The Hindu Business Line : Creativity is in everybody

CREATIVITY is a universal concept. Everybody is creative — all we have to do is remove barriers of fear, criticism and familiarity in everything we do. Creativity applies to all domains.

In industrial environments, from new product development, capital management, organisational culture, operation, organisational structure, marketing, sales, intrapreneurship, entrepreneurship, government agencies and so on think-tanks are needed to improve the lifestyle of humankind. Albert Einstein told the world, "The most important thing is to not stop questioning."

Creativity and innovation are often connected with terminologies such as intangible, unscientific, non-useable, undefined, mysterious, enigmatic, etc. These terminologies are in use because creativity and innovation are believed to be the domain of only a few people. The society at large does not want to take risk — creativity and innovation are considered the business of strange, recluse individuals.

One of the intriguing questions is why India failed to create an industrial revolution. The answer is that the architects and planners of this nation did not trust private entrepreneurs who have the strength and might to practise innovation, to do things differently, to imagine, to try out new ways — somehow the government saw to it that they take the backseat. The government made the state the entrepreneur. State entrepreneurship stuck to monotony, autocratic thinking, reservations, and leisure in working style. Not surprisingly, they failed and India is still paying a huge price for their follies. After 58 years of Independence, the industrial revolution continues to elude us.

But there has been a sudden spurt in the service sector since the late 1980s. Creative brains are succeeding in the knowledge economy. In the wake of the new millennium, the BPO bug has bitten us. A McKinsey study projects that this will grow to a million jobs, earning $50 billion in revenue by 2010.

These entrepreneurial miracles are a showcase of creativity and innovation for post-reform India. The new millionaires did not inherit wealth. They have risen through creativity, talent, hard work and innovative skills. The old business houses are struggling to sustain the competitive economy created by reforms.

The Indian entrepreneurs are left free in the globe. Their suppressed energies have been let out and, therefore, their creativity and energies are surging in new directions like never before. This scenario is changing the national mindset, especially among the young because of the revolution in communication. This change proves the need and demand for creativity and innovation. Where people see problems, entrepreneurs see possibilities. Mr Sabeer Bhatia, Mr Sunil Mittal of Bharati Telecom, Mr Srinija Srinivasan of Yahoo mail, Mr Harsh Mariwala of Merico and Mr Ranganathan of Cavin Care have realised the two most important features of marketing — branding and competitive differentiation.

The smart and progressive companies are now looking forward to creative customers. The modernisation in information technology has made the job of researching easier. Marketers have realised that they can gather information more easily from their consumers. They have also realised that consumers look for newness, they evaluate a product from all possible angles, are looking to purchase, use and dispose products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs, wants and demands.

There is a general belief that creative people expect to be paid for their innovation. The calculative corporate minds have come up with a new strategy. Why not motivate the consumer to think and innovate product designs? The user-led designs don't need to be paid for, since the consumers are so excited about the innovating that they don't expect to be paid. The innovations of consumers increase the marketers' competitive advantage spontaneously. And in the long run the technological advantages pay off well, especially when the company wants to use the skimming price strategy.

The traditional style of firms sending their market research groups to the market to find out what their consumer's want is slowly getting outdated. Creativity and innovation should be an ongoing job of a progressive firm. Research and development have become indispensable to the very existence of an organisation.

While modern businesses are emphasising on the "have it your way" philosophy to grab bigger market shares, all of them need to knock down barriers of creativity and discover new ideas, new creation, new performances, new usages, new tastes, new concepts and a new living — which is the need of the hour. Finally, creativity is all about putting things together in unexpected ways.

(The author is a professor of marketing at SIES College of Management Studies, Nerul, Navi Mumbai. Feedback may be sent to vidyah_28@yahoo.com)

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Little beyond platitudes

Aid, rewards or returns?

Globalisation requires local citizenship behaviour too

Why panic about what VAT will do to prices

Further reflections on the Credit Policy

Creativity is in everybody

Whither newspapers?

The e-choupal scheme

Black money transactions