8/2/2019 Creativity an Inovation
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Source: Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business
management- Zimmerer T., and Scarborough
N., 4th
ed. pp: 35-40
Relationship of creativity and innovation and use of right and
left brain reflected
in behavior in these two activities of a person or a group.
Creativity is the ability to develop new ideas (conceptual phase)
and to discover new ways of looking at
problems and opportunities, whereas Innovation is the ability to
apply (behavioral phase) creative
solutions to those problems and opportunities to enhance or to
enrich peoples lives.
Creativity is thinking new things, and innovation is doing new
things. As per Peter Drucker, Innovation
is the specific instrument of entrepreneurs, the means by which
they exploit change as an opportunity
for a different business or a different service.
From entrepreneurs point of view, creativity and innovation is
an essential part of their success in long
term or sustainability or gaining competitive edge over their
rivals- by thinking and doing new things or
old things in a new ways. For them, having a great idea does not
work out, until that idea should be
transformed into a tangible product, service, or business
venture. Thus, entrepreneurs are those who
connect their creative ideas with the purposeful action and
structure of a business and entrepreneurshipis the result of a
disciplined, systematic process of applying creativity and
innovation to needs and
opportunity in the marketplace.
For being creative, it is very important for entrepreneurs to
come out of self imposed mental constraints
(traditional assumption) and other paradigms that help them to
remain within comfort zone. Analyzing
the human brain, it is found that our brain develops
asymmetrically, and each hemisphere tends to
specialize in certain functions. Each hemisphere processes
information differently and that one side
dominates over the other.
The left brain is guided by linear, vertical thinking (from one
logical conclusion to the next) whereas the
right-brain is relies on kaleidoscopic, lateral thinking
(considering a problem from all sides and jumping
into it at different points- unstructured) and intuition. The
left brain handles languages, logic, and
symbols; the right-brain takes care of the bodys emotional,
intuitive and spatial functions. The left brain
processes information in a step-by-step fashion, but the
right-brain processes it intuitively-all at once,
relying heavily on images.
Left-brain vertical thinking is narrowly focused and systematic,
proceeding in a highly logical fashion
from one point to the next. Right-brain lateral thinking, on the
other hand, is somewhat unconventional,
unsystematic, and unstructured, much like the image of a
kaleidoscope, whirling around to form one
pattern after another. It is the right-brain-driven, lateral
thinking that lies at the heart of the creative
process.
Entrepreneurship requires both left-and right-brain thinking.
Right-brain thinking draws on the power of
divergent reasoning, which is the ability to create a multitude
or original, diverse ideas. Left-brain
thinking counts on convergent reasoning, the ability to evaluate
multiple ideas and choose the best
solution to a given problem. Entrepreneurs need to rely on
right-brain thinking to generate innovative
product, service, or business ideas. Then they must use
left-brain thinking to judge the market
potential of the ideas they generate.
