Innovating the Competition

The greatest competitive advantage comes from out - innovating the competition. As Tom Peters put it,
“Add ten differentiations to every product or service, every 60 days. Sounds impossible? Yes: Is it tough? It is. But what’s the option? Your competitors are not sitting still”

Creativity is the ultimate human resource which can ensure the competitive advantage of companies. It is the use of creative thinking tools that can provide the competitive edge required to face the challenge of globalization. Creativity may become essential for survival in developing countries where there is such a major limitation of resources.

There are three elements involved in developing a creative atmosphere:

1. Extend effort
2. Suspend judgment
3. Postpone reaction.

The first step is to separate idea generation from analysis. One of the main reasons why a typical business session does not yield too many breakthrough ideas, is because managers are too busy shooting down each others’ ideas. That is why meetings usually produce boring, bland, safe and often useless suggestions.