Creativity and Innovation BRD209 Assignment 1: Perturbing Thoughts

This assignment explores the concepts of creativity and innovation through a series of tasks. Part A delves into "perturbing thoughts" with imaginative scenarios. Part B examines the evolution of communication, highlighting key innovations like the telephone, internet, and social media, and speculates on future telecommunication trends. Part C focuses on creativity and innovation in real-world contexts, using Adobe as a case study to analyze its innovative strategies, target market, organizational structure, and contributions to environmental sustainability. The assignment also touches upon wicked problems like ecological imbalance and the role of organizations in addressing them, providing a comprehensive overview of creativity and innovation in various domains.

Innovation and creativity

Innovation and Creativity 1
Part A: Perturbing thoughts
Task 1
1. Peey: The dwarf has a tiny bladder. Needs to pee often.
2. Bumpy: The dwarf keeps bumping into things
Task 2: News headline
Bumpy gains excessive weight! Bounces back when hit by a car!!
Task 3: Disease
The disease is ‘Photymytosiosis’. The symptoms include nausea, uncontrollable laughter,
inability to be in sunlight, insomnia and newly developed Ornithophobia (Fear of birds).
Part B: Innovation all around us
Task 1
The Homo sapiens took millions of years to reach the dominating state that they have today since
the big bang. We destroyed a bunch of species from the scratch even including Neanderthals who
could survive fierce climates that no other species could. In order to reach our current state of
being, we have had to undergo massive changes. One important aspect that helped us reach our
current state has been our ability to communicate.
I believe that communication is the most important aspect in our development because through
communication we have been able to build social relationships, express our grievances and grow
societies. A lone human who could not communicate wouldn’t have been able to survive. The
three key innovations that have helped us communicate more effectively and enabled our growth
include:
1. Telephones: Telephones were invented in 1876 and have since been an important part of
our lives. Telephones are a key invention because they helped us communicate
effectively with people who were geographically distant from us. This enabled people to
build larger groups, call out for help as and when needed as well as share knowledge.

Innovation and Creativity 2
2. Internet: The next key invention was the internet. The internet came into being in 1983.
The internet enabled us to remain connected with the entire world (Bojanova, Voas &
Hurlburt, 2015). Communication became much easier and people formed even bigger
groups, teams and organizations. Internet helped people share chunks of data and
information with one another in a fraction of seconds. Through internet, people could
read more, learn more and discuss more. This led to improved knowledge and renewed
sources of learning for people.
3. Social media: Social media refers to platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and
Snapchat that were ideally created for people to connect with each other. However, these
platforms are today increasingly also used for businesses. Social media enabled us to
communicate even better with people at a distance and helped us make a brand out of our
own individuality. This is the peak where we humans have reached today.
Task 2
Ten years from now telecommunication would have taken a new shape altogether. The demise of
the phone call is inevitable. The email as well would no longer be in the picture and Virtual
reality would indeed be reality. It would be possible for people to communicate with each other
through their watches, sunglasses, Bluetooth devices, shoes or even rings. Verbal instructions
would be enough to connect people in real time over voice or video calls. People would be able
share files through these sources in real time. Every person would have a uniquely identifiable
telephone number and the every individual can easily be contacted through that number. People
can define permissions about who can and cannot be contact them.
It would also be possible for people to place future phone and video calls. Record their messages
and decide to send it when the other person is online. Through communication people would be
able to share meeting memos, consistent live locations of all their contacts and schedules of
everyone they are connected with. People could decide to go offline and disconnect with the
world in order to not give access to anyone. When strangers physically cross each other, they
would be able to connect on Facebook through facial recognition.

