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Innovation & Creativity
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| Innovation is typically thought of as putting creative ideas to work. In the world of business, it connotes a new product or service or process by which an enterprise can make money or save money. In the world of science, innovators are often seen as those scientists and researchers who can convert a new substance or a new finding into a commercially viable product. Innovation has always been one of the key engines of growth for commerce and industry. |
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| For many years one underlying context of business has been the story of change. There is more change all the time and it is coming faster and in more complex ways than ever. Numerous reactions and plans are suggested –learn more about change and how to deal with it, learn more about complexity and ways to integrate it into the work of the business, keep things simple, be nimble, proactive, and open-minded. Beneath all these approaches to change is a common premise of using creativity and innovation to thrive and survive. |
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| “Innovating is the best way to grow a business. It’s certainly the most fun.” These are the words of Scott Augustine, CEO of Augustine Medical as described in the August 2002 edition of Inc. magazine. In fact, this entire special edition of Inc. is devoted to innovation, the lifeblood of capitalism. Other tales of innovation include the story of Foster-Miller, a privately held engineering company in Waltham, Mass., that was able to solve Nabisco’s problem of fat-free Fig Newton batter sticking in the cutting equipment. Although we often think of innovation as mainly being displayed in products, innovation also can have a profound effect when applied to business processes and models. An example of innovation in business models is provided by Inc. writers in the story of YaYa Bike. This alliance includes 67 independent bike dealers as members with a goal of maintaining the integrity of their varied product lines for the local demands of their customers while maintaining good relationships with powerful suppliers who would like to limit their product offerings. |
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| The August 2002 edition of the Harvard Business Review is devoted entirely to innovation. This is only the second time in the 80 year history of this publication that one topic has been featured. The focus is on corporate innovation and managerial techniques, processes, and policies that are necessary for new thinking, new products and services, and profits. Of particular interest to the editors is the ability and will of the organization to sustain innovation overtime and throughout the organization. |
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| Prism is the quarterly journal of Arthur D. Little, Inc., an innovation-consulting business founded in 1886. The subtitle of Prism describes it as “leading edge thinking on innovation”. The founder of this company, Arthur Dehon Little was a young chemist who had the idea of taking creative research from the lab and into the world of business and industry. Today this firm works with global organizations and teaches creativity as an engine of renewal and reward, and as a source of competitive advantage and of long-term growth. The Q31998 issue of Prism is devoted to the topic of innovation. |
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| At the personal level, employees of large organizations are encouraged to be creative and think more like entrepreneurs (i.e. be innovative). Colleges and universities provide offerings in creativity and innovation. Babson College offers a creativity curriculum to prepare students for a “rapidly changing business world in which answers tend to be complex and fleeting”. Michael Ray of Stanford teaches a course in the graduate school of business entitled “Personal Creativity in Business”. At Yale, the PACE (Psychology of abilities, competencies, and expertise) center is led by Dr. Robert J. Sternberg who has researched and written extensively on the nature and development of creativity. Statistics on MBA graduates show they increasingly want to work for small companies where they believe they can be more creative and more influential. George Gendron, the editor of Inc., calls our current times a “centrifugal economy” in which increasingly people are being pushed or go on their own to the margins. It seems that at the margin, one must be as creative and innovative as possible to thrive. |
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| Perhaps it is a sign of the times, especially the need and determination for growth, expansion, and vigor in our economy that both Inc and HBR have chosen innovation as the topic of focus for their fall journals. Innovation at both the oganization level and at the personal level may hold the keys for sustained existence and success in the changing, complex world of capitalism in the future more than ever before. |
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| | "Ideas are the currency of success. They separate you from your competition."
- Edward de Bono | | |
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