Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this assignment, students should be able to: 1. Explore the different types of creativity and creative processes usually found in the workplace 2. Explore and understand the many different facets of individual creativity 3. Identify, practice, and increase one’s individual creativity skills 4. Understand how team creativity differs from individual creativity 5. Understand how creativity and innovation differ and how they are related 6. Understand the leader’s role in fostering creativity and innovation in individuals and teams 7. Understand the leader’s role in designing systems for fostering creativity and innovation in an organization

Objectives of the Assignment ▪ To show ability in finding facts and defining the problems for the purpose of establishing the framework for idea generation. ▪ To display the competencies of using the creative tools and techniques for idea generation. ▪ To exhibit the competencies in evaluating ideas and making comparison against available alternatives.

QUESTION

You are Product Development Manager of an existing company that manufactures consumer products. The company plans to introduce a new product and sustain their competitive position in the market. As such, you are assigned by the company’s CEO to come up with a new product offering and present a proposal of the new product concept that appeal to the market. Your proposed product concept needs to be realistic and marketable within five (5) years.

It is important that your product concept be able to show how innovative in comparison to the available alternatives in relation to Building security and control system.

Source: http://theconstructor.org/building/building-security-control/6973/

In addition, the value it can specifically provide to the targeted market.

You are required to conduct a survey from: 1. TWO (2) Academicians AND 2. ONE (1) Managerial staff AND 3. THREE (3) students at APU

The main purpose of the survey is to get their feedback with regards to your proposed product concept. The information will then be used in your idea evaluation in Part 5 of your report.

Your written proposal has to be submitted by the date of submission with a softcopy in CD format.
Your written proposal needs to follow the format given below;

• Executive Summary • Table of Content • Part 1 - Introduction about the company background - Problem Statement – about the product that you want to proposed - Competitor Analysis, comparison of common attributes from two (2) products from two direct competitors - Objective Statement, written in one sentence • Part 2 - Idea generation • Part 3 - Product Concept Description - graphic design
• Part 4 - Market Identification – marketing strategy – product package, place, price and promotion • Part 5 - Idea Evaluation • Conclusion – discuss the problems of the existing technologies of product infrastructure • References • Part 6 - Appendix. (attachments of your survey & other supporting information to your document)

PART 1.
PROBLEM STATEMENT, COMPETITOR ANALYSIS AND OBJECTIVE STATEMENT

A. Problem Statement • One sentence to indicate the specific area of focus to work on your idea generation. • Your problem statement needs to relate to your objective statement • Important Note: Your problem statement will later be referred to in your Idea Generation

B. Competitor Analysis • Compare and contrast two (2) products from any two (2) direct competitors (table form) • Include the following: - Opening (overall summary of competitors’ profile) - Common attributes (essay) a. Uniqueness b. Limitation c. Technology • The above information of your Competitor Analysis will be used later in Idea Evaluation

C. Objective Statement • One sentence to indicate the general scope for your creative focus.

PART 2. IDEA GENERATION – Choose any two techniques from the lectures Attribute Listing Analytical Techniques Force Fitting Triggers Heuristic ideation technique SCAMPER Brainstorming

PART 3. Product Concept Description

• Present the visual or visuals of the product concept – Visual can be sketched by hand or drawn using available softwares. – Visual is required for all sides of the product – Label each components accordingly

*Be as detail as possible. Avoid giving generic description of the product

• Include the following: – Opening – Availability for purchase (be specific on locations & countries) – Features – Function – Frequency of usage (daily, weekly, monthly or occasionally etc) – Price (related to the target market’s affordability & competitors’ prices ) – Technologies

You are required to provide analysis on how different and innovative your product concept in comparison to the two (2) identified products in competitor analysis earlier in competitor analysis section.

*Be as detail as possible. Avoid giving generic description of the product

PART 4. Market Identification

• You are allowed to target a single or multiple market segment. Justify your marketing strategies. • Price • Product • Place • Promotion

*Be as detail as possible. Avoid giving generic description of the target market

PART 5. IDEA EVALUATION Choose any two of the techniques • 1. Cost-benefit analysis • 2. Decision trees • 3. Delphi technique • 4. Evaluation matrix • 5. Force field analysis • 6. TRIZ • 7. Sticking dots • 8. SWOT analysis •
PART 6. SURVEY (attach in appendix)

• Survey forms • Survey needs to be filled in BLUE INK ONLY • Date & signatures of your survey respondents are required in BLUE INK ONLY • All components in the survey form are required to be filled • Completed survey forms are to be attached in the appendix • Attach original completed survey forms with the hardcopy of assignment • Information from the survey forms will be used in idea evaluation – •
MARK ALLOCATION
|Objective Statement, Competitor Analysis and Problem Statement |20 marks |
|Idea Generation and Idea Summary |20 marks |
|Product Description |10 marks |
|Market Identification |20 marks |
|Idea Evaluation |20 marks |
|Overall Quality of the Proposal |Marks |

PERFORMANCE CRITERIA FOR OVERALL QUALITY OF PROPOSAL

• This criterion will assess the overall use of language appropriate for writing a formal business proposal, the organisation of information and the presentation of your proposal.

