Creativity and Innovation

Innovation teams?are a community of autonomous individuals with the ability to integrate and promote different mindsets and leverage their potential to reach a common goal. They have a high degree of self-leadership; people are seen in their wholeness, and structures are flexibly and autonomously adapted accordingly. This focus on connected but autonomous meaning-making is what provides the space for true?co-creativity and innovation.

What is the difference between Creativity and Innovation?

Creativity

Innovation

Inspiration

Execution

Cognitive

Tangible

Potential

Practical

Unique and individual

Repeatable and scalable

?

Differences between Creativity & Innovation

?

The distinctions between?creativity and innovation?are important for anyone looking to inspire in their company. Understanding the nuanced difference between?creativity and innovation?will help managers devise a plan that makes room for both. We have some simple definitions we rely on to make the distinction clear.

Creativity?is a thought process that, in the best case, leads to an extraordinary and unique idea. Creativity is a cognitive exercise, like inspiration. The light bulb moment of realization. Creativity usually includes a motivating push to bring something to the real world, but we believe the incident of creativity ends right at the point in which the thing is being made. Because?Innovation?is the process by which this inspiration for a new product or service becomes tangible. It happens in the real world. Innovation is a method, a device, a system that is enacted. While it doesn’t have to be one thing, it has to be real. For example, a new factory machine that uses less energy is clearly an innovation, but so is a more streamlined pathway for company communication.

What is Innovation?

Of Innovation, author and educator?Peter Drucker?said,

“Innovation is the specific function of entrepreneurship, whether in an existing business, a public service institution, or a new venture started by a lone individual in the family kitchen. It is how the entrepreneur either creates new wealth-producing resources or endows existing resources with enhanced potential for creating wealth.”

Peter Drucker

Through Innovation, we bring ideas into the world so they can make a tangible impact. The result of true?Innovation?is something that can be marketed as a product or service.

Types of Innovation

·????????Incremental Innovation:?Adding features or capabilities to an existing product one at a time

·????????Architectural Innovation:?Applying existing technology or expertise to a new market.

·????????Disruptive Innovation:?Applying new technologies, processes, or business models to existing industries.

·????????Radical Innovation:?The rarest of all innovation types, entirely new technologies or products are created for entirely new markets.4?Types of Innovation

?

How to Create Innovation?is a new book by the people behind?Digital Leadership.?In it, you’ll find practical guidance for directing your company’s innovation and transformation efforts. Written by experts in the field of business model transformation, the book is full of useful canvases and checklists that you can put to work for you on day one.

What is Creativity?

Artists, philosophers, educators, and psychologists have long tried to write a simple definition of creativity. Its very nature is elusive, which makes describing it a challenge. We know it’s the process through which something new is formed, and typically, most definitions assume the value is included with the new creation.

We agree that there are?four different types of Creativity, each a different blend of specific attributes and approaches.

Types of Creativity

·????????Deliberate and Cognitive:?The Creativity of planning and expertise. Creativity with a purpose.

·????????Deliberate And Emotional:?Where logic meets emotion. The Creativity of both an open mind and an open heart.

·????????Spontaneous and Cognitive:?Knowledge relies on the inspiration for a “Eureka!” moment. The Creativity of preparation and perfect timing.

·????????Spontaneous And Emotional:?The Creativity of the unconscious. Ideas arrive when we least expect them, so we have to be ready.

What is Invention?

?Most business consultants agree that Invention is the act of creating something new. In a business context, Invention has nothing to do with marketing, sales, or the continued success of a company. The invention is an unchecked, unpurposed creation. Innovation takes Invention and turns it into a commodity.

Importance of Creativity and Innovation

Creativity and Innovation?are important to your business because they ensure that your?customers are having their needs met?and your company has a secure future. Because they are both necessary for the long-term health of both your business and your customers’ community, decision-makers must make deliberate choices that support both processes.

Creativity and Innovation in Business

During Creativity, we seek to find new ways of combining patterns, constructing new ones, and solving problems in ways that have never been tried before. During Innovation, we take the fruits of Creativity and find ways to bring them to the market profitably. he UNITE?Business Model Innovation Patterns.

Working with?Business Models Patterns?will allow you to develop new combinations in a structured manner. First, the process will help you to break with your dominant industry logic. Then, you can adapt the pattern to your company’s specific context and so create an innovative variant. Your own ideas and creativity are as essential at this point as challenging your Business Model against other patterns.

Critics of this approach may then ask, but where does the beauty and creativity of innovation then lie? Isn’t this simply producing copies? The innovation lies in the understanding, translation, recombination, and transfer of successful patterns to your own industry and challenges. You may end up with the same result without using a system such as the one we present, but then you are leaving a lot up to luck.

How Do Creativity and Innovation Drive?Digital Transformation?

Contrary to popular opinion,?digital transformation?is not just about technology. It’s more about your?business strategy, data, process, creativity, innovation, and people. Digital transformation does not occur overnight; it takes consistency in building strategic roadmaps. You can start slowly by transforming the critical areas of your business to achieve your desired outcome. No doubt, in this digital era, the only way for your business to thrive is to embrace digital transformation for enhanced business?creativity and innovation.

Closing Thoughts

The nuanced differences between Innovation, Invention, and Creativity may seem unimportant, but for those companies looking to fully capture their potential for transformation and exponential growth, the definitions, and examples we’ve provided here should help clarify whatever confusion there might be.

We wish you all the best in your continued efforts to bring your organization forward.

The UNITE Business Model Framework: A Framework for Innovation Success

How to Create Innovation?includes a number of canvases that?focus on value creation?and finding the right business model to meet your?customer segment?and?customer needs.?The framework is built to inspire drastic changes that help you?find a competitive advantage.?Our hope is that your company grows through?business model innovation,?and so we again encourage you to look deeper into our website and the book.

Here is a summary of the key ingredients of the?Business Model Framework:

Business Models

The centerpiece is the?Business Model Canvas,?which covers the?six main areas of a Business Model?(the Operating, Value, Service, Experience, Cost, and Revenue Models).

The?extended Business Model Canvas?adds the immediate business context, including Business Drivers, customers, and the team, as well as the?Unfair Advantage.

Detailed Models

A Business Model can be broken out into numerous aspects. Depending on what challenges you face, you can zoom in on your area of interest using an appropriate tool or canvas:

·????????Your?Business Intention and objectives?as well as your?Massive Transformative Purpose?summarize your drivers and give direction to what you do.

·????????The?Value Proposition Canvas?details the central components of your offering (the product or service).

·????????To dig into your?Customer Segments,?work with?data-driven Personas.

·????????The?JTBD?Customer Job Statement and Job Map?frame the JTBD of your customers.

·????????The?Business Model Environment?puts your Business Model in a market context composed of emerging trends and disruptive forces.

·????????The?Innovation Culture Canvas?helps you understand and consciously shape a culture that supports innovation.

·????????The?Innovation team structure?enables you to draft a team structure for your innovation initiative.

·????????Using?learning and growth metrics,?you can measure progress at the initial stages of development. These metrics help you focus on what really matters instead of creating a detailed business plan that will not really help you. Later, you can expand the financial aspect of the Revenue and Cost Models with a full?business case.

·????????