CREATIVITY & INNOVATION IN
BUSINESS
by
Norhaniza Abdul Latiff
LECTURE 3
LEADING CREATIVITY
ORGANIZATION
EFFECTIVE LEADERS
Leadership is the ability to influence a team
towards the achievement of common goals
11-3
LEADERSHIP STYLES
11-4
LEADERSHIP TRAITS
Vision
 Ambition and Desire
 Energy
 Honesty and Integrity
 Ability
 Self Motivated

11-5
INNOVATION LEADERSHIP
Vision and goal setting
 Developing core competencies
 Motivating people
 Nurturing ideas

11-6
LEADERSHIP ROLES
Gate keeping
 Sponsorship
 Championing
 Project or team leading
 Mentoring or coaching
 Idea generation

11-7
LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTES
11-8
LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Listening
 Empowering
 Adapting
 Delivering
 Self-understanding

11-9
LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE
Goals are understood by all.
 Risk taking is encouraged and accepted.
 New ideas are welcomed.
 Information exchange is open and shared.
 Access to new knowledge is extensive and
uncontrolled.
 Good ideas are supported.
 Innovations are recognized and rewarded.
 People are given room to be creative.
 There is a choice of structure.

1110
INNOVATIVE LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS
Positive, Visionary Outlook
Impatience with Business as Usual
Commitment to an Innovative Culture
Tendency to Set Ambitious Targets
Understands Exploratory Versus
Judgmental
Ability to Build Relationships of Trust
Persuasive Communication Skills
INNOVATION LEADERS 2006/07*
Boeing (US)
 Virgin Atlantic (UK)
 Toyota (Japan)
 RBS (UK)
 Du Pont (US)
 Samsumg (S Korea)
 LEGO (Denmark)
 BP (UK)
 H&M (Sweden)
 Nokia (Finland)

*
Reckitt Benckiser
(UK)
 PepsiCo (US)
 Tesco (UK)
 Apple (US)
 Aviva (UK)
 Google (US)
 Canon (Japan)
 Novartis
(Switzerland)
 Microsoft (US)
 Adidas (Germany)

# Note: No Malaysian Company
12
13
INNOVATION LEADERSHIP:
ATTITUDES
Deliberate climate creation and cultural
influence
 Innovation vision
 Encourage challenge & risk taking
 Collaboration
 Resources for innovation
 Celebration

14
INNOVATION LEADERSHIP:
INNOVATION COMPETENCE
Model and coach for innovation and creativity
 Develop innovation teams and leaders
 Generate breakthrough ideas
 Capitalise on intrapeneurship
 Customer Service
 Insight into drivers and opportunities

15
INNOVATION LEADERSHIP:
METRICS, SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES
Measure innovation costs & benefits
 Incorporate innovation in performance
management
 Establish supportive systems
 Use innovation to increase profit
 Seek to accelerate breakthrough thinking

16
PRACTICING LEADERSHIP
When people ask for leadership, it is not always
clear exactly what they want.
 What they want is effective leadership:

Intended influence that creates change for the
greater good.
 Leaders who listen to and understand their needs
and who can relate to their circumstances.

RECOGNIZING YOUR TRAITS
 Historical
Leaders: What Traits Do
They Display?

Nelson Mandela (1932-2013).

Conscience, self-reflection, sense of morality,
unwavering commitment to principles, selfdiscipline, consensus builder, courage,
patience, humility, and compassion.
RECOGNIZING YOUR TRAITS
 Historical
Leaders: What Traits Do
They Display?

Bill Gates (1954-).


Intelligence, vision, task orientation,
diligence, focus, aggressiveness, simplicity,
straight-forwardness, lack of pretension,
and altruism.
Oprah Winfrey (1954-).

Excellent communicator, intelligent, wellread, strong business sense, sincerity,
determination, inspiration, charisma,
spontaneity, openness, expresssiveness.
LEADERSHIP EXAMPLE: STEVE
LJEADERSHIP
FACTORS
OBS (TRANSFORMATIONAL
)
Stimulates innovation & creativeness
 Challenges followers
 Supportive climate
 Act as coaches & advisors to encourage selfactualization & focuses on ‘transforming’
 Creates valuable & positive change
 Attention to detail
 Vision & drive

“Innovation distinguishes between a
leader and a follower” - Steve Jobs
THE 4 I’S
•
Idealized Influence
–
•
Inspirational Motivation
–
•
High standards of ethical & moral conduct
Intellectual Stimulation
–
•
Ability to act as strong role models
Ability to stimulate innovation & creativity
Individual Consideration
–
Provide a supportive climate & listen to followers
A
TRUE TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER
• What sets Steve Jobs apart from the great
leaders of the past?
His ability to take on challenges of being successful
in a world of many competitors with the rapid
capability to replicate ideas.
– His ability to inspire individuals and audiences,
employees and investors, the public and competitors.
– He always knew what the public wanted before they
did, leading the market rather than relying on
market research.
–
LEADERSHIP EXAMPLE: RICHARD
LBRANSON
EADERSHIP FACTORS
ATTRIBUTESRISK-SEEKING & INNOVATIVE
Risk Seeking
 Evidence: His insatiable desire to take on
Coca Cola and British Airways-the
industry giants
 Careful plan for aggressive competition:


make a lot of noise to irritate
COMPETITORS, so that they tried to
swat back.
Then he waited for their mistakes
ATTRIBUTESRISK-SEEKING & INNOVATIVE
Innovative
 Evidence: tried out every mean to promote his
company
 Example:
 1) Drive a tank down 5th Avenue in N.Y city to
introduce Virgin Cola to the States
 2) Fly a hot air balloon across Atlantic to
promote his Virgin Airlines
 3) wear a wedding gown to promote his new
bride chains
EXAMPLE:
VIRGIN ATLANTIC

What did Branson demonstrate?
His……
Courage
- Vision
 Self-Confidence
- Commitment
 Embrace to Changes

Dreaming Impossible Dreams ; Challenge
 Act in unconventional ways

CREATIVITY AND LEADERSHIP:
How Much Are They the Same?
How Much Are They Different?
WHY IS THIS QUESTION IMPORTANT?

