Originate and Develop Concepts - University Assignment, Semester 1

This assignment focuses on the process of originating and developing concepts within a business context. It begins by exploring two key techniques for generating creative ideas and solutions: brainstorming and mind mapping, providing detailed descriptions of each method. The assignment then delves into the reasons why innovative concepts may fail, outlining six potential obstacles, such as poor planning, lack of the right people, unwillingness to change, and inadequate support for innovation champions. Furthermore, the assignment presents three concept ideas related to cultural, social, or environmental issues, including community gardening, an all-night dance party, and a 60's style café, and discusses their potential impacts. Finally, the assignment analyzes a project situation, identifying gaps in meeting dynamics, such as groupthink, and proposes opportunities like mind mapping and reverse brainstorming to improve outcomes.

Running head: ORIGINATE AND DEVELOP CONCEPTS
Originate and Develop Concepts
Name of the University:
Name of the Student:
Author Note:

1ORIGINATE AND DEVELOP CONCEPTS
Assessment Task 1: Written Questions
Answer 1
a) Two techniques that may be used to generate creative ideas and solutions;
Techniques Brief description
Brainstorming This process involves engendering a huge number of solutions for
a specific problem (idea) with emphasis being on the number of
ideas. In the course of brainstorming, there is no assessment of
ideas. So, people can speak out their ideas freely without fear of
criticism. Even bizarre/strange ideas are accepted with open
hands. In fact, the crazier the idea, the better. Taming down is
easier than thinking up. Frequently, ideas are blended to create
one good idea as indicated by the slogan “1+1=3.” Brainstorming
can be done both individually and in groups. The typical
brainstorming group comprises six to ten people.
Mind mapping Mind mapping is a graphical technique for imagining connections
between various pieces of information or ideas. Each fact or idea
is written down and then connected by curves or lines to its minor
or major (previous or following) fact or idea, thus building a web
of relationships. It was Tony Buzan, a UK researcher, who
developed the technique “mind mapping” discussed in his book
‘Use your Head’ (1972). Mind mapping is utilized in
brainstorming, project planning, problem solving and note taking.
As is the case with other mapping methods, the intention behind
brain mapping too is to capture attention and to gain and frame

2ORIGINATE AND DEVELOP CONCEPTS
information to enable sharing of concepts and ideas. To get started
with mind-mapping, the participant just has to write a key phrase
or word in the middle of the page. Then, he/she must write
anything else that comes to his mind on the very same page. After
that, he must try to make connections as mentioned in the
previous paragraph.
Answer 2
Six reasons why an innovative concept may not proceed;
1. Having a plan simply for plans sake: Some organizations go through the motions of
developing a plan simply because common sense says every good organization must
have a plan. It should not be done like this. Just like most everything in life, an
individual needs to get out of a plan, what him/her put in. If he/she is going to take the
time then it may yield better outcomes. Planning teams must pay attention to changes
in the business environment, set meaningful priorities and understand the need to
pursue results. In addition to this, while planning one needs to be fully committed to
the strategic plans and understand how it can be improved for further betterment.
2. Not having the right people involved: Those charged with executing the plan should
be involved from the onset. Those involved in creating the plan will be committed to
seeing it through execution. They must be fully committed and fully understand how a
strategic plan can improve their enterprise. Without this knowledge, it’s tough to stay
committed to the whole process of innovative concept building. In addition to this, it
is also a good practice to write a plan and document it in an effective manner. If a
plan is to be an effective management tool, it must be used and reviewed continually.
3. Unwillingness or Inabilities to change: Individuals need to plan on a strategy and

3ORIGINATE AND DEVELOP CONCEPTS
must be able to nimble or adapt to the changes of the market conditions. In addition to
this, it is important to involve the correct persons, who have the willingness to
change. Many individuals have the mindset of, “we have always done it in this
manner.” This typical mentality needs to be changed in order to succeed in life.
Moreover, organizational changes can bring in innovative changes and yield better
outcomes for the future benefits of the companies.
4. Having the wrong people in leadership positions: Management must be willing to
make the tough decisions to ensure the right individuals are in the right leadership
positions. The “right” individuals include those who will advocate for and champion
the strategic plan and keep the company on track. Understanding the value of and
need for a strategic plan is a great place to start, but just wanting something, isn’t
enough. Developing a strategic plan takes discipline, foresight, and a lot of honesty.
Regardless how well an individual prepare, he/she is bound to encounter challenges
along the way.
5. Inability to focus on the future: The first, a flat stage while the innovation is being
improved and getting market traction, can be lengthy. Firms tend to accept this first
stage data as predictive and fail to analyze the potential technology or distribution
developments that may ensue and lead to the second, take off phase. As a result they
fail to invest or even stop an innovation that is in the marketplace. For example,
Blackberry had a smartphone prior to the iPhone and HP had an e-reader before the
Kindle or the iPad, but the potential of each, based on the existing market, seemed too
weak to merit investment. Apple, of course, proved them wrong. In addition,
incumbent firms lack three practices that promote the traits that engender innovation:
providing incentives for “big” innovation, fostering innovation competition and
empowering innovation champions.

