Question

Discuss the quality of creativity in management and prepare a short term personal goal for it.

State how you will provide evidence to demonstrate the progress towards this goal.

Definition of Creativity – in management, this is about more than just having new ideas, it is about a mind-set for ideas that result in value creation

Answer 1

Reporter : You failed 10000 times before you invented Bulb !

Thomas Edison : I now know 10000 ways the bulb would not work , and the one way it would work .

The above incident summarizes what creative process is from the greatest inventor of all times .

What it means that Creativity can be measured , it has a formula literally ......and it can be quantified .

But we can't say that we are trying to solve a problem or innovate without having a process and measuring the efforts made .

Malcom Gladwell formulated in the bestseller "Outliers " in which he described that any task performed 10000 times makes you an expert .

So the point I wish to make is this : Creativity can be made into a process , a goal oriented system which can be tracked.

Quality is defined as " Conforming to specification" - so if you quantify the effort made towards improving things constantly , always , then the management has taken a big step in that direction .

If I were the Chief Creative Officer I would set the following goals and credo :

Credo / Motto of our company : ( it defines our mindset / beliefs )

1. We like to make mistakes - lots of them - as we learn from them
2. We try lot of stuff and keep what works ...
3. Biggest risk is not taking risk at all
4. There is always a better way - we have to find it .
5. Simplicity is the utmost sophistication.
6. A problem well defined is half solved .
7. Innovation is not only in big things - try out small innovations - they might turn out big.
8. Reach out for stars - who knows in doing so you will at least land on moon .
9. We are here to make things simple , not complicated .

Goals for measuring creative effort made by the company / division

1. Every Monday of the week at 4 pm - a brainstorming session for launching new products / process improvements - 52 meetings per year
2. Recognize at least one innovator a week - even with a simple note .
3. Establish a Hall of Fame for Innovators and insist that it be full - from every unit - not just one particular division
4. Every business unit to produce 10 new ideas per year - and the idea has to come from all divisions equally - say if there are 5 departments like Engineering , customer support , sales , manufacturing , finance -then each department has to produce 2 ideas each .
5. 10% of the pay should come from innovation score by devising a suitable matrix .
6. 15% of the annual revenue should come from product introduced in last 2 years .
7. Every business unit should have at least 2 pilots project running at all times which strive to cut costs or improve performance or disrupt the market .