Creativity in Business - Coursework Example

Creativity in Business Creativity in Business Introduction Companies with the best performance are known to the most creative and innovative. They do not copy what other organizations do; instead they use the ideas from others innovatively and come up with their unique products, services or applications based on these ideas (Seidel, et al., 2010). What they do is distance themselves from the competition instead of competing with their competitors. If their innovations are copied by another company, they create a new thing to distinguish themselves from them and become better. In a nut shell, these companies are able to attain a long term success strategy through innovation and creativity leveraging. Creativity is a function of imagination, evaluation, curiosity and knowledge (Ray & Myers, 1986). The greater the level of curiosity and knowledge, the more the ideas and patterns can be achieved. Mere knowledge alone does not guarantee creativity because one has to shake the pieces and bits to come up with new ways, and these ideas must be evaluated and developed to make them usable. Creativity is a process that entails discovery, invention and creation. Discovery is seen as the lower level in creativity. Like the name suggests it is when one stumbles upon something or becomes aware of that thing, for example in art, one may stumble upon a uniquely shaped rock. Discovery is the mother of most inventions. For example the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham may be because he discovered an easier way to communicate. Invention is bound to happen so it is better to invent something in business before someone else does. The last step is creation which involves tapping into things that only your organization can make; coming up with different opinions and viewpoints regarding a subject. Creation involves restructuring knowledge to gain new insights into the nature of a subject. Creativity and Innovation Often the word innovation and creativity are used interchangeably even though they are different. Creativity means, originality and imagination while innovation is improvement and modernization of an already existing idea. Innovation is a significant aspect in the development of organizations, cultures and individuals. It is achieved strategically through the process of creativity. It opens an organization to new ideas and makes it a learning process in business. Innovation can help an organization to take advantage of the readily available information to make new product, service or application development. The main difference between creativity and innovation is that creativity dwells on originality while innovation thrives on using already existing ideas to improve upon them and using them for better usage or for the purpose of commercialization. Solving problems through creativity Creativity in management is essential as organizations face many problems related to equal importance but the solutions are few (Bilton, 2007). The chances of finding solutions to these problems are few. In order to solve these problems it is important to challenge the capabilities of those in charge. This allows them to restructure and redevelop the creative process of approaching problems to produce new perspectives and ideas. Change for example, is an intrinsic necessity in every organization that wishes to have a great performance in long term. It is not possible to maintain a status quo if the company is not progressing all the time. Doing things the same old way will lead to difficulties in the business environment as it is constantly experiencing economic, cultural and technical changes. Change is a phenomenon that is here to stay and all kinds of businesses have to respond and move with this wave if they want to stand a chance of prosperity and survival in the competitive world of business. Many firms have the pressure to enhance old products and systems (Routledge textbooks, 2005). Growth and survival are directly related to an organization’s capability to adopt and implement new services, processes and products. Modern businesses lay emphasis on building larger markets, team working and strategic planning thus they have to come up with new ways of solving problems and making decisions. Problems that exist are either internal or external. Internal problems include poor communications, poorly motivated staff and financial problems. External problems include dealing with new entrants, new technological problems, slow economic growth and how to grow sales in the competitive pace of markets. Such situations need positive responses from the management, where creativity is considered a vital asset. This is because creative leaders hunt for the problems and aim to inspire other through their creative talents. Having a creative team would help in dreaming up with new ideas of marketing the goods, coming up with production methods, management to motivate people. The most creative solutions to change problems are having a creative leader who doubts everything and looks to find the problems instead of waiting for the problems to happen. This makes the leader challenge the current perspectives and thus probe other possible options through exploration of options that surround them (Ibbotson, 2008). Having a creative mind allows a leader and the team diverge through generation of new ideas and many exciting ones no matter how absurd they are. These ideas are then converged, evaluate and the idea thought to bring a break through is selected. Constant re-evaluation is important as change is also not constant and no idea can be good forever. Creativity in Action The airline industry has grown to be very creative in their ways of approaching problems. They pay more attention to logos imprinted on their aircrafts as a way of portraying their brand image. British Airways has had