Creative

Intuition and creativity play a part in every innovation process.

Many people associate ‘creativity’ to brainstorming and ‘creatives’ (= ad agencies). In our view, creativity is a skill anybody can tap in to, required in every step of the process:
  1. MARKET KNOWLEDGE. Creative research leads to surprising views on perceived ‘borders and gaps’ in the market place.
  2. COMPANY KNOWLEDGE. A creative view brings a broader perspective to your possibilities.
  3. STRATEGY. An analytical view is key at this stage, yet intuition and creativity help people to ‘play’ with data; to see what no one else has seen, to believe in an opportunity when others don’t (as yet).
  4. TACTICS. Creativity comes into play at this stage to discover ways to present new and surprising responses to given opportunities, which are to be recognised and valued by consumers.
  5. EXECUTION. This type of creativity is the ability to reflect a ‘message’ in tangible products (product, packaging and ad design & wording). At this stage creativity is also required for solving technological and/or production problems.
 
Food for Thought
Many people incorrectly assume that creative thinking is a special gift, bestowed on only a few. While it is true that we rarely see the extraordinary creativity of an Edison or Einstein, modern research from the fields of the cognitive sciences indicates that the ability to generate innovative ideas for change in our work is a common "gift" that we all possess (Paul Plsek, 1996, author of Creative Thinking for Serious People; www.directedcreativity.com).