"i.SEE" on creativity and innovation

Business : Are we doing the right thing? What is the right thing to do?

2009-12-13T06:57:00.000-08:00

Apple: making constructively critical ethics commentary on a moral conundrum

Creativity and innovation is a complex topic to define because it can be defined in so many ways from so many perspectives. Now with ethics be part of the discussion, creativity and innovation becomes more of a cultural and global issue.

Creativity and innovation of Apple and its business operations was discussed in the last blog. The last blog has inspired the group in a way that it has brought light into what processes Apple had in place for creativity and innovation, which compared to its competitors methods of inhibiting creativity and innovation. Our moral dilemma is the power struggle between the multinationals and apple, and whether this misalignment in power distribution in terms of market share had an influence on the processes of creativity and innovation of individuals and groups, whether todays businesses like apple can be considered as an ethical business.

Currently there is an unofficial media war between the 2 of the world’s most popular operating systems producers Apples Mac, and the Microsoft’s Windows family. Apple's popular commercials, launched in 2006, have painted the picture in stark terms: There are two types of people, Mac People and PC people.

According to their marketing strategies Mac users are positioned as trendy, modernized, casual dressed young people who use their computers for video chatting, music mash-ups and other cool, creative pursuits, while the PC is supposed to be used by more business suited users.

On the other hand Microsoft has also launched a similar advertising campaign, aiming on keeping its users share, and sending the message that you can use a Windows PC and still do cool and interesting things. Windows enthusiasts believe that Mac’s system is very limited in its abilities (Although, providing higher productivity due to the Windows overload with different types of useless programs), having a very user-unfriendly interface, and, one of the main problems by Mac unacceptance of the most of the programs, due to the fact that the overwhelming amount of new products is still written for the Windows interface; Therefore inability to do something serious on the computer. Hesseldahl, A(2009), Popular Mechanics (2009) & Intel (2009)

The funny fact is that both stereotypes are wrong. Throughout the last decade Mac Os has experienced a dramatically increase of its sales (Partially, due to the popularity of Apple in the other media related fields the IPod player, and the newly introduced Iphone) and gained a market share of over 7.5 percent. Hesseldahl, A(2009), Popular Mechanics (2009) & Intel (2009)

Apple is, in fact, the fourth largest computer manufacturer in the world. Macs are no longer just the computer choice of artists and unemployed writers. And now, more than ever, the guts of both platforms are remarkably similar. Intel processors are mainly used by the both of the machines manufacturers (although some PCs can be configured with processors from AMD). Memory, hard drives and graphics cards are purchased from the same small group of suppliers. Despite the fact that both operating systems are positioned as Yin and Yan, in terms of functionality they are extremely similar, offering the same range of built-in multimedia, Internet and productivity applications. Hesseldahl, A(2009), Popular Mechanics (2009) & Intel (2009)

However there are still a large of important factors to consider - Microsoft focuses the attention on the price of the computers with its OS, as well as well as being friendly with all types of machines, programs, and necessary devices. Apple, on the other hand, promotes the impressive productivity of its computers they are basically much faster and efficient than the computers with Windows, offering much more productive hardware, longer lasting batteries, and a better interface for creative users. Hesseldahl, A(2009), Popular Mechanics (2009) & Intel (2009)

Creativity is a very complex topic to define or discuss, because it can be talked about from so many perspectives and contexts. From a businesses point of view post industrial organisations today are knowledge based organisations and their success and survival depend on creativity, innovation, discovery and inventiveness. (Read, 1996). It changes the mindsets of individuals and their behaviours in a way that it is more of a tool for survival and existence, for innovative change. A company’s constant need for innovative change in this fast growing business environment has brought forward the importance of inheriting creativity in its employees.

Einstein writes “In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime,”

This is the foundation of our ethical dilemma in this blog. We want to analyse the creative and innovative abilities of apple and whether it’s systems or processes are ethical; Whether employees are forced to be creative and innovative, or if it was a natural process for the individuals. Whether the motivations behind being creative are ethical in sense that, trying to be creative to make products that makes money, is that ethical? Compared to being creative motivated by passion.

There is an article written on Microsoft being on top of the CSR index by Peggy Connolly (2009), in one paragraph it wrote “A company’s reputation today goes beyond products, services, and financial performance. Organisations face increasingly higher expectations from the general public across the different aspects of their business”. This in turn influences the process and actions of a company; something called “ethical business” is becoming increasingly important. So does it means the higher you are on the CSR index, then you must be an ethical business?

This is where partly the foundation of our blogs ethical dilemma, is whether large multinationals with more power leverage and market share are really ethical in terms of their businesses operations and processes. When we talk about ethics, it can be discussed in a number of ways, utilitarian, cost-benefit, relativist etc which will be discussed further. But for now, from a rational perspective, to define ethical is to look at the primary intentions behind the actions.

The main reasons a company would finance or inject money into CSR are Ethical Consumerism, Globalisation and market forces, Social awareness, Laws & regulations and Crises & their consequences. Gray, Owen & Maunders (1987) states “Taking responsibility for its impact on society means in the first instance that a company accounts for its actions; Social accounting, a concept describing the communication of social and environmental effects of a company's economic actions to particular interest groups within society and to society at large, is thus an important element of CSR”. The CSR index (Connolly, 2009) as mentioned earlier is study conducted by a Consulting firm “Reputation institute”, a pioneer in the field of brand and reputation management. The report states that the company aims to “allow clients to create tangible value from intangible stakeholder feelings”.

When we look and this and really think about it, the intentions of CSR is for company’s to account for the effects that have on the social and environmental at large. But company’s primary intention with CSR is to build their branding and reputation, As mentioned previously, the main reasons companies invest in CSR; Their goal maybe to take responsibility for their actions but ultimately the business is made to maximize profit and that is what it is made to do. Is this how businesses should operate? How does this influence the creativity and innovation of smaller businesses? If a company has the money to invest in CSR thus putting them highly ranked on the index, does that mean they are an ethical business? Does it make it right? It depends on how you interpret the words ethical business.

In relation to our ethical dilemma, business ethics overlaps with the philosophy of business. If a company's main purpose is to maximize the returns to its shareholders, then it should be seen as unethical for a company to consider the interests and rights of anyone else (Freidman, 1970) If company’s main purpose is to maximize returns to shareholders, then CSR can only be seen as a way for it to maximize returns for it to be ethical. As mentioned earlier company’s intentions or reasons for financing projects for CSR are Ethical Consumerism, Globalisation and market forces, Social awareness, Laws & regulations and Crises & their consequences.

Ethical Consumerism refers to the growing awareness of consumers on the environmental and social implications on the everyday items, the growing population along with the lack of resources; Company’s are aware of this growing trend which is why there is a growing need for company to change its practices to conform to the demands of the markets. Globalizations and market forces are more to do with gaining or maintaining market share, through increasing its reputation and branding through CSR. Social awareness is concerned with the pressures of it’s markets, the Non-governmental organizations in particular are taking a role in leveraging the power of the media and the Internet to increase their scrutiny and collective activism around corporate behavior which forces company’s’ to act and change. (Roux 2007) An example would be GovHK (2009) which is a government organization aimed at facilitating and enforcing CSR, some of their operations involve

Corruption prevention publication
Corporate involvement in community

Companies and organizations to join the senior citizen card scheme

Community investment and inclusion fund

Cleaner protection
Environment guide

Are businesses bound by the idea of just operating for profit?

