Creativity and generating business ideas, 8th august 2010 by rajiv tandon

Creativity and Generating Business Ideas

Agenda

I. Innovation

• Responses to Changes

• (Actionable) Innovation

II. Ideation

• Sources of new Ideas– Users products/ services

– Improvements

– Government initiatives

– International trends

– Technology, R&D

• Ideation– Logical Methods

– Intuitive Methods

– Hybrid Methods

Definitions

• Idea*– A thought; mental conception; mental image– A form, the look or appearance of things as opposed

to its reality – A plan; scheme; intention; aim

• Implement*– To carry into effect; to fulfill; accomplish

• Innovation* – Act of affecting change in the established order– Introduction of something newInnovation: An idea that is implemented

• Disposition– Inclination– Natural Fitness– Frame of mind

(Actionable) Innovation

Innovation = Idea x Implementation

• It is not a “Eureka” (chance) thing

• Proven process for each of the four links of Innovation Process

1. Ideation: Quality and Quantity of Ideas

2. Key Ideas: Selecting the right projects

3. Pilot: Disciplined introduction of new initiatives

4. Improvement: Assimilation/ Commercialization

• Use a variety of methods and tools to make this activity efficient and without drudgery

Ideation

• Sources of Ideas

• Targeted Ideation

• Enhancement of Ideas

• Screening of Ideas for Opportunities

Implementation

• Enhancement of Opportunities

• Marketing Issues

• Financial Issues

• HR Issues

• Growth

Innovation Process

Improvement

Resource Acquisition

Crafting

Business Plan

Opportunity Enhancement

Visualization

“Key” Ideas

IdeationTandon, 1994

Pre-Disposition

Sources of New Ideas

• Users of education products and services– Existing

– Potential

• Improvements of existing educational products and services

• Government initiatives

• International trends

• Technology, R&D

• Other Sources– Markets

– Channels

– Distributors

– Supply and demand gap

Basic Approaches

• Based on Whole Brain Model

– Logical Methods

– Intuitive Methods

– Hybrid Methods

• Each one of us prefers a few methods

• Add more tools to your tool box

LOGICAL

ANALYTICAL

QUANTITATIVE

FACT BASED

HOLISTIC

INTUITIVE

SYNTHESIZING

INTEGRATING

PLANNED

ORGANIZED

DETAILED

SEQUENTIAL

EMOTIONAL

INTERPERSONAL

FEELING BASED

KINESTHETIC

A

B C

D

CEREBRAL MODE

THINKING PROCESSR

IGH

T M

OD

ELE

FT

MO

DE

LIMBIC THINKING PROCESS

Source: The Creative Brain, Brain Books, Ned Herrmann, 1990.

Whole Brain Model

Logical Approach to Problem Solving

Mission

Situation

Analysis

Strategic

Issues

Objectives/

Goals

StrategiesProgram and

Support Plan

Priorities

Implementation

Control

Attribute Listing

• Developed by Robert Crawford

• State Issue (problem or objective)

• List all characteristics related to the issue

• Systematically modify, focus, tackle each attribute

• Its’ never just one thing but usually a combination

Benchmarking

• Identify an area of improvement

• Internal/Competitive/Functional Benchmarking

• Identify a “world class organization” doing that process particularly well

• Look at good processes in multiple organizations

• Bring back ideas from those organizations

• Implement in your own organization

Six Sigma

• Developed by Motorola 1979 (Mikel Harry)• Business Process redesign to reduce cost and yet

increase quality• “Metrics” of relevance• Specific methods to recreate the processes so that

defects/errors do not arise in the first place• Tougher and tougher relentless questioning of

each process

Logical Methods

• Left Brained, Analytical, Rational, Convergent• Derivatives of the Scientific Method

– Recognize a need– Define the problem– Develop a solution– Develop a method to test viability of solution– Apply methodology– Compare results with expected results– Summarize findings

LOGICAL

ANALYTICAL

QUANTITATIVE

FACT BASED

HOLISTIC

INTUITIVE

SYNTHESIZING

INTEGRATING

PLANNED

ORGANIZED

DETAILED

SEQUENTIAL

EMOTIONAL

INTERPERSONAL

FEELING BASED

KINESTHETIC

A

B C

D

CEREBRAL MODE

THINKING PROCESSR

IGH

T M

OD

ELE

FT

MO

DE

LIMBIC THINKING PROCESS

Source: The Creative Brain, Brain Books, Ned Herrmann, 1990.

