William Mankowski
OI-361
July 25, 2013
Tina Guyette
Creativity Innovation and Design The purpose of this essay is to define, compare, and contrast creativity, innovation, and design. There are many definitions for those words. For example, creativity could mean something different to a sculptor and a brick mason. As a result, this essay will examine those words as they relate to business and management.
Definitions
In its simplest definition, creativity is the ability to generate ideas. Creativity is an essential element of innovation. According to Von Stam (2008) creativity is half the equation that equals innovation. Ideas are the starting point of all successful enterprises. Ideas are generated by individuals. One goal of management is to get individuals to generate ideas to further organizational goals. It requires leadership to get individuals to generate ideas for organizational goals. The ability to motivate people is essential for the generation of ideas and is a common trait among successful leaders. Innovation appears to be an aspect of the human ability to reason. In a business environment innovation allows the organization to implement new ideas and solve problems in different ways. Innovation can be essential in developing new products or procedures. Innovation is a valuable resource organizations can use for attaining competitive advantage. That description of innovation is in keeping with Von Stamm (2008) who defines innovation as creativity combined with successful implementation. The ability to transform ideas into reality is the essence of innovation and is essential to the success of business organizations. If creativity is the generation of ideas and innovation is creativity plus implementation, then design is the bridge between the two. Design is the ability to take an idea and visualize the process for implementation. This definition can be observed in the natural world. Writing this essay
References: Von Stamm, (2008). Managing Innovation Design and Creativity; Second Edition. John Wiley & Sons Inc. West Sussex, UK.