7 Finding creativity as an individual

Most People think they know what they are good at. They are usu- Mally wrong. According to
Peter Drucker, a famous American man- agement guru, people generally know what they are
not good at, and even then they are more often wrong than right.

In Chapter 5, drawing on work by Alex Osborn, it was argued that everybody is sitting on a
"volcano" of ideas but that colleagues and managers often stifle this outpouring through criticism
or scepticism. But it is not just the people at work who do this. We do it to ourselves.
Reappraising some of the book's earlier discussions from the point of view of the individual, this
chapter looks at ways of breaking this vicious circle.

Chapter 5 showed how groups of people can achieve this by restrain- ing their instinct to
censure any new thought that emerges during brain- storming or problem-solving sessions.
First, however, we need to stop doing it to ourselves.

A good starting point is an extract from the inaugural speech made by Nelson Mandela when he
was elected the first black president of South Africa in 1994:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people
Won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is
within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in EVERYONE.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people
Permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence
automatically liberates others

This may seem idealistic or even cheesy, but those who lack confi dence in their creative
potential would do well to ask themselves: "Who am I NOT to be original?" Amid all the
censuring that discourages cre ative business thinking in organisations, the individual with the
biggest doubts is often the one with an idea. "Being on the tightrope is living; everything else is
waiting," said Karl Wallenda, a legendary 19th-century tightrope walker. As Seneca, a Roman
senator, put it: "There is nothing worse than living a long life and having nothing to show for it
but old age."
Trusting instinct
An increase in an individual's confidence generally goes hand in hand with a greater willingness
to trust their instinct. It is now widely accepted that instinct rather than rational analysis plays a
far greater role in creative decisions than has previously been acknowledged. It gives an
individual, as a senior editor of the Harvard Business Review put it, "an uncanny ability to detect
patterns, perhaps subconsciously, that other people either overlook or mistake for random
noise".

Chapter 1 highlighted research by Harvard professors Michael Jensen and Chris Argyris that
irrational behaviour in senior managers is often caused by the fact that the signal generating
fear in humans reaches the amygdala (the part of the brain responsible for emotion) before it
reaches the cortex (the part of the brain responsible for thought).

This often results in defensive and non-rational behaviour because an individual's response to
the signal sent by the amygdala can be hasty and ill-judged. The fear signal itself is an
important contributor to people's instinct. It generates a series of bodily responses - an increase
in heart rate and blood pressure - that makes them more mentally alert, even if the cause of this
process is not immediately perceived or under stood by the cortex. The trick is to draw on the
increased instinctive awareness caused by this physical process without giving in to the fear - in
the way that a person confronted by a lion or venomous snake does not give in to the immediate
impulse to make any sudden move that might trigger an attack.

The decisions that resulted in Save the Children's praise-winning strategy to find and feed
children and mothers displaced during the 2000 Ethiopian-Eritrean war (see Chapters 2 and 5)
were taken within 24 hours of the crisis breaking. Bruce MacInnis, the charity's local pro-
gramme manager, took the decision to launch an appeal to the organi- sation's existing donors
on the afternoon of the Ethiopian offensive, when there was no evidence that Eritrea's southern
provinces, where all the refugees displaced in previous clashes were concentrated, were likely
to be overrun.

Previous clashes had been border affairs, with few or no gains by either side. Local opinion was
that the Eritrean troops were confident, well armed and able to defend their existing positions.
Furthermore, the Ethiopians had launched their offensive only five weeks before the annual
rains, which would cause floods in the war zone and make it impossible to bring in supplies.