Whole Brain Model

Improvement

Business Plan

Visualization“Key” Ideas

4-A Ideation

Resource Acquisition

Opportunity Enhancement

Crafting

Analogies/ Metaphors

• Aristotle: New words puzzle, ordinary words tell us what we know, metaphors give fresh insight

• Valuable way to visualize and solve problems• Analogies: “this problem is like a time bomb”• Metaphor: “ All the world is a stage”

– Unrelated, non-traditional relationship

Brain Storming• Developed by Alex Osborne• Five Key Conditions

1. Rule out criticism2. Welcome Freewheeling3. Generate many ideas4. Seek combinations and improvement of ideas5. Define the problem properly

• Key Skills: – Build your tolerance for “bad” ideas – Cross pollination

• Process– Few minute warm up session to loosen participants – Participants receive problem statement before session – Participants encouraged to bring some solutions – Leader restates the principle of deferred judgment – Introduce idea spurring questions, if bogged down

Minify? Fewer? Subtract? Eliminate? Smaller?Lighter? Shorter? Thinner? Shallower?

Magnify? More? Add? Larger? Heavier? Stronger?Substitute? Who else instead? What else instead?

Other Place? Other time?Rearrange? Other layout? Other sequence? Stand vertically? Place

horizontally? Slanted? Parallel? Crosswise? Converge? Diverge? Intervene? Delineate? Border? Open? Close?

Reverse? Opposites? Turn backwards? Turn upside down? Inside out?

Combine? How about a blend? An assortment?Separate? Combine purposes? Combine ideas? Fractionate?

Assemble? Disassemble? Put to Other Uses? New ways to use as is? Other uses if modified?Adapt? What else is like this? What other ideas does

this suggest?Modify? Change meaning, color, motion, sound, odor, taste, form,

shape, temperature? Solidify? liquefy? Vaporize? Pulverize? Make disposable? Abrade? Lubricate? Insulate? Wetter? Drier?

Effervesce? Coagulate? Elasticize? Electrify?Change Time Element? Faster? Slower? More

frequently? Less frequently? Chronologize? Perpetuate? Synchronize? Anticipate?

Renew? Recur? Alternate?

Harden -- cream (instead of liquid) shampoo

Preform -- prefabricated houses

Disposable -- Clench-type bottlecaps, disposable diapers,

paper dresses, and tissues

Incorporate -- counting register on printing press

Parted -- tractor tread, split-level highway

Solidify -- soup and beverage mixes

Liquefy -- plant food chemicals

Vaporize nasal medication vaporizers

Pulverize -- powdered eggs, leaf mulcher attachment to lawn

mover, kitchen sink garbage disposal unit.

Wetter -- hydraulic brakes

Insulate -- food pads, thermal containers

Compress -- medicinal tablets

Effervesce -- analgesic preparations

Coagulate -- gelatin desserts

Elasticize -- bubble gum, belts

Electrify -- electric blanket

Heavier -- can opener with weighted stand

Some Idea – Spurring Questions

‘Keep on the lookout for novel and interesting ideas that others have used successfully. Your idea is to be original only in its adaptation to the problem you are working on.’

Thomas Edison

Different Worlds

• Go to a different world

– (Farming, Military, Business, Nature..)

• Look at a similar problem faced in that world

• How are they “solving” the problem?

• Generate lots of ideas

• Implement Key Ideas in your own world

Inside Out Variations on:

Different Worlds

• Where else would this thing work?

• Create a product for the lowest rung.

• Solutions in search of a problem.

• Deep Dive (IDEO): deep research on product

Outside In Variations on:

Different Worlds

• Alert Observations: Odd things, exceptions

• Job Rotation

• Fresh Eyes: New Employees

• Walk the Trade Show

• Reading Group or Book Club on a concept

Role Playing

• Select a Role

• People: Florence Nightingale, Frank Lloyd Wright, Abraham Lincoln, Ben Franklin, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison

• Picture and get in the role of the person

• Look at the problem from this perspective

Hindu MonkDonald DuckMother TheresaSalespersonJohn WayneZebraDQ OwnerOprah WinfreyFlying SquirrelWinnie-the-PoohOlympic AthleteDr. ZhivagoDragonMorticianHospital Patient Dilbert

Mae West

Prostitute

Michael Jordan

Captain of a Ship

Thomas Jefferson

Loch Ness Monster

KG Teacher

Fire Ant

SWAT Leader

Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtle

Politician

Environmentalist

Mother Theresa

Ben Hur Dentist

Martin L. King, Jr.

TV evangelist

Landscape Designer

Ancient Explorer

Tammy Baker

Moses

Radio Disc Jockey

Michael Jackson

Jacque Cousteau

General Custer

Salesperson

Thomas Edison

Restaurant Dishwasher

Black Beard

Palm reader

Sleeping Beauty

Meteorologist

Bambi

Woman in Army

Tom Thumb

Circus Clown

Helen Kellor

Bob Marley

Stephen King

How would you solve this opportunity or think about this concept if you were one of

these people, animals or professions?

Role Playing (Examples)

Variations on Role Playing

• Customer Perspective• What would Croesus do?

