Creativity and Its Importance in Business

Creativity
Ability to come up with new and different viewpoints on subjects. Breaking down and restructuring our knowledge about subjects in order to gain new insights

Invention and Creativity

Invention is an act of creativity It result in a device, process or technique novel enough to produce a significant change The application is fundamental invention

Ideas and how they are raised

Generating ideas is not a chance process Ideas appear to arise by chance only when people are actually looking for them It does not happen to people who are not curious or Who are not engaged in hard search for opportunities, possibilities Making notes on ideas as they arise is extremely important

Ideas and how they are raised

In terms of problem solving we might prefer to think of insights rather than ideas The gaining of insights into a problem can lead to restructuring of the problem Motivation also plays an important role in our ability to be creative Creative thinking however does not appear to occur where the individuals interest in the subject matter is low

Importance of Creativity in Business

Logical thinking progresses in a series of steps, each one dependant on the last This new knowledge is merely an extension of what we know already rather than being new Therefore, logical thinking has only a limited role to play in helping managers to be creative The need for creative problem solving has arisen as a result of the inadequacies of logical thinking

Importance of Creativity in Business

It is a method of using imagination with techniques Which use analogies, associations and other mechanisms to help produce insights into problems Considerable research has to be done which enables us to obtain a better understanding of creativity & become more innovative

How creative thinking may be used in management

To make more effective use of a managers time To improve a products appeal to customers To improve motivation amongst staff To appeal to customers wants and needs To cut costs through more efficient/effective production methods To identify new and profitable product-market opportunities

 Problems which require creative thinking are open-ended problems that is, problems for which there is more than one solution Executives have to make decisions which require creative problem solving in planning, organising, leading and controlling their organisations

Planning
Determining the mission of the organisation Determining the organisational objectives Identifying strengths,weaknesses, opportunities and threats Adjusting the organisation behaviour and strategies to competitors strategies Deciding how to implement competitive strategies

Organising
Deciding what jobs need to be done within an organisational unit Deciding how various jobs within an organisational unit can be grouped together, etc. Deciding how much authority should be delegated to various organisational positions Determining how best to train people for their jobs

Leading
Finding ways of increasing productivity in the workplace Controlling Deciding what systems of control are needed Setting standards Identifying why standards/objectives have not been achieved

Qualities of a creative person

challenge the status quo confront assumptions exhibit curiosity like to investigate new possibilities tend to take the initiative in most matters are highly imaginative are future-orientated

Qualities of a creative person

tend to think visually see possibilities within the seemingly impossible are not afraid of taking risks are prepared to make mistakes are adaptable to different work environments are adaptable to changing circumstances see relationships between seemingly disconnected elements distil unusual ideas down to their underlying principles

Acquiring creative problem solving skills

1. Fluency ability to produce many ideas (many of which may be fairly similar or have the samekind of theme) 2. Flexibility ability to produce a varied mix of ideas (none or few of which are similar or share the same kind of underlying theme) 3. Elaboration ability to add detail, depth, mixtures of viewpoints or perspectives 4. Originality uniqueness, novelty, newness, creativeness (new) or innovativeness (improvement of existing)