The initial information was that the Ethiopians had been repulsed with heavy losses. There was
no reason for funding to be increased from its existing level, and the East and Central Africa
region of which Eritrea formed part had pressing crises in other countries that were soaking up
resources. But MacInnis was worried, sensing that all was not well at the front. The war had
started on a Friday and there was little reliable infor- mation over the weekend. This bothered
him, so he started gathering the data he would need to make a quick appeal. He also tapped
into his net- works in other non-governmental organisations, the media and the British Embassy
to pick up as much information as he could.
On Monday the news broke that by using donkeys to transport sup- plies over mountain tracks
impassable to motorised vehicles, the Ethiopians had outflanked the Eritrean entrenches and
broken through their lines. MacInnis did not need any formal confirmation to know that the
existing refugee camps would be overrun within hours. But because he had already gathered
his thoughts, he was able to send all Save the Children's donors in Eritrea an emergency appeal
by Tuesday morning. Instinct, not rational analysis, had forewarned him of danger that took
everyone else by surprise.

Triggering the thought:

Once convinced of the fact they are capable of original thought, indi- viduals must create the
conditions in which this can emerge. Most ideas are generated by individuals drawing on
perspectives shaped by their own unique formative influences to think about a nagging business
problem in a new way. The "spark" that ignites this process often occurs in a non-work setting or
one where pressing or routine responsibilities are not acting as a distraction.

There are three elements:

● choosing the problem or imperative to focus on
● tapping into an individual perspective
● choosing the environment.

Choosing the problem:

One of the most significant transformations in business is that, in a knowledge economy, what
goes on in people's heads has become increasingly important. Although they may choose to
focus their cre- ative thoughts on current business problems, this is at their discretion. Their
organisations cannot demand it.

In the early 1990s, BP, a British oil giant, set up a careers workshop for middle managers who
were deemed by the organisation to be "plateaued" or at a professional dead end. During the
course of a day when the workshop leader had questioned and probed what inspired or
motivated the participants, it emerged that many of these people were far from being without
talent or lacking in initiative. Bored with their work, they had elected to take their creativity and
energy elsewhere.

Among the many activities these people were engaged in were:

● supporting the business of their spouse;
● planning or implementing their own enterprise;
● acting as a local councillor, school governor or charitable trustee;
● working as a volunteer;
● taking an active part in a team-based sport;
● studying on a part-time course or post-graduate programme;
● devoting themselves entirely to a leisure pursuit or hobby.
Choosing the environment
What people choose to focus on is entirely up to them. How they focus on it often requires
fine-tuning. Rather like a first-time writer who sits in front of the computer and is confronted by a
blank screen, methodically focusing on a problem in the office or a study at home usually results
in the left brain - the part responsible for analysis, rationality and linear thinking - hijacking the
creative process.

The fact is that the mind continuously processes information that people are not consciously
aware of, not only when they are asleep and dreaming but also when they are awake. This
helps to explain the "aha" sensation that people experience when they learn something they feel
they already knew or as Henry Mintzberg, a leading management guru, puts it, when the
conscious mind learns something that the sub- conscious already knows.

The best strategy to aid this process is consciously to place the prob- lem or challenge at the
back of the mind and let it float around. This can be done during a routine day-to-day activity
that causes little or no intel- lectual distraction (driving to and from work, mowing the lawn,
taking a shower), or when it is possible switch off and allow thoughts to wander. It is important
that this "thinking space" is a personal one, so that the mind subconsciously associates being in
this space with the kind of drifting and dreaming that leads to sudden insights or mental
breakthroughs.

The importance of perspective

No two people will have an identical way of viewing the world. People's perspective is shaped
by a kaleidoscope of different influences (for example, past experiences, private interests and
important relation- ships), which collectively provide insights, analogies and metaphors that will
enable them to look at common problems in new ways.

Indeed, this is arguably our most sophisticated mental process as human beings. Chapter 1
highlighted research from the University of Toronto that shows that it is from the right frontal
lobe, the most advanced part of the brain, that we draw the ability to see situations from different
perspectives and respond to abstract thought or irony.

The questions below are designed to help readers make links between the knowledge and
insights they acquire during the course of their work, leisure activities and professional pursuits
outside work, and bright ideas that could be the basis for an innovative move forward in their
work.

