Thoughts ..on Creativity

The dictionary meaning of the word creativity means : “the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc”.

But is that exactly what it is meant to be? I believe it is something more. I believe it is something which uniquely stems out from the combination of right and left brain, keen observation of day today life and more.

The definition of innovation by Frans Johansson (the author of book innovation Medici Effect) is “A creative idea that is realized”.

Why all of sudden there is so much brouhaha about the word innovation? I believe the answer for this question is competition. As the competition become more and more fierce, the one who does things differently will thrive. In a fast globalized world with a lot of cascading effect every where, the one who thinks agile and finds an innovative solution for the problem is the one having a competitive edge over others.

Take a popular example by the company 3M their one of the program called 3P (pollution prevent program) saved them thousands of dollars.

Take an innovative example from India. Kegg Farm (Kapur + Egg) an organization founded by Vinod Kapur which produces the Kurolier breed of chickens. You can call Vinod Kapur (people call him doctor even though he is an engineer!) as a social entrepreneur. These birds have helped nearly 7 lakh households in India. In country like India through the innovative approach like this we can address the market as described “bottom of pyramid” approach by Professor C.K Prahlad.

At the end I would like to mention Joseph Schumpeter’s “creative destruction

“a process for radical innovation as long back as 1940’s.

I believe we owe a lot to him.