Corporate Creativity: How Innovation and Improvement Actually Happen explores how companies may encourage creativity and tap into the creativity potential that may already exist in the organization. The authors emphasized on the power of the unexpected by giving several examples of companies who had major creative acts which were unexpected and not planned therefore, this book is about how companies could increase their creativity by learning how to promote unanticipated creativity. The authors stress six elements which are important to promoting consistent creativity, unanticipated improvements and innovations, and aid in the managing of creativity by “raising probabilities”(Robinson & Stern, 1998, p. 12) at the same time informing us how misconceptions limit creativity. The six elements, which will be discussed in depth, are alignment, self-initiated activity, unofficial activity, serendipity, diverse stimuli, and within-company communication (Robinson & Stern, 1998).
Alan Robinson received his Ph.D. in operations research and is a professor of management research. His research on corporate creativity has taken him to several hundred companies around the world to serve as a consultant or to be a speaker on the subject of creativity in companies. Sam Stern has taught at Harvard University, Athens Laboratory of Business Administration, and the Department of Systems Science at Tokyo Institute of Technology. His research and writings on creativity and its connections with business and education has led him to serve as an advisor on creativity to several top organizations in the world. The authors of this book focused on the idea that “companies could dramatically increase their creative performance if they recognized the true nature of creativity and learned how to promote unanticipated creative acts” (Robinson & Stern, 1998, p. 3). They also stated, “An entirely different perspective on managing creativity comes with recognition of the power of the unexpected”...