1. MAKING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MARGINAL WORK ACTIVITY AND STRATEGY

OR SOLUTIONS
In the past year, which of the following activities have provided con- cepts, ideas or perspectives
that have actively shaped your thinking or inspired a specific initiative or business solution at
work?
(a) Discussions with a colleague or friend in this country.
(b) Discussions with a colleague or friend in another country.
(c) Hearing a conference or seminar speaker.
(d) Hearing a tutor or business academic at a programme or lecture you have attended.
(e) Visiting another company, either informally or as part of a formal benchmarking exercise.
(f) Private research.
(g) Personal activity during a business trip (for example, visits to exhibitions or museums,
meetings with local people).

List three examples of the outcomes of marginal work activity or a busi- ness trip that have
inspired a specific initiative or business solution in the past year.

2. MAKING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN WORK AND LEISURE

In the past year, which of the following outcomes from a leisure pursuit or out-of-work activity
has either shaped your thinking at work or pro- vided the inspiration for a specific initiative or
business solution at work?

(a) A social conversation during a holiday at home or abroad.

(b) The perspective or example of a fictional character in a novel, film or play.
(c) The perspective of a historical or contemporary figure in a non- fiction book, film or play.
(d) The personal insight gained from participating in a sport or outdoor activity.
(e) A personal or professional insight gained from your role as a school governor, charitable
trustee, local councilor, voluntary worker or club/charity committee member.

3. MAKING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE FAMILY'S INSIGHTS AND WORK

Families often influence or provide inspiration for an idea at work, fre- quently during a casual
interchange. Which members of your family have provided a perspective or insight that has
either shaped your thinking at work or provided the inspiration for a specific initiative or business
solution?

(a) Spouse/partner
(b) Children
(c) A parent
(d) Other (grandparents, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, etc).

List the insights or perspectives of a family member that have provided inspiration for a specific
initiative or business solution at work.

Friday's brainchild
Chapter 1 described how Angus Friday, an aspiring entrepreneur, build- ing on skills he acquired
running a college enterprise at medical school, made long-term plans to launch his own
business in the health-care industry.
On moving to the UK he achieved his goal. In 1997, he launched FIZZ, an online database
supported by advertising from pharmaceuticals companies that enables general practitioners
and family doctors to keep up-to-date with the latest medical and pharmaceutical developments.
The enterprise was piloted with support from the National Health Ser- vice (NHS) and has been
marketed mainly though primary care groups (local associations of surgeries that have pooled
their resources to buy services and medical back-up).

Friday did not gain the insight and knowledge he needed to launch FIZZ overnight. They were
acquired gradually, from a variety of sources.

An understanding of supply and demand in the health industry

As described in Chapter 1, this was acquired by taking an MBA at Strath- clyde Business
School in Glasgow. Friday's intention was to gain the necessary skills and knowledge to set up
his enterprise at a time when the majority of students saw the MBA as a passport to well-paid
work in management consultancies or investment banks. In this sense he did not benefit, as
many MBA students do, from the experience and perspective of other students on the
programme. He focused almost entirely on what was taught by the tutors.

He was most inspired by the strategy module, which was based, in part, on the "5 forces" model
of market behaviour developed by Har- vard's Michael Porter. One conclusion was that if buyers
aggregate their spending power in any industry, it creates opportunities for new sellers who can
penetrate the market far faster than if spending power is dis- persed.

Friday tested this theory in his MBA thesis, which examined how the Scottish Development
Agency used these forces to attract pharmaceuti- cals research funding to the west of Scotland.
But to understand the spe- cific market needs of buyers in the health-care industry, he needed
more than an MBA project - he needed close professional contact

A more detailed understanding of specific market needs

This was acquired when Friday joined Merck Sharpe & Dohme, a pharma- ceuticals company,
immediately after completing his MBA at Strathclyde in 1993. He helped to develop and launch
a sales programme focusing on the nascent primary health-care movement. The experience
gave him both a better understanding of how the newly formed groups managed their spending
budgets and, equally important, a network of personal con- tacts within these groups that was
prove invaluable during the later devel- opment and piloting of the product that formed the basis
of his enterprise.

