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Creativity Comments by Winston J. Brill, Ph.D.

01/02 Creativity Comment

Follow the Leader?

A president of an $8 million company recently told me that he doesn’t want to, and can’t afford to, focus on creativity.  He said that his strategy is to “let others do the creative work, let them make the mistakes, and when they succeed, we’ll just catch up by copying.”

That attitude might have been appropriate in the past, when change was slower and competition less fierce.  Sure, you can let someone else do the creative work, watch their success, and ape their winning ideas.  But by the time you’ve figured out how they succeeded, your competition will be introducing the next generation of ideas, and you’ll be struggling to hit a moving target. 

What’s more, other potential competitors (whose names you may not even yet know) are likely plotting their own way to enter your market.  Successful ones will have used a great deal of creativity to forge their entry and it may then be impossible to mimic their success.

In this fast-changing world, creativity should not be a once-in-a-while thing; it must be active all the time.  You need to be the leader.  And, by the way, everyone can afford to focus on creativity.  Enhancing great ideas in your organization needn’t cost a cent.