Thomas Vogel - Breakthrough Thinking: A Guide to Creative Thinking and Idea Generation

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To my wife Ilene and my daughters Jessica and Alexandra for being my biggest supporters.

To my parents for having encouraged me to dream, practice my own creativity and take risks.

Right now, at this very moment, this book is changing your brain.

It is a small change, but as you continue to read, it will become a larger and lasting one.

Creativity is the quality that enables us to generate novel approaches to situations and to discover new and improved solutions to problems. Throughout history, creativity has been a powerful force for change. Compared to previous centuries, the pace of change has rapidly accelerated in the twenty-first century. Creative thinking provides us with the tools and skills needed to adapt and thrive in this fast-paced environment. Through creative thinking, we have the ability not only to understand change, but also to learn how to make it work for us. Better yet, we can even learn how to create the change that benefits us personally and professionally. When put into practice, creativity allows us to move beyond our accepted patterns of thinking and into the uncharted territory of new and innovative ideas. Creative thinking allows us to find solutions to problemsfrom what to serve for dinner at in impromptu get-together to how to eliminate abject poverty around the world. And, like any skill, the more it is used, the more exceptional, valuable and (dare we say) fun it becomes.

While creativity helps us individually, it also helps companies in the business environment. Simply maintaining a business is not enough to survive anymorecompanies need to become more productive and, at the same time, stay competitive. Companies must embrace an active strategy to build and grow creativity, fostering it as an essential ingredient for obtaining success. For many companies, creative thinking has become not only a tool for strategy but also a key factor in discovering new ideas that will differentiate them from the competition, be it through product design, new services offered or something beyond.

The emphasis on creativity within industries such as film, entertainment, advertising, music, performing arts and architecture has allowed several experts to become leaders in creative thinking, and many are seeing a renaissance that has enabled them to weather economic turbulence. In recent years magazines have started to highlight creativity. Major trade publications, like Advertising Age and Creativity, as well as business magazines like Fast Company and INC, feature annual rankings of the most creative individuals and innovative organizations.

The advertising industry, in particular, has been the source of many research findings about creativity. Not exclusive to advertising, the growing need for applied creativity in all business environments makes the characteristics of creativity relevant to all forms of communication, from traditional marketing to interactive and social media. As a communication discipline, creativity has long been considered the driving force of the advertising industry. According to researchers, creativity is arguably the most important aspect of advertising, with some claiming that creativity is the mission of the entire advertising industry, its raison dtre. Industry magazines and conferences focusing on the practitioners point of view agree that creativity is a power that can save a whole industry from ruin (Iezzi, 2006). Creativity in advertising has been defined as being new and relevant with your ideas. Some argue that advertising creativity is a form of creativity different from the concept of creativity. Creativity in advertising is also regarded as creative problem solving, constrained by marketing objectives, competition and the organizational hierarchy, among other things.

This book is the result of a significant paradigm shift in the marketing and advertising industries. Creativity is no longer under the sole proprietorship of copywriters, art directors and designers. Susan Credle, chief creative officer at Leo Burnett in Chicago, describes this change by saying if youre going to do great creative [work], you cant be a creative department. You have to be a creative agency. I think thats asking every single person to do their job creatively. Based on interviews conducted with top creative executives, every employee is expected to be visionary, brave, generous, confident and curious, independent of job description and discipline.

Thanks to rapid advances in technology and a liberated understanding of the benefits of how and where creativity can be applied, creativity has transcended the form of a quality applied to individuals or industries to become a highly sought-after skill, a corporate value and way of thinking that is driving innovation and businesses today. Within the marketing, communication and advertising industries, traditionally considered to be creative industries, the conversation regarding the need for creativity at all corporate levels has intensified. David Droga, founder of Droga5 knows that without creativity, society would lack innovation. Creative intelligence is crucial its the creative people who instigate everything, says Droga. This innovation is becoming increasingly difficult. Mark Hunter former creative executive at Deutsch LA expressed the need for his agency to remain revolutionary instead of reactionary: Everything needs to be interactive. Whether we like it or not, all other forms of communication are becoming two-way.

Additional industry experts describe another shift. Edward Boches of Mullen in Boston says, Were not in the words-and-pictures business anymore; were in the business of building our clients business, and creativity is the strongest asset you can have to do that. The leading creative agencies in advertising and marketing in the United States are acknowledging that they are not just creating advertising anymore but are actively helping their clients to solve their business problems and create value through product development. According to Marshall Ross, chief creative officer at Cramer-Krasselt in Chicago, it is important for agencies to recognize that the definition of creativity needs to be very open. It isnt just how you are putting words and pictures together. It is about how you are thinking about strategy; how you are thinking about measurement; its how you are thinking about where the intersections between this idea and audience lie. He adds that it is also about influencing the clients ability to develop products. If we dont bring creativity, we dont bring surprise or novelty to readjust the positioning or product development.