Business Monitor Creating an
Originality, creativity, and new ideas are the lifeblood of businesses, especially small growing businesses. Marketing expert Paul Clapham explains further.
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business that isnʼt consciously looking for fresh new ways to do things.
his is especially true in every sector of the marketing world. Woe betide any marketing
But how do you go about fostering a higher level of creative thinking? You can hardly walk in on a Monday morning and say: “OK, folks from now on weʼre all going to be more creative.” It would invite well-deserved derision, although I have heard of directors doing something similar. Hereʼs a quote from the late, great Steve Jobs: “Ideas donʼt happen in the boardroom. They happen in corridors.” That neatly encapsulates the most important aspects of getting creative ideas from your people: creativity is everybodyʼs job, indeed it is just as likely to come from the delivery driver as it is from the MD.
Encourage idea generation To help your business innovate, start by creating a culture in which all employees are actively encouraged to put ideas forward. But how do you get the best from people and encourage them to be at their most creative?
In particular how do you convince everyone that the seemingly insignificant detail that they have noticed – and nobody else has – could be key to boosting sales, margin or profitability. Most people are very diffident about their ideas: ʻOh, the boss wonʼt be interested in thatʼ; ʻI donʼt dare – Iʼll look sillyʼ; ʻIʼm just not creative, Iʼm a practical personʼ. Stress the importance of creativity. Ensure all your staff know that you want to hear their ideas. Unless they understand how innovating your business processes can keep your firm competitive, your efforts at encouraging creative thinking risk falling flat.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
Take the case of the above practical person. He needs to know that creativity isnʼt just about design and clever slogans. It includes the whole business process. One practical tweak to how you operate could do more for margin or profit than any pretty idea.
Brainstorm ideas
Make time for brainstorming. Allocate time for new ideas to emerge. A team involved in a brainstorming session is likely to be more effective than the sum of its parts. Individuals within the team can feed off each other – exploring, testing and refining ideas. You should also give individuals the space to reflect privately on their work if you think they need that. Actively solicit ideas but dump the suggestion box. Many people struggle to express a new idea in writing. They are also aware that that they donʼt know the full ramifications of their suggestion. So they donʼt put it forward. Solving that problem is central to this article. Train yourself and staff in innovation techniques. You and your staff may be able to bounce an idea around, but be unfamiliar with the skills involved in creative problem solving. You may find training sessions in formal techniques such as brainstorming, lateral thinking and mind-mapping worthwhile. Talk to the local college(s) and see whatʼs available. I suggest this is training for the MD to start with.
Cross-fertilise. Broadening peopleʼs experiences can be a great way to spark ideas. Short-term job swaps and shadowing in-house can introduce a fresh perspective to roles. Encourage people to look at how other businesses do things, not least those in other sectors, and consider how they can be adapted or improved.
Challenge the way staff work. Encourage employees to keep looking at the way they approach their work. Ask people whether they have considered alternative ways of working and what might be achieved by doing things differently.
Be supportive. Respond enthusiastically to all ideas and never make someone offering an idea, however hopeless, feel foolish. Give even the most apparently outlandish of ideas a chance to be aired.
Reward your staff’s creativity Reward creativity. Someone who comes up with a successful idea should personally gain from it in proportion to its value. I suggest that these rewards should be tangible rather than financial, e.g. lottery entries, two cinema tickets, annual membership of a sports club and upwards. If someone comes up with a real game-breaker that promises big profits, he/she should have a share. Act on ideas. Creative thinking is only worthwhile if it results in action. Provide the time and resources to develop and implement those ideas worth acting upon. Failure to do so not only means your company will fail to benefit from innovation, and the flow of ideas may well dry up if staff feel the process is pointless.
Ask your suppliersʼ reps about clever ideas they have seen used elsewhere. If they are doing their jobs really well, they should be telling you this stuff anyway, but ho hum. Equally, are other reps coming to you with creative ideas? If not, how do they justify half an hour of your time?
Ask your clients, too. Whatʼs the most creative idea theyʼve seen implemented recently? Could that be applied to printwear? Good clients like to help good suppliers.
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