Creativity

Creativity is the process of forming something new and valuable. People can create physical
things or virtual things (idea, joke, theory, etc.). People inculcate interest in certain things/
subjects like psychology, science, business studies, accounts, blogging, philosophy, etc. The
effectiveness of learning and teaching is seen in creativity. In layman's language, creativity is
defined as the process of forming new products. Now, let us look at the origin of the word. The
word creativity has been taken from the Latin word 'creare,' meaning to create or make. This
word first came into being in the 14th century in Chaucer's 'Paradise Lost.' But the word got its
actual meaning in the enlightenment age.

Creativity is required at every stage/ phase of life. It is helpful in solving problems, in

communication, in writing, blogging, etc. Well, creativity is an essential part of one's life as it
helps in create new things and develop existing and new skills. For instance, engaging in a
creative activity helps in improving our problem-solving skills, imagination power, etc.
Creativity helps us in devising new ways to solve problems or generate something. Creativity
enables many functions like empathy, non-linear thinking, etc.

Innovation

Innovation is the process of executing ideas regarding goods and services. Innovation involves
improvement in the goods and services provided. New processes, techniques, and ideas are
applied to the existing goods and services so that they can be regenerated and renewed. Different
people have different definitions of innovation, but it is interesting to note that there are four
significant kinds of innovation. They are incremental innovation, architectural innovation,
disruptive innovation, and radical innovation. There are other types of innovation as well, but
these four are significant. Innovation is also an essential part of our life as it helps us in building
new ideas and technologies that help us in increasing productivity and generate higher output as
well. Now, there are certain contrasting points between creativity and innovation. So, let us have
a look at them.

Key Differences Between Creativity and Innovation

 While creativity is about being imaginative, innovation is about being
productive.
 Innovation is quantifiable in most cases; but creativity is not quantifiable.
 Creativity is all about thinking something new whereas innovation is more
about introducing something new.
 Money consumption is not involved in creativity but innovation involves
money consumption.
 There is no risk involved creativity but innovation is always associated with a
considerable risk.
  Creativity is associated with terms like ideas, imagination, thoughts, and
expression, concepts, brainstorming and creative process. Innovation is
associated with terms like process, value, invention, doing, action,
implementation, enable, useful, change, new and measurable.
 In a business organization, creativity comes up with new plans so that they can
give a competition and be more flexible in the market. On the other hand,
innovation is about taking up these novel ideas and developing on it to create
useful and practical solutions. In simple words, innovation is converting theory
into action.

In modern competitive business conditions, the term creativity is often overlooked but they fail
to understand that creativity alone doesn’t make a difference but innovation does.

What is an innovation platform?

An innovation platform is a tool for building and growing ideas. However, an innovation
platform also refers to a technical solution where you can build things fast and prototype
tools. Furthermore, for a business, an innovator’s growth platform means using products,
services, and technology in a new way to reach your goals—preferably more efficient than
before.  Let’s discuss the insights about the innovation platform by explaining its types,
examples, benefits, and how to choose the right platform for your workplace.

 Types of Innovation Platforms

Technical Open Innovation Platforms

One of the biggest changes in the way in which companies approach innovation has been the
growth of a technology-based open innovation platform. Let’s go through an example to
understand what is an open innovation platform? 

 Moreover, one of the biggest open innovation examples is Linux, an operating software that
competes with Microsoft and Apple, which are developed in the closed innovation policy
platform. Therefore, the biggest benefit of open-source software is that the software is
continuously tested by programmers with 100 percent transparency.
 Idea Management PlatformThis is an idea-sharing platform where people can come together
and share their thoughts on the idea management process.So, the goal of an innovation
management platform is to help companies come together, gather ideas from their employees,
and evaluate each idea individually. Then, developing good ideas for the market more quickly
will allow them to increase productivity.

What Is Business Model Innovation?

A business model is a document or strategy which outlines how a business or organization

delivers value to its customers. In its simplest form, a business model provides information about
an organization’s target market, that market’s need, and the role that the business’s products or
services will play in meeting those needs. 

