Thesis Statement 1: Creativity

Being creative isn’t about making something totally new, nor is it just about aesthetics.
Creativity is instead a different way of looking at things and applying them in new ways, often
by drawing from other disciplines. Creative thinking can be facilitated with the Creative
“Process”, which guides people in finding problems, breaking them down, and finding
solutions to them. This can be done through an arsenal of Creative Thinking Tools.
Introduction
- I believe that it is important to differentiate between creativity and innovation.
- Creativity is the ability to recognize ideas, alternatives or possibilities that may
be useful for everyday life like communication, and problem-solving.
Whereas, innovation is the process of making a new idea into something
good that individuals are willing to buy. (business standpoint)
- Creativity isn’t always about making huge leaps forward, nor is it always about
making the Next Big Thing. It is simply about seeing potential in things that others did
not and bringing this potential that you found into reality.
- In much simpler terms, creativity is about looking at things from a different
perspective
- As creative thinkers, we are required to think of original solutions. A creative person
knows how to answer problems from different perspectives and knows how to form a
more holistic approach to the problem by bringing all the answers together.

*Creative Process*
- How do I actually be creative?
- Creative Process - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- Aims to help the innovator create a product or service that solves a problem or
satisfies demand in a new unique way
- 5 Stages of the Creative Process
1. Preparation: absorbing information, thinking about an area to think about a
new idea in (Entrepreneur looking at ideas that other entrepreneurs have
already created)
2. Incubation: take a step back from the problem and allow your mind to wander
to let it contemplate and work the problem through
3. Insight: Eureka moment, a sudden conscious change in a person’s
representation of a stimulus, or problem.
4. Evaluation: becoming self-critical. Consider the validity of your idea and weigh
it against alternatives.
 5. Elaboration: testing out the idea, carrying an idea to fruition and adding the
details to make something real
a. This is where an innovator creates a prototype that aims to test out the
performance of its product/service and measure its ability to solve the
problem you are trying to solve.

I believe that Creative Thinking Tools will help encourage creativity/imagination to create
different perspectives and angles on your idea or the problem you were trying to solve.

Creative Thinking Tools - note that certain creative thinking tools are best used for different
situations. Understanding when to use a tool will help you become more creative.
- Mind mapping
Mind mapping is beneficial as it enables you to see your ideas all together in a form you find
appealing. It is even more helpful once you’ve identified ideas from previous tools such as
brainstorming since mind mapping allows you to synthesize your insights in a more
connected way. The objective of a mind map is to synthesize your ideas into distinct themes
- Six Thinking Hats
This is designed to broaden perspectives by forcing us to deepen a specific frame of mind.
Each hat represents a mental state and is represented by a colour symbolic of that mental
state. It identifies key roles in group discussion and assigns them strategically to facilitate a
group discussion
1. Blue – manages the discussion and ensures there are next steps and action plans
that emerge from it
2. Yellow – focuses on why something will work and suggests its values and benefits
3. Black – anticipates why something will not work and brings up difficulties,
challenges, and potential problems that may be encountered
4. Red – responds to the situation based on the feelings, hunches, and instincts
brought about by the situation, either on a personal level or in consideration of what
other people may feel
5. White – argues purely based on logic and backs up input with data, facts, and figures
6. Green – suggests solutions, alternatives, and ideas on how to make things work
Thesis Statement 2: Innovation

Innovation is a subset of creative thinking that creates value by being desirable, viable, and
feasible. In order for it to meet all three criteria, a good innovation must be founded on a
true, unaddressed need. This can be done by first empathizing with our end-users, and then
iterating and testing different solutions with our users. As we design our final innovation, we
need to take note of how it will change both the existing offerings and the market.

Differentiate Invention vs Innovation:

- The invention is the creation of useful ideas whilst innovation is the process of
transforming those ideas into tangible and measurable success for individuals and
organizations. Basically, innovation takes the new ideas to eventually have success
in the desired market

Define Innovation:

- Innovation is the embodiment of new knowledge in a tool, process or technology that

benefits people, organizations, or society.
- Innovation is the process of making new ideas into reality to create value.
- Remembering from the modules is that the point of innovating something is to create
value which means that not only does the change need to be a good idea but it
needs to make a meaningful impact on your target market/end-user. This can lead to
more people wanting your product because it is valuable to them.
- For example:
- Steve Jobs:
- He may not have invented
- When analysing the thesis statement it mentions desirable, viable and feasible. It
mentions that in order to create a good innovation it must encapsulate all three
criteria above. In some way, I believe that the innovation may come to reality
however will not be successful or useful if it does not fit all three criteria. Going back
from one of our synch you sir mention “Innovation is about making value creative”
and in order to do that Innovation must be in between Feasibility, Desirability, and
Viability.
- Desirability:
- Example: Onion Slicer, Automatic Toothbrush
- Desirability will show you whether your product is a want or
need
 - The product may tick both wants and need however the
product still needs to be more valuable than something
someone wants or simply stating “it would be nice to have”
- Feasibility:
- Example: Fidget Spinner
- Viability:
- Example: Facebook and Instagram
- Whilst these social media platforms provided high financial
returns in the short term, we discovered that maybe social
media platforms lead to negative effects on the mental health
of teenagers such as anxiety, depression etc.
- Viability talks about whether the product will provide value for
the business, customers and the society

