Free Essay

Innovation Begins with Creativity

In: Other Topics

Submitted By jackie2014
Words 1191
Pages 5
Innovation Begins with Creativity
Creativity and the creative process is seen as a human trait. These are my ideas that have been informed with some research on what creativity means to humans and how it promotes innovation. The impact of creativity on innovation is bringing together connections from someone's experience and producing something new, this is creativity and in turn innovation. Creativity requires different kinds of thinking and draws on the richness of someone’s experience, not the depth of knowledge in one field. A creative or innovation person should be able to see the big picture and gather ideas from different places. If an individual is too focused on one task, it blinds them from the ideas all around them. Circumstance plays a large role in shaping someone's creative ability as well as the support from those around them. This is a more personal approach to creative thought and a valid one. Creativity in education shows students are progressing in a new thinking environment that is creative centered as well as innovative.
In my mind, creativity and innovation are in the most general sense the ability to make connections and come up with new ways of generating solutions. When thinking about creativity, most people think of the arts such as painting, sculpture, and music. The method people use to create something through these mediums is considered creative. This could include having influence from the past, having a certain way of doing art, or even influences from outside the field. Skill is a medium for creativity to emerge, skill and creativity can promote innovation. The way something is done can help to focus energy and ideas into one way of doing things to make it easier to be creative and therefore innovative. Some people need a certain amount of rules to produce an object or idea that can be useful. Innovation uses these same ideas, but with a different perspective.
An innovative person is one that thinks critically about the environment around them. They see things in a different light and act on their experience. This can be said about Pablo Picasso. The ability to do anything you want is not conducive to creativity, but may be considered innovative. Unlimited freedom can be the most limiting thing possible when thinking of innovation. With so many possibilities, the mind is not able to grasp any idea and mental connections or bridges are not made. I believe that Picasso meant that to be innovative, a set of rules must be applied to your experience or creativity. This helps to focus your skill and attention to a narrower task. This is very typical of Picasso because of his radical new art form of cubism. This new art movement was not spontaneous for him. He had been experimenting with different ways of painting for years before he finally perfected it in his mind. He set new rules to create a new creative way of experiencing objects and space. Picasso believed that since a painting is two-dimensional, the object in the painting should be seen from multiple angles. In this example, he is using the medium of the two-dimensional painting as a way to limit his creativity and create something amazing. He had a new thought and acted on his thoughts. This is the character of an innovative and creative person.
Creative activity is inherently human and although innovation stems from creativity it is not as inherently human. Our culture is built on innovation. Throughout human history we have shown ways that we separate ourselves from common animals. Since some of the first humans drew cave paintings, we have shown our instinct is to be innovative and find ways to accomplish our goals. The progress in the way we live now is a testament to that innovative energy. The products of creative energy are what we use to define our existence on the planet and promote innovation. Innovation is a big factor and has helped us get through extremely difficult times. This idea is becoming important in higher education. The need for the future generation to be innovative and creative has become the primary focus of some institutions. Many agree that the challenges that will be faced in the future will be complex and will require high creative and innovative capabilities. Although this is a popular opinion, different fields feel differently about what that actually means. STEM fields often have difficulty instilling creativity into the curriculum by nature of the vertical thinking approach of its subject matter. This is often at odds with artistic fields that focus on reflection and discussion to embrace creativity. The truth is that there are many ways to think about innovation and creativity and the goal is not always to be different.
It has been my experience that the creative process works in a cyclical pattern, which is similar to innovation. This means that it can start anywhere and truly does not have an end. The process is just a series of progressions towards a better solution. It is trial and error until an adequate solution is reached. We regress and we move forward in our thought process, making new connections and bringing in new and old evidence. When I am thinking creatively, my mind must often go very far from the stated objective, but it always comes back to the basic premise. It’s as if my mind is reaching for any connection or relation that the rest of my mind may have. This process becomes a pattern of progress, regression, and refinement in my head. I believe that most creative processes are like this and are able to cultivate innovation to find meaningful solutions.
Innovation is often seen as being different and a counter to the mainstream. While this seems intuitive, there is research that suggests that divergent thinking is often not the primary driver of innovation or creativity. Cultures can be generalized as to being conservative or liberal. The conservative cultures impose strong social norms and they are reinforced by the majority of the public. This puts pressure on individuals to conform to those social norms. Although seemingly restricting, these situations give people an understanding of rules and domains. Knowing brings confidence and the ability to be innovative. There are studies that indicate innovation means different things in different cultures. This further emphasizes the relation that creativity and innovation has to culture. The opposite is also true. People from looser cultures can succeed in being innovative and creative in culturally unfamiliar tasks. This would be considered the ‘rock the boat’ model. Creativity is a lot more encompassing than being different and rocking the boat. When there are extreme cultural and social changes happening in society, it is easy to become part of the movement because everyone is doing it. Sometimes this counter movement becomes less of a creative response than the mainstream. Innovation has a shifting pendulum that changes constantly but is always tied to local cultural aspects. There is a strong tie between creative thought, innovation and social circumstance. It seems that the phenomenon of innovation is dependent on the circumstance and environment of one's time.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Entrepreneurial Creativity

