Creative thinking isn't only the domain of artists.  It's not the same thing as being able to produce a beautiful/interesting/challenging piece of art/music/literature/etc., although, clearly, it helps to be able to think creatively to do these things.

Creative thinking is also an inherent part of being an entrepreneur, of spotting opportunities and bringing new ideas into the world.  Without the ability to generate creative new ideas, there would be no invention or innovation.

To some people, this might come naturally, but you might be interested to know that the process of creative thinking can be taught and that it works!

A recent brief presentation as part of the Ingenuity Programme at the University of Nottingham introduced to a business audience, the process that has been taught for a few years now to entepreneurship students.  A ripple went round the room as it was pointed out that today's students are tomorrows entrepreneurs and they could well soon be snapping at the heels of the people in the room - equipped with some very useful knowledge indeed.

As marketers, we tend to be familiar enough with the second part of the Ingenuity Creative Problem Solving Process - what they term Develop-Design-Deploy.  Typically, this is the are where most investment is made.

But by putting time and resources into what should be the prelimary stage - Define-Discover-Determine - it is possible to:

• Identify problems that need solving and so provide a commercial solution;
• Explore the root causes of those problems;
• Using creative problem solving techniques, generate creative ideas for solutions and;
• Determine which the 'best' (most attractive, most commercially viable) solution is.

Thus arriving at novel business ideas that can differentiate your business and weeding out inferior ideas that might otherwise have found their way into the market only to fail.

See Lee Martin talking about the creative problem solving process.
Book into the New Business Ideas one-day workshop from the Ingenuity Programme.

Francine Pickering
Clarity Marketing, Nottingham