4ORIGINATE AND DEVELOP CONCEPTS
6. Lack of support for innovation champions: Firms like Apple that have been serially
successful at innovation empower innovation champions, or individuals within the
firm that are charged to develop major innovations and are provided with a team and
resources. Successful innovation champions have a vision for the future mass market,
tend to be mavericks and dissenters, have the conviction to persist against heavy odds
and are willing to take risks. Such people are rare and need to be attracted, cultivated,
supported and rewarded. Not easy for most organizations. With a logical framework
and a fact-based, research-based foundation, it addresses one of the most important
challenges of the day: How does one foster “big” innovation within the context of a
firm that has successful business units? Executives of established firms should
understand it and consider applying the ideas immediately for the success of their
businesses. Innovative ideas are immensely important for balancing the internal as
well as external environments of a business.
Answer 3
Concept Cultural, Social or Environmental issues
Commencing a vegetable
garden for fresh fruit and
vegetables for the kitchen.
The benefits of community-based gardening projects likely
extend beyond food security, as gardens provide fresh
vegetables, and the process of gardening involves physical
exercise. Family and social relationships can also be
strengthened through community gardening, since
community members provide advice and support to help
overcome challenges and all receive the benefits the
gardening project offers. Immigration issues can lead to the
loss of these essential social networks and may leave migrant

5ORIGINATE AND DEVELOP CONCEPTS
families feeling isolated.
Introduce an all-night
outdoor dance party once a
month.
This is very important to ensure that urban residents are able
to live in a harmony with an overall quality of life. The
following are some contributions from the output of this
study, (i) The planning theory of night commercial and
technique to measure the level quality of life towards urban
resident’s impacted by night commercial activities could be
developed as a reference for future planning, (ii) Housing
developers could identify more strategies to ensure their
development can achieve a high quality of life for the urban
residents relating to night commercial area, and (iii) The local
authority can examine the land use zoning and the
development proposal by the developer that contain night
commercials activities in the housing area or night
commercials in the surrounding vicinity. Thus, further
actions can be taken to ensure the quality of life of urban
residents will not be highly affected by night commercial
activities in proposed housing development. Indicator
Measurement Technique of quality of life was further
developed to measure the impacts of night commercial
towards urban residents. This technique can be used by other
researchers, local authority or developer to help them justify
the level of quality of life of residents affected by night
commercial activities. This technique consists of three
aspects of quality of life namely comfort, convenience and

6ORIGINATE AND DEVELOP CONCEPTS
safety. Each aspect is provides with a different indicator that
determines an aspect in detail.
Introduce a 60’s style café. Introducing a 60’s style case business can get affected by
several environmental, social and cultural issues. Business
provides social needs, goods, and services to public to satisfy
demand to the consumers. Business activities also have
become a major contributor to environmental destruction.
The activities are consuming of resources and processes in
manufacturing need to be developed in order to save the
environmental sustainable development planning. However,
there has to be a change in attitudes towards consumption and
production which are depended on the market mechanism
pressure, customers, employee, investors and citizens. In
order to improve the environmental performance for the
businesses, it is important to improve the efficiency of the
materials, improve the quality of the products, increase
commitment among the staff members, improve media
coverage, reduce the financial risks, lower the insurance
premium, reduce risk exposure and create a positive as well
as healthy working environment for the employees.

7ORIGINATE AND DEVELOP CONCEPTS
Assessment Task 2: Project
Current Situation
The gaps that are being identified for the meeting are;
The group goes for low-hanging fruit: First off, someone says something obvious. Because
brainstorming requires every idea to be given its due, the group runs with this first idea,
discussing the idea even when everybody knows that it is rubbish. Before one knows it half
the session is gone and nothing has really been accomplished. However, anchoring is one of
the truly hundreds of cognitive biases we all have. A cognitive bias is like a little rule an
individual has in his/her brain for making the world easier to understand and to help us make
decisions easily and quickly. Sometimes these work for us, and sometimes against us. With
anchoring, we tend to put undue weight on the first idea of piece of information we are
presented with. Everything else afterwards is judged on its relative merit compared to that
piece of information.
Groupthink’ sets in: Groupthink goes along with the anchoring effect. Generally people
want to avoid conflict and we simply can’t help but want to agree with an idea someone
presents, even if we have better ideas of our own. This is a particular problem in a group
situation like brainstorming. In any group there are going to be some people who are
loudmouths and some people who are wallflowers. Because criticism is generally frowned
upon in brainstorming, this is supposed to help those of us to find our voice and speak up. But
anyone who has ever been in such a meeting knows this is not what happens. The loud people
talk first and override the conversation and then everyone goes along with what they say.
This is the natural order of such meetings. People want to conform and certainly don’t want
to face off against another member of the group, particularly if they themselves are shy. This
means that whatever the loudest members say goes, even if it isn’t the best of ideas. This is

