In a competitive world where all the products look alike, creativity can create the conditions to differentiate your business in the market. Still today ignored by many large corporations, the creative process can create new business or help your company increase market share. Table of Contents: - Lessons from the Third World - How to generate new ideas? - Think outside the box - Lateral thinking - Generating ideas within a given market - Generating Breakthrough ideas - Reverse Brainstorming - Best Practices for Companies

1. Creativity
in Business - Why? How?
By Ruth Cuadrado

2. “Insanity: Doing
the same thing
over and over
again and
expecting
different
results.”
- Albert Einstein

3. Want to increase Market Share?
Don’t be Insane.
Be Creative.

4. Lessons from the third world
Street vendors can be found everywhere in Latin America, selling from clothes and cheap jewelry,
to iphone cases and lighters. As soon as it starts raining they will sell umbrellas and raincoats.
They never go bankrupt... They only grow. What’s the secret of their success?

5. Street Vendors wisdom…
1. Forecast accurately – You only have one
chance of doing it right
2. Be ready for Change – Simplify the decision
chain
3. Know your customer – His wish is your
command
4. Location – If the consumer doesn’t come to
mohammed...
5. Confidence – Don’t be affraid of selling
your product
Are you tied to your company’s rules?

6. How to generate new
ideas?

7. The ideas that
changed
humanity were
envisioned by
people who were
not intelligent
enough to see
they were
impossible

8. Let’s play a game...
Without letting your pencil leave the paper (or screen), can you draw four
straight lines through the nine dots?

9. Impossible?
Think outside the box!
How many times were you limited by pre-conceived ideas or company guidelines?

10. Lateral Thinking:
Techniques to find new ideas*
* Source: Kotler, P., Trias, F. “Lateral Marketing”. John Wiley & Sons Ed. 2011

11. Generating ideas within a given market
These ideas will help you gaining market share but they will not create a new
market or significantly restructure the current one
Modulations Increase or decrease the characteristics of a Ie. Juices with no sugar, with
product vitamins, with real fruit, etc.
Sizing Variations of volume or frequency Ie. Hotels with day pass, 4th night
free, etc.
Packaging Modifications of the container Ie. Biodegradable container, easy
open system, etc
Design Change in design to communicate different Ie. Beer in trendy can-bottles
lifestyles
Complements Adding additional services Ie. Extended warranties
Effort Reduction Reduce the effort of the customer in the Ie. Best Rates Guarantees save you
purchase process time in researching other channels

12. Breakthrough Ideas:
The logic behind the creative process
1. Choose a Focus (a problem to solve, an objective to achieve)
2. Make a lateral displacement (interruption in the logical sequence)
3. Make the connection (fill the gap)
How to fill this gap?
Flower
Congratulations, you’ve just
invented Artificial Flowers!
Never
Dies
Lateral Dies
Displacement

13. Create a gap and make a connection
• Substitute it Ie. Hot dog with a cookie instead of bread
 Generated sweet biscuits for kids imitating sandwiches
• Invert it Ie. Pizza that is not delivered
 Generated refrigerated pizza
• Combine it Ie. Pen with fuel’s car indicator
 Create a pen with an indicator of used ink
• Exaggerate it Ie. 200 lts bottle of coke
 Logic behind Coke dispensers (soda fountains)
• Eliminate it Ie. A car that cannot run
 Generated driving simulators
• Reorder it Ie. Pay your credit card before using it
 Generated pre-paid credit cards that replaced travelers’ cheques

14. Reverse brainstorming:
The 5 Minutes creativity excercise
1) Select an objective or goal
2) Write the questions you are trying to solve
3) Write down the reverse statement
ie. How to increase sales?  How to decrease sales?
How to improve employee motivation?  How to demotivate employees?
How to save time in X task?  How to spend more time in X task?
4) Give as many answers to the questions on step 3) as you can...
5) Reverse those answers
ie. To decrease employee motivation...
Lower their salaries for no reason  Increase their salaries for no reason
Don’t recognize any achievements  Recognize every achievement
Let them believe their jobs are at risk  Let them know their jobs are stable
and long term

15. Best Practices for Companies
• Conduct periodical brainstorming sessions with your team
• Use your customers! Create an ‘incubator’ of new ideas and reward them
• Let your teams allocate a certain amount of time per month to work on new ideas or
projects, even if they are unrelated to your area
• No matter how busy you are, take 10 minutes at regular intervals during the day to
do something inspiring like listening to music or watching photographs
• Allow mistakes and learn from them

16. Best Practices for Companies (II)
• Ask your interns or new hires... They will be less tied by assumptions
• Have a document in your desktop where you write all the little ideas you have during
the day, even if they are not valid today. They can be useful in the future, alone or
combined!
• Never throw away a discarded idea. You might recycle it in the future!
• Incentivize your teams to take courses in areas different to your department to open
their minds

17. Thank you
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