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Chapter 3

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Creativity: the ability to develop new ideas and to
discover new ways of looking at problems and
opportunities
Thinking new things
Innovation: the ability to apply creative solutions to
those problems and opportunities to enhance or to
enrich people’s lives
Doing new things
Entrepreneurs succeed by thinking and doing new
things or old things in new ways

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 Intuit identified six enablers of small business
innovation:
1. Passion
2. Customer connection
3. Agility and adaptation
4. Experimentation and improvisation
5. Resource limitations
6. Information sharing and collaboration

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 Innovations can be:
Reactive in response to customer feedback or changing
market conditions
Proactive in response to new opportunities on which to
capitalize
Revolutionary creating market-changing, disruptive
breakthroughs that are the result of generating something
from nothing
Evolutionary, developing market-sustaining ideas that
elaborate on existing products, processes, and services
Putting old things together in new ways or from taking
something away to create something simpler or better
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 Entrepreneurs must go beyond relying in what has worked
in the past
Cast off limiting assumptions, beliefs, and behaviors
Develop new insights
Change perspectives
Look at the world in new and different ways

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How Creative Are You?

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 Can Creativity be Taught?
Creativity is a skill
Anyone can learn to be creative and to get
better at it
Need to understand creative thinking

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 Each hemisphere of the brain processes
information differently
One side tends to be dominant
 The left brain handles language, logic, and
symbols
Thinking is narrowly focused and systematic
 The right brain handles emotional, intuitive, and
spatial functions
Thinking is unconventional, unsystematic, and
unstructured

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 Right brain, lateral thinking is at the heart of the
creative process
 Individuals can learn to control which side of the brain
is dominant in a given situation
Can learn to ‘turn down’ the dominant left side and
‘turn up’ the right side
 Successful entrepreneurs need both left and ride side
thinking
The right side generates innovative ideas
The left side judges market potential

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 Mental locks that can limit individual creativity:
1. Searching for the one “right” answer
2. Focusing on “being logical”
3. Blindly following the rules
4. Constantly being practical
5. Viewing laughter and play as frivolous
6. Becoming overly specialized
7. Avoiding ambiguity
8. Fearing looking foolish
9. Fearing mistakes and failure
10. Believing that “I’m not creative”

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 Enhancing Organizational Creativity
1. Include creativity as a core company value and
make it an integral part of the company’s culture
2. Hire for creativity 
3. Embrace diversity 
4. Establish an organizational structure that nourishes
creativity 
5. Expect creativity 
6. Expect failure and learn from it 
7. Incorporate fun into the work environment 
8. Encourage curiosity 
9. Design a workspace that encourages creativity

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10. View problems as opportunities
11. Provide creativity training
12. Provide support
13. Develop a procedure for capturing ideas
14. Talk with customers – or better yet, interact with them
15. Monitor emerging trends and identify ways your company can
capitalize on them
16. Look for uses for your company’s products or services in other
markets
17. Reward creativity
18. Model creativity

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 Enhancing Individual Creativity
1. Allow yourself to be creative
2. Forget the “rules”
3. Give your mind fresh input everyday
4. Travel – and observe
5. Collaborate with other people
6. Observe the products and services of other companies,
especially those in different markets
7. Recognize the creative power of mistakes and accidents

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8. Be positive
9. Notice what is missing
10. Periodically ask yourself, “Am I asking the right
question?”
11. Keep a journal handy to record your thoughts and ideas
12. Listen to other people
13. Get adequate sleep
14. Watch a movie
15. Talk to a child
 

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16. Do something ordinary in an unusual way
17. Keep a toy box in your office
18. Take note of your ‘pain points’: do other people
experience them as well?
19. Do not throw away seemingly ‘bad’ ideas
20. Read books on stimulating creativity or take a class on
creativity
21. Take some time off
22. Be persistent

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 Creative ideas are the result of seven step process:
1. Preparation
2. Investigation
3. Transformation
4. Incubation
5. Illumination
6. Verification
7. Implementation

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 Step 1: Preparation
Adopt the attitude of a lifelong student
Read—a lot—and not just in your field of expertise
Clip articles of interest to you and create a file for them
Take time to discuss your ideas with other people, including those
who know little about it as well as experts in the field
Join professional or trade associations and attend their meetings
Develop listening skills.
Eliminate creative distractions

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 Creative ideas are the result of seven step
process:
1. Preparation
 Investigation

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 Step 2: Investigation
Develop a solid understanding of the problem,
situation, or decision at hand

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 Creative ideas are the result of seven step
process:
1. Preparation
2. Investigation
 Transformation

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 Step 3: Transformation
Two types of thinking:
1. Convergent thinking: the ability to see the similarities and the
connections among various and often diverse data and events
2. Divergent thinking: the ability to see the differences among
various data and events

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 Transforming information into a purposeful idea:
Evaluate the parts of the situation several times, trying to grasp the big
picture
Rearrange the elements of the situation
Try using synectics (a term derived from the Greek words for “to bring
together” and “diversity”),taking two seemingly nonsensical ideas and
combining them
Before locking into one particular approach to a situation, remember that
several approaches might be successful

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 Creative ideas are the result of seven step
process:
1. Preparation
2. Investigation
3. Transformation
 Incubation

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 Step 4: Incubation
Ideas may require a gestation period
Walk away from the situation
Take the time to daydream
Relax – and play - regularly
Dream about the problem or opportunity
Work on the problem or opportunity in a different environment

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 Creative ideas are the result of seven step
process:
1. Preparation
2. Investigation
3. Transformation
4. Incubation
 Illumination

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 Step 5: Illumination
The light bulb goes on
Eureka factor

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 Creative ideas are the result of seven step process:
1. Preparation
2. Investigation
3. Transformation
4. Incubation
5. Illumination
 Verification

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 Step 6: Verification
Is it really a better solution to a particular problem or
opportunity?
Will it work?
Is there a need for it?
Is there a need for it?
If so, what is the best application of this idea in the
marketplace?

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 Does this product or service idea fit into our core
competencies?
 How much will it cost to produce or to provide?
 Can we sell it at a reasonable price that will
produce adequate sales, profit, and return on
investment for our business?

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 Creative ideas are the result of seven step process:
1. Preparation
2. Investigation
3. Transformation
4. Incubation
5. Illumination
6. Verification
 Implementation

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 Step 7: Transformation
Transform the idea into reality
Ready, aim, fire

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