The idea for the product

This came from informal discussions with members of his personal net- work. It became clear
that the professional development of general medical practitioners was as important to them as
their initial profes- sional education and training. The self-help revolution of the 1980s meant
that patients were becoming as well, if not better, informed about the latest developments in
drugs and therapies as their doctors. Rapid advances in pharmaceuticals research were also
making it hard for time-pressed local doctors to keep up.
Friday therefore hit on the idea of developing a professional updat- ing service that would
provide doctors with an instant reference source on any condition or illness as and when it was
presented at the surgery. This would include the latest research on the subject and the latest
drugs or therapies coming on to the market.

Insight into how to deliver the product

This came from a very different source. In the early 1990s, the potential of online services was
recognised by only a small number of people. Friday's eyes were opened when he ordered by
post Bill Gates's biogra- phy, which arrived complete with a CD-ROM in which Gates talked
through the key points made in the book. As highlighted in Chapter 1, it was the publisher's use
of CD-ROM technology rather than the pearls of wisdom in the book that engaged Friday's
imagination. "It demonstrated what this technology was capable of," he says. "I have never
forgotten it."

How to make the product pay

The solution to this problem came from a source unrelated to his main- stream career. There
was no money available from the NHS to develop the necessary technology, so the money
would have to be raised pri vately, probably from venture capitalists. Subscriptions to the service

Table 7.1 Summary of influences shaping Friday's development of a business idea

Entrepreneurial aspirations - Role models: Rupert Murdoch, Armand Hammer, Richard Branson

Entrepreneurial skills - Launching and running Limelight Productions while still at medical
school; acquiring emergency management skills while a junior doctor

Understanding of marketplace dynamics - Adapting Michael Porter's "5-force" market theories to

the British health-care market while studying for an MBA

Knowledge of consumer needs - Developing sales and marketing initiatives for nascent primary
health-care groups in the UK while working for a leading pharmaceuticals firm

Idea for product - Informal networking with members of primary healthcare groups

Idea for delivering product - Insight gained from watching CD-ROM used by Bill Gates to
promote his biography The Road Ahead.

Openness to new ideas - Insight gained from reading an article about American digital TV
industry in a business weekly

Idea for funding development - Wide-ranging personal interests. He is a keen yachtsman

certified at skipper's level and a certified scuba diver. Other interests include reading
management books, futurology and the study of ancient civilisations
Source: Roffey Park Institute, 2000.

from individual doctors or collective practices would not, on their own, adequately support the
enterprise.

Always interested in any kind of technological advance, Friday read an article in an American
business magazine about the dramatic expan- sion of digital TV in the United States. An
important element in the suc- cess of American digital TV channels was that they treated
subscriptions from viewers as loss leaders and relied on advertising and sponsorship as the
main source of income. He therefore turned to advertising and sponsorship from pharmaceutical
companies as the principal sources of revenue.

Developing a wider perspective

Chapter 1 revealed that one of the factors common to all business executives was the ability to
draw lessons from any or all aspects of their lives.

For example:

● The chairman of a car manufacturer whose approach to leadership was shaped by

reading Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, in which the hero tells his daughter that the
only way to understand another person is to "step in his shoes and walk around in them
a bit".
● A leading fashion designer who used his wife as a sounding board because she had
been the fashion editor of a popular tabloid newspaper.
● A senior executive of an international airline whose revolutionary approach to aircraft
seat design was inspired by his love of cars.
● The executive director of a national theatre whose approach to staff management was
influenced by reading Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet, in which a series of
accounts of the same set of events by different characters reveals motives for their
actions that are in startling contrast to the first impression of the reader.
● The human resources director of an insurance broker whose love of live stand-up
comedy has helped him acquire skills to manage conflict and change at work.
● An Indian entrepreneur whose faith in the ability of technology to continue revolutionizing
his business is sustained by regularly watching Hollywood blockbusters like "Titanic" and
"Gladiator" and understanding how technology is pushing out the boundaries of what is
possible.