...DEVELOPING INDIVIDUAL INNOVATION Entrepreneurship Imagination & Creativity: Imagination and Creativity goes hand by hand i.e. with out imagination you cannot be creativity. This combination is the key to success for entrepreneurs. Potential entrepreneurs always analyze from every possible angle. What is the problem? Whom does it affect? How does it affect them? What costs are involved? This is the type of analysis that blends creative thinking with systematic analysis. The Role of Creativity: Creativity is generation of idea that results in improved efficiency or effectiveness of a system. Two important aspects of creativity exist: process and people. Process: it is goal oriented and designs to attain a solution of a problem. People: they are resource who determines the solution. Table 5.1 shows two approaches for distinguishing innovative entrepreneur from adaptive entrepreneurs and found their application very effective. The Nature Of the creative process: Creativity is the process that can be developed and improved. Many people incorrectly believe that only a genius can be creative, but it is not like that. It’s the negative phrases prohibit people from thinking further. Negative phrases are shown in table 5.2. There are four steps in creativity process Step 1: Background and knowledge accumulation: Successful creations are generally preceded by investigation and information gathering. This people investigate in both related...

Words: 1563 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Best Snacks Problem Solution

...Best Snacks Problem Solution Course/Number Date Andre Boyer Best Snacks Problem Solution Best Snacks encounters many challenges that affect the creativity and innovation practices. This ranges source from individual and organizational learning, management practices and technology in creativity and innovation. Jones (2004) states, “Each design challenge has implications for how an organization as a whole and the people in the organization behave and perform.” (p. 115). This means that each area influences the direction of the organization and some of the difficulties that stifle a creative environment that lends itself to an innovative organization. Further, successfully overcoming challenges associated with a void in creativity consists of implementing a plan that address concerns highlighted by employees in the recent organizational survey. Creating a plan may source at the leadership level but the input sources from the employees because this is the identified area where creativity does not exist in the desired way. Leadership teams must recognize that the survey indicates employees do not feel they have the freedom to provide creative input therefore; leadership team members become part of the problem. Mat and Razak (2011) state, “Identification of success or failure of innovation can be done through implementation phase” (p. 217). As a result, the problem itself lies within the leadership team members rather than the employees of Best Snacks. Based...

Words: 3155 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Change

...be very effective in making sure each individual is on the same page. This will also allow members to become part of this new change or plan, and will also help to develop a sense of trust in the new program Change, innovation, and even creativity are not new concepts in the framework of organizational development. The past few decades we have witnessed the development of several theoretical models aiming to improve the way organizations function. Change demands both creativity and innovation. According to Pearce (Pearce, 1974), individual culture exerts a negative influence on creativity, however, "were it not for creativity, culture itself would not be created." Innovation means successfully drawing on new ideas. All innovation begins with creative ideas. Thus, creativity is the starting point for innovation. Changes in innovation are necessary for the successful exploitation of new ideas. In an organizational setting, creativity is the generation of an idea, and innovation as the implementation of these creative ideas, known as creative output (Woodman, 2008). Amabile implies that creativity requires individuals with creative characteristics, while a group of people are primarily responsible for implementing these creative ideas, so they can result in innovation (Amabile, 1983). At the core of organizational success, an employee is likely to be creative when they expect that their creativeness will lead to a more...

