An investigation into the ways in which creativity can negatively manifest itself and the effect that these manifestations can have on the relationships between the sales and marketing departments within Security Products UK LTD.
INTRODUCTION
The Role of Creativity
Creative thinking has left indelible marks on every area of human endeavour. Review any profession or field of interest and you will find the traces left by those particularly note worthy individuals, or groups of people, that advance and improve the status quo within their discipline to such an extent that they are seen, at least in the short term, as pioneers. Examples are not difficult to find; think of Mozart’s contribution to music, Einstein’s three papers in 1905 that opened new avenues in the field of Physics and Darwin’s ‘The Origin of the Species’. On a lesser scale, and one that is more pertinent to this study, Josiah Chubb and Linus Yale Snr are famous for introducing similar ground breaking innovations in the field of security.
However, in terms of creativity, these now famous thinkers are at the very top of the tree and although many people associate innovation with this super dynamic profile, it can exist at every level, from the person who sculpts a genre splitting piece of art to the person that mounts it for display.
Creativity is the stuff of legend but it is also the stuff of survival, especially within organisations. The average life of a Fortune 500 company is 40 years and one of the main reasons for this is the life cycle that an organisation is seen to go through. Typically, businesses will develop and implement its core idea and then grows as a result of this initial creativity. However, because of the difficulties associated with continual innovation in large organisations, it ultimately loses the ability to improve on that first good idea, and thus remain ahead of the market. Its demise then follows.
To illustrate this point one only need review...