Business relies upon ideas.  Creativity leads to innovation, innovation leads to new products and services, new products and services lead to temporary monopolies, temporary monopolies lead to market demand and ultimately profits.  However, time pressures mean we are spending less time thinking and more time doing in today’s “must make every moment count by doing something” world.  Here is a short presentation outlining some reasons why you should spend some more time thinking, five frameworks for creative thinking or problem solving and some tips to get you going.

Yesterday I attended an innovation conference in Manchester, with keynotes from two people coming at innovation from different angles.  For me, innovation is key – or at least the relentless drive to find new ways to do things, or creative ways to to problem solve.  It’s important to keep yourself up to date with the latest thinking and to listen to alternative views, so the conference, organised by Benchmark for Business, was a great opportunity to listen to two masters of their craft.

Business brain Kjell Nordstrom kicked off the morning session with a real macro level view of the world and some of it’s trends.  Nordstrom, tall and wiry, with a mandarin jacket, no socks and espadrilles – was an imposing figure.  You just had to listen as he spoke for nearly two hours, without notes, accompanied by a few visual aids about the new world order he foresaw, socially and at a business level.  Some bits of his talk which I thought interesting were: - 

• The world is now full of “liquid fear.”  That is, we are fearful, but there isn’t a specific threat, it’s a combination of many different things.
• We are in a time of “genuine uncertainty.”
• That capitalism should be renamed “innovism.”
• There are more women in Universities than me.  65%/35% split.
• 52% of the worlds populations live in cities.  By 2040 this is predicted to be 80-85%.  The City will be the new country.
• Creative Destruction is the new term for innovation.  Think i-Phone which blew apart the conventions of the mobile phone industry.
• China’s cost advantage is similar to an ice-cube in the desert.  It has a sell by date.
• De-learning can prove more difficult than learning.  Cultural reality of trying to be more innovative in your culture.
• USA will continue to dominate the world innovation stage as they have a “plug and play” economy. You can become an American in three to four years, regardless of where in the world you originate.
• Temporary monopolies is what you have to spend your time trying to design (capturing a market for a period of time with no competition).

In the afternoon, motivational speaker and innovation expert Chris Barez-Brown took the stage.  Barez-Brown, with a polar opposite style to Nordstrom talked of innovation in terms of unlocking people and your own capability to innovate. In a high-octane delivery, some of his key points we’re: -

•  Innovation should be as easy as going down a waterslide.
• You’re best ideas come when you are in your “alpha” state of mind.  That is, not busy doing stuff but in a more relaxed state.  My example of this is when I’m out riding my road bike, I do some of my best thinking.
• You have to be positive minded.  Don’t dismiss anything, even if it’s been tried before.  Conditions may well be different now.  Seek the value in new ideas.
• Speed is the key.  Momentum is a function of passion.
• Have some belief for your ideas.  No belief, then no momentum.
• Perception is as important as truth.
• You have to have a portfolio approach to risk.  Assume some elements of your portfolio will fail.
• Use external stimulus.  Break habits, go to different spaces, do new things.

Two very different speakers at different ends of the scale.  Nordstrom the superbrain and Barez-Brown the high-energy motivator.  They made for a contrasting day.  What was interesting, is that they were the only two speakers.  No forty-five minute keynotes, both speakers were on stage for a couple of hours, which meant you could go a little deeper into their philosophies.  This is in contrast to the “speed dating” type conferences which are becoming en vogue.

Overall the day was well worth the time investment.  I personally enjoyed listening to Nordstrom as I love the bigger picture view and future forecasting.  If some of the things he predicted come to life, then we’ve got some interesting times ahead.

Coming up with new ideas normally takes the route of sitting with a stack of post-its and trying to fire out as many thoughts as you possibly can.  However, there are a large number of methods/frameworks to assist you and perhaps give you some added stimulation when trying to come up with something new.

Lateral thinking gives you some additional avenues to be creative.  We used some of these on an internal workshop yesterday, let me share three of them with you.

1.  Random object. Pick a random object and then describe how that object is going to help you solve your problem. The fact that it is a random object gets the creative juices flowing.

2.  Breaking the Rules? How would your problem/challenge/opportunity come to life if there were no rules, organisationally or otherwise.  It stops people thinking about what is achievable based upon the business/world works today.

3. How would someone else tackle it? I’ve previously written posts about this, relating to Richard Branson and Michael O’ Leary.  It always delivers great results.

Many of these techniques can be easily learned.  I’ve attended some great workshops with innovation and lateral thinking expert Paul Sloane who has written books on the subject.  Great guy to follow on Twitter, always posting interesting and stimulating stuff.  Main thing is, sometimes brainstorms aren’t good enough on their own and you need an extra little bit of something to sieve out the gold.

