Creativity for the context of organisational creativity. They

Creativity for the context of organisational creativity. They

Creativity and Events “Producers are constantly being challenged to come up with events that ‘surpass last year’s, are bigger and better and are totally different and exciting” Matthews (2008, P. 19). It is therefore evident at the need for event organisers to react to customer needs in the market. This essay will introduce the concept of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship within the events sector. Key theoretical concepts around the subjects will be explored in order to form a discussion for the need of creativity within events organisations.This essay will draw upon industry examples to illustrate how the concepts can be achieved in order to gain competitive advantage.

Through critical analysis, the concepts can be reviewed, and an appraisal for the scope for creativity and entrepreneurship in events and events management companies can be formed. The first step into exploring creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship would be to investigate various definitions of the concepts. Tidd et al (2005, P. ) states that “innovation is driven by the ability to see connections, to spot opportunity and to take advantage of them”.

However, it is creativity that gives that ability to conjure up the ideas and Cummings (1998) supports this. He very much describes creativity as the idea generating stage. Martins and Turblanche (2003) also supports this theory and offers a definition for the context of organisational creativity.

They state that: “…creativity can be defined as the generation of new and useful/valuable ideas for products, services, processes and procedures… Martins and Turblanche (2003, P. 66). Therefore the link between the two concepts of creativity and innovation is evident. John (2001) points out however, that innovation can only be achieved after the successful implementation of the creative idea, whether it is a solution to a problem, a new product or an improvement.

Hence why encouraging innovation creates risk as the ideas may not be successful and reasons for this will be discusses further on in the essay. Sanjeev (2005. P2) directly supports links between creativity, innovation and ntrepreneurship stating that “creativity and innovation have been recognised for a long time as the cornerstones of entrepreneurship”. Ireland et al (2003, P.

963) states that “strategic entrepreneurship involves simultaneous opportunity-seeking and advantage-seeking behaviours and results in superior firm performance”. (Innovation and Technology – Creating the confidence to try) suggests that entrepreneurship creates risk taking and is the ability to spot opportunities in the market. (Innovation and Technology – Risk and Reward) argues that taking risks leads to a high reward.He goes on further to discuss that in many organisations innovation is often incremental. The types of innovation and the link between organisational sizes will be analysed further on in the essay. There is much literature discussing the many benefits of creativity and innovation and Kuczmarski (2003) states that companies aren’t being innovative enough therefore missing out on the benefits.

One major benefit that authors such as Ireland et al (2003), Denton (1999), Work Foundation (2003) argue is that innovation can lead to competitive advantage.The reason for this is that creative ideas can lead to an organisation being able to improve the products or services they offer, creating a whole new and radical product and even finding ways to improve the three processes of cost, time and quality in goods and services Cummings (1999), Work Study (2003), Design Council (2008). This is an especially desired achievement in the events industry as competition is forever evident for organisations.

Whitfield (2009) highlights the competition between events organisers themselves in a bid to win contracts.Denton (1999) points out often the answer to competitive advantage can be technology advancements, which suggest an element of cost. Consequently some organisations have to find methods of challenging competitors, which may be larger organisations, with the use of creativity.

Hence the importance of innovation. The financial implications are suggested (reference) to be a big reason as to why many organisations are not adopting an innovative practice.As many events organisations are generally small-medium sized enterprises (reference) managers may believe creativity and innovation to be too risky for an organisation and may want to play safe and concentrate on current income. Kuczmarski (2003) states that many Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) believe innovation to be too risky and too costly.

This implies that they do not believe innovation to be worthy of the risk. Other implications of cost include the outsourcing involved with getting external expertise as well as the necessary research. This may be necessary to actually turn the good idea into a profitable one.