Words: 392 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Definitions Paper

...innovative through creativity and design. This paper will define the terms creativity, design, and innovation as well as detail how these concepts can have implications on an organization. Creativity, Design, and Innovation Defined Creativity, design, and innovation are commonly used terms in today’s business world. These coined terms are heard in the boardrooms, in the staff meetings, and in the marketing and advertising campaigns, so it is important to understand their meaning. Creativity Creativity is coming up with ideas and is the essential building block of innovation. Use of force or mandate does not allow for creativity, as creativity is usually a product of intuition. Following the creation of a new idea, the implementation takes place. Design Design can be defined as “the conscious decision-making process by which information is transformed into an outcome, be it tangible or intangible” (Stamm, 2003, p. 12). Essentially, design is taking the idea from the creativity stage and making it become reality. The successful implementation of a creative design then becomes innovation. Innovation Once the idea has been made, and the process by which to implement the idea has been designed, then the product or service has arrived at innovation. Stamm’s defines innovation as “the art of making new connections, and continuously challenging the statues quo – without changing for change sake” (2003, p. 7). Stamm further mentions that innovation is a state of mind...

Words: 709 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Innovation

...Innovation allows for a new idea or creation of a new product or service. In my line of work, a new process or system can be innovative in which we improve a way to better manage student records therefore improving the quality of work and time efficiency. expected and use different avenues for improving a process or product. Design “Good design is about looking at everyday things with new eyes and working out how they can be made better. It is about challenging existing technology” (Stamm, 2003). This could get confusing as it sounds much like creativity and innovation. an architect, to create a design for a new product or a new service. Creativity To be creative is to be able to see things from a different perspective. It is like looking through a special lens and being able to see beyond what is in front of you Differences and Similarities In comparing Creativity, Design and Innovation, it is easy to confuse each of these ideas because they are so similar. They all deal with a new way of looking at an idea however; designing is done with a purpose or an intent to do something with that idea. Creativity is to think outside of the box and view things in a different light. Creativity challenges a person to seek a certain level of uniqueness in their way of thinking based on an idea. Innovation differs from both in the sense that this is where the idea begins. Innovation calls for something new and different. Conclusion Creativity, design and innovation...

Words: 321 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Problem Solution: Best Snacks Inc.

...Phoenix Problem Solution: Best Snacks Inc. Best Snacks, Inc. will assess past procedures, management practices, and organizational culture to facilitate the changes needed to strengthen its position in the snack industry as a model of innovation and creativity. Describe the Situation Issue and Opportunity Identification Despite its huge success, Best Snacks is facing several major issues within the organization. One of the issues is compatibility of organizational structure and organizational culture. Another issue the company is growing rapidly, so change is inevitable in the near future. In this environment, a project manager plays a crucial role in initiating new ideas and processes and influencing employees to accept these changes. Thus, appropriate and superior leadership style is essential during the transition. If Best Snacks wants to be a constant presence in the industry, the company must address these issues. “Innovation is the process by which organizations use their resources and competences to develop new or improved goods and services or to develop new production and operating systems so that they can better respond to the needs of their customers” (Jones, 2004, p. 403). Because change requires innovation to be successful, Best Snacks must assess and restructure the company, allowing for the introduction of new processes, technologies, and services for the organizational to move toward this new strategy and way of business. Best Snacks must plan...

Words: 2527 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Organization Paper

...Robertson OI/361 August 12th, 2014 Paul Sam Organizational Impact Paper Riordan Manufacturing Inc is one of the driving firms in plastics injection molding. Riordan has companies in China, Michigan, California, Georgia, Albany and San Jose. The owner of the company is one of the Fortune 1000 enterprises better known as Riordan Industries. The company is distinguished by the imaginative art in designing plastics, which is the company’s innovative skill. The company has earned international recognition because of the design capabilities. One of the major products that Riordan manufactures are the heart valves, custom plastic parts, various sizes of electric fans medical stands and plastic parts. The impact that innovation, design and creativity have on the strategy at Riordan Manufacturing is to the designs of the company to be the leading company is using the material polymer to serve the needs of the customers and to make sure that they have answers to their challenges. Riordan also wants to obtain and achieve sensible profitability. For the success of the company, they will have to have a production plan that strong and grounded. In the processing stage, Riordan’s business in China serves the needs of handling of shipping to the company adequately. Therefore, the company has made a decision to put together a design of supply chains of electric fans to China. This plan will let Riordan know the size of resources such as equipment, buildings and the workforce...