a dose of creativity since the 1980s. In 1980s Sir Colin Marshall had a directive to focus on customer satisfaction. He formed an effective marketing program based on the assumption that employees would only treat customers in a good way if they received a better treatment too (Seidel, et al., 2010). Thus he established a compulsory seminar for all employees and profit sharing. The seminar focused on the employee relationships with each other, customers, bosses, and to an extent their family members. This program contributed a big deal in motivating the employees and creating better customer relations. Some of the creative ideas that Marshall came up with was installation of TV cameras in passenger disembarking areas so that they could register complains as soon as they landed (Routledge textbooks, 2005). The image of British Airways was also changed to promote the airline for example, uniforms, passenger lounges, and new exterior plane painting. This was necessary since the airline business is very competitive and all companies in this industry have to establish a competitive advantage for themselves. Improving the quality of service is the key. How to create a creative culture in an organization Creativity is not a personal trait that one is born with or that is available to only a few individuals, rather it can be taught. Being creative involves using natural processes like thinking, experiences, and associative thinking. Thus everyone can be good at it. Changing the mindset by practice or intentionally is the way to creativity. There are also tools that can help individuals to boost their natural abilities thus structure their thinking in ways that make them more creative. In organizations creating a creative culture is essential for prosperity and survival. This done through brainstorming, asking what if questions, role playing, and use of provocative techniques (Jabani & Sawyer, 2004) Brainstorming is a way of getting people to make contributions to a topic regardless of their ideas practicality. This helps them to think outside the box and give a solution that might not occur otherwise. This encourages input from many individuals and an idea can be molded to make a workable solution. Asking what if questions in the business organization leads to discovery of new things which help in improvements. An organization should encourage its employees to always look at both sides of the coin. For example, considering what would happen if a process was performed in the opposite way rather than its usual way (Jabani & Sawyer, 2004). Role playing on the other hand makes one have a different perspective thus leading to creative ideas. For example if a sales person played the role of being a customer, they get a clear perception of what the customer wants and encourage the development of a plan to include the needs of the customer. Lastly, provocation helps in stimulating creativity. It is the intentional rejection of a truism so as to stimulate thinking. This way all employees in the business will always think of alternatives in case one way of thought fails. Process and Barriers to creativity The process of creativity involves challenging the normal ways of doing things through having a doubtful mindset or asking what if questions. This leads to new discoveries and exploring these discoveries follows. Exploration involves probing all possibilities that can make an answer to your questions. Being creative involves generating ideas even though they seem absurd, one never knows what might work o not. However, these ideas are grouped into the most probable to solve the problems and evaluated to demonstrate their efficiency. Implementation of new ideas is a risk, but all the same no idea is good forever so there is always a room to improve and re-evaluate. Creativity however, has both internal and external barriers (Seidel, et al., 2010). Internal barriers include fears and own biases while external barriers include environmental constraints. Understanding what intrinsically motivates an individual is the key to conquering external barriers. Being open minded means that one can look at ideas in different ways and being a ready to push for these ideas is one way to overcome internal barriers. By so doing it is possible to create an environment where everyone else in the organization does the same, thus better chances of getting rid of external barriers. Summary and Recommendations Creativity is the component behind most successful companies like Apple and Hewlett Packard, which have analytical and creative leaders. In businesses creativity leads to viable innovation which is key to success. In order to boost creativity in a company people must; learn how to use all their senses, continually expand their knowledge pool, defer judgment, actively seek new experiences, be able to redefine problems, and to look where other people are not looking. Bibliography Bilton, C., 2007. Management and creativity: From creative industries to creative management. London: Blackwell Publishing. Ibbotson, P., 2008. The illusion of leadership: Directing creativity in business and the arts. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Jabani, M. C. & Sawyer, F. E., 2004. Acts of entrepreneurial creativity for business growth and survival in a constrained economy: case study of a small manufacturing firm (SMF). International Journal of Social Economics, 31(2), pp. 30-55. Ray, M. L. & Myers, R., 1986. Creativity in business. New York: Doubleday. Routledge textbooks, 2005. Creativity and its importance in business. [Online] Available at: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/0415345421/about/pdf/sample.pdf [Accessed 10 March 2015]. Seidel, S., Muller-Wienbergen, F. & Rosemann, M., 2010. Pockets of creativity in business processes. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 27(1), pp. 415-436. Read More