Applying creativity to entrepreneurship: Imagine it and Create it

Purpose of this session

Further unlock your creativity

Run through a process that can achieve:• Learning how to co-develop opportunities

• Finding ideas that could lead to real opportunities

• Using the process to sharpen your level of awareness, intention and communication of “new ideas”

• Appreciating the impact of ideas in different contexts

• See for yourself that you too have ideas and can be creative

• Meet each other and create further short conversations....

Entrepreneurship – requiring creativity

Idea Validation Implementation

Shane and Venkataraman, 2000

Opportunity recognition – is where it starts…

Creativity – “ping” – or long hard slog to solve a problem

Validate an idea/solution

Communicate it..

Then comes all the hard work to make it happen…

Creativity – techniques – Many options

Basics of creative thinking

We use creativity cafe model...

Both will be explained briefly

Then we do it...Based on ideas we have taken form your submissions.....

“If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the

experiment. The literature is full of examples that said you

can’t do this”

Spencer Silver on the work which led to the development of

the adhesives for 3M Post-it® notes.

To get you started – right frame of mind – a few introductions

Abstracting the Challenge

How do I build a better mousetrap ?

How do I get rid of the mice ?

"A problem is half-solved if properly stated." John Dewey

Are you asking the right questions?

What kind of problem are you trying to solve?

• Does it make a difference?

• Is it scalable?

• Does it “make meaning”?

Sam Pitroda: Whose problem do you want to solve?

Whose problems do you want to solve?

It can take 20 years to become anovernight success!

Basics of creativity...Rules

Diverging

• Defer judgement

• Strive for quantity

• Seek wild ideas

• Combine and build on other ideas

Converging

• Be deliberate

• Check your objectives

• Improve your ideas

• Be “affirmative”

Basics of creativity...Tools

Diverging

• Brainstorming

• Brianwriting

• Forced connections

• Visual connections

• Ladder of abstraction

Converging

• Pluses, potentials, concerns

• Highlighting

• “Card sort”

• Evaluation matrix

Many ways to Kill a Good Idea – Rule – Do not do this!

Rubbish it

Rubbish the inventor

There is no market for it

It is impossible – it has been done before

It is impossible – it has never been done before

Steal it

Copy it

It is too expensive

Microsoft already did it!!

Etc. Etc. Etc.

World creativity Cafe – one such tool

Why would you want to talk to people when you are trying to be creative?

Tap into “their creativity”

Tacit knowledge

Bounce ideas off each other

Incremental growth and improvement of thinking

New insights

Get ideas for whom else to talk to

Why and when would you not like to talk to people?

Need to keep it secret

You know more about it than the others do

You are still looking fro the best way to talk about it

Other?

Process – Like Speed dating – Speed ideas

Tables set aside with white paper/ colour pens...

3 – 4 people to a Table

Quickly introduce yourselves

Write down “we need to find.... Establish the core idea at the centre of the flip chart...

Then...

10 new markets for...(INSERT A PRODUCT/SERVICE/PROJECT...)

Divergent Rounds

Round 1

• Draw from your general knowledge, imagination, experience.... Where might the 10 markets be?

Round 2, 3 and maybe 4...

• Move to a different Table and see what they have – redefine markets and stretch the possibilities

Convergent Thinking - round

Move one more time

Formulating the challenge: Which one of the 10 markets has the most potential and why?

Task...

MillionMillion...

Summary of the process

1. Idea owners – take a Table

2. Team members...join

3. 3 - 4 rounds of DIVERGENT thinking and development

4. Final round of CONVERGENCE –

5. Resulting in one minute Pitch – in 3 parts (Imagine it)

6. The pitch is then transferred to Project development process and refined..(Create it I)

7. The refined project is transferred to a more detailed project plan from which resources can be assessed (Create it 2)

8. Information is shared across Tables/teams

Success = f (pre-reading of materials)