Email: How do innovators come up with new business ideas? (Vietnam)
Innovative entrepreneurs have creative intelligence which enables discovery of new ideas. Our ability to think creatively comes through learning a skill, practicing & gaining confidence in our own capacity to create.
Our ability to successfully connect seemingly unrelated challenges or ideas is central to innovation. The ‘Medici Effect‘. Creative explosion happened when the Medici family brought together sculptors, scientists, poets, painters & architects. As they connected, new ideas blossomed. The Renaissance era. Steve Jobs observed, “creativity is connecting people & things.”
The important job is not to find the right answer, it is to find the right question. Innovators constantly query common assumptions. Most entrepreneurs remember specific questions when they had an inspiration for a new venture. Why? Why Not? What If?
Innovative thinkers have the capacity to hold two diametrically opposing ideas in their heads, then synthesise. We impose constraints on our thinking when forced to deal with real-world limitations like resources or technology. Ironically, great questions actively impose constraints on our thinking, a catalyst for out of the box insights. Creativity loves constraints.
Creators intentionally seek small behavioural details in customers, suppliers, partners & competitors to gain knowledge on fresh ways of doing things. Build prototypes, launch pilots. Edison said, “I haven’t failed, simply found 10,000 ways that don’t work“. Intellectual exploration is the key, a culture that fosters curious experimentation. Apple’s slogan ‘Think Different‘ is inspiring.