Maria ThompsonDirector, Innovation StrategyMotorola Solutions, IncMay 5, 2012

The Value of CREATIVITY

to Corporations

Who Am I?

• Director, Innovation Strategy• Masters in Mathematics & Computer Science • Passions

– tools, technology, patents, creative problem solving and inventing– 2 issued patents; 8 filed– Equestrian sports – jumping, falling off, and getting back on…– Wife and Mother of two– Proud to be a GEEK!

Maria B. Thompson

“Chance favors only the prepared mind.”Louis Pasteur (1822-1892)

SKILLS

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

CREATIVITY

CREATIVITY Three reasons why people are motivated to be creative:

need for novel, varied, and complex stimulation need to communicate ideas and values need to solve problems

Roger von Oech – “Creative thinking involves imagining

familiar things in a new light, digging below the surface to

find previously undetected patterns, and finding

connections among unrelated phenomena.”  

Albert Einstein

"The mere formulation of a problem is far more often essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science."

Intellectual Property & Innovation

INVENTION:

Solution or fix to a problem

Conversion of cash into ideas

INNOVATION:

Commercially successful use of inventions

Conversion of ideas into cash

Innovation is codified and protected through

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:

PATENTS, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets,

Know-how

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Patents & Intellectual Property Rights

Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of

America’s Greatest Inventor

by Michael Gelb, Sarah Miller Caldicott

“Next came the patent laws.  These began in England in 1624, and in this country with the adoption of our Constitution.  Before then, any man might instantly use what another man had invented, so that the inventor had no special advantage from his invention.  The patent system changed this;  it secured to the inventor for a limited time the exclusive use of his invention, and thereby added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius in discovery and production of new and useful things."

  - Abraham Lincoln

“Nothing is more important than to see the sources of invention which are, in my opinion, more interesting than the inventions themselves.”

Gottfried Leibniz, German Mathematician and Philosopher (1646-1716)

PROBLEMIDENTIFICATION

&SOLVING

What is so great about PATENTS?

1. Novel solution to problem

2. Teach others to advance science

"The patent system is nothing more than a way to encourage people toinnovate... to take risks... to make the world a better place.”

-- Dean Kamen, Spotlight On: The U.S. Patent System

3. Prevent others from using, copying or selling your solution (invention)

Why you and your employer might need patents

Considerations Costs – 1 patent filing (US) ~ $15,000;

– 3 additional maintenance payments to keep for ~20 yrs.

What is your market differentiator, core competencies or “crown jewels?”

What (novel aspects of your work) do you want or need to exclude others from replicating?

Who is in a position to easily practice your art or copy your idea? Who are your competitors? Do they already have patents, trademarks,

copyrights?• Check out http://www.google.com/patents

Freedom of Action – In what countries do you plan to ship product or provide services?

The power of patents - continued

Cost Avoidance / Loss of Market Share√ RIM paid NTP $612M in litigation settlement√ RIM had to stop selling Blackberry’s in US for period of time

until settled

Detectability & Enforceability√ Will you be able to identify whether someone is copying

(“infringing”) your product or service?√ If not, better to pursue trade secrets, copyrights, etc.

NEED TO USE CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS EVERY BUSINESS DAY!

RESILIENCY

RESILIENCYrebounding from adversity

Self-efficacy: belief in one's agency and the ability to be a catalyst for

Change - Shapes key human behaviors*:

Courses of action people choose to pursue How much effort they put forth How long they will persevere in the face of obstacles and

failuresTheir resilience to adversityWhether their thought patterns are self-hindering or self-

aidingHow much stress and depression they experience in coping

with taxing environmental demandsThe level of accomplishments they realize

*Based upon research of Albert Bandura

“Don’t worry about other people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.”

– Howard Aiken, IBM Engineer

ALBERT EINSTEIN

• ‘below average’ student at school• could not speak until he was three • weak in Math• Aspergers? Autistic?

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything NEW.”

ALBERT EINSTEIN• 20th century creative genius, scientist, and philosopher • Started career as a patent office clerk• Studied other people’s ideas• learned how to analyze creative ideas and examine them in

his mind - no laboratory to test the ideas• > 20 patents produced with very prolific inventors (1928–

1936)• Patents: refrigerators, electromagnetic pumps, sound

reproduction apparatus and light intensity self-adjusting cameras

• Einstein’s theories continue to be exceptionally valuable source of patentable ideas (solutions!)