A company should be viewed much like an education system, it is this idea of having a social structure and system that influences national level creativity, focusing more on the creation/education of knowledge, rather then focusing on what will maximize the profits. In a research paper by Robert Westwood and David R low (2003) they knowledge social structural and institutional influences on creativity and innovation, also suggesting that social structure moderates the impact of culture on creative and innovative capacity.

Apple and Microsoft for example are in a competitive market environment, their main objectives are to maximize profits thus maximize market share. With this focus in mind, as a multinational organization, it changes the mindsets of doing business and in turn affects those who are working under the organization. If the social structure is based on maximizing profits and market share, what influence will that have on the creative capacity of its employees? It really comes down to the question of whether businesses are working for the good of the people or whether the people are working for the good of the business.

A statement made by Herbig and Dunphy (1998) stated democratic societies are deemed to allow individualism, difference and freedom to flourish – all vital to creativity. Which I absolutely disagree; firstly all cultures have different perceptions and interpretations of creativity which is why I argue that it not fair to say democratic societies have the characteristics of creativity, what is creativity really?

Infinite Innovations Ltd (2009) defines it as the bringing into being of something which did not exist before, either as a product, a process or a thought. Martins & Terblanche (2003) discusses that the values, norms and beliefs that play a role in creativity and innovation on organizations can either support or inhibit creativity and innovation, depending on how they influence the behavior of individuals and group; how they influence the behavior of the groups really comes down to the culture of the people.

As mentioned before, all cultures have different perceptions and Interpretations of creativity. Individualistic societies such as the US; the prevailing customs tend towards maximising differences, confrontation and compromise. Collectivist’s societies tend towards minimising differences, preserving harmony and reinforcing group loyalty. (Herbig & Jacobs, 1998) With that in mind, collectivistic societies tend to inhibit step by step innovations to flourish, also known as evolutionary innovation in contrast to individualistic societies, there is a higher degree of acceptance in being different, and there tends to be high levels of entrepreneurs; As a result there is a higher ratio of individuals in pursuit for radical innovations and new inventions. The two cultures shows difference approaches to generating innovation and different types of innovation being produced, and but both necessitate creativity for it to be possible.

Back to the main point of the blog, whether multinationals with the large market share and power leverage should be seen as ethical business, Apple compared to Microsoft are two major companies competing in the same market but at different levels. Microsoft, being the one that is view as being on top in terms of CSR, Apple, being viewed at the creative and innovative company but not so high on the CSR. A consultant company, BSR, is a good example of a company that works with company’s’ like Microsoft. BSR (2009) is a company with a mission to work with businesses to create a just and sustainable world, through corporate responsibility. The key idea here is that they help businesses develop strategies and solutions to become more sustainable, thus by taking on board corporate social responsibility. In other words, businesses approach BSR for strategies and solutions to becoming more sustainable by fostering CSR, in turn could be creating more awareness for their brand or reputation for example.

An essay on “in what ways should ethics come into creativity?” (leaderswedeserve, 2009) hits the centre of our discussion and ethical dilemma.

Artists take as a given that art stands above conventional morality. Many scientists still cling to the rationale that the pursuit of knowledge is morally neutral. Business leaders have favored the license to consider their only responsibility is to the financial health of their organizations

The production sector of businesses rarely examines the ethical considerations of why the products are being generated. Although companies are increasing taking into consideration the social and environmental effects of the products being generated, it is driven by external factors ie “resource depletion, extravagant consumption, market demands, reputation etc” just so they can maximize profits for the business. These traditional ideas still exist in todays business models.

The ethical dilemma is that companies today do not know what the right thing to do is; there is this misconception of what companies are for. Generally people will think company’s purpose is to make profit. If we look at Marxs theory on work, if we live in a world there only we are only producing products that will make money, it will reduce rather then express the producers humanity. We can take music for example to relate it to creativity, music should not be made in terms of how much money it can generate, instead should be made to develop a musical ear to appreciate music. One of things that companies do wrong in todays society is that it reduces the many faceted and diverse natures of the human senses to only focus on profit.

A quote made by Michael Kaufman and Vic Desotelle (2002) clarifies the point of this blog. It stated “ how do we do the right thing while at the same time balance the needs of all our stakeholders (investors, employees, customers and suppliers)? What is the right thing to do?

A parody on Apple: The idea behind it was to show how marketing for example has eluded the minds of people on how they percieve the things they buy. Apple uses exactly the same hardware as any other PC's in the mrket, same manufacturers and suppliers. Only differance is the shell and software in the system. So is this a percieved innovation and creativity cming from Apple or real innovation and creativity?

Click on link below to watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgls9IwWUyU

Human nature is inter-related to human culture. Different countries have different cultures which are contributed to the human nature of their citizens. In order to better estimate the human nature and make better assumptions, we apply Geert Hofstede™ Cultural Dimensions as tools of estimation.

Our analysis is to determine the reason regarding the ethics of monopoly and market share between Microsoft and Apple, and how business is being done in terms of its purpose. Beforehand, we should first analyze some human nature, for example: the human nature of U.S. and France.

With reference to the Geert Hofstede™ Cultural Dimensions, it shown that American are most of masculinity, people with masculinity implies that there is high expectation towards men to pursue their career, and values like competitiveness, assertiveness, acquisitiveness, materialism. Therefore, if we assume people are with masculinity, those people are likely to be competative and aggressive in realistic vales sush as market share, monpoly power.

On the other hand, French are with femininity (opposite of masculinity). Those people are mostly relationship based and concern personal feeling. Therefore, if we assume people are with femininity, they are mosly caring, friendly and willingness to provide help. For example: to be more helpfulto csutomers, making products in a user friendly way.

Besides, American gets higher individualism score than French. People with high individualism score represents that there are loosen relationship between people, independent people focus on their own benefits in the most way. Therefore, if we assume people who are individual, those people are likely to be realistic and pursue personal value like their achievement and money.

While France with low individualism score represents collectivism, which means people are close together in groups. Therefore, if we assume people who are collective, those people are likely to shares their belonging. For example: provides helps to most customers need, and being customer oriented.

According to above assumptions of human nature, different assumptions would have different behaviours and thoughts. For example: realistic people are likely to pursue monetary value and achievements, which would result in different mindset regarding the ethics of monopoly and market share, like the Microsoft and Apple.

From individual to corporate aspect

Assumption of human nature would change the way to behave and their personality. This change would also be shown in corporate aspect. In this entry, we would like to analyze Apple as an example.

Assume Apple Inc. is moral or immoral company

The moral acts of a company can be contributed to the decision makers’ thought, mostly are the directors and CEO. If the decision makers are moral in nature, their behaviours can also be shown in their decision for the company. The most observable way would be the social responsibility program of the company. For a company which is moral, their social responsibility program would be more related to social and environment aspect. For example: reducing packaging, using recycle materials, provide social welfare to employees.