– Unconstrained customer: Croesus, a supremely rich king of Lydia (modern day Turkey) whose wealth came from mining gold in the river where Midas bathed.

• What would Donald Trump do?– Vast resources: connections, money and time

• What would Mr. Customer do?– Typical customer

• What would a poor beggar do?– Maximum amount of the key benefit for a minimum cost

• Play the Devil’s advocate– Assign someone to take an extreme negative position

Paradox Management

• It is the organizing premise of the epoch– Mass Customization– Higher Quality at lower cost– Intuitive Logic– Co-opitition– Riches at the Bottom of the Pyramid

• Be prepared for the exact opposite of your plan• Irreconcilable concepts, if they are integrated, lead

to breakthrough ideas • From (One or other) to (One and other)

Variation of Paradox Management• Flip it around

The opposite of a true statement is a false statement. The opposite of a profound truth may as well be another profound truth – Neils Bohr

– Let customer decide the price: Priceline– Mortgage that automatically adjusts the length of time with

changing interest rates without having to refinance– Good ideas are the ones left after you throw away the bad

ones

• How are customers misusing the product?– Using PAM on the lawnmower

• AsymmetryDeliberately break natural desire for symmetry– One way toll booth on Golden Gate bridge

Intuitive Methods

• Right Brained, Integrating, Holistic, Divergent

• Derivatives of the Creative Process

– Problem Description

– Incubation

– Illumination

– Verification

Hybrid Methods

• Hybrid, Accordion, Combination*

• Developing the other method (Logical, Intuitive) gives us more permutations/combinations

IDEATION X IMPLEMENTATION

Improvement

Business Plan

Visualization“Key” Ideas

4-A Ideation

Resource Acquisition

Opportunity Enhancement

Crafting

FACT PROBLEM IDEA SOLUTION ACCEPTANCE

IMP

LE

ME

NT

AT

ION

Hybrid Problem Solving Process

Look for opportunities/challenges

Choose a promising one

Identify/ examine

Prioritize

Start

Search for details/

relationships/

implications

Use all senses

Highlight key facts

Seek new ways

from diverse

perspectives

Choose best one

Generate many

alternatives

Choose most

promising for

evaluation

Examine

possible

solutions

Compare/

prioritize

Identify

objections,

acceptance

needs,

Seek resources,

Gain

commitment

Parnes - Osborne: Creative Problem Solving Process, 1992

Principled Problem Solving

• Created by Barry Nalebuff & Ian Ayres– Break the practice into component parts in simple declarative

sentences

– Flip each part one by one

– Pick one or several that may be possible

• Auction/Dutch Auction:– An item is put up for sale

– An auctioneer proposes successively higher prices

– The last bidder wins

Experience Engineering

• Created by Lewis Carbone

• Experience clues from customer perspective– Functionality (Logical)

– Emotional (Intuitive)• Mechanics (From things)

• Humanics (From people)

• Process:– Experience Audit

– Experience Motif

– Implement

Problem Solving Techniques

Level Technique Logical Intuitive

1 Attribute Association Ind. Group

1 Analogies/Metaphors Ind. Group

1 Association Images Ind. Group

1 Brain Storming Group

2 Tour the Mall Ind. Group

2 Force Field Analysis Ind. Group

2 Different Worlds Ind. Group

2 Role Playing Ind. Group

2 Wild Ideas Ind. Group

3 Experience Eng Ind. Group Ind. Group

3 Alignor Ind. Group Ind. Group

Ideation with New Information

Remain in

Business

5. People

Systems

Organizational Effectiveness

5. Restructuring of the

Industry

4. Restructuring of the

Organization

3. Growth and Increase in

Market Share

Operational Control

2. Asset Management

1. Process Management

Make Money

4. Megadecisions

3. Marketing,

Distribution,

Customer Service

Save Money

2. Financial,

Manufacturing

, Services

1. Administrative

5 Reaching the

Consumer

4 Enhancing Executive

Decision Making

3 Enhancing Products

and Services

2 Leveraging Investments

1 Reducing Costs

Functional Use Management Focus

1. Initiation

2. Transition

Planning

3. Growth Planning4. Strategic Planning

5. Venturing6. Turnaround

Planning

BREAKPOINT

7. Portfolio Planning

Tandon, 1994

Ideation Under Changing Contexts

Ideation Recap

• Good Projects are a two step process:1. Start with lots of ideas

– 4-A: Anyone can have ideas on Anything, from Anywhere, Anytime– Focus is on the Quantity of ideas and not their quality

2. Pick a few consensus “Key Ideas”• Remove duplicates• Reject the ones with low organizational energy• Assign “Low hanging fruit” • Propel or kill projects on risk alignment

• Strategy• Pre-disposition

• Key concepts:– Quiet time to reflect– Diversity of personnel, prevent hijacking by a few– Use wisdom of crowds– Different methods of generating ideas