What unites them all is an insatiable curiosity about everything around them.

● "I am always gathering knowledge... It helps to balance any decision you make, even if
you are not completely sure how." (Shami Ahmed, founder of Joe Bloggs fashion
company)
 ● "My mind never switches off. I keep a pen by the bed at night and cannot go back to
sleep if I do not get the idea on paper." (Tina Knight, chairman of Nighthawk Electronics)
● "I take care to pick up the views and thoughts not only of people within my industry but
from friends, local politicians and educationalists. I did not get the opportunity to go to
university. So meeting people is like a university for me." (G.K. Noon, founder of Noon
Products)

In recent years, publishers, conference organisers and business schools have recognised the
value of looking at business from a differ- ent perspective. Countless books, courses and videos
have attempted to draw lessons from military strategists, playwrights, philosophers and the
physical scientists. Some examples include the following.

Military strategy
In the last ten years a number of books have been published, including The Leadership Secrets
of Attila the Hun, Patton on Leadership: Strategic Lessons for Corporate Warfare, Robert E. Lee
On Leadership, Sun Tzu on Leadership (constantly referred to by the character played by
Michael Douglas in the film "Wall Street"), The West Point Way of Leadership and, most
recently, Clausewitz on Strategy. The book on Lee stresses the absolute faith his men had in
him and the high moral standards he set for them. The book on Patton has lessons like
"Courage is No Stranger to Fear", "Daring Fuels Enterprise" and "Make Greatness a Matter of
Routine". The latest work on this subject, Clausewitz on Strategy, published by the Boston
Consulting Group, has chapter headings such as "Theory in the Service of Leader- ship", "The
Clash of Wills" and "The Virtues of the Commander".

Shakespeare
The success of the 1998 film "Shakespeare in Love" unleashed numerous products linking the
writings of the Bard with good management prac- tice. In the UK, Richard Olivier, son of Sir
Laurence, linked up with Cran- field School of Management to run courses on the leadership
lessons of "Henry V" and insights on the role of women in business that can be gleaned from
"The Merchant of Venice". In the United States, at Columbia Business School in New York, John
Whitney teaches a course on Shakespeare and Leadership. In a book based on the course,
Power Plays: Shakespeare's Lessons in Leadership and Management, Whitney commends
"Richard II" for its lessons on the distractions of perks. He suggests that King Lear's treatment of
the hapless Kent is "one of the most brutal sackings in the history of personnel management",
asks his students whether Falstaff should have been fired and describes how the lessons of
"Henry IV Part I" helped him turn around Pathmark, a super- market chain, in 1972.

Philosophy
Tom Morris, author of If Aristotle Ran General Motors: The New Soul of Business, earns
$30,000 an hour for teaching the ideas of Socrates and Hegel to, for example, IBM, Campbell
Soup, General Electric and Ford. In the UK, Alain de Botton's book How Proust Can Change
Your Life spawned an agony column in a Sunday newspaper. Christopher McCul lough, a
self-styled "clinical philosopher", prescribes Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher, for teaching people
how to stay serene in stressful business situations. In France, Henri Claude de Bettignes, a
professor at INSEAD, includes seminars on how business leaders can draw on humanist prin
ciples in his popular AVIRA course, and in the UK, Charles Handy, a management guru, invites
corporate executives to his home in south- west London for the same purpose.