Ah, little Johnny riding his bike without stabilisers, quick grab the camera!  A familiar tale to many a parent.  The funny bit is when the Johnny sees you with the camera, looks at you awaiting approval, loses his balance and falls off!! 

The metaphor works for business too.  If you spend too much time looking at what’s closest to you, rather than what’s down the road, it’s easy to fall of your methaphorical bike too.  Short term distractions are exactly that, distractions, and shouldn’t demand too much of your time. 

It can be the same with competitor gazing.  If you spend too much time trying to beat them using their methods, all you’ll become is a cheaper version of them, rather than a business with a more unique proposition.  Spending all of your time trying to grab the camera time with a customer, salami slicing your pricing and margins until they are wafer thin.

So, as you think ahead for 2011 consider how to keep your eyes focussed on the road ahead and avoiding the distractions, which consume time, profit and energy.

Richard Branson has just acquired your business.  He’s decided to run your business the Virgin way.  Tomorrow, he’s visiting to start the process.  Panic!

Aside from rushing around with the duster and filling cupboard boxes to stick out sight, what do you think he’d find?  What would he tackle first?  What stuff would he chuck in the bin? What structures are going to get busted up?  Who is going?  Who is staying?  How is marketing going to change?  How are you going to get more intimate with customers?

Point being.  Do you think he would do a better job of it than you currently do?  Would he add an element of “pzazz” to the brand that has been lacking for a while?  Would he inspire you to do great things?  To speak up with that idea you had to do something different?

This simple exercise which is used a lot in inovation workshops is a great way to get thinking about your business.  The things you should tackle.  Implementing the changes people would love to see.  Of course, we can’t all be Branson, he’s a special fellow.  However, you could take the essence of the way he does things and have a crack at doing something new.  If you don’t think differently every now and then, you’ll end up in a pickle, indifferent, undifferentiated and blended into a crowded marketplace.  Kick on.

I’m not trying to get down with the kids (innit), I’m describing an approach to problems.  Some people call them challenges, whatever you call them, we all have them.  Solving them can sometimes be technically challenging, fun or stressful.

Working within a Japanese business for over 15 years, I never cease to be impressed by the way they approach problems.  Everything is always de-constructed, rigorously reviewed, all potential outcomes are scrutinised and the best possible solution applied.  You could call it an art or a science, either way, it’s impressive to see.  The core element is that the problem is always broken down into constituent parts such as what elements are in their control or outside of their control, problem analysis is used to identify the best approach, problem by problem.

Which approach you use depends on the complexity of your problem plus the speed and resources required, potential impact on your business model amongst many things.  Over the years, I’ve witnessed BIG problems get solved by creativity, logic or just sheer effort.  The main thing is not to be daunted by problems.  If you’re not being presented with problems regularly, you may not be trying hard enough.  You might not be pushing your barriers as far as they could go.  Your potential may not be fully realised.  Growing businesses embrace problems, tackle them, solve them and move on.

“Now everybody, before you enjoy your desert, let me show you a short film which shows you the surgical procedure I used to insert the implant into the eye”. Not many people can stomach the sight of surgery at the best of times, but between your dinner courses, that’s a new one on me.  However, that’s what happened to me on Monday night at a dinner hosted by leading Consultant Opthalmologist Paulo Stanga, to showcase the pioneering surgery being carried out at Manchester Eye Hospital (you can read a bit more about the procedure by clicking on the link).

Giving someone back their sight is a pretty special thing.  This new technology – developed by California based medical company – Second Sight – aims to do that.  Imagine a pair of dark glasses with a small sixty pixel camera hidden within the frame, attached to a transmitter. The transmitter sends the images to a small receiver implanted within the eye and attached to the retina.  As the camera transmits the images, the electrical signals are then passed up the fibre optic nerve to the brain, where they are decoded.  Clever stuff.  In reality, this low resolution image would allow someone one stage away from total blindness, with only recognition of light, to see shape outlines or follow  a white line on the floor.  Mr Stanga showed us the full video of the procedure and results on some of his pilot cases at the eye hospital.

What fascinated me was the technology behind it. Why only 60 pixels for example?  Answer – This is the limit of the actual transmitter size and the actual number of electrodes you can safely fit onto it without incurring additional heat within the eye.  Could the retina or fibre optic nerve carry higher resolutions if the technology were improved? – of course.  Tonnes of questions were coming to my mind.