In the triple bottom line report of Apple Inc. , it shown that Apple Inc. has several policies which concern social and environmental impact, some of them are quite detail. For example: Apple Inc. decided to reduce the electronic port in the original package with only USB cable provided. This is to reduce materials used for port production, and therefore be environmental friendly. Therefore, if we assume human nature is moral, there will be more policies in addition to moral aspects of the company. Otherwise, if the Apple Inc. is immoral company, such practices will be reduced.

Assume Apple Inc. is amoral company

If Apple Inc is an amoral company, mostly the company would not have any caring and moral acts but just focus on the commercial aspect. That’s mean if Apple Inc. for example is an amoral company. The company would not create values in social and environmental aspects but only in their products, promotion and profit. There is a good example: Air pacific airline has less focus on society and environment (http://www.airpacific.com)

. Therefore, if we assume human nature is amoral, less or even no focus will be on the moral practices.

Assume Apple Inc. is realistic company

If Apple Inc. is realistic company, the company atmosphere would be more profit oriented, concentrated on market share and competitive. Microsoft is a good example. In order to pursue more market share and profitable strategy, Microsoft publish different version of same software in frequent period of time. For example: Window XP was published on 2005, Window Vista was published on 2007 and Window 7 was published in early 2009. These frequent changes generate effects to pursue market share, and therefore increase the profit of Microsoft. If Apple Inc. is a realistic company, Apple Inc. will have similar practices and strategies.

Business ethic is a complicated issue, its standard is various among different people. Ethical business decisions, therefore, have been supported and against. It is resulted from different ethical decision making approaches of every one. They are Utilitarian, Moral rights, Universalism, and Cost-benefit.

During ethical decision making process, people with the utilitarian approach emphasized making the greatest benefits for the maximum amount of people. (Business Ethics: Approaches to Ethical Decision Making)Taking Apple as an example, it has sold third party accessories. For instance, it allowed Nikon and Canon to sell their Mac-compatible digital cameras and camcorders inside the store. It’s an ethical decision made under the utilitarian approach. (Wikipedia: Apple.Inc)The logic is that, cooperating with third parties is good for Apple’s users’ convenience, the third parties business, and its company’s reputation. Otherwise, if Apple monopoly its business and not being partners with others. Although it might have a greater sale of products of its stores, customers, other parties, and its reputation may suffered. To achieve a greatest good for greatest amount of peoples, the Apple chose to cooperate with others.

The moral rights approach focus on moral principles without consideration of the consequences. (Business Ethics: Approaches to Ethical Decision Making)Under this approach, some ethical decision would be considered as wrong or correct. For example, if monopoly is considered as immoral. Even not being the monopolist would cause competition or bankruptcy. The Apple should certainly not monopoly and keeps adopting with others parties.

Under the universalism approach, ethical decision making is merely based on a golden rule. (Business Ethics: Approaches to Ethical Decision Making)You first decided whether a particular decision made should be apply to all people under all circumstances. Then, determined if you’re willing others apply this rules on you. To be easier understood, consider the Apple decision. You ask yourself whether it’s acceptable for you and others that the Apple monopoly to retain its market share, protect its business and gain the maximum profits for its shareholders. If your answer is agreed, then the Apple might choose to monopoly rather than adopting with others.

The cost-benefit approach concerns the leverage between the cost and benefit of taking or not taking a particular action. (Business Ethics: Approaches to Ethical Decision Making)For instance, the Apple would weigh the cost of being monopolist or not, if the cost of monopoly is greater than the benefits of cooperates. The Apply would choose being monopolist as correct decision without considering if it’s ethical or not.

Organizations

Upper level management should take initiative and start changing their mindsets of what businesses are for. They motivate employees to be creative and innovative through passion, but not motivate by producing products which help earning profit; also making products that are beneficial to the development of human kind rather then reducing the creation of products to the criteria of profit. Make sure employees in the organization understand that products should not be created in terms of how much it will make, but how much it will be appreciated.

The organization is focus on changing the idea of people working for businesses to businesses working for people. If we are only producing products that will make money, it will reduce rather then express the producers’ humanity.

Join CSR if own organization commits to operating in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner whilst balancing the interests of diverse stakeholders. Do not join it with the intention to increase company’s reputation by having good CSR index.

Government

Try to use all effective channels, like advertisements, seminars or exhibitions, to promote the concept that successful businesses do not focus on profitability only, but also the creation and knowledge establishment. It should not be the profitability guiding business decision, but the employee guide the business development with their creativity and innovative potential.

Promote and emphasize the importance of sustainability, such as cooperate with CSP, company account for the effects that have on the social and environmental at large. Do not only praise those big companies who have great financial contribution towards the business industry, but also those companies who have contributed a lot in human capital development.

Educate the public about the impact of solely focusing on profitability, gaining market share and building company goodwill is not an ethical way in doing business, not only inspire the existing business owner, but also the future and potential businessman.

Multinationals

Focus more on developing the technologies inside the borders of each of the countries rather then using the operation in various destinations as a way of maximizing profits by outsourcing and shifting production factories to areas with lower wages. Putting too much emphasis on making profit with globalization on a whole, it will not benefit the global economy, nor benefit the human capacity to grow.

Emphasize with the Head of each regional business that focusing on outsource and maximize profit, which in turn, humans are seen as a tool in terms of how much money they make which minimizes the opportunities for them to be creative. Lack of chances for them to develop does not help the organization to develop further.

United Nations

Focus projects more on the development of all nations rather then just the developed nations. Otherwise, it will only widen the gaps and create a capitalistic and exploitive (to the workers) world. The developed countries will be more and wealthier while those less developed or developing countries will suffer from it. Be responsible to protect the rights of every country, especially those small and being exploited countries.

Encourage the production sector of businesses to examine the ethical considerations of why the products are being generated, no matter in which countries and what types of business operation. This is better to be promoted globally, since everyone is unlikely to concern about the ethic aspect in production.

Reference list

Popular Mechanics (2009) Mac vs PC: bench mark and speed tests – Apple, Windows review. Retrieved at 23, November, 2009 from http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/reviews/4258725.html

Intel (2009) Intel – Mac vs PC: Evaluating your needs. Retrieved at 24, November, 2009 from http://www.intel.com/learn/practical-advice/before-you-buy/evaluate/pc-vs-mac

Hesseldahl, A(2009) Mac vs PC : what you dont get for $699. Retrieved at 24,November, 2009 from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2009/tc20090415_602968.htm

Business Ethics: Approaches to Ethical Decision Making. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19 , 2009, from www.poznaklaw.com/articles/bizethicx.htm

Wikipedia: Apple.Inc. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2, 2009, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.

Read, W.H. (1996) Managing the knowledge based organization: five principles every manager can use. Technology Analysis and Strategic management, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 223-32.

Einstien, A (N.d) The world as I see it. Retrieved at 2, December, 2009 from http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay.htm

Connolly, P(2009) BCCCC: Disney and Microsoft top CSR index. Retrieved at 11, May, 2009 from http://blogs.bcccc.net/2009/10/disney-and-microsoft-top-csr-index.htm

Gray, R.H., Owen D.L.& Maunders K.T. (1987 p. IX) Corporate Social Reporting: Accounting and accountability .Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall

Friedman, M (1970). "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits". The New York Times Magazine.Retrieved at 4th, march, 2009 from http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/dunnweb/rprnts.friedman.html.