• It also includes consideration of how you present your executive summary. You are to follow the below structure for writing your executive summary.. - Name of the proposed product concept - Type of product proposed and (if applicable) the technologies used - Needs of the market identified (to show the reasons why the proposed product concept can solve the current problem or problems faced by customers in the market) - Names of the competitors and their competing alternatives - Proposed price of the product - Idea generation tools and techniques used - Idea evaluation tools and techniques used

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

Format of Writing

▪ You are to use the following format of writing. - Font type: Times News Roman - Font size: Heading – 16pts, subheading – 14pts, normal writing – 12pts - Line spacing: 1.5 - Caption and the source of information are to be given to each diagram, chart, and table used in your answer.

References and Citations

▪ References and citations are to be written according to Harvard Referencing System. ▪ Ensure the format you use for writing your citations and references is consistent throughout the document. ▪ Ensure each citation has its corresponding reference and each reference has its citation in the answer. ▪ You should on no account make reference to www.wikipedia.com, www.about.com, or the likes as sources for your work. These websites can be useful to provide you with the definitions and the general ideas about the concepts within the module but it is not acceptable in your academic writing.

Word Penalty

The maximum word count for this assignment is 2,000 words.
A sliding scale of penalties for excess length will be imposed according to the amount by which the limit has been exceeded. Your word count must be indicated on your cover page.

|Word Count |Penalty |
|2,001 – 2,200 |No penalty |
|2,201 – 2,400 |10% penalty of the total mark |
|2,401 – 2,600 |20% penalty of the total mark |
|2,601 and above |Marks will be capped at a pass (i.e. 50%) |

Words in diagrams, charts, tables, captions, citations and references are not considered into the word count.

Additional Information • The idea of ‘innovation’ in this assignment will be seen in objective manner meaning the product concept you proposed must not exist in the market around the world (Note: This can be verified by the marker via online by typing in the relevant keywords) and not from a subjective perspective where the idea, if applied, is considered novel to an individual, an organisation or a nation. This is to avoid students having simply copy an idea or taking a product which already exist in another country than merely applied to the country and market of their choice which shows no creative effort.

• However, this does not mean that students have to create something new from scratch. They can use those ideas or products that already exist and propose something new by combining two or more different functions, using different materials, modifying the existing product for different use, rearranging the parts of the product, minimising the size, etc. as long as the proposed product concept can appeal to the market and effectively compete with the competitors.

CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION: QUESTIONNAIRE (TO BE FILLED IN BLUE INK)

This questionnaire is to be used by CRI students with regards to the acceptability and implementation of their ideas. Some of the information given by the respondents will be required to be incorporated into the Force Field Analysis especially the answer and suggestion given in Q8, Q9, Q10, Q12, and Q13. Suggestions given by the interviewee should be presented as recommendations for maximising the supporting factors and/or minimising the restricting factors.

You will be required to explain your ideas to the interviewees and show how it can provide value to the target market and make comparison to other available alternatives in order to determine the innovativeness of your idea. The respond need to be attached as appendices in your assignment.

|INTERVIEWEE’S NAME: ___________________________ |DATE:____________ |
|OFFICE EMAIL: _____________________________________________ |
|POSITION : _____________________ |
| |
| |
| |Not clear |
|1. Are you clear with the idea proposed by the student? |1 2 3 4 5 |
| |Very clear |
| | |
|2. Is the description of the target market specific or |Highly general |
|general? |1 2 3 4 5 |
| |Highly specific |
| | |
| |Note: Specific detail of target market(s) is desired rather than providing a |
| |general description. |
|3. Have the students explained the value that will be |Not clear |
|provided by his or her idea to the target customer(s) or |1 2 3 4 5 |
|user(s) clearly? |Very clear |
| | |
|4. How far do you agree that the value provided by the |Not relevant |
|proposed idea is relevant to the target market / user? |1 2 3 4 5 |
| |Highly relevant |
| | |
|5. How innovative is the proposed idea? |Not innovative |
| |1 2 3 4 5 |
| |Highly innovative |
| | |
|6. How unique is the proposed idea when compared to the |Not unique |
|identified competing alternatives ? |1 2 3 4 5 |
| |Very unique |
| | |
|7. How far is the proposed idea considered to offer superior|Highly inferior |
|value when compared to the identified competing |1 2 3 4 5 |
|alternatives? |Highly superior |
| | |
| |
| |
|8. What are the limitations of the proposed idea? |
| |
|____________________________________________________________________________________ |
| |
|____________________________________________________________________________________ |
| |
|9. What are the non-technical problems (which can include barriers that are resulted from the political-legal, social-cultural, economic and |
|ecological environment) do you think may exist when the proposed idea is to be implemented? |
| |
|____________________________________________________________________________________ |
| |
|____________________________________________________________________________________ |
| |
|10. Will there be any technical difficulties in the designing and implementation of the proposed product / service / process innovation? If |
|yes, what are these technical difficulties? ( Yes ( No |
| |
|____________________________________________________________________________________ |
| |
|____________________________________________________________________________________ |
| |
|11. Do you agree that the proposed product / service / process innovation can be introduced within FIVE (5) YEARS from now? ( Yes ( No |
|12. What suggestions can you provide to overcome the limitations, non-technical problems and technical difficulties that you have identified |
|above? |
| |
|____________________________________________________________________________________ |
| |
|____________________________________________________________________________________ |
| |
|13. What other suggestions can you give in order to improve on the idea? |
| |
|____________________________________________________________________________________ |
| |
|____________________________________________________________________________________ |
| |

I, ______________________________________, hereby declare that the above information is provided by my good self in support of the effort made by the student in writing their Creativity and Innovation assignment.

______________________________________

Date & Signature of respondent