Business model innovation, then, describes the process in which an organization adjusts its
business model. Often, this innovation reflects a fundamental change in how a company delivers
value to its customers, whether that’s through the development of new revenue streams or
distribution channels.

Service Innovations

Service innovation is a type of open innovation gaining prominence in recent times. With the
growing economic importance of the services sector, service innovation is playing an ever more
significant role in driving growth in today's knowledge-intensive economy. This type of
innovation responds to increased customer input, interactivity, and specialization; is
multidimensional in nature; and includes strategic, productivity, and performance dimensions.
Services with higher interactivity with customers provide increased opportunities for innovation
through interactions involving enhanced knowledge-sharing and learning processes, and it is
these higher-order capabilities that contribute to innovation in services. Examples include
Apple's development of the app resulting in value cocreation, and the development in Australia
of a virtual critical care unit for patients receiving emergency care in remote locations through
real-time digital telehealth.

Service innovations ensure and enhance the utility, performance, and apparent value of an
offering. They make a product easier to try, use, and enjoy; they reveal features and functionality
customers might otherwise overlook; and they fix problems and smooth rough patches in the
customer journey. Done well, they elevate even bland and average products into compelling
experiences that customers come back for again and again.
Common examples of Service innovations include product use enhancements, maintenance
plans, customer support, information and education, warranties, and guarantees. While human
beings are still often at the heart here, this type of innovation is increasingly delivered through
electronic interfaces, remote communications, automated technologies, and other surprisingly
impersonal means. Service can be the most striking and prominent part of the customer
experience, or an invisible safety net that customers sense but never see.

Design Led Innovation

Design-led innovation refers to the philosophy that businesses should be forward-thinking and
problem-solving. It takes the principles of design and applies them to the running of a company.
The popularity of design-led innovation is growing as its success becomes evident. In 2013,
the Design Council’s research showed that for every £1 spent on design, over £20 is produced in
revenue, with a £4 increase in profit.

Why has this innovation become so sought after?

On the surface, it would appear that everyone using a mobile phone is the reason for this success.
Having access to a smartphone gives us all the information we could want, literally at our
fingertips, so we can afford to only consider the easiest, most informative, and most efficient
phone apps worthy of our phones. Any apps that haven’t given serious consideration to design
and user experience will not survive against their competition. Like we said, it’s easy to point at
mobile phones and portable internet and say ‘that’s the reason for innovation and change’, but
there is more to it than that.

The general assumption is that design is only about making things look pretty, or make a better
user experience. While these are undeniably important elements of design, being a design-driven
business doesn’t just mean you’re good at drawing. It’s also about a state of mind, how you
approach problems, and the company culture.

What is a design state of mind?

What we refer to as a ‘design state of mind’ is partly about perspective, partly about empathy.
When you step back and consider every angle, you will be able to better appreciate all the
individual elements, rather than just the design as a whole.
Having a design state of mind means incorporating empathy and understanding in order to
appreciate your goal and work towards it. It means considering the impact of a decision and
being prepared for any consequences that might arise. Designers work up theories and test
several options thoroughly to help generate ideas and options not previously considered. In a
nutshell, a designer is required to use empathetic and calculated reasoning to find tangible
solutions. Applying this manner of thinking to all areas of business is what is meant by design-
led innovation.

You can’t rely on traditional sciences to solve problems

Take AirBnB, for example, one of the biggest advocates for design-led innovation. AirBnB was
founded by designers, and the application of their expertise in running the business is what made
it successful. In a video by Design Week, the founders talk about how they started their business
in the way they thought they were supposed to run it – with ‘Silicon Valley values’ where
‘everything has to be solved with code’. But this didn’t work for AirBnB and they rethought how
to run their company based on what they knew: design. As Joe Gebbia, co-founder of AirBnB,
put it:

“Design is used to create a culture… where people are conditioned [to] be their most creative.
Because, in my mind, I believe that’s the only way we’ll overcome challenges that are ahead of
us. The best way to prepare for that is to design a culture and an environment where people can
be their most creative.”

