“Innovate or die.” This is a mandate taken seriously by farsighted business managers.
A business exists for as long as it satisfies customers while making profit. The entrepreneur must keep searching for new and better products and services to offer in the market in order to survive. In this age of technology, more products are available in the market. Look at coffee, juices and soaps; how many brands and types and variants are there?
Most “new” products are merely imitations of previous ones. But you cannot be just a copy-cat for long. You must generate and develop your own ideas.
To practice being creative, here are some techniques:
Attribute listing – Examine a screwdriver; try taking it apart and replacing it with other attachments.
Forced relationship – In designing office furniture, instead of a table, a bookshelf or a filing cabinet, why not combine two or three uses and come up with a table that can also be a filing cabinet? A creative entrepreneur has lately come up with a toilet bowl with a built-in faucet on top (wash your hands and the water trickles into the water closet which can later be used for flashing).
Morphological analysis – Think of getting something from one place to another by use of a powered vehicle. Think of ways to move a new delivery of appliances from the gate to your house. Think of the platform that you will use, the medium (air, water, oil, rails) and the power source.
Reverse assumption analysis – Instead of assuming that toys are only for children, reverse the assumption. Virtual pets from Japan did that and provided the elderly with company.
New contexts – Instead of asking guests to sign up at the hotel lobby, guests can be brought to their rooms by a guest relation officer without having to go through the front desk.
Mind mapping – Think of products which when combined can become a new product. Here are successful examples of such combinations: gas station + food = gas station stores; internet + cafeteria = cyber cafes; transistor radio + emergency light = a multi-function gadget very handy to have around during power brownouts.
Photo: From tbno.gstatic.com