Thomas Edison• very curious child who asked a lot of questions• teacher whipped students who asked questions• Did not like math• Deaf due to injury• difficulty in reading until he was twelve • difficulty writing, even after 12 years of age• Parents didn’t force him to learn things he didn't enjoy;

only learned about things that interested him

Thomas Edisonfinding ways to make lives better, instead of

learning how something works

• "Genius is hard work, stick-to-itiveness, and common sense"

• More patents issued to Edison than issued to any other single person in U.S. history: 1,093.

• Mother home-schooled him• Read every book in public library

Thomas EdisonEdison demonstrated positive attitude, perseverance, resiliency.

"Results! Why man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work."

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

"Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless."

So the next time you make a mistake, or feel discouraged, ADOPT Mr. Edison's attitude on mistakes!

John Vincent AtanasoffThe Man Who Invented the Computer

• A physicist and mathematician who invented the computer

largely out of frustration and laziness!- designed a machine to do what his own mind could not - Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) hardly became known at all

because he didn’t PATENT it!

• Mauchly, patented Eniac computer, not a better scientist

than Atanasoff, but more ambitious

- In his Eniac patent application, claimed responsibility for >100 innovations

- judge invalidated the Eniac patents, ruling Mauchly’s invention was based on the ABC

Robert Morris

- cryptographer who helped develop the Unix computer operating system; - chief scientist of the National Security Agency’s National Computer

Security Center

Son: Robert Tappan Morris- Comp Sci grad student at Cornell University, wrote computer

worm in 1988 -virus- able to propel itself through the Internet; intended to hide in the network, but due to design error, spread wildly out of control, jamming more than 10 percent of 50,000 internet computers

- convicted under an early federal computer crime law, sentenced to probation; ordered to pay a $10,000 fine; performed community service

- later PHd CS from Harvard; now teaches CS @ MIT

The Obvious Corporation FoundersThe Obvious Corporation makes systems that help people work together to

improve the world. … relaunching the company that originally incubated Twitter with a high level of commitment to making a difference and developing products

that matter…Also, there’s room for innovation in how Businesses measure success and more meaningful definitions of ambition.

Biz StoneGQ named him ‘Nerd of the Year’ but Biz is better known as a

progenitor of social networking, blogging, co-founder of

Twitter, and a philanthropist. There's more about Biz on his

foundation site.

Evan WilliamsOne of Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneurs of the Decade, Ev’s the co-founder and

former CEO of two of the biggest sites on the web — Blogger and Twitter. (He’s also

done some stuff that’s gone awry.)

Jason GoldmanJason is a failed astrophysicist with over a decade of

experience in product management. He led product for

Blogger at Google and was VP of Product for Twitter Inc.

SLICED BREAD

Easy as…Sliced Bread?

Invented: 1912Toaster invented: 1926Patent: 1,867,377 (US) issued July 12, 1932

ICE CREAM and PIZZA

POST-IT NOTES and SONY WALKMAN

Motorola RAZR and Apple iPod->iPhone

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

Michelangelo (1475-1564)

Many Techniques to Think Creatively

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Our mind tends to automatically organize new information with our current knowledge.

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“Even though one was correct at each stage, the situation may still have to be restructured

to proceed.” Ed deBono

contradictions

Key Insight:Be willing to rearrange

what you know

“Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the

one who asked why.”

Bernard Baruch

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How Questions Help Creative Problem Solving

Clarifies problemsEngages mindsIncreases brain flowCultivates curiosityImproves ListeningPromotes analogous thinkingEnhances quality thinkingAccelerates innovationImproves idea management

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What is the Question Banking Methodology?

1. IDENTIFY Sources of Questions

2. COLLECT Questions

3. ORGANIZE Questions

4. IMPROVE Questions

5. APPLY Questions (Questionate to Ideate)

Questions to Ask When Collecting Questions

1. What are ALL the questions that people might answer in order to address the goal(s), challenge(s) or problem(s)?

2. What are all the obstacles or challenges that might relate to the goal(s)?

3. What are the 3-5 MOST IMPORTANT questions that should be asked to address the goal(s)?

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Search the internet for existing solutions and reframe as questions

Wordsmith and polish questionsUse www.thesaurus.comIncrease “open-ended” questionsEliminate “closed” questions that can be answered “yes” or “no”Replace “can” and “could/should” with “might” and “may”Genericise so non-experts can engage and inventTease out conflicts, contradictions and tradeoffs

√ Quality Review CHECKLIST Brief and concise Provocative, inviting and inspiring Clear and focused Understandable by variety of people Grammatically correct Functional, action-oriented verbs that describe the desired result or outcome

Question Banking TIPS & Checklist

Recommended Books for Skills BuildingInnovate Like Edison: The Success System of

America’s Greatest Inventor

by Michael Gelb, Sarah Miller Caldicott

Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking by Tim Hurson

Simplified TRiZ: New Problem-SolvingApplications for Engineers & ManufacturingProfessionalsby Kalevi Rantanen, Ellen Domb, www.triz-journal.com

Making Questions Work: A Guide to What and How to Ask for Facilitators, Consultants, Managers, Coaches, and Educators by Dorothy Strachan

“Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually,

without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

― Rainer Maria Rilke

Ideality+

Problem Storming+

Innovation Exercise

1. Focus/Goal:

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What are all the ways we might characterize the Ideal/Perfect World solution based on the resources we have available to us?