Words: 784 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

It Case Study

...need to learn to become innovators themselves? Innovation is a new idea, more effective device or process. Innovation can be viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, in articulated needs, or existing market needs. This is accomplished through more effective products[->0], processes[->1], services[->2], technologies[->3], or ideas[->4] that are readily available to markets[->5], governments[->6] and society[->7]. The term innovation can be defined as something original and more effective and, as a consequence, new, that "breaks into" the market or society. Information technology (IT) is widely understood to be the enabling technology of the 21st century. IT has transformed, and continues to transform, all aspects of our lives: commerce and finance, education, employment, energy, health care, manufacturing, government, national security, transportation, communications, entertainment, science, and engineering. IT and its impact on the U.S. economy-both directly (the IT sector itself) and indirectly (other sectors that are powered by advances in IT)--continue to grow in size and importance. Information Technological innovation is essential for human development. From the printing press to the computer, people have devised tools for facilitating learning and communication. Technology is not inherently good or bad, the outcome depends on how it is used Information and technology (IT) involves innovations in microelectronics, computing (hardware and software)...

Words: 4496 - Pages: 18

Free Essay

Best Snacks

...creative by involving the staff and employees thoughts and ideas that can be used for innovative change within the company and the customers that they serve. This paper will attempt to discuss and create a problem statement that Best Snacks, Inc. and its team players are facing and needs to resolve. The resolution will need to implement a strategic plan that will be able to identify, define, and have a purpose and display what the priorities are needed to ensure a successful outcome. The problem solution will begin with realizing what the creative and innovative plan will need to have in order for the implementation to begin the process. The order of business has been brought forth by Elizabeth Fairchild who is the Chief Executive Officer and believes that Sabrina McKay, Vice President of Organizational Development will be able to implement some fresh and new ideas (Scenario, 2006). Sabrina’s area of accomplishments is within organizational development which can produce innovation through the people who are within the organization. While the staff is more than willing to finding ways to accomplish increasing sales they also...

Words: 2867 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Innovation Management

...INNOVATION MANAGEMENT WBB 10202 Perspective of Innovation NURULIZA RASLAN UniKL - RCMP University Kuala Lumpur –RCMP Innovation Management WBB 10202 CONTENTS • The Factors that affect innovation • • • • Creativity versus Innovation The innovation continuum Sources of Innovation Innovation Culture and Myths University Kuala Lumpur –RCMP Innovation Management WBB 10202 INNOVATION & SOCIETY Innovation have changed our lifestyle. Beneficial to society or not? University Kuala Lumpur –RCMP Innovation Management WBB 10202 INNOVATION FACTORS CULTURE PROCESS INNOVATION RESOURCES INFRASTRUCTURE All elements/factors are equally important. No innovation if one of these 4 elements missing. Each element requires/supports each others expanding innovation Innovation by Design – defines innovation as invention plus implementation / commercialization. Invention involves the process of taking an idea and developing it into a concept. University Kuala Lumpur –RCMP Innovation Management WBB 10202 Culture CULTURE University Kuala Lumpur –RCMP Innovation Management WBB 10202 Trend Lifestyle Market PROCESS University Kuala Lumpur –RCMP Innovation Management WBB 10202 RESOURCES University Kuala Lumpur –RCMP Innovation Management WBB 10202 People Material Technology INFRASTRUCTURE University Kuala Lumpur –RCMP Innovation Management WBB 10202 Organization/ Company Vision Mission Objective University...

Words: 967 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Creativity

...NAME: RINITA MALWANKAR SUBJECT: INDIAN MANAGEMENT THOUGHT & PRACTICES - PROF- R.V.NHAWKAR DECLARATION I Rinita Malwankar the student of K. G. Joshi and N. G. Bedekar College, T.Y. BMS (VIth semester), hereby declare that I have completed this project on Creativity (Indian Management Thoughts & Practices) for the academic year 2009-2010. This information submitted is true & original to the best of my knowledge. Date: Student signature, (Rinita Malwankar) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I take an opportunity to express my earnest gratitude and extreme joy at being bestowed with an opportunity to get an interesting project. I am extremely thankful to PROF- R.V.NHAWKAR for giving me an opportunity to work on such an interesting project on Creativity. Last but not the least I would like to thank all the people who directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly supported us for this project. Also I owe my success and achievement to my parents and friends. TOPIC: Creativity INTRODUCTION Creativity is a mental process involving the discovery of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the existing ideas or concepts, fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight. From a scientific point of view, the products of creative thought (sometimes referred to as divergent thought) are usually considered to have both originality and appropriateness. Although intuitively a simple phenomenon...

