- File

- Hammer

- 100ft of clothes line

- Light bulb

- Wire coat hanger

- Box of cornflakes

Page 24: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Techniques for eliciting group creativity

Page 25: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Techniques for Eliciting Group Creativity

Technique Description

Attribute listing - List major attributes and consider how to modify each one

- Stimulate ideas in a group of 6 to 10 people in a non evaluative way

Brainstorming

- Elicit ideas, using tools which by-pass “vertical,” rational logic

Lateral thinking

- Based on asking people about the needs & problems they have with existing products

Need/Problem identification

Page 26: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Needs/Problem Identification

Based on consumer, not “creative brainpower”

Process

Consumers are asked about needs, problems and ideas, either:-

- quantitatively - Hundreds are asked to rank whether satisfied or unsatisfied with particular attributes

- qualitatively - through discussion in focus groups

Evaluation

1. Can be expensive (need hundreds of responses or detailed interviews)

2. Good for making product improvements

3. Rarely effective in finding entirely novel ideas

Page 27: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Attribute Listing

1. List attributes of product

2. Take each attribute in turn. (No more than 7 at a time)

3. Consider how each can be modified

4. Evaluate best ideas

- Produces solutions directly pertinent to the problem

- Need to concentrate on attributes related to primary functions, otherwise it’s easy to become irrelevant

- Unlikely to produce true novelty or richness in problem solution

Process Evaluation

Page 28: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Attribute Listing: Toothbrush Example

1. List attributes

- Made of plastic

- Manually operated

- Needs supply of toothpaste and water

2. Take each attribute (e.g. made of plastic)

- Could it be made of other materials?

- Could it be made more cheaply in other materials?

- Could it be made more fashionably in other materials?

- Could there be a disposable version?

- Could there be a ‘green’ version?

3. Evaluate best ideas

- Suggest full costing of aluminium toothbrush

- Examine technicalities of biodegradable bristles

Page 29: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Definition of Brainstorming

“To practice a conference technique by which a group attempts to find a solution for a specific problem by amassing all the ideas spontaneously contributed by its members”

Osborn (inventor of brainstorming), 1953

Page 30: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Basic Rules of Brainstorming

• No criticism whatsoever

• Free-wheeling is welcome. The whackier the idea, the better

• The more ideas, the better

• Building on others’ ideas is encouraged

Page 31: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Brainstorming: Warning

PREMATURE EVALUATION WILL PREVENT CONCEPTION !

Page 32: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Brainstorming : Problems Solved And Group Composition

GROUP COMPOSITION

Open minded individuals

Few vested interests

Avoid extremes - dominant or insecure personalities

Variation in age

Variation in background

TYPICAL PROBLEMS ADDRESSED

Suggestions for new research

New concepts for products or markets

Managerial problems (eg how to make work more fulfilling)

Improvements to processes

Page 33: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Brainstorming : Evaluation

• Frequently used technique

• Easy to implement

• Time efficient

• Prone to inaccurate usage

• Research findings on usefulness are contradictory (both positive and negative)

• Inconclusive

Page 34: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Lateral thinking

NB: Please see separate pack of slides

Page 35: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Synectics

Etymology : Made up of “Syn” and “ectors” which together suggest “the bringing together of diversity”

Synectics involves “making the familiar strange” to gain new insights. It is a process for a group of individuals working in a group using nonrational approaches

Page 36: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Synectics : Process And Requirements

PROCESS: Example

1. State the problem

2. Select the metaphor

3. Use the metaphor to generate new ideas

GROUP REQUIREMENTS

Needs experienced, trained and uninvolved facilitator

Groups used to dealing with metaphors

Emotional maturity

Willingness to experiment

Ideal group size : 6-8 people

Session runs for 3 days

Page 37: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Examples of Metaphors

Analogy Description Example

Personal

Direct

Fantasy

Put yourself in the shoes of the object

Describe how it feels to use a particular object

Make comparisons with similar facts, information or technology

Based on Freud’s notion that creative thinking and wish fulfilment are related. Does away with bounds of reality

Think how tired a door hinge becomes from opening and shutting

Imagine the sensations of being in an open top sports car

Compare a problem of irregular paper flow in an office with the flow of a river

How in our wildest fantasies would a new alcoholic drink look and taste

Page 38: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Synectics : Evaluation