Physical sciences
In the United States, Karen Stephenson, a Harvard-educated anthropolo- gist and professor at
UCLA, has likened small talk and informal net- working in organisations to the grooming used by
packs of animals to reinforce bonds between them. Richard Pascale has gone further, claim- ing
that companies are "complex adaptive systems" that share survival techniques with anything
from coyotes to star systems in space. In the UK, Danah Zohar, a physicist and author of
Re-Wiring the Corporate Brain, argues that successful executives use a logic based on
quantum thinking, which says that things in life are complex, chaotic and uncer- tain, rather than
adopting the thinking of their old-fashioned colleagues whose logic is based on Newtonian
concepts, which say that things are simple, law-abiding and ultimately controllable. In biology,
Meredith Belbin, a teamworking expert, in his latest book The Coming Shape of the
Organisation, draws on the advanced community dynamics of insects as a model for working in
groups. He says:

If a major decision-making function is needed, it should be based on the concept of a

co-operating "caste". Members of that caste should be selected and trained for the position in
the same way as larvae are nurtured by a nurse.

Using a wider perspective

Pascale argues that new ideas in business draw on principles and philosophies from other
disciplines rather than research or concepts developed by management schools and
consultancies. Although this is undoubtedly true, the extent to which individuals can benefit from
this trend, by systematically exposing themselves to this barrage of "out of the box" thinking
depends - according to the managers interviewed by the authors on three factors.

Don't take it too literally

The whole point of getting inspiration from a non-business discipline be it history, philosophy or
anthropology - is that it can provide a useful framework for thinking about old problems in new
ways. It works less well if it becomes an orthodoxy that is used to justify day-to-day actions or
"prove" business philosophies that are wholly out of context with the original purpose of the
work.

For example, Norio Ohga, chairman of Sony and a leading sponsor of classical music in Japan,
compared running a business to conducting an orchestra. Benjamin Zander, principal conductor
of the Chicago Philhar- monic Orchestra, profiting from the surge of interest this idea generated,
has been to business schools and international conferences with a cabaret-style presentation
promoting the idea.

As an academic concept, the idea is attractive. The analogy of a group

of specialists, whose talents are brought together by a conductor with a complete score of the
music, fits in well with the current emphasis on pro- ject leadership and creative team-building.
However, the reality is that most conductors, as Zander admits, are tyrants who succeed in
extracting the creative excellence they aspire to only by bullying and sometimes abusing the
musicians who work for them. If managers really adopted this leadership style, half their
subordinates would walk out overnight.

Similarly, Richard Dawkins, a British scientist, whose bestselling book the Selfish Gene
shattered the popular belief that evolution neces- sarily favours altruism and self-sacrifice,
sounded a cautionary note about business gurus and consultants borrowing from science to
theo- rise about organisational behaviour and business strategy in an inter- published in the
Harvard Business Review.

He points out, for example, that hardly any of the research on alpha males (that is, primal male
behaviour), which has been used in some management circles to explain why women are
unsuited for business leadership, is relevant to humans. Evolutionary ideas should not be
interpreted in a simple way, and it is important to distinguish between science and opinion.
Dawkins concludes:

It would be very dangerous for lay people to think that a scientist's opinion on such matters
counts for anything. The job of a scientist is not to say "I'm a scientist and I believe such and
such", but rather to say "I'm a scientist, and let me explain what you need to do in order to
decide for yourself".

What works for you...

Dawkins's point is that anyone who borrows from a non-business dis- cipline to shed light on a
management issue is putting forward an intel- lectual proposition, not an immutable fact.
Whether this proposition engages people depends largely on their personal interests and
perspective on life.

George Bain, former principal of London Business School and now vice-chancellor of Queen's
University, Belfast, puts this rather well. Much of Bain's leisure reading is historical. He
subscribes to a number of journals, notably History Today. Most of the books he reads are to do
with current affairs, history or biography, although his wife ensures that he keeps up-to-date on
contemporary fiction. Bain says:

Reading is partially a release but it is also a way of broadening your outlook because, in a very
intimate way, it sucks you into someone else's world. I am a great ticker. If I read something I
like, I mentally tick it and classify it. I have been doing this for 25 years and usually find some
insight or lesson that I can pull out of any book or article I read.