8ORIGINATE AND DEVELOP CONCEPTS
what brainstorming was supposed to stop, but actually it is made worse by this group thought
environment.
Opportunities
The opportunities or ideas that are considered;
Mind Mapping: Mind mapping is a visual tool for enhancing the brainstorming process. It is
important to start by writing down one’s goal or challenge, and ask participants to think of
related issues. Layer by layer; add content to your map so that you can visually see how, for
example, a problem with the telephone system is contributing to issues with quarterly
income. Because it has become so popular, it's easy to find mind mapping software online.
The reality, though, is that a large piece of paper and a few marketers can also do the job.
Reverse Brainstorming: Ordinary brainstorming asks participants to solve problems.
Reverse brainstorming asks participants to come up with great ways to cause a problem.
Starting with the problem and asking “how could we cause this?” can help on the long run.
After having a list of great ways to create problems, one is ready to start solving them
Gap Filling: Starting with the statement of where an individual is. Then writing a statement
of where he/she would like to be. The participants should respond with a wide range of
answers from the general to the particular. Collecting them all, and then organizing them to
develop a vision for action is highly important.
Drivers Analysis: Working with the group to discover the drivers behind the problem for
addressing. What is driving client loyalty down? What is driving the competition? What is
driving a trend toward lower productivity? Uncovering the drivers, will help an individual in
beginning to catch a glimpse of possible solutions.

9ORIGINATE AND DEVELOP CONCEPTS
SWOT Analysis: SWOT Analysis identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats. Usually, it’s used to decide whether a potential project or venture is worth
undertaking. In brainstorming, it’s used to stimulate collaborative analysis. What are our real
strengths? Do we have weaknesses that we rarely discuss? New ideas can come out of this
tried-and-true technique.
The Five Whys: Another tool that’s often used outside of brainstorming, the Five Whys can
also be effective for getting thought processes moving forward. It is necessary to simply start
with a problem addressing and asking “why is this happening?” Once having some answers,
ask “why does this happen?” continue with the processes five times (or more), digging deeper
each time until it helps in coming to the root of the issue.
Other players in the market
Organizations compete over hiring the most creative personnel for their enterprise. It
is important to understand how innovative and creative work leads to the betterment of any
company. Moreover, this part of the report discusses in detail what an individual requires
develop their abilities;
1. Truly creative people have developed their ability to observe and to use all of their
senses, which can get dull over time. It is important to take time to “sharpen the
blade” and take everything in.
2. Innovation is based on knowledge. Therefore, an individual needs to continually
expand your knowledge base. Reading things might help, that individuals don’t
normally read.
3. A person’s perceptions may limit his/her reasoning. It is important to be careful about
how one perceives things. In other words, defer judgment.

10ORIGINATE AND DEVELOP CONCEPTS
4. Practice guided imagery so that the individuals can “see” a concept come to their
lives.
5. Let the ideas “incubate” by taking a break from them. For example, when a person
working on a big business project, one of the best things he/she can do to take a break
from it is play a guitar or the flute for a few minutes, or take a ride on motorcycle. It
shifts his/her brain into another place and helps him/her be more innovative and
creative.
6. Experience as much as one can. Exposure puts more ideas into the subconscious
mind. Actively seek out new experiences to broaden the experience portfolio.
7. Treat patterns as part of the problem. Recognizing a new pattern is very useful, but be
careful not to become part of it.
8. Redefine the problem completely. When an individual defines the real problem,
he/she can solve it and move on. After all, if the individual had correctly defined the
real problem, he/she would have solved it long ago because all problems have
solutions.
9. Look where others aren’t looking to see what others aren’t seeing.
10. Come up with ideas at the beginning of the innovation process and then stop. Many
times we come up with several ideas and start innovating, and then we come up with
more ideas and never get a single idea done. At some point one may have to turn off
the idea generation part of the process and really work on the innovation and
execution part in order to bring a project to life.

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Copies of mind mapping and brainstorming
Brainstorming is the key to working through a problem, breaking down your ideas
and finding the best way to solve an issue. Brainstorming is by far the most important step to
solving any problem and it is even more effective when done using Mind Maps.
Benefits of Brainstorming and Mind mapping;
 Improved problem-solving
 Better decision-making
 Find optimal solutions
 In-depth analysis
 Goes beyond task level planning
 Visual organization
Brainstorming and mind mapping as a group is highly effective for problem-
solving simply because of the combined brain power and the greater number of ideas brought
forward. Each member of the team brings their own, different perspective to the issue at
hand, which then translates into more solutions. A great strategy when starting brainstorming,
is to get each member of the team to brainstorm alone first and then have everyone bring their
ideas together. Brainstorming can also be a highly effective tool to develop a strong sense of
camaraderie in a team because it gives everyone a sense of responsibility and motivates them
to work that little bit harder. The more creative and innovative the team members or the
individuals are the more long-term success they will achieve. So rather than constantly
chasing “the next big idea” in the industry, it is important to bring in creativity and
innovation to what the individual is currently doing.