The Weird Rules of Creativity

The article which I like more, it is The article which I like more, it is the Weird Rules of Creativity. By breaking all the stereotypes of management decision making the article gave a new insight of the picture.
Points to agree with:
I agree with in the article. I would definitely say that in order to success companies should to some extent break away from old perceptions and see problems in new ways, and therefore break away from the past.By doing this we can change the structure of the organization and set goals which drives us toward leadership of the market. After all this is how the sustainable competitive advantage is reached, i.e., being different from others, pursuing strategies in an innovative and novel way. It was interesting to read that companies although realizing this need for innovativeness do not necessarily put time and effort into it, and prefer to take a more or less smooth path.
I would like to share a practical example which is from the company in which I was working. It’s a pharmaceutical company. The owner of the company wants to increase the production of the company. He hired an army retired person as an admin manager. He has nothing to do except making barriers in every matter of the company. Plant manager wants to improve the equipment of production which gives more production in less time but the admin manager is against this idea he always said there is no need to bring any new equipment our older one is good. There is no need to spend money on new equipment. He was a man having no information about the production but he was so close to the owner of the company. It was an owner based firm. Owner gives much importance to the admin manager’s ideas. The other competitor companies bought that equipment and capture most of the market with fast supply of its products. Now that competitor company is the market leader. If the owner didn’t hire that army retired man then the company can sustain its competitive advantage. Or if he hired a person who is not against the new ideas then the company can also have the same position which it had before. The problem with the army officers in our country is they never like smart persons they always welcome to the stupid persons. Who always say yes against any order. They don't like to be flexible to any matter. They always give orders. They didn't like to listen any word against their order.
Point to disagree with:
I do not quite agree with, to start from the author’s perspective of hiring people, it was mentioned that while hiring rational thinking should be put aside, is it really a good idea just to hire intuitively? Not look at person’s previous experience, or educational backgrounds? I would say it is connected to high risk and needs time. For example, if you need to hire an employee for a particular position, of course you would search for somebody who has appropriate education in the relevant field, this would bring results immediately and the person will know what he/she is supposed to do. On the other hand, to take a risk and hire somebody without previous experience, in the hope that he/she shall be innovative and creative, it is very time consuming and needs finances.
I like to put an example here which is related to above situation. The same company hired a person in Finance Dept as auditor. He was 63 years old man he has much experience in finance field. Finance dept wanted to change the accounting system. They wanted to install latest accounting software. But the auditor said its not good. You should work the same software. There was some problem in the previous software and finance manger have to do some manual work for avoiding errors in the financial statement due to which some very important transactions remain pending and company can't recover the payments in time. The newly hired auditor say do the whole work by manual also. For which company needs to hire more employees because there are 7 employees who cover the whole finance system. If company hire more people then its not good because it increased the cost of the company and require more extra time for recovery which is not beneficial for the company. If the company update the system then its much effective for it to make recovery in time and utilize that finance for the increase in production which is much effective for the company.
In a way if the organization is large enough to afford hiring some extra people, with different backgrounds, giving them some spare time for brainstorming, testing and implementing their ideas, this might work out just fine.
Findings:
This article made me think about rejecting all common sense, “normal” ways of doing things and rational reasoning. Maybe it really is worth trying to put aside well-proven ways and go for a new path, no matter how hard it might be. I have never thought about rewarding failures before, although this article made me think about a saying “one who works is the one committing a mistake”, that is if you do not work, thus, you do not commit mistakes. Only punishing inaction is a very interesting assumption presented in the article, this would really motivate employees to try their best, and not be afraid to fail.
References
Sutton, R. (2001). The Weird Rules of Creativity. Harvard Business Review, September 2001

. By breaking all the stereotypes of management decision making the article gave a new insight of the picture.
Points to agree with:
I agree with in the article. I would definitely say that in order to success companies should to some extent break away from old perceptions and see problems in new ways, and therefore break away from the past. After all this is how the sustainable competitive advantage is reached, i.e., being different from others, pursuing strategies in an innovative and novel way. It was interesting to read that companies although realizing this need for innovativeness do not necessarily put time and effort into it, and prefer to take a more or less smooth path.
I would like to share a practical example which is from the company in which I was working. It’s a pharmaceutical company. The owner of the company wants to increase the production of the company. He hired an army retired person as an admin manager. He has nothing to do except making barriers in every matter of the company. Plant manager wants to improve the equipment of production which gives more production in less time but the admin manager is against this idea he always said there is no need to bring any new equipment our older one is good. There is no need to spend money on new equipment. He was a man having no information about the production but he was so close to the owner of the company. It was an owner based firm. Owner gives much importance to the admin manager’s ideas. The other competitor companies bought that equipment and capture most of the market with fast supply of its products. Now that competitor company is the market leader. If the owner didn’t hire that army retired man then the company can sustain its competitive advantage. Or if he hired a person who is not against the new ideas then the company can also have the same position which it had before.
Point to disagree with:
I do not quite agree with, to start from the author’s perspective of hiring people, it was mentioned that while hiring rational thinking should be put aside, is it really a good idea just to hire intuitively? Not look at person’s previous experience, or educational backgrounds? I would say it is connected to high risk and needs time. For example, if you need to hire an employee for a particular position, of course you would search for somebody who has appropriate education in the relevant field, this would bring results immediately and the person will know what he/she is supposed to do. On the other hand, to take a risk and hire somebody without previous experience, in the hope that he/she shall be innovative and creative, it is very time consuming and needs finances.
In a way if the organization is large enough to afford hiring some extra people, with different backgrounds, giving them some spare time for brainstorming, testing and implementing their ideas, this might work out just fine.
Findings:
This article made me think about rejecting all common sense, “normal” ways of doing things and rational reasoning. Maybe it really is worth trying to put aside well-proven ways and go for a new path, no matter how hard it might be. I have never thought about rewarding failures before, although this article made me think about a saying “one who works is the one committing a mistake”, that is if you do not work, thus, you do not commit mistakes. Only punishing inaction is a very interesting assumption presented in the article, this would really motivate employees to try their best, and not be afraid to fail.
References
Sutton, R. (2001). The Weird Rules of Creativity. Harvard Business Review, September 2001


