Definitions Paper

Essay by shaunjohnsgrlUniversity, Bachelor'sB+, December 2009

download word file, 2 pages 0.0

Within today's business world, words like design, innovation and creativity are no longer limited to meeting rooms of marketing, engineering and design departments, but have rather become viable words necessary to the growth of that organization. In this paper we will define these three words and compare and contrast them and discuss their business implications. Organizations have succeed thus far by other means, they will soon loose any competitive advantage without an ongoing dedication and investment in the design, creativity and innovations of their product and services.

DefinitionsIt is very critical to understand the meaning of innovation, design and creativity in order to compare and contrast the terms. However, there is no all-inclusive definition for any of the three terms. Innovation and creativity are often interchangeably and people tend to have opposing opinions as to which one comes first. According to Bettina Von Stamm, creativity is "coming up with an idea," and she quotes John Hunt, who in summary said that creativity is not something where an individual who is inexperienced in a field suddenly comes up with a marvelous idea, but rather, it is relating a concept to a particular body of knowledge (Stamm, 2003).

Innovation is to introduce something new or to make changes (Herrmann, 1999). This particular author has portrayed innovation as a new creative idea, process or method. A product or service that has been established and has no apparent flaws is modified to fulfill a different need and increase the profitability of the organization. Design however is much more versatile than creativity and innovation, so it will be defined in the context of innovation so that there is a better understanding. According to Bettina Von Stamm, design is "The conscious decision-making process by which information (an idea) is transformed into an outcome, be it tangible...