• Dependent on trained facilitator and receptive group members

• Good at generating novel solutions

• Used less than brainstorming due to need for facilitator and general risk-aversion associated with ‘wild thinking’

• Used more in the USA than here

Page 39: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Increasing Personal Creativity

Page 40: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Ways of Enhancing Personal Creativity

1. Accept there’s no right answer

2. Don’t follow the rules

3. Be foolish

4. Ask ‘What if?’

5. Think outside your area

6. Go for ambiguity

7. Believe in yourself

Page 41: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

1. No Right Answer

• The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas

• Change your question (eg IBM should have thought in terms of solutions to problems, not computing hardware)

• Avoid workplaces with a culture of uniformity

Page 42: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

2. Don’t Follow The Rules

• We make rules based on reasons that make sense

• We follow these rules

• Time passes, things change

• The original reasons for the rules no longer exist, but because the rules are still in place, we continue to follow them

Page 43: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Don’t Follow The Rules : Example

Q W E R T Y U I O P

Page 44: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Examples of Rule-Breaking Creativity

Who How?

Columbus

Copernicus

Einstein

General Motors

Butterfly Stroke

Henry VIII

Bell Labs

Broke the rule that to travel East you cannot go West

Broke the rule that the universe is anthropocentric

Broke the rules of Newtonian physics by equating mass and energy as different forms of the same phenomenon

Broke Ford’s rule of any colour, as long as it’s black

Broke the rules of ‘arm recovery’ in breaststroke

Broke the rule that the Pope should hold sway in England

Broke the rule that electrons need to travel in a vacuum for signal processing

Page 45: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

3. Be Fool-ish: Examples

Think against the conventional flow, like the fool in Shakespearean times

Case Area

19th century physician Edward Jenner in looking for a small pox cure, looked not at those with small pox, but those without

Alfred Sloan and his disapproval of “groupthink”, retabled motions where everyone agreed

1334 siege of Hocharterwitz castle in Austria

Small pox vaccinations

Car industry

Survival

Page 46: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Twelfth NightAct 1 scene 5

Clown Good madonna, why mournest thou?

OLIVIA Good fool, for my brother's death.

Clown I think his soul is in hell, madonna.

OLIVIA I know his soul is in heaven, fool.

Clown The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul being in heaven. Take away the

fool, gentlemen

Page 47: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

4. Ask “What If?”• Ask “what if” someone else were solving your

problem for you, eg– Churchill

– Machiavelli

– Freud

– Ghandi

– Mozart

• 5 minute exercise : ‘What if’ someone else were running this session on creativity. How would they organise/structure it?

Page 48: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

5. Think outside your area: Examples

Who? How?

World War I military designers

John von Neumann (Mathematician)

Japanese industry

Borrowed ideas from cubist art to create more efficient camouflage patterns for tanks and guns

Used knowledge from poker playing to develop the “game theory” model of economics

Collaborations between entirely unconnected industries actively encouraged to make R&D breakthroughs

Page 49: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Think Outside Your Area : Suggestions

1. Read fiction and stimulate your imagination

2. Go to places you wouldn’t normally go (eg a junk yard, a fairground)

3. Develop the explorer’s attitude : the outlook that wherever you go, there are ideas out there

(4. When you hit on an idea, write it down)

Page 50: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

6. Go For Ambiguity

“If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results”

George S Patton (American General)

Page 51: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Ambiguity As Found In The Workplace

• Non hierarchical organisation

• Tolerance (or even encouragement) of different approaches

• Broad goals defined, but little else

Page 52: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Believe in Yourself

Lack of creativity is a self-fulfilling prophecy (as substantiated by research!)

Page 53: Innovation/Creativity. Sources of new product ideas Creativity: can it be learned? Techniques for fostering group creativity Increasing personal creativity

Innovation/creativity: conclusions

• Creativity CAN be learned . If your organisation/group doesn’t make use of specific creative techniques, why not introduce them?

• Be willing to think ‘whacky’ thoughts - collectively these can spark excellent ideas.

• Be constantly receptive – creativity comes from the most unlikely sources!