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IFR

1. Focus/Goal/Objective/Problem:

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QuestionGeneration-Recipe: How might we use Opportunity #3 to overcome Limitation #2 and achieve/remove #1? OR How might we achieve/remove #1 by using #3 without #2? PS

Ideation Exercise

How might we identify valuable mobile applications?

Trend spotting

Functional Analysis /”Job” Identification

Value Analysis www.AndroidZoom.com

I keep six honest serving-men. They taught me all I knew; Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

Six Key Questions

Rudyard Kipling Indian-born British writer and poet

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © Motorola, Inc. 2004.Motorola Confidential Proprietary once Completed

Session Name: Gemini Innovation Workshop

What problem are you trying to solve?(If working from a list of questions, record the question number.)

What is your idea/solution?

How might your idea/solution be implemented? (A sketch, flowchart, or list of features will help to explain this.)

Innovator(s) CoreID(s): Today’s Date:

4/27/2007

Potential Business Value:

High, Medium, Low, Unknown

What is a “working title” or keywords for your innovation?

Motorola Confidential when Completed

Suggested Lead:

Session Name: Gemini Innovation Workshop

What problem are you trying to solve?(If working from a list of questions, record the question number.)

What is your idea/solution?

How might your idea/solution be implemented? (A sketch, flowchart, or list of features will help to explain this.)

Innovator(s) CoreID(s): Today’s Date:

4/27/2007

Potential Business Value:

High, Medium, Low, Unknown

What is a “working title” or keywords for your innovation?

Motorola Confidential when Completed

Suggested Lead:

Idea Sheet

Trend Spotting

Who are all the people that use mobile devices?What are their unmet needs?When do people have access to their mobile

devices?Where do people take their mobile devices?Why are people pleased with or disappointed by

their mobile devices?How might peoples’ mobile devices better serve

their needs?

Trend Spotting – RolesWHO are all the people you know that use their mobile phones regularly?

Family Spouse Children Parents

Friends Classmates Co-workers Service Providers ( e.g., store owners, restauranteurs,

plumbers, construction workers, tollbooth operators, government workers, ice cream vendors, security guards, etc.)

Functional Analysis / “Job” Identification

WHAT are all the jobs or functions people need to do that a mobile phone application might support? user scenarios contexts activities jobs == tasks information exchange

WHEN do people have access to their mobile devices?

Before, during, in-transit to or from work At play At home Before, during, and after school With children (playing, babysitting) or out on the

town without children With aging parents (e.g., doctors, hospital) Daytime – morning rituals Nighttime – evening rituals Meal-time: breakfast, dinner, lunch

CONTEXTWHERE do people take their mobile devices?

Shopping Home Office Grocery store Restaurants / Pubs Sports venues Concerts Vacation (e.g., camping, skiing, cruising) Gym, Workout Center, Dance Studio, Martial Arts Parks

e.g., Running, Football, walking the dog, playing with children

Where would people like to take their phones but can’t today?

WHY are people pleased with or disappointed by their mobile devices?Pleasing?

What information is important to people? What excites or entertains people? What amuses people or makes them happy? What makes people more organized, efficient or productive?

Disappointing? What frustrates people? What annoys people? What stresses or worries people? What upsets people or angers people?

HOW might peoples’ mobile devices better serve their needs?What types of information might we bring to people in

real-time?How might we eliminate the need to perform tasks by

automating them?How might we eliminate the need for people to travel to

experiences?How might we enhance existing mobile device

experiences to make them more gratifying and satisfying?

How might we help people perform their “jobs” more effectively and efficiently in all contexts?

How might we help people better connect with those they want in their lives and disconnect from those they don’t?

Value Analysis of the

Mobile ApplicationDoes it make the user able to perform a task (job) more

effectively?

Is the performance of a user task (job) more convenient?

Is performance of the task (job) more affordable, so more users can improve their efficiencies?

Are the user’s functional, social and emotional needs met in order to perform the job perfectly?

“Technical skill is mastery of complexity while creativity is

mastery of simplicity.”Christopher Zeeman, Mathematician (1925- )

“Don’t Ever Stop Asking Questions” - Albert Einstein