Blog 3: Fire of Creativy and Innovation

Never before have I owned a laptop, until about 2 weeks ago on my birthday. I have always had a desktop, which is great and easy to use at home. Before college, I didn’t think I really ever needed a laptop, but over the past few years, I’ve realized how many times I have checked out a laptop from the PCL, business school, or FAC – and what a hassle that has been! So the laptops at the PCL and business school are ridiculously heavy and usually give me back and shoulder aches. Then I had to deal with making sure that I return them on time, so that I don’t incur a late fee. Then there were always those times when I really wanted a laptop for convenience sake, but they were all checked out!















I am fascinated by my new HP Mini Notebook. This laptop is ridiculously light, and I still haven’t gotten over the fact that this is one of the best gifts my friends have given me. I can even carry it in my purse! Whoever thought of making a laptop this small and light was a genius. Yes, the I Phones and Blackberrys I’m sure are great, but I need to type a LOT on my computer. I would find it extremely difficult to send emails, etc on an I Phone.

Sometimes customers don’t know what they want. There are underlying factors that we don’t take into consideration when deciding what’s important. It may be a matter of prioritizing. I didn’t realize how much easier this mini laptop made my life. No more backaches, no more late fees, no more heavy bags, no more waiting in line every few days to check out a laptop – it’s fantastic! I thank the innovators who took my needs into consideration!

But it’s not just the mini that I think is creative and innovative – it’s the concept of a laptop. Innovators had to find out what customers needed. In a society that craved rapid access to information for many people, the laptop was genius. A desktop was great, but it was stationary. People needed something that they could take with them from place to place to find information. Why? Because we are not stationary beings!

I think that the laptop was extremely creative, in that it took the concept of a monitor, computer, mouse, keyboard and put it all compactly together. Simply amazing! We’ve seen how our society does appreciate having things compact and easy to carry around. We are constantly seeking ways to make our lives easier. The laptop did this for us. Also, since it runs on an electrically charged battery, the power cord is not always necessary.

Innovators sought out how to improve our lives by having information even more accessible to us, no matter where we are. This is creativity.

I thought it was interesting that the article, “The New, Faster Face of Innovation”, stated that innovative companies will move away from traditional research. I would argue more closely with what we learned in class that both traditional research and non-traditional research will need to go hand-in-hand in order to be successful. Although I do agree with the article that it is important that companies to compare 50 real-world experiments than rely on the opinions of a few consulting gurus. Perhaps in order to improve our computers, we will need to rely on innovative research techniques…

I think it’s great that we’re moving faster in order to meet customer’s needs, but it also worries me that our society wants everything now. We are losing our virtues of patience, slowing down and appreciating what we have, and having meaningful conversations that don’t just talk about “what would make me happy.” However we are also learning about perseverance through experimentation. Like Greg Linden in the article stated, “"In each failed test, you learn something that helps you find something that will work.” This is how innovative products are created successfully –I believe. This would seem like a contradictory statement to how much I think the laptop was so creative. I very much like having a laptop – it’s just that I don’t want our society to keep looking to seek out what we could have, instead of appreciating the now of what is around us.

I think a genius idea from Amazon was suggesting products that customers might want. Not only might this make the customer happy by appealing to their desires, but it may also increase the revenue and trust from Amazon, the book provider. If the customer feels that Amazon is trying to meet their needs, it is more likely that the customer will return to Amazon for its book orders.

The last thing I just wanted to talk about was the hippo water roller. AMAZING! I couldn’t leave my post without mentioning the genius of this. It is such a simple concept, but so beneficial to many in world who do not have access to sanitary water. Sometimes the most innovative and creative concepts are the simplest ones. Taking the concept of a barrel and turning it on its side, while making a handle to pull it was an incredible idea that changed the lives of many. The costs were even subsidized by the government. As someone who has observed the difficulties of life in Africa firsthand, and seen how obtaining water can be hard in India, I am so thrilled that there are innovators that have taken the time to solve issues like these!

Hippo Water Roller -> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3755450853057279704&ei=pxvWSp2pNoSwrAOB3riVCg&q=hippo+water+roller&hl=en#

















Ahh…the joys of creativity never seem to die!