Innovation and Creativity 3
Task 3
In a crazy future of over 50 years, there would be a small device fixed in everyone’s minds. They
are the only ones who would have a remote to it. It would help them send and receive messages.
They would be able to visualize all the messages in front of them sent from any part of the world.
All the messages would remain recorded forever. A to do list would be maintained by the device
in the brain of the individual based upon their messages and thoughts.
The chip would help people remain in contact, read messages at their own ease, keep them saved
forever, go back to those messages and form a to do list in their minds. People would be able to
share files, keep these files and go back to these files as and when they want. The transfer of
these files would take place without any physical entity but just a single chip in people’s minds.
Every individual would have a social media profile. But the profile would be visually present
next to the person all the time. Individual would automatically connect with all the people he or
she crosses and their live location can be easily traced.
Part C: Creativity and innovation around us
There are various wicked problems surrounding us at the moment. One of the biggest problems
faced by us is the ecological imbalance created by us due to the high amount of pollution that we
release into the environment. Pollution harms us individuals dangerously and has impacts our
health adversely. It is the responsibility of every individual on this planet to address this issue
and take efforts in resolving the same.
The major issue with pollution and increased carbon content in the atmosphere is that the
problem is complex and keeps changing context. It is never really possible to identify the exact
amount of pollution in the world because it is consistently increasing. However, there are a few
organizations that are doing their best towards making the planet a better and safer place to live
in. These social responsibilities of various organizations have improved the state of the
environment but there is still a long way to go.

Innovation and Creativity 4
Task 1
An example of one such organization is Adobe. Adobe has built green offices across the globe
and is leading the way in being an example for other organizations that must put efforts in saving
the planet. Innovative strategies adopted by Adobe include creation of green offices, reducing
carbon footprints and spreading the culture of saving the environment.
It is true that today many organizations are doing their bits in saving the world but Adobe is
innovative because it was the first organization to build green offices throughout the globe. They
have a state of the art waste disposable system which ensure that all the waste generated in the
organization is disposed in an effective manner. The organization has completed over 180 energy
efficiency projects aimed at reducing the overall energy consumption of the organization. They
have reduced the use of electricity by 50%, natural gas use by 30%, domestic water use by 79%
and irrigation water use by 71%. In 2009, Adobe installed 20 wind spires and turbines (Adobe
Sustainability, 2018).
Task 2
Adobe was founded in 1982 and is today one of the largest computer software company in the
world. Adobe is headquartered in California but has operations spread across the globe.
Target market of a business refers to the set of customers whose needs the business aims to fulfill
(Kirzner, 2015). Adobe’s target customers involve any person who owns a computer. The
organization employs over 15000 people worldwide. The CEO Shantanu Narayen is at the top
and the rest of the organization is divided in departments including sales and marketing, research
and development, human resource management, administration, operations, Information
technology and public relations.
The company was started in John Warnock’s garage. Steve Jobs had asked to buy the company
in 1982 but Warnock had sternly refused. However Steve Jobs convinced them to sell off 19%
shares. Adobe’s first products were post scripts and digital fonts. Since then the organization has
been effectively growing.

Innovation and Creativity 5
Adobe owns a market share of 1.44% in software and programming industry with major
competition from Apple, Dell, HP and Microsoft (CSI market, 2018).
The organization has been creative due to the choice of the products introduced as well as a
highly decentralized organizational structure. Such a structure is rarely seen in firms as large as
Adobe. The firm’s contribution to the environment is unfathomable and Adobe has created a
superb example for other organizations to follow. Adobe’s consistent efforts and the innovative
nature of these efforts have helped our planet and the firm is earned itself a reputation for being
one of the more green organizations of the world.

Innovation and Creativity 6
References
Adobe Sustainability, (2018), ‘energy conservation’, Available at
https://www.adobe.com/in/corporate-responsibility/sustainability/energy-
conservation.html, retrieved on 23 March, 2018.
Bojanova, I., Voas, J., & Hurlburt, G. (2015). The internet of anything and sustainability. IT
Professional, 17(3), 14-16.
CSI market, (2018), ‘Adobe’s competition’, Available at
https://csimarket.com/stocks/competitionSEG2.php?code=ADBE, retrieved on 23 March,
2018.
Kirzner, I.M., 2015. Competition and entrepreneurship. University of Chicago press.