Roux, M. (2007). "Climate conducive to corporate action: 1 All-round Country Edition". The Australian. Retrieved at 2, December 2009 from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/climate-conducive-to-corporate-action/story-e6frg6zo-1111114333354

Govhk(2009) Govhk: Corporate social responsibility. Retrieved at 11th June, 2009 from http://www.gov.hk/en/business/corporate/index.htm

Westwood, R., Low R. D (2003) The multicultural Muse: culture, creativity and innovation. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management. Vol 3, pp 235.

Herbig, P. & Dunphy, S. (1998) Culture and innovation. Cross cultural management, Vol 5, pp 13-21.

Infinite Innovations Ltd (2009) Creativity and creative thinking: combine traditional brainstorming with creative thinking techniques and you will get advanced brainstorming. Retrieved at 16, October, 2009 from http://www.brainstorming.co.uk/tutorials/creativethinking.htm

Martins, E.C., Terblanche F. (2003) Building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. European Journal of Innovation Management. Vol .6, Number .1, pp. 64-74.

Herbig, P., Jacobs, L. (1998) Culture as an explanatory variable for the Japanese innovative processes. Cross Cultural Management, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 3-28

BSR (2009) BSR: How we work. Retrieved at 11, June, 2009 from http://www.bsr.org/about/how-we-work.cfm

Leaderswedeserve(2009)In what ways should ethics come into creativity. Retrieved at 11, June, 2009 from http://leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/in-what-ways-should-ethics-come-into-creativity.htm

Kaufman, M., Desotelle, V. (2002) The link between ethics and innovation. Retrieved at 11, May, 2002 from http://discoveryfuel.com

Eco-ntemporary living: Green up your House, the modern way!

2009-11-04T07:26:00.000-08:00

Individual thinking and Inspiration

Individual thinking is a personal thought that can be developed by one’s past, surrounding environment, family, friends and personal experience. Normally, it takes long time to develop and has certain degree of subjective opinion.

Inspiration is one kind of thought, feeling, meaning brought by a person or group of person, surrounding environment, words and pictures. Sometime, inspiration comes not only from related issues, but also from personal emotion and thought.

Group process
Group process is a pool collecting rounds of outcomes from every individual thinking and inspiration. An appropriate group process can also facilitate creation, adjust different suggestions and alternatives, and solve conflict and contradiction.

Individual thinking and inspiration together with group process
Now, we would like to use the group process of our group as an example when we were discussing our second material – newspaper.

Stage 1, after the second material has been confirmed, we need to brainstorm some creative ideas by individual before our group meeting. In order to have some insight, we did different approaches to prepare. Some was going to ask their family, friend, and some was going to have some research on internet, newspaper and library. Some was using their past experience in other lessons or activities or directly brainstorming the new uses.
Stage 2, after brainstorming ideas by individuals, we would like to present and explain our ideas to teammates on the meeting.
Stage 3, we analyze the benefits and constraints from each ideas or further develop some creative ideas. For example: we all agreed that using newspaper to clean our shoes when it is a rainy day. Because it can reuse the old newspaper for environment friendly purpose and can shine our shoes. However, the constraint is that it can apply to black leather shoes.
Stage 4, we understand teammates’ point of view and integrate our stands and ideas to conclude our direction and consensus. Sometime, we need to solve conflicts and contradiction.
Stage 5, we find out all the best alternatives.

]

There is a simple group process. We can see that the whole group process is mainly to generalize different ideas and thought form individual thinking of each teammate at the beginning. Then integrate or further develop our ideas. And finally seek our consensus and find out our best alternative.

Our example implies the connection between individual thinking and inspiration and group process in our creativity journey. It shows that we can group process is a collective pool which collect our ideas to generate creativity through the group effort during the process. This can really facilitate our creativity thinking and broaden our views.

Inhibitors of creativity
Inhibitors of creativity are blocks to creativity which can interrupt individuals or groups of inspiration, brainstorming and creation. Normally, blocks to creativity can be contributed to two aspects, environmental and cultural.

Environmental blocks to creativity:
1 Physical environment
Physical environment provides space, furnishings, lighting, atmosphere, sound, odor, safety, and comforts of adequate quality. Over intrusion of physical environment by people or things will inhibit creativity. For example: How can you create your ideas when you are under -1℃environment without any protection?
2 Lack of cooperation in a group
Corporation is critical and essential to a group process of creativity. Those People who are unwilling to be considerate and adaptable will inhibit creativity process.
3 Dominant leaders
Everyone’s idea in the group should be considered fairly. Leader who are likely to dominant the whole process are not recommended in creativity process.
4 Lack of help
Resource is the starting point of creativity. A group who are under hunger, illness, and financial worries or lack of information, reference, professional support cannot ensure a creativity process will be ran in a proper way and come up with proper outcome.

Cultural blocks to creativity:
1 Fear
Fears are forms of insecurity. When an idea comes out, it must with certain benefit and risk. People who are unwilling to take any risk and are afraid of making any poor decision, are inhibitors to creativity. It is because they are unwilling to think out of the box in order to secure themselves. [1]
2 Inability to tolerate ambiguity
Creativity can always come from widely differing or incongruous ideas. Most of the time they are some ambiguous concept or idea in the beginning, those people who are unable to tolerate ambiguity may be the inhibitors to creativity because they may be unable to revise those ambiguous ideas to a new and real composition. [1]
3 Judgment rather than generation of ideas
People are likely to ensure their answer for security. Some people can even judge and analyze this idea or concept in an early stage of creativity process. This kind of action will inhibit generation of creativity because those new ideas and concept are retained by judgment before they are properly developed. [1]
4 Lack of motivation
People who are lack of motivation may not be enthusiastic in generation of ideas or joining in group discussion. This must inhibit creativity because the generator is less motivated in generation of creativity. [1]

Enablers of creativity

Enablers of creativity are the facilitation to creativity which facilitates groups of inspiration, brainstorming and creation. Normally, what enablers of creativity are likely to do can be divided in preparation and group organization.

Preparation:
1 Physical environment
Proper and comfort environment should be provided which facilitate the process of creation by reducing insecurity and unsafe feeling. [1]
2 Resource
Resource is the starting point of creativity. Sufficient resource should be prepared before the process, such as tools, facilities, space, information, technical help and professional assistant. [1]
3 Psychological preparation
Good psychological preparation can reduce the possibility of fails. Risk taking, problem solving, open and adaptive mind are required in the process of creativity. People with proper psychological preparation in it can reduce the feelings of fear, unsafe, and ambiguity. [1]

Group organization:
1 Cooperation in group
Cooperation is one critical element of teamwork. Proper cooperation can facilitate both efficiency and effectiveness of the process, and diversify the ideas in a wide and comprehensive way. [1]
2 Leadership and motivation
Each member in a team or group is the leader of the progress. All members have their right to present their ideas and analyze the process of creativity. Also, motivation is the responsibility of everyone, people who are not only required to motivate themselves, but also the whole group so as to maintain the team spirit and enthusiasm during the process. [1]

Management of creativity process
To capitalize the individual and group process and to reduce enablers, we have ideas in resource management and team management
Resource management
More resource can be provided, collected and distributed by the government or specific organization which facilitate the distribution of resource and allow people who are lack of resource can get proper assistance and help. Also, it gives a way for different organization and enterprise to provide help and resource.
Team management
The roles of team leader should be defined properly so as to avoid unbalance authority distribution and dominant leaders. Also, In order to develop a cooperative team, communication, team building and cultural workshops are suggested to be provided before a team is formed. This can facilitate the cooperation of the team and develop each member with an adaptive and self-motivated mind. Proper risk taking skills and problem solving skills can be obtained as well.