Improvisation

Improvisation may seem incompatible with the well-defined processes that govern most mature
business practices. Hiring teams don’t often screen for improvisation skills, and most employee
training programs focus on developing leadership or technical skills rather than helping
employees to become better improvisers. However, improvisation is in fact key to organizational
agility. Managers and employees who are capable improvisers will steer their companies through
crises and paradigm shifts, from technological breakthroughs and changing trade regulations to
environmental disasters and the myriad challenges associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Three Types of Improvisation

Based on this data, we first identified three types of improvisation skills: imitative,

reactive, and generative improvisation. Imitative improvisation, exhibited by the least-
experienced players, consists of observing what more-experienced people are doing and
matching their responses with minimal variation. For example, in one scenario, we observed a
new player whose character was entering a coven for the first time. Unsure of what to do, he
looked at the more-experienced players and adjusted his costume and make-up on the spot to be
more in line with their styles. While this is the simplest type of improvisation, it is an effective
starting point that enables newcomers with limited experience to get involved.

The next type of improvisation we observed was reactive improvisation: using inputs from both
the environment and other players to develop your own original reaction to an unexpected
situation, without relying on others’ actions as a guide. For instance, when players faced an
enemy attack and had to defend a fort, they spontaneously reacted to the threat by moving their
troops and continuously reorganizing their defenses, demonstrating a novel reaction to both their
fellow players’ actions and those of their enemies. We found that this type of improvisation was
generally developed after players had already mastered imitative improvisation, as it required
players to build on their existing experience to extrapolate new, original courses of action.

Finally, the most advanced form of improvisation we observed was generative improvisation.
Generative improvisation is about probing into the future and proactively trying new things in an
attempt to anticipate and even catalyze (rather than react to) what could happen. Because it is
fundamentally speculative, generative improvisation is inherently the riskiest — but it’s also
often the most effective for developing truly unique, innovative ideas. This type of improvisation
was exemplified by a moment when two players decided on the spot to embark on a dangerous
mission aimed at retrieving a powerful artifact in order to avoid potential problems in the future,
without any specific external event triggering that decision.

Importantly, these two players were respected and trusted within the group, and so other players
supported and eagerly incorporated the new idea into their collective plot (rather than ignoring or
blocking the idea). This suggests that generative improvisation requires a higher degree of
mutual trust among players, both to provide the improvisor with the confidence necessary to
pursue an idea that may not work out, and to increase the chances that others are receptive to the
idea. This level of trust can be challenging to achieve, but once you reach a certain threshold, it
can create a virtuous cycle, where people with strong social connections in the group find their
ideas more readily accepted and thus are even more confident about proposing new ideas in the
future.

Corporate Vs Start ups

Startup Culture

A startup environment is typically a fast-paced culture in which creativity and communication

are valued. Startups tend to be smaller than large corporations, especially in the early stages of
growth, enabling employees to build strong relationships and freely exchange thoughts and ideas.
They’re also capable of acting nimbly to adjust business practices and hit shifting goals.
Startup culture is often perceived as being less formal than that of a corporate environment, and
usually puts less emphasis on hierarchy within teams.

Corporate Culture

A corporate environment, on the other hand, is often characterized by a more structured, formal
approach to company culture. Because many corporations employ thousands of workers, it’s not
uncommon for employees to be unfamiliar with colleagues outside of their immediate teams or
departments.

With years of experience under their belts, corporations tend to have concrete procedures,
protocols, and guidelines that govern daily operations. This rigidity can sometimes have the
effect of slowing down innovative processes.

How do you know which work environment you’ll thrive in? There are a few major
considerations you should make before deciding to join a startup or corporation, which may
indicate which culture is a better fit for your personality. Read the five statements below and see
which traits resonate most.

What is Co-Creation? What is Open Innovation?

Co-creation is a shared process by which customers, suppliers, retailers, designers and other
relevant third-parties work together with the company to generate ideas towards a mutually
valued endpoint. Each party represents their unique perspective in the product relationship
ranging from buyer to developer and, via the process, is encouraged to communicate their
thoughts around things that work, things that don’t, areas of need, opportunities for improvement
and more. These discussions continue from product inception through launch. Co-creation
sessions are typically lively with each party fully engaged as each party is regarded as equally
invested and equally important. This is a hallmark of co-creation.