But Bain stresses that the "intimacy" he refers to is unique to him and that the text may not
provoke a similar reaction in someone else.
You read an article or see a film and something clicks. It makes sense of your own experiences
and you begin to crystallise your own feelings. But the point is that they are your experiences
and your feelings, not those of anyone else. The chemistry is a personal one.

... may not work for others

It follows, therefore, that the analogies and symbolic meaning an indi- vidual draws from private
reading or leisure pursuits may not necessar ily resonate with his or her subordinates and
colleagues at work. Missions, ideas and values - which draw on symbolism, metaphor and
analogy - are the stuff of transformational leadership, and the language used to express them is
crucially important. How its managers portray a business sends important signals to the people
who work with them.

For example, the authors' survey of 120 senior managers on where they get their ideas (see
Chapter 1) suggests that sport is replacing mili- tary science as the most common source of
symbolism in business. As one respondent commented:

The analogy works for me. The recognition, for example, that the team needs to act in unison.
You need the stars but you also need the solid players supporting them. The concept of
transfers, moving people around, and one-to-one coaching are both ideas that were either
inspired or reinforced by taking a keen interest in sport.

Sport may provide a useful metaphor for team working, leadership and coaching, but the idea
that business is, as Harvard's Rosabeth Moss Kanter proposes, a competitive Olympic struggle
in which the lean and limber succeed and the overweight and lumbering fail, can make
employees feel that they are little more than fat for the shedding. Indeed, the concept of lean
working, which was a fad in the early 1990s, was discredited because business chiefs used it as
an intellectually acceptable fig leaf for excessive downsizing.

Making an idea happen

For an idea to happen, a proposal should be drawn up explaining its benefits and
implementation requirements. It should outline the idea's essential characteristics, the potential
benefit to the organisation (or, if it is for a new venture, potential customers), details of any
necessary equipment, the production and implementation costs, the resources and staff
required, and a critical path analysis covering how long and what stages are involved in its
implementation.

The proposal should also set out the actions that will need to be taken to get the idea up and
running. Drawing on the roles outlined in Chap- ter 2, it should ask the following.

Who will be the sounding boards?

Who should be consulted in the first instance, who can provide moral support and/or
objective disinterested advice? Possible sounding boards include: spouses or partners, close
personal friends, trusted members of a personal or professional network, a current or former
tutor on a business programme, academics or consultants who are experts in the field, line
managers or company mentors.

Who will be the sponsor?

Who should be approached to champion the idea inside the organisation? Possible sponsors
include: line managers or company mentors, non-executive directors, technical specialists in the
field. If the idea is for a business venture, who should be approached to back it financially?
Possible sponsors include: wealthy friends or contacts, current bank, venture capitalists.

Who will be the shapers on the project?

Who should be recruited to help shape and develop the idea to the point where it could be
launched successfully? Possible shapers include: members of current work unit (check they
have the right balance of technical and team skills), additional team members from outside the
unit (if it is possible to identify and gain access to suitable candidates), board members. Looking
at the final line-up, who would be the most suitable candidate for the role of team or project
leader - the "spark" for the initiative?

What specialist help will be required?

To ensure that the project team is properly informed and supported, what technical or
professional expertise will be needed? Can this be provided from within the organisation or will it
be necessary, or desirable, to draft in external help from a consultancy, business school,
research centre or professional institute?

Friday's supporting cast

Angus Friday (see pages 129-31) drew on the support of a number of important individuals in
shaping and successfully launching his busi- ness concept for an online information service for
local doctors and general practitioners.