As our title mentioned, Green up your House. In the following part, we are going to introduce some reading inspired us for the “Creative Green House” ideas.

Action is louder than words -

What we are doing…Inspiring x Realizing x Reapplying
Practical way to inspire Creativity
Have you even considered how to inspire your creativity in a more practical way? There’s a pleasant idea you can found in the article titled “Keeping a Painting Creativity Journal” by Marion Boddy-evans [2] As the title mentioned, that practical way is keeping a painting creativity journal. You can experience several advantages by having a creativity journal.

It enable you to well organizing your ideas, inspiration and whatever new you come up with, keeping track on how your ideas expanding and developing as well as refreshing your brain. Additionally, you can always record your ideas immediately which you can make use of them whenever you need them. We recorded our creative ideas on this blog which is a tool that generate our inspiration and ideas in one spot.

We do hope that it can be one of the ways to inspire you, like how it inspires us on the idea of “Green House”. It inspired us because, it was because of that article a member of the project team referred back to his old art book and it helped him come up with the projects proposed idea, it can be said as a spark of inspiration.

Realization on Creativity
Creativity is not something that born with somebody, we can be either trained to unleash it or taught to repress it. As said by Jonathan Halls [3] of the article of “creativity: What is it?”It is the process of coming up with original ideas and putting them into action which consists of dreaming up ideas, selecting best idea and foremost making idea to be realistic.

For instance, if you have a fantastic idea for a drama, it will never to be true unless someone work for it. Got it? As what we have done on the Green up your House journey. After having the idea that household can make the world greener, we try to make our novel idea become reality. The products newspaper and plastic spoons are often used and thrown away but in reality, with a little creativity, they can be used for other purposes other than rubbish.

Reapplication of creativity
When we are talking about the reapplication, we are concerning on distancing ourselves from our used way of thinking. As Jonathan Hall [4] describes it, it’s being able to “submerge yourself beneath the surface of an accepted idea or practice and evaluate the very values on which that idea or practice is based”. It is not an easy thing to do, it opens up our possibilities.

The result of reapplying can be powerful which transforms an accepted idea into loads of new ideas. We used to believe that spoons are just a tool, a piece of cutlery used for eating, and newspapers are for reading the news. In order to open up possibilities through reapplying, we decided to reframe our perception on them and thought about reapplying them for other uses in a way that could change the mindsets of others.

We wanted to make something that will tell the audience that something that looks useless can be transformed into something that is contemporary and useful, it could be seen as more of a sculpture. Our idea of using the spoons to make a bowl will show that with a little creativity, saving the environment can be also be part of contemporary living.

The motif/theme is ‘Eco-temporary living’
As mentioned, the materials we used are newspaper and plastic spoons. Our group arrived at this motif because we thought that the two materials are things that we commonly waste without thinking. Newspaper and plastic spoon are popular items which could be easily be found around us whether it’s at home or at the school canteen, but people seldom pay attention to them.

People only used it once and never recycle or reuse it. For example the free newspaper in Hong Kong, people only read it once and will throw it away immediately. The plastic spoon used after BBQ or birthday party will be discarded after celebration. Our key motivator was watching everyone at our university canteen using the plastic cutleries and throwing them away after, this happens all the time and no one notices how many plastic cutleries is discarded.

This made us think about it’s effects on the environmental and how much of an impact it would have on the future of our world if everyone continued this way. Therefore, our group was inspired to act on this problem, we had to find a way to inspire people on how something so useless can be transformed into something useful or beautiful. Newspaper can have multiple uses which we usually ignore in our daily life, we wanted to surprise the audience with the number of uses newspaper can have other then reading, and plastic spoons is our initial weapon to convince and persuade the audience of how creativity can turn something so useless to something that can be seen as a contemporary object that can be used in the household.

In this way, the behaviors of the audience can change and become more sensitive to the things they use around them. With creativity, our everyday life could be full of eco-temporary ideas. Therefore, our theme is ‘Eco-temporary living’. This derived from the idea of trying to make living environmental friendly is a modern way of living, and it was also a way of making people think forward and how we should be living, contemporary and clean/green.

Metaphor: Greedy
Implication of ‘greedy’
1. Greedy = green daily. The word ‘Greedy’ can be viewed as the combination of the words ‘green’ and ‘daily’. It fits and represents our theme ‘everyday household green’. It implies green and environment ideas can permeate into our daily life. With creativity, we can use newspaper in multiple usages and turn plastic spoons into other usable objects. Since they are daily re-usable items which people always waste, we can in fact turn them into environmental friendly items.

2. The greedy nature of human being also represents our thinking process. General public and household are greedy because they use disposable items for the seek of convenience. They collect free newspaper just because they do not have to pay, even they will only read it briefly or even they have bought one. The greediness is shown in the increasing wastage of newspaper and disposable items which inspired our group to act.

3. One important thinking process of our group is we want to achieve a balance in our life, convenience and environmentally friendly. Some may say we are ‘greedy’ because convenience is somehow contradicted with environmentally friendly. It is quite difficult to maintain a balance between two. That is why we try to think other possibilities of the newspaper usage and create other objects with spoons.

Objects and ideas forgo
Our group forgoes the idea of using plastic spoons as accessories. At the beginning when we were brainstorming what can be created by using plastic spoon, we tried to connect it with modern fashion as more and more fashion brand has a serious collection of plastic accessories. However, we did not turn it into real projects because accessory is not a kind of household item, while the others projects that we created is in the household item category. Moreover, as people usually expect accessories to be eye-catching, fashionable and beautiful. If we make use of plastic spoon, we have to add additional decoration on it, like coating and coloring. Thus we think that it is not worth to create accessories by using plastic spoon.

Another project not chosen is using the straw rather than plastic spoon. We once have the idea of using straw because it is also a common household item which people never re-use it. However, we quickly reach to conclusion that using plastic spoon is more preferable. It was because straw is somehow too soft and easily be bent so it is not convenience for creating creative items. Moreover, our group did research on internet in our brainstorm stage. There are some similar creative objects that are created by plastic spoon. We are really inspired by those ideas and so we finally give up using straw.