Open innovation, according to the founder of the movement, Henry Chesbrough, Ph.D. and
author of “Open Innovation”, is “equal parts philosophy and process.” It is a corporate mindset
that embraces external thinking and recognizes that great ideas are not exclusively generated
internally within the company. Specifically, Professor Chesbrough, states “Open innovation is
the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal
innovation.” Similarly to co-creation, open innovation as a process can be applied at any and
throughout all phases of product development.
Open Innovation: Definition
Open innovation is a business management model for innovation that promotes collaboration
with people and organizations outside the company. In this sense, open innovation challenges are
a true cultural break from the company silo mentality and the secrecy traditionally associated
with the corporate R&D culture. This innovation model becomes viable when the company
acknowledges that there are many bright professionals and greater knowledge outside the
organization. It is in this very moment when the opportunity to attract those external individuals
and/or companies becomes more real. Companies implement open innovation practices in
different ways such as alliances between companies, research chairs in universities,
crowdsourcing competitions, and innovation ecosystems.

What is Innovation Strategy?

Innovation is about creating new value people are willing to use and pay for, whereas strategy is
the plan for harnessing for example marketing, operations, finance and R&D to support
achieving the competitive goal.

To clarify, innovation strategy isn’t about innovation tactics, such as setting up an idea
challenge, but more about mapping organization’s mission, vision and value proposition for
defined customer markets. It sets boundaries to your innovation performance expectations by
simplifying and structuring your innovation work to achieve the best possible outcome.

Innovation strategy can be described as an explicit roadmap for desired future.

Before moving forward, it’s important to mention that your innovation goals shouldn’t be
separated from your overall business objectives as having a unified vision and common goals for
innovation will help fight the silo effect and increase your operational efficiency.

If you think about marketing, for example, you wouldn’t want to separate your marketing
strategy from your overall business objectives but rather make sure your marketing strategy and
initiatives help contributing to your overall business plan and vision.

The same goes for innovation. There’s no point of innovating just for the sake of it, as it has to
contribute to your bigger plan. So, before starting to develop an innovation strategy, make sure
you’re aware of how innovation helps you to achieve your goals
According to Peter F Drucker, there are seven sources of innovation.

Unexpected Incongruity Market Structure Necessity Demographics Changing perception

New Knowledge

The unexpected: Innovations can take place unexpectedly. They can happen by chance.
Someone might just stumble upon a new idea or product. There is a long list of unexpected
innovations in human history. Even fire is considered an unexpected innovation that humans
stumbled upon. Another example is the dynamite. However, an interesting thing to note is that
several important innovations in our history have happened unexpectedly. Many times while
scientists are looking for something, they stumble upon something else.

Incongruities: When the need is incongruent with the supply, innovation might be born. In an
attempt to resolve the existing incongruities people might innovate. For example as the
population of cars grew there was a shortage of parking area. In an attempt to solve the
incongruity between parking area and parking shortage, the smart car was born. Smart car is a
small car that can fit in small spaces. Incongruities can be an important source of innovation. It is
basically in the human nature to try to fill the incongruities he sees around him.

Market structure: An existing market structure can also give rise to chances for innovation.
This is how Google was born. Google shaped the search engine market. Before Google the
search engines were not as perfect and Google brought all of it in order. There was so much
information scattered over the World Wide Web. Google made this information searchable.
Thus, the World Wide Web gave rise to a market structure where a search engine like Google
could flourish. the world wide web paved way for interconnection. Google created a search
engine that was linked to all the searchable data.

Necessity: Necessity is the mother of invention but it is also the mother of innovation. Let us say
Microscope. It was born out of the need to delve deeper into the microbial world. Needs always
set us thinking. Innovation is based upon bright ideas. the human mind thinks of new things that
can better fulfill an existing need. In this process he thinks of filling his needs in new ways and
by devising new products and mechanisms.

