CREATIVITY & THE

BUSINESS IDEA

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 Learning Objectives
To introduce effectuation as a way that expert entrepreneurs think.

To develop notion that entrepreneurs learn to be cognitively

adaptable

Entrepreneurs experience failure and their ability to learn from failure.

Difference b/w entrepreneurially and traditional managed firms.

Some scales for reflecting entrepreneurial thinking.

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 Creativity & Innovation
• Creativity is the ability to develop new
ideas and to discover new ways of
looking at problems & opportunities

• Innovation is the ability to apply

creative solutions to those problems &
opportunities to enhance or to enrich
people’s lives.

• Creativity is thinking new things &

innovation is doing new things 3
 Creativity & Innovation
• Entrepreneurs succeed by thinking and
doing new things or old things in new
way
• Having a great new idea is not enough;
transforming the idea into a tangible
product, service or business venture is
the essential next step
• Leadership expert Warren Bennis says. “
today’s successful companies live and
die according to the quality of their
ideas” 4
 Creativity & Innovation

• Creativity involves generating something from

nothing
• Creative ideas springs up from the most unexpected
places.
• Millions of people come up with creative ideas for
new or different products & services; most of them,
however, never do anything with them

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Sources of New Ideas
Consumers

Sources Products and

Services
R&D of New
Section
Ideas

Govt.
Distribution Regulation
channels

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 Methods of Generating New Ideas

Focus groups
• Number of group members from 6-12.
• Moderator focuses discussion of the
group in a directive or nondirective
manner.
• Co. women’s slipper-concept of “warm
& comfortable slipper that’s fits and
old shoe” – 12 women focus group
• An excellent method for initially
screening ideas and concepts.
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 Methods of Generating New Ideas
Brainstorming
• A Group method for obtaining new ideas
& solutions.

4 Rules should be followed

• No criticism is allowed by anyone in the group.
• Freewheeling is encouraged-wilder the idea the better
• Quantity of ideas is desired- greater the no. of ideas the
greater the likelihood of the emergence of useful ideas
• Combinations and improvements of ideas are encouraged-
ideas of others can be used to produce still another new idea

Example: Bank to develop journal for industrial client

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 Methods of Generating New Ideas

Focus group and brainstorming is

different in the sense that FG is
structured or moderated...while BS is
not a debate or discussion like that....its
people giving lots of ideas without
criticism allowed
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 Methods of Generating New Ideas
Problem inventory analysis
• Instead of generating new ideas themselves consumers
provided with list of problems in general product
category
• Then asked to identify & discuss products in this
category that have particular problem.
• Can be used to test a new product idea.
• Effective method since its easier to relate known
products to suggested problems & arrive at a new
product idea than to generate an entirely new product
idea by itself. 10
 Methods of Generating New Ideas

• Results must be carefully evaluated as they may not

actually reflect a new business opportunity.
• Consumers associates particular problems with
specific products & then develop a new product that
do not contain the identified fault

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Table 5.1 143

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Creative Problem Solving

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 Creative Problem Solving

• CREATIVITY is the ability to develop new ideas and to

discover new ways of looking at problems & opportunities
• CREATIVITY tends to decline with: Age, education, lack
of use, and bureaucracy.
• CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING is a method for
obtaining new ideas focusing on parameters.

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Creative Problem Solving

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 Creative Problem Solving
Brainstorming
• Used in creative problem solving and idea generation.
• Creative problem solving: a method for obtaining new
ideas
• Spontaneous contribution of participants
• Problem statement-neither too broad nor too narrow
• Avoid hindering responses
• NO group member should be expert in field of
problem
• Ideas even if illogical, must be recorded
• Prohibit criticizing OR evaluating during BS session
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 Creative Problem Solving
My Favorite Book
My favorite book… I don’t know where to start. I read so many books
that are interesting that it’s hard to choose just one. I guess I could
start by talking about the kinds of books I really like. I like biographies
and autobiographies the best. I really enjoy reading about another
person’s life. One of my favorite books is called Roots by Alex Haley.
How the author was able to trace his family history all the way back to
Africa was amazing! Another book I really enjoyed was Carl Sandburg’s
biography of Abraham Lincoln. What an incredible president! There are
also some very interesting books about leaders like Napoleon, Churchill,
and Stalin. Well, I guess that gives me a few ideas about where I can
start on my topic. 17
 Creative Problem Solving
Reverse brainstorming
• A group method for obtaining new ideas focusing
on the negative.
• Finding fault by asking questions “in how many
possible ways can the idea flop”
• Maintain group morale
• Stimulate innovative thinking.
• Often involves identification of everything wrong
with an idea- followed by discussion how to
overcome these problems.
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 Creative Problem Solving

Brain-writing
• Form of written brainstorming.
• It is a silent, written generation of ideas by a group
of people.
• This sheet can b passed around on e-mail as well
• Pass the sheet around – reach its owner
• The only thing wrong with it is that there is no
excitement of verbal discussion
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 Creative Problem Solving
Gordon method
• Method for developing new ideas when the
individuals are unaware of the problem.
• u don’t give away too much detail about
the problem
• headline would be “i wish there was
something v cud do about the bad colors in
my TV screen” Or Latest trends in fashion
world”
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 Creative Problem Solving

• Free Association.
• Forced Relationship.
• Collective Notebook Method.
• Attribute Listing.
• Big-Dream Approach.
• Parameter Analysis.

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 Product Plan. & Develop. Process
Establishing Evaluation Criteria
• Criteria for evaluation need to be
established at each stage of the product
planning and development process.

Criteria should be:

• All inclusive and quantitative to screen the
product carefully.

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 Product Plan. & Develop. Process

Established to evaluate the new idea in terms of:

• Market opportunity
• Competition
• Marketing system
• Financial factors
• Production factors.

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Market opportunity
•Need for the product idea must exist
•Characteristics & attitudes of consumers that might buy the
product, size & nature of market
•Share of that market that product could capture
Competition
• competing producers, prices, & marketing policies should be evaluated
•Product should be able to compete successfully with products already
on the market by having features that will meet or overcome current or
anticipated competition
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