Creativity and Innovation in the Workplace - ARM Holdings plc - Case Study Example

CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date Assignment 1 Introduction Undeniably, connection between social change and creativity has always been a natural. Generations of creative thinkers as well as artists have used protests paintings, songs, in addition to other visual arts so as to stir up activism and bring about knowledge of cruelty, injustice, and inequalities (Tapton, 2013). These days, creative thinkers have directed their attentions to areas like poverty, global warming, rape culture, globalization and they make use of novel technologies like social media together with more conventional forms of art to broadcast their message. Still, as mentioned by Tapton (2013) creativity role in social change surpasses individual collectives. A social issue can be defined as a condition that at any rate a number of people within the community see as being disagreeable, such as poverty. Poverty as per (Agola & Awange, 2014, p.43) is a general dearth or scarcity, or a condition of one lacking a particular amount of money or material possessions. There exists many creative companies but in my view, UK based ARM Holdings with a Market Cap of $24.54 Billion is the mist creative organization. In this essay, we seek to provide a critical analysis about problem solving technique and solution to poverty as a social issues, and provide substantial evidence why ARM Holdings is more creative. Discussion Statically, nearly 50% of the world population (more than 3 billion people are surviving on less than $2.50 daily, and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of more than 40 poor countries that are heavily indebted with total population of 567 million people is below the riches of the world’s top seven richest individuals combined. Over one billion children live in extreme poverty. More than 600 million live with no ample shelter, slightly below 400 million lack accesses to safe drinking water, more than 250 million lack accesses to health services, and almost 29,000 children die every day (Shah, 2013). In poor countries, access to services like education, health as well as other services is impossible. Issues of malnutrition, hunger in addition to disease badly affect the poorest within the society. Furthermore, the poorest are naturally marginalized from community and lack voice or representation in political and public debates; thus, creating challenges in their efforts to break out of poverty. (Shah, 2013) Contrary, the richer people are gaining from political and economic policies. For instance, the world spends lots of money on financial bailouts, military, as well as other areas that are of benefit to rich people and spend less to address the day after day calamity of poverty and its associated challenges. In this case, multiple idea facilitation as a problem solving technique may help solve poverty creatively: multiple idea facilitation is a creativity method intended for increasing the quantity of new ideas. This technique as mentioned by Hunter et al. (2008, p.235) is roofed in the notion that numerous ideas boost the possibility that one of the ideas has value. In this case, an idea is selected randomly, pondering on the similarities of the idea with the undesired circumstance, and confidently motivating an associated idea that results in a solution. Therefore, social entrepreneurs as persons with business expertise and on a social mission may offer the novel ideas required to accelerate the process of poverty reduction. By integrating creative ideas from investments as well as individuals from civil society, private, public, and organizations, these entrepreneurs may direct multifaceted international food systems as well as rural organisations toward their objectives (Babu & Pinstrup-Andersen, 2009, p.542). Regularly, however, unsuitable and oppressive bureaucratic processes together with inadequate knowledge of how rural institutions and food systems function have decelerated the implementation as well as recognition of creative solutions. Therefore, prospective social entrepreneurs do not have the inspiration to take the plunge, and their likely involvement to the international goals of poverty reduction is lost. However through social innovation, which connotes novel ideas, concepts, strategies that solve social issues together with social entrepreneurship are surfacing as hopeful approaches to global development (Babu & Pinstrup-Andersen, 2009, p.543). Latest experiences have revealed that incorporating entrepreneurial spirit into the process of development may advance the intervention programs effectiveness. Therefore, social entrepreneurs are required sufficiently in various development spheres, specifically, at community, national, and global levels to facilitate the successful design as well as execution of poverty reduction programs. However, as mentioned by Lodge and Wilson (2006, p.12), inflating the advantages of social innovation in reducing prevalent poverty will need lots of social entrepreneurs functioning as agents of change by motivating, innovating, as well as executing novel ideas at diverse levels. With business-as-usual approaches, it will be hard to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the global levels (Juma et al., 2005, p.54.). The present approaches for poverty reduction are founded on numerous assumptions: those programs for managing poverty must function efficiently, markets have to function as well as deliver, poor individuals must have the equal opportunities, and they must access financial and public services equally. In this case, social innovation and entrepreneurship are above all helpful when the abovementioned assumptions go wrong, as they regularly do in poor countries. Scores are worried that the Millennium Development Goals may be unachievable if the public sector acts alone (Juma et al., 2005, p.55). Ideas generated from social entrepreneurs do not substitute interventions of the public-sector; rather they make them more efficient and improve their effects. At the local as well as national levels, a number of success stories exhibit how social entrepreneurs in various nations have reacted to social issues with creative ideas. For instance, the ostensibly straightforward