Sponsor
Friday's principal sponsor was the health authority at Richmond and Kingston, which, early on in
the enterprise, agreed to pilot the project under a three-year contract worth £300,000. This not
only provided an important injection of capital, subsequently boosted by venture capital of £2m,
but also helped to fulfil the requirement of the NHS that any new product aimed at doctors
should be tested under controlled conditions

Shaper
Tim Cockrill, a biochemist and former managing director of Alfa Biotech, a biotechnological
company, was a shaper of Friday's enter- prise. Cockrill had originally intended to branch out on
his own, devel- oping information tools that could help doctors undertake their own technical
diagnostics - a revolutionary development in an industry that is still heavily dependent on
specialist technicians working from hospi- tal laboratories. He contacted Friday with a view to
developing his own product in conjunction with Friday's company, but it soon became clear that
he would better off joining Friday's team and pursuing the task inside the company.
For the first three months, Cockrill worked without pay developing an electronic tool based on
the expertise in diagnostics that he brought with him, specifically in the area of diabetes and
osteoporosis. These are both conditions where a general practitioner's early diagnosis is a criti-
cal factor in the successful treatment of the patient. He also brought gen- eral management
expertise to the company, drawing on his experience as a former managing director of Alfa Plus.

Sounding boards
A crucial sounding board in helping him understand the dynamics of the health-care market was
Kees van der Heijden, the tutor who taught the strategy module on the MBA Programme at
Strathclyde Business School. He not only engaged Friday's thinking in explaining how Michael
Porter's "5-force model" could be applied. He also influenced Friday's decision to focus his MBA
project on how the Scottish Develop- ment Agency had used the model to attract
pharmaceuticals R&D fund- ing to the west of Scotland, which in turn influenced Friday's
approach to launching his own enterprise.

A similar role was played by Cameron Durrant, marketing manager at the pharmaceuticals firm
Friday joined immediately after qualifying. Together they launched a sales drive aimed at the
new primary health- care movement. Friday discussed his idea for an online service for doc- tors
with Durrant, and later, when the venture was up and running, asked if he wanted to help
develop it. Durrant had already accepted a post in the United States, but he remains a
confidante and friend.

Specialists
Specialist help came from a variety of sources. Brad Huisman provided the technical know-how.
Originally a graphic artist in his native South

Table 7.2 The five roles in launching Angus Friday's venture

Spark: Angus Friday: defined need, defined solution, defined delivery mechanism

Sponsor: Richmond and Kingston Health Authority: piloted delivery mechanism under

a £300,000 contract

Shaper: Tim Cockrill: redefined and expanded solution and delivery

Sounding boards: Kees van der Heijden: provided Friday with an understanding of
marketplace dynamics in healthcare

Specialists:
● Cameron Durrant: helped shape Friday's understanding of consumer needs.
● Tim Cockrill: general management and knowledge of health-care diagnostics.
● Kannan Subramaniam: sales and marketing
● Brad Huisman: infomediary delivery systems
Source: Roffey Park Institute, 2000.

Africa, he moved into website design and, on joining the enterprise, trained in the Lotus Domino
system to enable the company to develop its important "infomediary" capability.

Marketing expertise was provided by Kannan Subramaniam, who took on the role originally
intended for Durrant. Subramaniam oversaw the renaming of the product from Platinum Health
to FIZZ and its launch under the new name at the annual conference of the National Associa-
tion of Primary Care in 2000. He has also recruited two other members of staff, Phil Jackson
and Louise Richards, who have extensive knowl- edge of business development from within the
NHS and the pharma- ceuticals sector.

Note: the commercial difficulties that Integrisys was facing when this book went to print (see
Introduction, page 7) do not affect the lessons of how Angus Friday went about developing his
business idea, or the con- clusions listed.

Conclusions
● Believe you can be creative - take the risk.
● Trust you can manage the outcomes, whatever they may be.
● Don't let yourself be hidebound by orthodoxy and the status quo (don't break the rules,
just ignore them),
● Take advantage of every opportunity for private and mutual learning - in all aspects of
life, not just work.
● Believe in the goal - lobby, lobby, lobby