References:

[1] Delahunt, M(2009) Blocks to creativity. Retrieved at 23, October, 2009 from http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/Bj.html#anchor38696058

[2] Boddy-Evans, M(2009)Keeping a painting journal: what should you put in a creativity journal and why should you make one?. Retrieved at 2, Nov, 2009 at http://painting.about.com/cs/inspiration/a/paintingjournal.htm

[3] Halls, J(2009) Creativity: what is it?. Retrieved at 23, October 2009 from http://www.icecreativity.com/Creativity-WhatIsIt.htm

[4] Halls, J(2009) Creativity as reapplication. Retrieved at 24, October 2009 from http://www.icecreativity.com/CreativityAsReapplication.htm

2009-10-03T07:57:00.001-07:00

One apple a day, CI comes with play

The founder and chief executive officer of Apple Inc, Steven Paul Jobs, always says:

“I skate to where the c is going to be, not where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will."

He believes creativity and innovation comes with being first, and being first always. People play with apple products, and they will chat, exchange ideas and finally come up with creative and innovative ideas.

That’s what we believe, One apple a day, CI comes with play

Globalization process and Apple Inc

Globalisation as an idea refers to “both the compression of the world and intensification of conscious of the world as a whole” (1)

To generalise the term globalisation, some have describe it as “Trend away from distinct national economic units and toward one huge global market.” (2), in other words an increasing acceleration in global interdependence between countries. The term globalisation is specifically used in terms of economic globalisation to describe the integration between countries in terms of it’s trade, capital flows, migrations etc. (3) Drivers of globalisation are a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural, political and biological factors (4)

A lot of have been said about the negatives affects of globalization; for example, how it is standardizing the worlds cultures. How are cultures affected by globalization? How does it affect business doing business overseas? Do they adapt to the cultural environment? Or do they use what works at home?

An author, Tyler Cowen (5) discussed globalization and culture in his article submitted to cato policy report. He brought up a number of points which support globalization's effects on culture. A lot of critics of globalization have said its changing the worlds culture through standardization, and also running thresholds over the worlds distinctive cultures and turning the world into one big tawdry strip mall. (5) Tyler argues that globalization has made the world a more creative culture, it has given different countries and different regions more diversity in choice. People are given more choices in relation to food, music, products, entertainment, etc.

Creativity is part of the innovation process, in a way that without creativity, innovation wouldn’t happen. “Innovation is the practical application of creative ideas” (6) which is why Apple Inc has done so successfully in terms of innovation, because it was able to create an environment in which has the capacity to create new ideas.

The culture of the organization plays a major role in inheriting creativity. A study done by (Hwang, 1982) suggests that “Chinese people see and interpret things in terms of wholes and context, which contrasts with an anglo-american tendancy to fragment, decompose, and de-contexturalize; studys have indicated that holistic cognitive style is more likely to inherit creativity only because of the way they perceive the world around them and interpret them. “

Apple inc is one of the most reputable company's for fostering excellence and individuality in it’s employees. To identify and recognise the best of its employees, they created an Apple fellows program for those who have excellence in technical or leadership contributions/skills to the company. Steve Jobs became CEO of Apple Inc again in 1997, he was quoted by Wayne Grinsky “Jobs has always aspired to position Apple and its products at the forefront of the information technology industry by foreseeing and setting trends, at least in terms of innovation and style” (8).

Jobs revolutionalise the way Apple Inc did business, he turned the business from a tall heiarachy structure to a flat structure; he created a business from something that seemed like a machine to something that is more organic and cultured; this is one of the major reasons for Apples success in inheriting creativity and innovation. Culture is a major factor in impacting the perception and interpretation of creative and innovative processes. “all people have a capacity to be creative, but whether and/or how this is actualised depends on the presense of facilitating cultural values and institutional practices” (5)

Globalization process of Apple Inc can be expressed in two ways, horizontally and vertically.

At the beginning years of Apple Inc, it was called Apple Computer Inc. This name specifies their production and technology, which is mainly focusing on desktop computer and OS system.

However, technology is fast changing and fast moving. The Apple Inc noticed that desktop computer and OS system is not enough. The company would like to diversify their business in more computing aspects. Therefore, the first portable Mac computer was born.

With years of development and business diversification, Apple Company diversifies their business into entertainment, mobile phone, television, computer and server service. That’s the whole horizontal line of globalization for Apple Company.

Apple Inc originated in America. When it comes to a multinational company, Apple Inc is moving their production line to different countries. For example: China and Europe. From now on, Apple Inc has over thousands Apple stores to sell their products, even in Hong Kong there are 38 Apple stores and reseller stores selling Apple products. Also, most countries have their own reseller department, service and support department and repair department. Online Apple store is available to provide technical support and product service as well. All of this constructs the whole vertical of globalization for Apple Inc.

The big picture of globalization process for Apple Inc:

Creativity and Apple Inc

Mac book is one of best selling products in Apple Inc. It has powerful graphics processing technology which can be used in multimedia design and 3D processing. Also, it has large hard drive which provides plenty of space for users to store music, photos, videos, and more. Together with specific software for photographic design and multimedia software like the latest iLife ’09 and Mac OS X Leopard, which allow users to create as much as memorable and innovative pictures they like.

iPhone is intelligent multifunctional mobile phone which can allow internet access, GPRS application , portable entertainment and phone call. It is a powerful phone with thousands of software which can assist people daily life, provide entertainment and enhance the communication and information exchange.

With reference to the website David Pringle who is a Journalist and Mobile Industry Expert, he stated that innovative ideas and creative mind come from information exchange, this phenomenon is especially relevant in the 21st century. People exchange information and give inspiring messages and pictures through their digital devices, especially Mac book and iPhone, which allow people to exchange their ideas, create inspiring photos and pictures and share with everyone in everywhere they like. This can create a positive impact on creativity and innovation.

Culture and Apple Inc

The trend of iPhone in Hong Kong

With reference to the 3HK, there are over 100,000 Hong Kong citizen using iPhone. And there are many websites and forums created for iPhone users to share their experience, capability analysis and applications.

These forums and websites create a specific space for iPhone users to program or share some applications dedicated for Hong Kong users. For example: Hong Kong MTR Ride, Hong Kong Minibus guide and Hong Kong weather report and Open rice. This becomes a trend for people to use iPhone to assist their life, get more entertainment in their leisure time.

International Landscape

Apple’s products are globalized all over the world. No matter you are in Africa, Asia or Europe. You can still pick your own Mac, iPhone or iPod in the following countries you like.

Creativity, innovation and globalization

The following reading can help clarifying and analyzing the impact between creativity, innovation and globalization.

Creativity and innovation - Five impacts from globalization

The article that we read is titled “Creativity and innovation - Five impacts from globalization.” We do agree that the argument of the author that globalization forces faster innovation.

Under globalization, smart companies realize they gain more resources and opportunities than before. They try to make use of their new resources and opportunities in different and efficient ways through the process of creation and innovation. For example: using some outsourced programmers around the world to process the company in 24-hours a day, which is never been thought of before.

Besides, greater flexibility of resources enables companies to produce globally but not limited to the same place. For example: products can be developed in U.S, manufactured in China and marketed in Japan.