social innovation of assisting poor women in rural Bangladesh to access group-based, small-scale loans by means of micro financing has heavily helped to reduce poverty in rural Bangladesh. As mentioned by Babu and Pinstrup-Andersen (2009, p.543), it was the elimination of dogmatic barriers in the Bangladesh banking sector that permitted people to create microfinance groups. Whereas these interventions made a change in the lives of people, their impact could not be adequately enormous to help millions of poor individuals from poverty. These efforts are merely not backed by the needed ability to scale out and scale up. Moreover, nearly all victorious social entrepreneurs operate individually, somewhat for the reason that they require the independence become creative and to put their ideas into practice. Still, the poverty intervention programs that are publicly funded as well need creativity, entrepreneurial approaches, and change agents so as to have a superior impact with fewer resources (Juma et al., 2005, p.543). The existing setback is to recognize cost-effective techniques of developing numerous social entrepreneurs and innovators who can take part in the process of poverty reduction. Novel approaches for developing social entrepreneurs involve younger generation as partners in development. According to Babu and Pinstrup-Andersen (2009, p.544), acknowledging the capability of younger generation to perceive old setbacks in novel ways can help solve poverty creatively, since youth are potential innovators within the society. Their idealism and energy, driven by their connectedness through IT and other technologies, may be resourceful in solving the poverty issues within their communities. Solution to poverty will include: first, generation of employment considering that employment programs that are extensively and carefully planned, and well financed by the government may spur increase in jobs. Industries in need of significant workforces can as well be offered considerably bigger help from the government. Concentration must be directed on building companies that provide long-term as well as sustainable employment to the society. Organizations must as well budget adequately for worker training as well as associated community programs, with the intention that workers and potential workers can maintain their skills applicable and within the state-of-the-art. The second solution is based on attracting different social institutions to finance programs for fighting poverty like non-profit organizations and charities. Basically, money gained from all available organizations amount to powerful figures that may generate substantial change. Basically, organizations with solid objective to accomplish with firm project plans can resourcefully focus their attempts into generating change. Therefore, charities with many middlemen must be deterred to make certain that money reaches the poor people. Weight must be given to organizations following the ideology of “teach men to fish” instead of giving people fish, they should teach them to fish, save for exceedingly calamitous emergency circumstances. The third solution is promoting transparency in government spending: How and where the government decides to use its own revenue and the taxpayers’ money must be perceptible to the common man as well as the media. This as indicated by Lodge and Wilson (2006, p.42) makes governments responsible for their actions and any arising issue becomes easier to identify and deal with. Transparency as well puts off corruption in systems of government; for instance, transparency will be particularly valuable to people whose government may be allocating money for military operations rather than to programs of soling poverty. The fourth solution is working hard to repay world debts, considering that scores of poor countries are cornered in the cycle of continuously paying back debts, which are not possible to pay off. This as mentioned by Agola and Awange (2014) makes certain that in no way they get an opportunity to become independent, and so the these countries’ priorities are for that reason needlessly skewed and people of such debt-ridden countries are with no optimism for an improved future. The final solution is prioritizing programs targeting basic human rights bearing in mind that all people must have access to food, water healthcare, shelter, as well as electricity. Precisely, governments in poor nations must only progress to other development projects after making certain that programs that offer the aforesaid fundamental amenities to the public are functional. ARM Holdings plc (ARM) is a UK based international software design and Semiconductor Company headquartered at Cambridge. It mainly designs processors (central processing unit) under the brand ARM; it as well designs tools for software development under the brand Keil, RealView as well as DS-5, system-on-a-chip infrastructure, systems and platforms, as well as software. Undoubtedly, ARM is the market leader in the processors field for tablet computers as well as mobile phones. Processors derived from ARM licensed designs, or created by one of ARM instruction set architectures licensees, are utilised in every class of computing devices such as embedded systems’ microcontrollers, all contemporary smartwatches, tablets, Smartphones supercomputers, and servers (ARM Ltd, 2013). Basically, ARM designs high-performance, low-energy microprocessors, which are embedded in the majority of tablets as well as Smartphones. The trendy iPhone 5s is powered by ARM 64-bit chips and the company is presently bolstering production of semiconductor for the surging internet of things market. That connotes that ARM will spread out its reach further into people day after day (digital) lives. Creativity in ARM is exhibited by the increasing use of smart as well as connected digital devices by billions of people across the globe, bearing in mind that score s of the chips utilised in these electronic products are from ARM’s technology. The creativity and knowledge of ARM workers as well as the capability to bring about customer satisfaction in an environment that is more and more competitive and demanding are the main determinants of the company success. ARM workers are undeniably the most innovative and creative people