Making Innovation Happen
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 10:40AM 
Sheikha Al Mayassa, a patron of artists, storytellers and filmmakers in Qatar, talks about how art and culture create a country's identity -- and allow every country to share its unique identity with the wider world. As she says: "We don't want to be all the same, but we do want to understand each other."
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 12:02PM IN the hunt for innovation, that elusive path to economic growth and corporate prosperity, try a little jazz as an inspirational metaphor. Enlarge This Image In business as in jazz, the tension between training and improvisation can result in great new works, says John Kao, the innovation adviser (and pianist). That’s the message that John Kao, an innovation adviser to corporations and governments — who is also a jazz pianist — was to deliver in a performance and talk on Saturday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Jazz, Mr. Kao says, demonstrates some of the tensions in innovation, between training and discipline on one side and improvised creativity on the other. In business, as in jazz, the interaction of those two sides, the yin and the yang of innovation, fuels new ideas and products. The mixture varies by company. Mr. Kao points to the very different models of innovation represented by Google and Apple, two powerhouses of Silicon Valley, the world’s epicenter of corporate creativity.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 07:43AM ANNALS OF IDEAS about brainstorming and creativity. In the late nineteen-forties, Alex Osborn, a partner of the advertising agency B.B.D.O., decided to write a book in which he shared all of his creative secrets. “Your Creative Power” was filled with a variety of tricks and strategies, but Osborn’s most celebrated idea was the one discussed in Chapter 33, “How to Organize a Squad to Create Ideas.” When a group works together, he wrote, the members should engage in a “brainstorm.” The book outlined the essential rules of a successful brainstorming session. The single most important of these, Osborn said, was the absence of criticism and negative feedback. Brainstorming was an immediate hit and Osborn became a popular business guru. The underlying assumption of brainstorming is that if people are scared of saying the wrong thing, they’ll end up saying nothing at all. Typically, participants leave a brainstorming session proud of their contribution.
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 09:17AM CNN.com has developed a 6-week enterprise series called Spark which asks the question: what goes on inside a creative mind? The series launched this weekend on the site’s Living Section, and will profile several people who epitomize certain characteristics of creativity: passion, failure, and improvisation, among others.
Part One of the Spark series is with Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys which explores Passion, where he will talk about what inspires him to make music, and of course the Beach Boys reunion coming later this year.
As for the rest of the series written by producer Todd Leopold, we’ll hear from some of the country’s most creative minds, including a legendary musician, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a genre-hopping DJ and artist, and a female roboticist. Through text articles, video, and photos, the series shows that everybody can be creative … if willing to work at it. All you need is a spark.
Work have a look at an excerpt from Part One interview with Brain Wilosn
Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 02:37PM
The creative process is messy, frightening and filled with insecurity. And that's the fun part. Tham Khai Meng, Worldwide Creative Director of Ogilvy describes how to do the (almost) impossible: create great work from a blank piece of paper.