Also, innovation becomes the key factors of being outstanding in competitive situation. By generating innovative ideas, brainstorming is happening all over the world. An idea in one country can be extended to other countries. Other countries may tweak the same idea to enable it in their countries. People in any corner of the world are brainstorming.

http://cuberules.com/2007/01/05/creativity-and-innovation-five-impacts-from-globalization

Cooking up some innovation

This article is talking about the ways to search innovation and creativity.

The author would like to search a place which is perfect for innovation. And he finally chose a totally unexpected place - the kitchen.

For the reason that those stuff happening in the kitchen is similar to the innovation. Both of them have experimentation with different ingredients, flavorings and cooking styles and make use of them to create somewhat differently. Moreover, as the kitchen is a place much less formal than a sitting room with foods and drinks, it invites people to join. The author thought that is the place that encourages people to mill around and chatting with others. It can be enhance the exchange of ideas.

We choose this reading because we admire the author’s way of thinking which is really creative and innovative. We like the idea of using kitchen as a working place, and it shows that creativity and innovation is highly related to the peoples’ pattern of thought, if they think in a different way, the outcomes will be different.

http://www.business-strategy-innovation.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

Culture of innovation and creativity

This article is about the culture of innovation and creativity. In this article we do agree with the author who conceives innovation as an essential part for future success in people life and for work in 21st century. Globalization is creating a small world where highly-educated people are common, technology and ways of doing things can be copied in any way to everywhere of the world. However, some things inside our brain would never be copied, which are creativity and innovation.

The author quotes the remark of the Stanford professor Richard Sutton that “weird” ideas work because they provide three key things:

Increase in organization’s knowledge enables people to see old problems in new ways, and find additional opportunity to break from the past. Therefore, more opportunities should be provided for students to involve and practice complex and deep thinking.

We agree with his point of view, as students studying in creativity and innovation courses, we know our creativity and innovation can only be expressed and developed through experimentation. During the process of creating, we try to see things in new ways, to leave the old method in the past, and to broaden our knowledge in order to create new ideas. It is useful, this is the way that new things being created.

http://ali.apple.com/acot2/innovation/

Suggestions to improve innovation and creativity

Government:

- Reduce restrictions and simplify the regulations for company or citizen to introduce new products and ideas to the community.

- Encourage and reward valuable innovation activities for all people who are living and working locally, irrespective to their nationality, for example giving annual best innovation awards to few companies and citizens who did significant contribution in this aspect among the whole community.

- Employ more civil servants with creativity so that government can act like an originator to motivate the community to be creative too.

- Do more promotion in showing the government emphasizes on innovation and creativity, such as regular and successive advertisement on newspaper and television.

Organizations:

- Be more open-minded to listen and accept any new ideas from all the staffs, doesn’t matter which positions they are in.

- Encourage the workers to take the initiatives to suggest any new or creative ideas if they have any by letting them know that their own organization do value a lot on innovative ideas.

- Always tell the staff why their new ideas and suggestions were rejected if this is the case, don’t ban their ideas without telling them the reasons behind it.

- Hold workshops or seminars which are related to innovation and creativity so that staffs can be helped to get more insights and develop their talents.

- Diversify the background of different employees by employing more foreigners or oversea workers so it helps to enhance the interaction between workers

Multinationals:

- Be more flexible in company’s regulations, make necessary adjustments if possible in order to adapt to various local culture and enhance creativity.

- Given the condition that organization’s daily operation is not affected, apply job rotation if possible so that employees can do different kind of works to stimulate their creative and innovative possibilies.

- Invite outsiders to give speeches or seminars to internal staff which the guests and employees should have different in backgrounds, such as nationality and life experience. In this way employees can learn more and be inspired by different things.

Source:

(1)http://www.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=eVMmonrrZDkC&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=globalization&ots=KV7m3U6jtg&sig=tcMYt290G454Qz8sWyTJ_Zavg1c#v=onepage&q=&f=false
(2)http://www.google.com.hk/url?&q=http://enbv.narod.ru/text/Econom/ib/str/261.html&ei=Sj7ASqKJG8bUkAW6_dBW&sa=X&oi=define&ct=&cd=1&usg=AFQjCNHuaai8enjsxE35mNUfA90QsoL2Yw
(3) Bhagwati, Jagdish (2004). In Defense of Globalization. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
(4) Sheila L. Croucher. Globalization and Belonging: The Politics of Identity in a Changing World. Rowman & Littlefield. (2004). p.10
(5) Cowen, Tyler (2003) Globalisation and culture. Cato Policy Report. P.8
(6) Westwood, R., Low R. D (2003) The multicultural muse: culture, creativity and innovation. International journal of cross cultural management, 3, p. 235
(7) Hwang, C.H.(1982)”Studies in chinese personality: A critical review” Bulletin of educational
(8) http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/library/applekeynote.html

(9) http://www.apple.com/hk

(10)http://store.apple.com/hk/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook?afid=p202%7COVHKE&cid=AOS-AP-HK-YAHOO-AA60000078666

(11) http://www.mobileinnovation.org/

(12)http://www.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=eVMmonrrZDkC&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=globalization&ots=KV7m3U6jtg&sig=tcMYt290G454Qz8sWyTJ_Zavg1c#v=onepage&q=&f=false

(13)http://www.google.com.hk/url?&q=http://enbv.narod.ru/text/Econom/ib/str/261.html&ei=Sj7ASqKJG8bUkAW6_dBW&sa=X&oi=define&ct=&cd=1&usg=AFQjCNHuaai8enjsxE35mNUfA90QsoL2Yw

The beginnings of i.SEE "introduction and review"

2009-09-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

i.SEE ?
We are a group of 5 like minded individuals with a particular purpose, to explore and understand the concept of creativity and innovation through observation, research, and experience. We are known as “i.SEE” which originates from the idea of vision and revelation, 'Vision' refers to our perception of the world around us through our senses, and 'revelation' is how we interpret the perceptions in our mind to create “creative ideas”. The letters in our group name describes our motivation behind this blog, which is to “Inspire, Stimulate, Explore and educate”. Our purpose is to research, develop and explore the idea of creativity and innovation in a way that it will draw ideologies from all departments (e.g. Psychology, science, business, statistics, sociology, religion, culture etc)

Who are we?

Steven Ngov

Steven Ngov was born in 1987 as a New Zealand born Chinese, and his family was originally from Guangzhou of China. His spoken language is English, Cantonese and Mandarin. He is currently undertaking his final year of his Bachelors degree from Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand and is currently on an international exchange at City University of Hong Kong majoring in Management and International Business. His interest in creativity and innovation is mainly due to his previous experiences in design and art, this is why he decided to pursue a career which involves this kind of work. Steven is a very hard working individual who strives to challenge both sides of his brain, this is important when it comes to exploring the idea of creativity, as creativity can be describe from both ends.

Chong Siu Ling (Shirley)

Shirley is currently living and studying in Hong Kong, a student of City University of Hong Kong majoring in Human Resource Management. Her reason for undertaking this blog is her profound interest in creativity, and how a peerson can be creative. She personally wants to develop her creative skills and capabilities specifically for the use in the business world. She believes creativity plays a vital role in leading an organisation to success, particularly in this time in age; innovation is a must. Her way of thinking will become vital to the group. She will not only be important to look at the application of creativity but also how business or individuals will inherit creativity.