in the semiconductor industry, who work with a vision and aspire to create and deliver the best technology. In cooperation with their partners, ARM has developed numerous technologies that make the world a better place for all and sundry. This has been attributed by a set of behaviours and principles through which the company operates, and such behaviours and principles have evolved as the company continues to develop, and until now they still hold true. The vital behavior elements considered of an ARM worker in all the discipline they work include constructive proactivity, selflessness and teamwork, customer and partner responsiveness and focus. Furthermore, creativity has been promoted by ARM business model which is rooted in developing technologies, well-matched for scores of partners to utilize in a various markets across the globe (ARM Holdings plc, 2013, p.7). Therefore, the creativity of ARM workers rests in the company ability to pay attention to and value the needs of their partners. The Company always combines their inputs with their individual research so as to generate the next invention of their technology designs, and thanks to their close partnership with their partners, ARM have managed to be open to new suggestions as well as ideas making it more innovative and creative. Internally, managers at ARM are encouraged to take a consensual approach while leading teams, and when these members of the team grow to be successful, the company is developing future leaders capable of managing in ARM’s diverse and broad environment. Basically, over 67% of ARM’s workers are engineers, inventing and specifying novel technology for licensing while non-engineering workers concentrate on deploying this novel technology; sales and marketing personnel maintain the important relationships with the company’s partners; licensing and legal teams help in negotiations; finance teams handle matters of finance; infrastructure teams offer mechanisms for delivering the invented technology, and human resource teams support the continuing development of a high engagement, high performance organisation wherein workers can collaborate, be creative, innovate, as well as grow (ARM Holdings plc, 2013, p.12). Scores of the ARM customers are international semiconductor companies like Nokia and Apple, which obviously need a global concentration. At present the company has more than 30 offices across the globe, with research and development locations in United Kingdom, United States, Germany, France, china, India, and Taiwan. Furthermore, creativity in the company is promoted by the company’s strong culture of promoting interworking and internal communication. ARM also believes firmly in spending more time with its customers; thus, the company has numerous offices in strategic regions where ARM-based products are developed by its customers. Such shared behaviours as well as principles have evolved in the last two decades, during which the company has increasingly offered technology to the growing number of customers. Conclusion In conclusion, it has been argued that the history of the world shows that all societies develop their individual social entrepreneurs to solve social issues like poverty. Until lately, planned efforts to promote as well as develop the ability for social entrepreneurship and innovation have been inadequate considering that in private sector, entrepreneurship continues and has been the main force driving development. Therefore, to solve poverty through multiple idea facilitation problems solving technique, the up-and-coming paradigms of idea development for social entrepreneurship as well as innovation must be mainstreamed and scaled up. As argue in the essay, social entrepreneurs ought not to be limited to the highly educated and elite persons who possess the resources as well as influence to put their ideas into practice. In this case, youth leaders as well as rural volunteers may be train to become social entrepreneurs. Even though contextually the criteria for triumphant entrepreneurship differ, people with qualities like creativity, social values, self-motivation, as well as readiness to share recognition with others can become successful as social entrepreneurs. With regard to the most creative company, ARM is without doubt the best considering that it licenses its chip architecture and sell its designs and to lots of companies, like Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, and Nvidia. His connotes that almost all existing Smartphone, tablet, and mobile phone runs on an ARM chip. In my view, ARM-based products are at the moment the most-used consumer products globally, outdoing McDonald and Coca-Cola by some measures References Agola, N.O. & Awange, J.L., 2014. Globalized Poverty and Environment: 21st Century Challenges and Innovative Solutions. New York: Springer Science & Business Media. ARM Holdings plc, 2013. Enabling Innovation Everywhere ARM Holdings. Strategic Report. Cambridge: ARM Holdings plc. ARM Ltd, 2013. About ARM. [Online] Available at: http://ir.arm.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=197211&p=irol-irhome [Accessed 23 December 2014]. Babu, S. & Pinstrup-Andersen, P., 2009. Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Developing Capacity to Reduce Poverty and Hunger. In Braun, J.V., Hill, R.E. & Pandya-Lorch, R. The Poorest and Hungry: Assessments, Analyses, and Actions : an IFPRI 2020 Book. Northwest, Washington, D.C: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). pp.542-49. Hunter, S.T., Mumford, M.D. & Bedell-Avers, K.E., 2008. Multi Level Issues in Creativity and Innovation. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing. Juma, C. et al., 2005. UN Millennium Project: Innovation. New Jersey: Earthscan. Lodge, G.C. & Wilson, C., 2006. A Corporate Solution to Global Poverty: How Multinationals Can Help the Poor and Invigorate Their Own Legitimacy. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Shah, A., 2013. Poverty Facts and Stats. [Online] Available at: http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats [Accessed 23 November 2014]. Tapton, L., 2013. Creativity as a Tool for Social Change. [Online] Available at: http://www.theartofdismantling.com/2013/08/16/creativity-as-a-tool-for-social-change/ [Accessed 23 November 2014]. Read More