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The Difference between Innovation & Creativity
The Swiss mastered time keeping centuries ago, with a mechanical approach based on gear wheels and mainsprings. They also built a wall around themselves by specializing in the mechanical approach and ignoring all others.
On the up side, that wall focused their attention on the minute details of craftsmanship and gave them an expertise that led to marvelous innovations. They perfected the use of resilient, light weight metals. They excelled in artistic design. And they continuously developed ever more efficient production techniques. As a result, the Swiss controlled 68% of the world's watch market by 1968, and 80% of world profits.
However, the wall also caused them to ignore a monumental discovery made by one of their own researchers in 1967. He had developed a watch that was based on a completely new idea -- that time could be traced electrically rather than mechanically. The result was the digital quartz watch. It was cheaper to make, more accurate and far more durable than mechanical watches. But the idea lay so far outside the existing wall that the Swiss manufacturers didn't even bother to patent it. However, they did take a sample digital watch to the 1968 trade show as a crowd pleasing gimmick.
This is what a fatal error looks like. It's usually very small; in this case about 30 square inches of display space. Seiko and Texas Instruments saw the new watch, grabbed the unprotected idea and the rest, as they say, is history. Ten years later the Swiss served only 10% of the watch market and their mechanical time-keeping industry had collapsed.
What Does This Tell Us?
The best thing about other people's mistakes is that we feel no pain. The second best thing is that we can learn something from them, if we pay attention. So, what does the Swiss debacle teach us?
1. This business about the wall is important. It affects the welfare of individuals, groups and nations. You can't walk away from something like that. If you don't master it, it will master you. The goal of this blog is to help you be the master.
2. Organizations don't have ideas. People do - individuals like you and me. Consequently, this blog is going to focus on the individual. In fact, we'll go one step further. This blog is going to focus on you. It doesn't say much about the organization at all. That's a topic for another book.
3. The difference between fantasy and creativity is action. If you don't do anything about it, even the best idea is no more than a pipe dream. It'll just fade away into nothingness, like the smoke rings that waft skyward. Consequently, this blog is an operation manual. It'll teach you how to do creativity - in both thought and actions. And action depends on courage.
4. Creativity is not the same as innovation. The Swiss had been marvelously innovative. But creativity came along and buried them alive. My advice is that you better learn the difference between the two, and the sooner the better. In fact, let's do it now.
THE FAN: Innovation vs. Creativity
I used to keep a 20" box fan in my kitchen window, the kind with the plastic grills that prevent kids from sticking their fingers into the blade. It worked pretty well until the grill became caked with grime, at which point I discovered that old-fashioned family values are a matter of expediency. I was informed, with a smile, that fan cleaning was "man's work", and I set about conquering the task, grateful to know that modern feminism was alive and well. I unscrewed both grills and set them in the kitchen sink so that I could scrub them more comfortably. But I discovered a problem; I have a stubby finger. It wouldn't fit in between the grill slats, especially with a washcloth wrapped around it.
This would be a problem for most people. But I should remind you that I hold a PhD, MBA, and a BA. Any man with that many initials after his name ought to be worth something. In addition, I have taught the art of creativity at some of the leading business schools in America. If anyone can find a top notch scrubbing solution ... it is me. And, in fact, I did pretty well.
I discovered that Q-tips do very well; and a good stiff bottle brush is wonderful, if you don't mind decorating the kitchen wall with fan crud. Then I remembered the airport shoe shine boy, and that gave me an even better idea. I slid a cloth through the grill and buffed. Not bad, but none of those methods hold a candle to the brainstorm my fertile mind experienced at that point. Quick. What tight place - full of nooks, crannies and crevices - do you clean each and every day? Yes! That's right! Your mouth! I was on a roll. I could feel the creative juices course throughout the very fiber of my being. I was hot. I was superb. And I was no fool, so I used my 7 year old son's toothbrush.
Within a mere 30 minutes I had 1/4 of a grill so spit-polish clean that I could serve Barak & Michelle hor d'eovers on it. As I admired my work Susie walked into the kitchen and changed my pride to chagrin. She sized up the situation, delivered one of those pity-looks that only a wife can provide and, murmuring soft words of praise and assurance, she gently removed the grills from my care. She took them into the bathroom, tossed them into the bathtub and added a little detergent and water.
Then she sat me down on the sofa and held my hands to control my urge to scrub something. Ten minutes later she ushered me into the bathroom, sprayed the grills with our shower massager and presented me with not one, but two, spotless fan grills. As I stood there with my credentials hanging out, I had one of those rare revelations that put a little sunshine in our lives. I had just witnessed the essence of creativity --- the art of vaulting the wall.
© 2009 Joe Anderson
