Also this week, the Ingenuity Programme featured Dr Lee Martin introducing a creative problem solving process designed to generate new business ideas - either ideas for a new business or new ideas within an existing business.
He outlined a three-stage process of creative problem solving:
- Definition (or preparation);
- Discovery (ideas generation);
- Determination (evaluation of ideas).
This is a structured approach to defining a problem that could be solved commercially, generating a whole range of ideas that could be used to solve the problem and then determining which would be the most commercially viable.
Lee pointed out that the work that is done after this stage to endeavour to bring a new business idea to market can be very resource intensive. So this groundwork helps to ensure that any resources are wisely invested rather than thrown at a "bright idea" that might be passionately supported by the innovator but has little use or appeal to the real-world marketplace. Let's face it, we've all seen some of those paraded out for our entertainment on Dragon's Den.
I've worked with this process as a mentor with undergraduate students at Nottingham University Business School's New Venture Creation module but that doesn't mean it's a purely academic exercise. All students following this process are required to pitch their business to business owner mentors and their tutors at the end of the course and some go on to develop their own businesses through the support offered at the university.
You can find out more about how you can apply this process within your own business at the New Business Ideas one-day workshop on 23rd September at the Sir Colin Campbell Building on the University of Nottingham Innovation Park or, if can't make that, you can read more about the creative problem solving process in Ingenuity in Practice.