To conclude a product that would encapsulate all 3 criteria a great example would be a
bottle light bulb. This is desirable due to the product being needed and wanted for areas in
society that cannot afford to constantly pay for electricity, it is feasible as the resources
needed to produce the product are simply reusing a bottle from water, soda bottles etc and
is viable because it provides a valuable change in society and the customer life. (locally
sourced materials, light up homes with limited or no access to electricity)

As mentioned in the thesis statement, using all three criteria require testing with users. So in
order for organizations to understand the opinions of their customers on their product they
require early-stage reviewing with the goal of identifying problems with their prototype.
“Essentially, the organization wants to know the product design’s desirability,
variability and feasibility”
Thesis Statement 3: Managing Innovation

Creativity and innovation are necessary to survive in a VUCA world but are only half
the battle. To prove its value, an innovation must be brought to the market
successfully. An efficient way to begin this process is to build a minimum viable
product that will appeal to a niche market. To bring innovation into mass adoption,
one needs to understand how different people respond to innovation so that one can
become a true disruptor.

- VUCA: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity

- Describes the situation of constant and unpredictable change that is
now the norm in certain industries. VUCA demands to avoid traditional
and outdated approaches to management and leadership and day 2-
day work.
- MVP: Minimum Viable Product - a future product that usually has one basic
set of features. It can easily be released to the market to test new business
ideas and attract feedback from potential customers. The main purpose is to
collect feedback before realising the product fully
- Niche Market: unique target market. It has its own unique needs, preference
or identity that makes it different from the larger market.
- True Disruptor: create a presence in an existing market and introduce an
innovative product compared to the existing competitors in the market

It is important to note that in order to be innovative, one must use Design Thinking,
Adoption Curve, and Product Life Cycle.

Design Thinking is to create solutions that solve problems at their very root
through various products and services. There are 5 stages of Design Thinking:
Empathy, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.

The empathy stage is where we can observe the consumer and understand the
target market we are pursuing. Basically, we would need to empathize with our
customers to know what problems to address. It is important for organizations to put
themselves in their customer's shoes to understand their current experiences. This is
possibly where you may apply surveys or do qualitative research.

The Define stage is where we can identify the user’s problems and needs. By further
analysing the problems and needs of the customer, we can find the best way to
address the problems mentioned.

The Ideate stage is where we are able to challenge assumptions and start
processing ideas that can possibly be a solution to their problem. Here we can
establish the features and functions of the product or service we are going to
introduce into the market of our targeted consumers.

The Prototyping stage is where we pursue creating a Minimum Viable Product. A

future product that usually has one basic set of features. It can easily be released to
the market to test new business ideas and attract feedback from potential customers.
The main purpose is to focus on the functions that make its core value proposition
(define goals, functionality, time, money).

The Testing stage is where the MVP is tested to gather information on its
performance in the market and whether the product is dealing with the problems.
Essentially this stage is crucial because it enables you to understand if there are
needed improvements for the prototype and understand the feelings of your
consumers about the solution you have produced.

To be able to consider the viability of introducing innovation into a market, we must

understand the adoption curve.

What exactly is the adoption curve?

- A tool that can be used to break a population into groups based on how easily
they adopt an innovative product or service
- Explains how a product gains momentum and diffuses within the population
- Five Main Groups: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority,
and Laggards.

Product Life Cycle - the innovator benefits from understanding the product life cycle
because it gives a better idea of how the product will interact with the target market.

- 5 Phases
 - Development: refine the product, and analyze the market for any
competitors
- Introduction: bringing the product to the market.
- Growth: this can be where the product increases in value and grows
due to increasing demands
- Maturity: growth and sales plateau
- Decline: This is the phase where adaptations to the product are crucial
due to a changing market.

Example: Bitcoin

- Introducing a new to make transactions with people

- Blockchain:
- A system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult
or impossible to change, hack or cheat the system
- A new way of recording the past/transaction (instead of the
traditional pen and paper)
- The information is on the internet permanently

It is important to understand that blockchain's purpose is not for money but to record
things that occur permanently.

- This is why I mentioned Bitcoin because it took advantage of this new

innovation and basically used a permanent ledger to record transactions that
happen. This record will not be lost.

Cryptos

- Store of Value
- Unit of Account
- Medium of exchange
- Bitcoin is being accepted as a method of payment
Thesis Statement 4: Strategic Innovation

An innovator seeks to disrupt the status quo by identifying a need in the market that
has yet to be addressed, assessing existing alternatives and possible competition,
then developing an innovation strategy to create a new market. This can be done
through the Blue Ocean model, which is at its core about solving an unaddressed
need creatively. As a support to innovation strategy, one can use a Business Model
Canvas to summarize all relevant aspects.