How to Become an Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is someone who creates his or her own business. Here's how to become your own boss.

Steps
Think of great ideas. If a great idea comes to you, evaluate if it is realistic. Think of cost, manufacturing time, and popularity. Ask and record if people would actually buy the product. If you don't have an idea yet, it is a good start to think of your target market first. Then brainstorm a list of things like places they shop, things they like, and things you like. Narrow the list down to about three items, keeping cost, manufacturing time, and popularity in mind. Find the easiest, most realistic product.Or, think of a terrible idea. Really, you can't tell if a business idea is great or terrible until you try it in a real marketplace. Years later, the successful ideas are "obviously" good, but when they first began, most people rejected them. Google is one of the most famous examples—"Search is done. Does the world need yet another search engine?"—but many less-spectacular successes have strong arguments against them. There is always a good reason against a good idea. It doesn't really matter how good your initial idea is, because you're going to change it, anyway. "Investors invest in people, not business plans. Early-stage investors know that great people can make a mediocre idea work, but mediocre people can't make a great idea work."—Don Dodge.
Write a business plan. Include details and descriptions, and plan everything out realistically. Take your time and evaluate your product at each section. The sections of a good business plan include:
Product description: develop your product. What will it look like? What materials will you need? Make your product eye-catching.
Market Analysis: Who is your market? Where do they shop? Where are they located?
Competition: Who is your competition? What are their strengths? How will you beat them?
Marketing: How will you market your product? What kind of image do you want to display? Where will you advertise? What is your tagline? What is your packaging like?
Sales: Where will you sell? How will you get your customers to buy? When will you sell? What is your estimated sales forecast?
Manufacturing: How do you make your product? Explain this in detailed steps. What materials do you need to make your product? When and where will you manufacture? What is your COGS (cost of goods sold)?
Finance: how much money do you need to start your business? What is your gross profit?Or, don't write a business plan. A business plan is a work of fiction, anyway. If you don't have much experience in business, or the market is new and unknown, a business plan might be a waste of time, or, worse, a path to self-delusion. "In all my years in startups and all my work with VCs I don't ever recall seeing a written business plan. The fact is that investors do not read them."—Don Dodge. Plan just enough to make your first sale. The main thing is to make at least one customer happy, and complete the entire cycle of "make product, sell product" as quickly as possible. Then you will have a business, and then you might be in a position to understand some problems of the sort that extensive planning can help solve.
Pitch your idea to Venture Capitalists to get money to start your company. If you have a good idea, they will love to invest their money in your company. Make a PowerPoint presentation explaining why your product is the best, including each part of your business plan in the presentation. Tell them how much your estimated gross profit is and how much percentage of that they will earn in interest.Or, don't look for or accept funding. Striking a deal with venture capitalists is a long, tiresome, difficult, and dangerous process. In the early days of a business, it can be a catastrophic distraction. "Distraction is fatal to start-ups."—Paul Graham. Many VCs are not set up to make you successful. A wonderful success for you might be to earn $80,000 a year doing work you love. Starting small and pleasing a small number of customers at first is a high-probability way to get there. A VC will not allow such a success to happen, because a VC's strategy is to become a billionaire by rolling the dice on many low-probability but potentially gigantic-returning businesses. The price you pay for taking on a VC is control: control of your dream. If you can get the business started without spending a lot of money, that might be your best route.
Sell. Sell and distribute your product. If you're getting revenue, then you're in business. You're testing your theories about the market, you're finding out what really works and what doesn't, and you're getting fuel for more ideas and improvements. If you're not getting revenue, then it's all in your head.
Hang out with entrepreneurs. By meeting entrepreneurs socially, you gain contacts and hear about opportunities. More importantly, you learn how entrepreneurs think. You pick up their attitudes, their nose for opportunity, their willingness to explore every idea and its opposite (they know that often both work), their contrarian nature, the great diversity in their styles.


Tips
Make sure your business plan is perfect before moving on; this will make your business run a lot more smoothly. Here are some advantages of a perfect business plan:
Success is completely assured. Entrepreneurship is no longer a gamble when the spreadsheet tells you in advance precisely how much money you will make.
You can hire someone very cheaply, perhaps even a virtual assistant in India, to run the business for you, since the plan spells out exactly what to do.