The significance of creativity and leadership in
both the workplace and the world at large, and
thus the need
to understand how creativity and leadership actually
operate in domains, organizations, and the general
society
 to enhance, whenever possible and necessary, the
amount of creativity and leadership manifested in a
domain, organization or society

PREVAILING
LEADING
EMERGING?
WHAT ARE CREATIVITY AND
LEADERSHIP?
 What
is leadership?
The traditional answer: Charisma, magnetism,
dynamism, etc., etc.
 The scientific answer: Impact
 That is, that member of a group whose influence
on group performance appreciably exceeds that
of the average group member
 Group performance = productivity and/or
decision-making

HOW MIGHT THESE DEFINITIONS BE
INTEGRATED?
Impact through products - innovative ideas,
inventions, solutions, policies, programs, strategies,
tactics, reforms, initiatives, laws, regulations, etc.
 Examples: Creativity and leadership in

Small problem-solving groups (R & D units, research
laboratories)
 Professional domains, economic systems, and political
institutions

THE EFFECTIVE
INNOVATOR CAN
EXPLAIN “WHY” AND
“WHY” IT IS A BIG
IDEA WORTH DOING.
“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has
seen and thinking what nobody has thought” Albert
Szent-Gyorgyi de Nagyrapolt (Hungarian
physiologist, Nobel Prize winner 1937
Traditional
entrepreneurs focus
on performance
measures and the
bottom line
TRADITIONAL V.
CREATIVE
Creative
Entrepreneurs
associate with a
broader ideal
Creative
Entrepreneurs are
possessed by a good
cause that they have
attachment to*
*Paulo C. De Miranda, Jose Alberto S. Aranha and
Julia, Zardo, “Creativity: People, Environment and
Culture, the Key Elements in its Understanding and
Interpretation.” Science and Public Policy. 2009
Creative
Entrepreneurs turn
creative ideas into
innovation
Organizational Learning and
Creativity
•
•
•
Organizational learning: Process through
which managers seek to improve a employee’s
desire and ability to understand and manage the
organization and its task environment
Creativity: Decision maker’s ability to discover
original and novel ideas that lead to feasible
alternative courses of action
Innovation: Implementation of creative ideas in
an organization
5-33
Senge’s Principles for
Creating a Learning Organization
5-34
Promoting Individual Creativity
•
•
Creativity results when employees have an
opportunity to experiment, to take risks, and to
make mistakes and learn from them
Creativity can be fostered by giving constructive
feedback and rewarding employees who come up
with creative ideas
5-35
Promoting Group Creativity
•
Brainstorming
•
•
•
•
•
One manager describes in broad outline the
problem the group is to address
Group members share their ideas and generate
alternatives
Each alternative is described, and one member
records the alternatives on a flip chart
Group members are encouraged to be as
innovative and radical as possible
When all are listed, the pros and cons of each are
discussed and a short list created
5-36
Promoting Group Creativity
•
•
Production blocking: Loss of productivity in
brainstorming sessions due to the unstructured
nature of brainstorming
Nominal group technique: Decision-making
technique in which group members write down
ideas and solutions, read their suggestions to the
whole group, and discuss and then rank the
alternatives
5-37
Promoting Group Creativity
•
Delphi technique: Decision-making technique
in which group members do not meet face-to-face
but respond in writing to questions posed by the
group leader
5-38
PROMOTING CREATIVITY

Training People to be Creative
39
Encourage openness to new ideas
 Take the time to understand the problem
 Develop divergent thinking

Morphology: An approach to analyzing
problems in which basic elements are combined
in systematically different ways
Developing Creative Work Environments


©
Copyrig
ht
Prentice
-Hall
2004
DEVELOPING CREATIVE
ENVIRONMENTS
40
Ensure autonomy
Provide exposure to other creative people
Allow ideas to cross-pollinate
Make jobs intrinsically interesting
Set your own creative goals
Support creativity at high organizational levels
©
Copyrig
ht
Prentice
-Hall
2004
CREATIVITY: RESEARCH FINDINGS
41
©
Copyrig
ht
Prentice
-Hall
2004
BOOSTING CREATIVITY
42
©
Copyrig
ht
Prentice
-Hall
2004
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES THAT
SUPPORT CREATIVITY
 Take
insights, hunches, intuitions, & ideas seriously
 Reward good ideas/ creativity/ thinking out of the
 Give freedom to make mistakes
 Support diverse workforce
 Less supervision, more autonomy
 Be able to recognize good ideas
 Support the use of teams
 Allow use of org. resources for personal projects
 Make environment fun, relaxed, playful, interactive.
“Bringing together ideas that
were previously unrelated”