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Book Review
Tapping creativity
M.S.S. VARADAN
CORPORATE STRATEGY MINDSPOWER INNOVATION: Rekha Shetty, Adhil Shetty; Minds Power Publication, 359, North Main Road, Anna Nagar West, Chennai-600101. Rs. 295.
This book is all about stimulating creativity and innovation in organisations. While creativity is in generating ideas, converting these into practical use is innovation. Protecting the result is through patents. The authors have made a compelling argument for Indian organisations to be innovative when they say that our intellectual capital is our unique selling proposition and innovation can be the “roller skates” with which Indians need to arrive swiftly on the stage with world-class companies.
Companies have been classified as stars, aspirants and non-starters. The gaps that separate stars from non-starters are identified as vision and leadership, lack of collaboration between departments, motivation of employees, team work, thriving in an environment of rapid change, and money and resources as essential lubricants. The gaps can be bridged by a systematic approach of “Mindspower process map”, consisting of problem identification, idea generation, incubation, analysis and implementation.
Climate for creativity
The ancient Indian concept of “navarasas” — the nine emotions of love, humour, compassion, peace, chivalry, anger, fear, abhorrence and wonder can be utilised to create a positive climate for creativity and innovation. Simple practical tips have been given to enhance these. The importance of identifying the correct problem has been rightfully stressed. An interesting incident narrated about an absentee worker at the Hyundai factory tellingly brings this out. It appears everyone thought that he was malingering, until it was found that he was shorter than other workers and was straining his back by stretching, resulting in backache. The problem was solved by increasing the height of the platform on which he stood and the backache and absenteeism were gone.
Innovation
For idea generation, “Tent thinking” as against “Marble palace thinking” has been suggested. To be swift and dynamic the mindset of tent thinking encourages adaptation and inexpensive experiments. It has been rightly stated that innovation can also be on small budgets as proved by shampoo sold in one rupee sachets for the poor!
Proactively responding to opportunities is needed for innovation. This is brought out stunningly — “A careless Alexander Fleming left the dish unwashed and was upset when a mould developed, till a stray thought struck him, that this might be a bacteria killer (penicillin).” Adding creativity to the living spaces is another interesting idea. In a hospital, patients lie on the bed and spend a good deal of time staring at the dull ceiling. In an innovative experiment in Rajasthan, ceilings were enriched with colourful collages of broken marble chips for economy and much to the delight of the patients at the same time.
The well-known concept of “Mind mapping” to provide the canvas for creative thinking could have also been included. Chapters three on gaps and 10 on how things are done differently could perhaps be linked more effectively for continuity of thought. On the whole, the book is a heady mix of interesting quotes, narratives, cases and personal experiences making it eminently readable.
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