Words: 2920 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Economic Development and Creativity

...The general relationship between innovation and entrepreneurship in organization is universally believed as complementing and interacting with each other. From perspective of innovation, it is the base of entrepreneurship. Just as the theory put forward by Ireland, Hitt, Camp and Sexon, that “the successful entrepreneurial venture is usually based on a significant innovation.” It can be proved by a simple model of the entrepreneurial process presented by Brazeal and Herbert revealing that innovation is the foundation of entrepreneurship.In this model, authors considered the ultimate entrepreneurial event is driven by psychological innovation, which is the consequence of creativity plus technical innovation. Meanwhile the original change leading to technical innovation is environmental change (Brazeal Herbert, 1999). From perspective of entrepreneurship, it is the inspiration of innovation. A significant problem that an increasing number of companies have realized is that a strong entrepreneurial approach to innovative activities is necessary to their external market and internal organization (Ortt and Smits, 2006). Obviously, it is a manager rather than an entrepreneur who lacks of entrepreneurship contributes to this problem due to changeless organizational routines combined with entrepreneurial awareness. Consequently, Thornpson accentuated that “if we want more innovation, we need more entrepreneur”. However, consider above all, based on much controversy about “who is the...

Words: 1295 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Words

...Defination Of Words Creativity: Creativity is a crucial part of the innovation equation. Creativity requires whole-brain thinking; right-brain imagination, artistry and intuition, plus left-brain logic and planning. Creativity is a core competency for leaders and managers and one of the best ways to set your company apart from the competition. (Reference : http://www.creativityatwork.com/2011/11/19/what-is-creativity) Lifecycle: The course of events that brings a new product into existence and follows its growth into a mature product and into eventual critical mass and decline.For Example: Sales growth begins to accelerate, characterized with increasing sales year-over-year. As production levels increase, gross margins should steadily decline, making the product less profitable on a per-unit basis. An increase in competition is probable. (Reference : http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lifecycle.asp) Radical Innovation: Technological knowledge required to exploit it is very different from existing knowledge, existing knowledge will be obsolete - competence destroying or Results in a product that is so superior that existing products are rendered noncompetitive. Incremental Innovation: The knowledge required to offer a product builds on existing knowledge - competence enhancing. Most innovation is incremental or Innovation still allows existing products to stay competitive. Interaction Models: An interaction model is a design model that binds an application...

Words: 469 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

The Relationship Between Entrepreneurship Innovation and Economic Development

...Technological innovation has made a great contribution on economic development. However, entrepreneurship, another concept, also has essential consequences in terms of economic performance. The concept of the “entrepreneur as innovator” which was established by Schumpeter (1911) drives economic development. Therefore, it can be inferred that entrepreneur is a key source which leads to the increasing of economic growth. This essay will discuss the relationship between entrepreneurship, innovation and economic development in four sections. The first section will focus on the relationship between innovation and entrepreneurship. Section two will show the advantages of innovation in economic development. Section three will describe the impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth which divided into three parts: the regional, industry and global levels. The final section will concentrate on the role creativity and problem solving play in this relationship. The relationship between innovation and entrepreneurship is mutual. On the one hand, innovation is a precondition of entrepreneurship to drive entrepreneurial establishments to succeed. In order to prove this, Hitt, Ireland, Sexon and Camp (2002) point out that a successful entrepreneurial establishment cannot leave the help of essential innovation. Many innovations are produced by individual entrepreneurs; it usually takes place in large companies in developed countries. Therefore, a large amount of entrepreneurial opportunities...

Words: 1589 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Innovation the Path of Success

...[pic] RESEARCH PAPER INNOVATION IS THE PATH OF SUCCESS SUBMITTED TO: Prof. Ramasastry SUBMITTED BY: AMRITPAL SINGH ROLL NO: 01 SECTION: 1 - D BATCH: 2009-11 |“INNOVATION IS THE PATH OF | |SUCCESS” | | | |[pic] | To understand innovation, you first have to see the differences between an invention and an innovation. An invention is a new idea that is often turned into a tangible outcome, such as a product or a system. An innovation is the conversion of a new idea into revenues and profits. An idea that looks great in the lab and fails in the market is not an innovation; it is, at best, a curiosity. As Jeff Immelt once put it, “Innovation without a customer is nonsense; it’s not even innovation.” Invention is needed for innovation to take place. But invention is not innovation. In many companies, inventions that result in patents are considered innovations. These companies are often touted as “innovative.” In fact there...

Words: 3238 - Pages: 13