Innovation and Technology – Risk and Reward) has argued that the more risk a company takes the more benefits they will gain in the long term. Furthermore to this is that organisations may not have the resources to successfully adopt innovation or a belief that innovation will actually bring reward. Various authors (Kuczmarski 2003, Man 2002, Work Foundation 2003) highlight the importance of having the right finance and resources to support innovation in order to generate returns. Kuczmarski (2003) then goes on to state that companies must change their whole company mindset.In recognition of this Martins and Terblanche (2003) claim that the best way to change the company mindset is to build an organisation culture supports creativity and innovation. “…organisational culture is defined as the deeply seated (often subconscious) values and beliefs shared by personnel in an organisation” Martine and Terblanche (2003, P.

65) Therefore the aim of adopting a change in organisation culture involves the task of changing and perhaps altering the views of all your staff in order for the change to be effective. This may be a difficult and lengthy process.Hence it is up to management to make a decision on whether a creativity and innovative strategy should be adopted. Furthermore to this is the discussion of management themselves. Steward et al (1989) cited in Zhao (2005) highlights the difference between a small business manager and an entrepreneur: “…small business owners were concerned primarily with securing an income to meet their immediate needs and that they did not usually engage in innovation, whereas entrepreneurs had higher achievement motivation and risk taking, and were inclined to innovation and change” Zhao (2005, P. 27).This implies that perhaps entrepreneurs are essential to the process of innovation and for an event company to stand out and successfully compete with bigger competition they must take the necessary steps into encouraging creativity and innovation within the company.

It is also suggested that organisational growth can be achieved through innovation Kuczmarski (2003). Those organisations that want to increase in size, dip into new markets and compete with larger organisations require creativity and innovation to do that. Therefore being innovative can bring on change and allow a company to grow. Various authors (Denton, 1999, www. esigncouncil. co. uk-conundrum, Zhao, 2005) look at innovation from another angle and argue that sometimes creativity and innovation is needed to help a business survive.

Martins and Terblanche (2003) also presents another benefit to creativity and innovation. They discuss the possibility of using creativity to solve problems and make improvements. This is supported by Work Study (2003) which explains how creative ideas can lead to cost-effective solutions, which may save the organisation money and even time. How to adopt creativity – organisational qualities/types of innovation; incremental/radical; process, place, product ConclusionIt is suggested by authors such as… to recognise the difference between the three but to clearly understand the link between the concepts in order to successfully implement innovation and ultimately reap the benefits that many authors claim.

Statistical evidence for innovation working! Word Count: 1527 References – need to change pages Matthews, D. (2008) Special Event Production: The Process. Butterworth-Heinemann, London.

UK Dawson Books i. p. 1 Tidd, J. (2005) Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organisational Change.

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Vol. 1, No. 1, pp 21-29 i. p. 1 Martins, E. C, Terblanche, F.

(2003) Building Organisational Culture that Stimulates Creativity and Innovation. European Journal of Innovation Management. Vol.

6, No. 1, pp 64-74 i. p. 1 Man, J (2001) Creating Innovation. Work Study. Vol. 50, No.

6, pp 229-234 i. p. 1 Sanjeev, S. (2005) Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Marketing: Conceptualization of Critical Linkages. The Journal of Advances in Management Research.Vol.

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1&2 Need to put the two Birmingham Library articles here. Kuczmarski, T. (2003) What is innovation? And why aren’t companies doing more of it?. Journal of Consumer marketing. Vol.

20, No. 6, pp 536-543 i. p. 2 Denton, K. (1999) Gaining Competitiveness through Innovation.

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p. 2 Zhao, F. 2005) Exploring the synergy between entrepreneurship and innovation. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research.

Vol. 11, No. 1, pp 25-41 i. p. 2 Whitfield, J.

(2009) Why and How UK Visitor Attractions Diversify Their Product to offer Conference and Event Facilities. Journal of Convention and Event Tourism. Vol. 10, No.

1, pp. 72-86 i. p. 2 & 4 Design Council Briefing. (2008) The Impact of design on Business i.

p. 3 Drewery, K. Corporate Partners Research Programme: Harnessing Creativity and Innovation. The Work Foundation i.

p. 2,3&4