Demographics: Our lifestyles can also be a source of innovation. We all have our lifestyle
needs. For example we feel the need to smoke. However, since smoking is dangerous, we made
e-cigarettes to satisfy the urge. Lifestyle needs are not small needs and their fulfilment and
important requirement for us. This is where innovators sometimes find major opportunities.

Changing perception: Changing perception regarding things can also give birth to innovation.
Earlier, the overweight people were seen as healthier than the leaner ones. However, the social
perception of healthy has undergone a big change where fat people are seen as obese and
unhealthy. People feel the need to remain leaner and healthier. Based upon this changed
perception, a flood of healthy and low calorie foods came to the market.
New knowledge: New knowledge can also be a source of innovation. Whether it is nano-
technology, biotechnology or even artificial intelligence, new knowledge in any area is a source
of innovation. the science keeps progressing. Every year new areas are discovered and much gets
added to the existing base of human knowledge. This new knowledge paves way for innovations
that can sometimes be life changing. Healthcare is an area that has overtime been heavily
affected by such innovations whether they emerge from the fields of biotechnology or
nanotechnology. However, one can find many more such examples in his daily life. There can be
some other sources of innovation also apart from the ones Drucker discussed. Innovation can be
born out of passion or adventure or even of a hobby.

Innovation Environment.

Innovation needs a good atmosphere in which to develop. It is definitely a cultural characteristic

and must be encouraged and nurtured inside a company. It does not come by simply flipping a
switch. One must set an environment that encourages people to think in unusual and creative
ways. This is not easy to accomplish when much of business is, by definition, so structured and
orderly in its processes. Business, whether products- or services-oriented, needs to have
somewhat standardized routines for much of what it needs to accomplish. Innovation, on the
other hand, requires thinking out of the ordinary. These two are so different that in order to have
effective innovation, care must be taken to encourage and allow unconventional thinking.

Who is responsible for setting the atmosphere for effective innovation? The CEO and top
management team must create the environment. They are responsible for establishing a vision
(strategy) which embraces innovation. For too many companies, vision or strategy is underrated.
Without a vision of where the company is going, often there can be limited success in
innovation. Management must create the challenge, the inspiration to push people to stretch, to
make the current box bigger. At the same time it must be realistic. For example, a caterpillar can
become a butterfly, but not an eagle. The CEO must see his/her job as creating employee
excitement and passion, not just as measuring employee satisfaction or financial performance. If
one defines the company as more of the same, that's all one gets.

Creative Destruction

Creative destruction refers to the incessant product and process innovation mechanism by which
new production units replace outdated ones. This restructuring process permeates major aspects
of macroeconomic performance, not only long-run growth but also economic fluctuations,
structural adjustment and the functioning of factor markets. Over the long run, the process of
creative destruction accounts for over 50 per cent of productivity growth. At business cycle
frequency, restructuring typically declines during recessions, and this add a significant cost to
downturns. Obstacles to the process of creative destruction can have severe short- and long-run
macroeconomic consequences.

The term creative destruction was first coined by Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter in
1942. Schumpeter characterized creative destruction as innovations in the manufacturing process
that increase productivity, describing it as the "process of industrial mutation that incessantly
revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one,
incessantly creating a new one."

Basically, the theory of creative destruction assumes that long-standing arrangements and
assumptions must be destroyed to free up resources and energy to be deployed for innovation. To
Schumpeter, economic development is the natural result of forces internal to the market and is
created by the opportunity to seek profit.

Creative destruction theory treats economics as an organic and dynamic process. This stands in
stark contrast with the static mathematical models of traditional Cambridge-tradition
economics. Equilibrium is no longer the end goal of market processes. Instead, many fluctuating
dynamics are constantly reshaped or replaced by innovation and competition.

As is implied by the word destruction, the process inevitably results in losers and winners.
Producers and workers committed to the older technology will be left
stranded. Entrepreneurs and workers in new technologies, meanwhile, will inevitably
create disequilibrium and highlight new profit opportunities.