Creative destruction
Business Creativity and Innovation is a something totally new to the likes of me. Coming from a technical IT background, (un)conventional business wisdom is something that is elusive and yet to attain. The few classes that I’ve been through so far have been an eye opening experience. We were asked questions that defied convention, which allowed us to think beyond the box and question why and when we should think in and out of the box.
One of the more interesting topics that we came across was that of creative destruction. Wertheimer ([1945] 1959) suggested that creative thinking involved breaking down and restructuring our knowledge about something in order to gain new insights into its nature. Creativity therefore is defined as a process of developing and expressing novel ideas that are likely to be useful, in which the end product would be innovation or in other words, creative destruction. An invention (by means of a creative process) on its own will by no means be a guaranteed marketable success. It has to go through a certain process of innovation to ready it for commercialization and to be useful.
Introduced by the economist Joseph Schumpeter (Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 1942) innovations come to market creating creative destruction by stimulating general economic growth and simultaneously destroy specific jobs as emerging technologies replace older technologies. Even today we have creative destruction at work this very moment. New methods of communication with the advent of the internet for example, or the innovation of IP phones severely or perhaps even completely limiting the usage of terrestrial telephony has forced large corporations in turn to innovate to survive. One would think that creative destruction is an unnecessary force for everyday life but I believe it is inevitable.
In the article City Planet by Stewart Brand he plays with the idea of the symbiosis between an urbanized city and its slums; how creative destruction created the slums and later how the slums have been an influence to drive creativity in the business place and drive a paradigm shift for how businesses operate, again another process of innovation. It also points out the fact that a microcosm of innovation is present in the slums itself, whereby its inhabitants are forced to survive by any means necessary. Destruction paves the way for creativity and innovation similar to the bush fires in Africa that paves the way for renewed growth of new seedlings.
It all had a profound impact on the way I saw things. On the one hand we have the ability to create and innovate but in doing so something has to make way. On the other hand destruction forces adaptability.
I think I'm starting to like this...
One of the more interesting topics that we came across was that of creative destruction. Wertheimer ([1945] 1959) suggested that creative thinking involved breaking down and restructuring our knowledge about something in order to gain new insights into its nature. Creativity therefore is defined as a process of developing and expressing novel ideas that are likely to be useful, in which the end product would be innovation or in other words, creative destruction. An invention (by means of a creative process) on its own will by no means be a guaranteed marketable success. It has to go through a certain process of innovation to ready it for commercialization and to be useful.
Introduced by the economist Joseph Schumpeter (Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 1942) innovations come to market creating creative destruction by stimulating general economic growth and simultaneously destroy specific jobs as emerging technologies replace older technologies. Even today we have creative destruction at work this very moment. New methods of communication with the advent of the internet for example, or the innovation of IP phones severely or perhaps even completely limiting the usage of terrestrial telephony has forced large corporations in turn to innovate to survive. One would think that creative destruction is an unnecessary force for everyday life but I believe it is inevitable.
In the article City Planet by Stewart Brand he plays with the idea of the symbiosis between an urbanized city and its slums; how creative destruction created the slums and later how the slums have been an influence to drive creativity in the business place and drive a paradigm shift for how businesses operate, again another process of innovation. It also points out the fact that a microcosm of innovation is present in the slums itself, whereby its inhabitants are forced to survive by any means necessary. Destruction paves the way for creativity and innovation similar to the bush fires in Africa that paves the way for renewed growth of new seedlings.
It all had a profound impact on the way I saw things. On the one hand we have the ability to create and innovate but in doing so something has to make way. On the other hand destruction forces adaptability.
I think I'm starting to like this...
posted by UnkleBus at 3:06 AM
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thats it? no more posts?
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