Valdimir Shestopalov

Valdimir was born on the 5th of June, 1989 in Moscow, Russia. He finished his school education in 2006 and decided to study abroad. After finishing his Business, Management & Economics Foundation Year at Surrey University, Guildford, United Kingdom, He felt that he was very interested in a Business career, so he decided to continue his education in the field of Management. When his tutors told him about the opportunity to study in a completely different environment and to join the Exchange programme he got really interested in the opportunity, and he decided to choose Hong Kong, the leading business centre in Asia. He is now currently studying in City University of HK, He believes this will broaden his knowledge about the Asian Business model, and will have the opportunity to study interesting subjects. Creativity and Innovation was his first choice, because he believed that it will help him with his future career at his fathers company (His Company is one of the main suppliers of Lenovo Computers in Middle Asia

Chan Pui Yee (Gelfa)

Gelfa is currently in her second year of study at City University of Hong Kong. She is majoring in Human Resource Management. Her interest in creativity and innovation originates from wanting to know how to manage people in a way that will encourage creative ideas. She believes her experience in HRM will play a part in this blog in terms of the psychology of the workforces and what measures or tools are to be used. She is particularly interested in the application of tools, policies, culture, managerial styles, environment etc that will help a business foster creativity and innovation

Chan Yan (Eugene)

Eugene is currently in his second year of study majoring in Human Resource Management. He is a bright and enthusiastic individual who will be able to bring upon new and fresh ideas to the team. He will be the teams’ source of inspiration and enlightment. He is particularly interested in the current trends and styles both in business and in society. His contemporary style of thinking will be vital to the team, it will help the team explore ideas outside the box. His thoughts and feelings about the subject on creativity, he believes are part of his reason to participate in this blog, and to inspire others by the sharing of information.

Blog to review

The blog we have chosen to review this week is by John Gaynard, his blog is solely based on exploring the idea of creativity and innovation. He is particularly interested in psychometrics, international innovation (industrial and social), knowledge management, creativity, coaching and leadership development.

Click on the link below to visit his website

http://johngaynardcreativity.blogspot.com/

Authorship
The author of this blog as mentioned before is John Gaynard, he is a French professor currently teaching a master's program for Technological Innovation and Project Management. In addition, he is also known as an Associate Lecturer, Coach and an Innovative Consultant. The purpose of his blog is based upon his interests as mentioned above. He aims to learn more about the phenomenon of creativity, what is it, how does it appears, and what affects the persons ability co create something new, something innovative.

The reason we chose to review John Gaynards blog is due to his vast range of subjects he covers and the articulation of his articles, we thought his background, experience and profession gave him authorisation to write on this complex topic.

Viewership
Gaynards’ blog was originally created for his students that was studying his course “Creativity, innovation and change”. But now has evolved, and now is more of a space for him to share his ideas and opinions. In addition, it provides us with a number of articles about creativity with his views on them. His opinions and views are enriched with information cited from books and articles on creativity. There are a number of stand points he argues from depending on the subject matter, for example; he would sometimes look at innovation and creativity from a managerial perspective, or information managements perspective, his views are rarely biased, This is why his articles are so articulate. The target audience would most likely be professionals, students or anyone interested in his field of discussion.

Merits
Gaynards’ website started from a simple purpose which was to inform and educate his students, and has now become a library of information about creativity and innovation. It enriches us with large range of subjects that cover his views on creativity and innovation, from looking at the cognition behind creativity to sustainable developments for businesses. It is not simply his opinions and views, but also collaboration with other researcher’s ideas and theories which he cites to back up his ideas. In addition to this, he also provides references such as websites in which his viewers can visit for further information. This is important for those who are researchers or professionals in the field. The most important factor that contributes to the success of this blog is most likely the frequent updates by John Gaynard, it takes into consideration the most up to date research being done by other researches and also current business and social issues.

Discussion
Creativity and Innovation can be described in differant ways, generally creativity can define as the ability to create, or using imagination to generate ideas, images or solutions. Innovation on the other hand is decribed as a process of turning the creative ideas into something useful, or turning it into a new product, process, or new way of thinking.

In one of John Gaynards posts on "do all problems need to find a solution". It mainly discusses the remarks from the world champion of “systems thinking” Russel Ackoff. He clearly states his points and opinions on his ideals and says it is mainly based on the patterns of thoughts. There is a quote by Ackoff from Einstein “Without changing our pattern of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current patterns of though”. Even though its been said centuries ago, it is still valid in our modern day and also a great reminder of how our mind works. People are use to thinking in a pattern of thought, which is why when a problem comes up, the only thought that comes to mind is based on pattern. This is why when a problem arises, it is almost never a solution to the problem. Ackoff mentioned that we can do one of three things when a problem arises “solve it, resolve it, or resolve it”.

John Gaynards is personally enhancing, in sense that it allows us to realise our perception of problems and allows us to make the suitable adjustments on it and identify the patterns of thought, the article calls this “assumption surfacing”. This is one of the many inspiring articles by Gaynard, we do not hesitate in recommending this to people who are interested in this topic area.

Suggested improvements
The only suggested improvement for the website would be more diagrams, images, videos, or other methods to communicate his ideas rather then just through text. '

Below are some suggested readings we thought was really useful but did not choose to analyse.

http://creativityandinnovation.blogspot.com/
The blog features a lot of collective experiences, best practices and insights on Creativity and Innovation in Business from the top 50 innovative companies, as well as questions and answers on generating, managing and growing Creativity & Innovation through proven processes. The blog is worth reading, as some of the ideas, success stories and case studies on Innovators creating new and disruptive innovations are really inspiring.

http://ideaflow.corante.com/
The blog by Gwen Smith Ishmael, Sr. Vice President of Insights and Innovation at Decision Analyst in Arlington, Texas. Her articles on Innovation and Creativity can be well trusted, as her beign a well recognised analyst from Corante - "a trusted, unbiased source on technology, business, law, science, and culture that's authored by leading commentators and thinkers in their respective fields."

http://keithsawyer.wordpress.com/
This blog is introduced by Keith Sawyer, a scientist who studies creativity. This blog consists of some interesting scientific researches. At the same time the information in the blog allows you to learn about where creativity is happening, whether in business, culture, or technology.

http://www.creative4business.co.uk/blog/
This blog is part of the creative4business website (http://www.creative4business.co.uk/) Derek Cheshire, principal and founder set up creative4business to promote the use of Creativity as a business tool and to demystify Innovation processes. The blog contains some of his thoughts, introduces some interesting articles shared by the author, links and videos.

Closing Statement
i.SEE really do appreciate all the comments posted, and for spending the time and effort to provide us with valuable information which we can work towards to do better.

A lot of the comments identified an issue with not picking a specific blog by John Gaynard, which is why we have decided to make an addition to our post under the “discussion” section. We made our own analysis on one of johns posts and decided it was a valuable experience in a way that, it gave us an insight on what John Gaynards style of writing was, and where we stood in terms of his postion on creativity and innovation. Again, we want to thank everyone for their sincere comments and critiques.

**Comments and questions are most welcome, with kind regards

i.SEE (2009)