One thing that I did think of was this. If this camera device is transmitting electrical signals to the brain to decode, why couldn’t this technology be used to input other information into the brain?  Let me explain.  In a world where geotagging is now the norm, where google are mapping the world in photo form or 3d flyrounds is considered part of everyday life, why not use augmented reality to input both sets of data to the brain to process?  This would potentially give a blind person a blended image, of real time and virtual time.  With the virtual information being taken from a small geotagged wireless processor attached to the subject somewhere.  It sounds  a bit crazy,  however seeing this effective “input device” to the brain just made me think that all the location based technology that exists, might have uses in the medical sector, such as this.  In my mind, it was almost like the human equivalent of a USB port.

Bearing in mind that this is first generation technology, you have to say that it is a breakthrough.  If it can be commercialised after trials, it will impact many thousands of blind people across the globe.  As the processors are improved and more electrodes added, image resolution can improve and vision along with it.  What made me really excited is that this is being pioneered in Manchester, by Mr Stanga.  For the region to truly be considered a technology hotbed, we need more innovation like this.  Whilst the core technology is from the states, the surgical procedure is being further developed and refined in the eye hospital under his watchful eye.   It was well worth sitting through dinner (including the gorey bit) to hear this story,  I’m always in awe of people like Mr Stanga who devote their lives to medical science, putting patients first and driving for new answers.  A very genuine and clever man.

Business talks a lot about creativity and often gets creativity mixed up with innovation.  Attending the Drum Roses awards in Manchester last night, I was really impressed to see some of the amazing work being generated by advertising agencies from the North West of England.  Advertising agencies rely on talent to generate the next big idea.  One particular piece of work which picked up a raft of awards last night was this.  Following the harrowing death of teenager Sophie Lancaster, her mother – Sylvia – set up a foundation in her name to educate people to be tolerant and understanding of sub-cultures.

It is a tragic story.   If there is one small sembelance of good to come from this, it is that, this wonderful piece of work was created.  The agency concerned, deserved their awards (which ran into four of five gongs, for this one piece of animation on its own).  It inspires me to really further believe in the power of creative thinking and to also continue to challenge yourself to do new things and think differently.  We can’t all be talented creative directors in an advertising agency, however we can push the limits of our own individual creativity to stay fresh and leave a mark.

I met the Deputy CEO of Innovation Manchester for a natter today, to talk about Innovation and how big companies have approached Innovation during the recession.  It was a really interesting chat, below is a quick bullet pointed summary of what my views were (in no particular order).

• Innovation paradoxically suffers during recessions.  At a time when it’s needed most, it’s done least.
• Many companies prefer to stick to their knitting during recessions.  Not wanting to rock the boat or try things new.
• If a company is in the depth of a financial crisis, innovation may be an unnecessary distraction, particularly if you are close to the brink.
• Innovation is more than a flipchart and post-it notes, that’s the creative part.  Innovation is when you implement those ideas.
• Unless driven from the top, Innovation can be difficult culturally.
• Innovation in many businesses is driven by a specific business problem, rather than done as a matter of routine.

They are broadly some of the opinions that I shared (amongst others).  The point is, it isn’t that easy.  It comes naturally to some businesses and harder to others.  Culture dictates a lot of it.  If ideas are squashed or ridiculed, people simply won’t contribute them and deselect from the process.

One thing I learned today which I thought was simply fantastic today was about this, it’s called the FAB LAB.   An inventors workshop, where prototypes can be built.  It’s kitted out with all the latest stuff for you to turn up and build something and it’s free to use.  Whether an individual, a school or a collective, you can get into this place and build your prototype at very low cost.  I think that is a very simple, yet highly effective service and a great example of how innovation can be turned from a bright idea, into a product.   Come on Manchester inventors, get using it!

What would Ryanair CEO do with your business if he got hold of it? Trash the company car policy?  Double the prices at the drinks machine?  Charge you for the toilet?

Similarly, if Richard Branson decided to buy you, how would your marketing change? Would it be simpler?  More cool?  What silly stunt would you pull?

Seeing your business through another persons eyes is a great way of being creative and stimulating you to think unconventionally.  Human behaviour naturally leads us to conform to type, to do the things we’ve always done.  When new business models are created, generally, they disrupt industry conventions.  The bigger you get, the harder it becomes as you can get taken over by global processes.  If you’re in charge of your destiny, then free thinking like this is a brilliant way to think of something new, stay one step ahead and create differentiation.

If the Ryanair business model was sledgehammered in to your business, you’d probably be the lowest cost operator in your field.  You’d be stripping out the luxuries (think BA), you’d be passionate above saving costs and ruthless about operational efficiency.  I’m not saying it’s right, it certainly wouldn’t be if you were a seller of luxury goods however if you were in a transactional market, focussing on volume and market pricing, it would be perfect.

I dare you.  Grab a piece of paper and then write down how Ryanair would do it.  Pause, prioritise and then see what’s possible, might open up your eyes.