Category Archives: Creativity in business

Paradigm Breakthrough, it Needs a Risk Taker

Some organizations and companies at some stage need a paradigm breakthrough.

Apple is(was) a computer company, now cell phones?  Can you imagine if the culture at Apple 6 years ago was against a paradigm shift to move to cell phones.  The next normal path in bringing a user friendly computer to people is: computer, then music then the personal beautiful cellphone. Apple is a great example of a company that knows when to make a positive successful paradigm shift. Financially, consider what Apple would be today if the iPhone was not released.

Google a search company, now cell phones?  (Financially, Google is an advertising company.)

My guess is 15 years ago some marketing person or engineer suggested adding a camera to a cell phone, and maybe lost his job over the crazy idea.  Today it’s hard to find a phone without a camera.

Drew a software engineer, entrepreneur, blog writer, on camera person, now songwriting, now back to electronics and mathematics?

Some of us have stopped dreaming, we like predictable, stable and it has always worked, so why change it.

It is hard for a company culture to accept a new possibility, when the existing seems to be going well.  Change is difficult and must be done slowly and carefully. People do like change, but want it slowly.

But one has to consider:  when is the proper time for a paradigm shift!

Palouse Falls, Washington

Palouse Falls, Washington

December 10, 2014

Technical Books that have helped me…

Here is a list of books, at least have helped me in creativity, leadership and marketing:

  • Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull (Pixar story)
  • Good to Great by Jim Collins
  • The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs by Carmine Gallo
  • Win by Frank Luntz
  • Blue Ocean Strategy
  • Only the Paranoid Survive – Andy Grove
  • EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey
  • The Steve Jobs Way by Jay Elliot
  • Emotional Design by Donald Norman
  • The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker
  • Jack Welch and the 4E’s of LEADERSHIP by Jeffrey Krames

Here is a full list including ones from my current research project.

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Yes, Recreate and Reinvent….

Yes, time to re-create your company and yourself. Keep reinventing yourself and become the person you were created to be… If you run a company, Keep reinventing the company and become the company you were created to be…#creativity #innovation @DrewHaninger
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Kauai, Hawaii, surfers from my 4k video camera

Kauai, Hawaii, surfers from my 4k video camera

Having fun…but hard work

Creativity is intelligence having fun! – Albert Einstein  But hard work and persistence is needed to bring it to pass.  Having an idea is great, but turning the idea into something real people can use (and want to use) is difficult. One needs to get organized and make progress almost every day to succeed.

 

Find that one fun thing and pursue it until everyone knows you have succeeded.DSC_0293

Innovation

Google was the 17th search engine (not the first). So watch, but don’t copy competition.

Optimism is an essential ingredient for innovation — Robert Noyce, Intel.

Think 10x = Think Big — Larry Page, Google

Na Pali Coast in North Kauai, Hawaii

Na Pali Coast in North Kauai, Hawaii

 

Paradigm Breakthrough.

Sometimes we are just stuck.  Organizations and companies at some stage need a paradigm breakthrough. What is that next thing to move on to…. I can be difficult, but think it can happen and be very valuable.

Sometimes we grow by new things, sometimes we are just too scared to make a change. Hard to know how to take care of the user at every stage. Creative marketing and creative thinking is needed at every stage. Be more user-centric.

Yes a paradigm breakthrough is needed.

Qualities of Successful Creative Thinkers and Entrepreneurs

Qualities of Successful Creative Thinkers and Entrepreneurs – This is Creativity blog number 2

Creativity in business is not new. It has been around a long time. In fact, any enterprise to be successful requires a bit of creativity, whether it be creativity in product design, in marketing approach or in distribution. Nowadays, creativity is considered to be the paramount quality desirable for a leadership role in the business world. And the reason is not hard to fathom – with greater advances in technology, the marketplace is inundated with products. Therefore, an enterprise needs to be creative in its products as well as marketing strategies so that it can carve a niche for itself.

According to a recent Gallup study, highly creative entrepreneurs are rule breakers who don’t like to conform to the norms and traditions of the industry. Keeping the rules is sometimes verses creativity. They look to be creative so that they can forge new paths beyond the present and sculpt a future that lies beyond the obvious. They use novel methods whether they are introducing new products or services, moving into new markets or developing new production processes. They not only use creative thought to develop new ideas and methodologies but use innovation in presenting older ideas in a newer space.

Beauty helps us in creativity

Beauty helps us in creativity

Creative entrepreneurs have their finger on the pulse of the industry – they are fully conversant with the opportunities and threats to their ideas and are aware of the larger economic scene – and hence are able to take advantage of the gaps and be the pioneers in their chosen fields. Creative entrepreneurs are always reading, learning and considering many things even outside their primary area.

The essence of creativity is innovation and the creative business people understand this well. Herein lies the greatest and the simplest truth of business leadership– an invention that is just creative may not be innovative, but the invention that is both creative and useful will be innovation – and the successful entrepreneurs understand this tenet extremely well.

There are certain limitations that these creative individuals have to guard against to remain in a leadership position. They have to constantly innovate – they cannot just sit on one innovation and let it run its course. They have to launch their product, gather feedback and improve, and this cycle has to go on. The creativity also has to be balanced by efficiency and industry. An entrepreneur cannot let efficiency be marred by creativity or vice versa. They have to run hand-in-hand for a successful business. Their failures have to be learning experiences. Risk taking, knowledge gathering and independent thought are a few other assets of successful creative thinkers and they allow them to produce better technologies and remain in the forefront of their business.

Ok, there is a lot in this article, any comments?