CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE

Bangalore has a hot startup vibe. Its all over the media and it’s THE major topic at lunch and dinner. Right now, the startup movement is dominated by engineers who focus on digital technology and copying successful Western platforms. After all, that’s how China is succeeding, right?

Well, not really. The great success of Alibaba and Tencent in China lies in their using a Western platform to provide CHINESE products that have deep meaning in Chinese culture. For example, Chinese people give red envelops full of money to each other on birthdays, holidays and all ceremonial events. The online players created digital red envelops that allow people to continue their ritual ceremony but on an easier, faster online platform.

That is what Indian startups need to learn to do. Indian engineers need to pivot away from a focus only on technology to a focus on Indian culture. They need  to mine for what is meaningful to their customers.  Amazon is doing well in India delivering quality goods quickly and cheaply. Local champion Flipkart is going head to head with Amazon. It might gain market share if it fully used its strongest asset. As an Indian company, it has deep knowledge and understanding of Indian cultures. If Flipkart focussed on delivering what Indians really want–what they really dream for–it could blow away Amazon.

How can Indian startup engineers learn how to be empathetic and how to learn what is meaningful to people? Start by teaming up with designers, like the people at Spread in Bangalore. The design process begins with understanding the user. Designers know how to create a great consumer experience. They know how to design a user’s engagement with the product or service. So engineers need to team up with designers.

And engineers could learn design thinking themselves. Design thinking means thinking like a designer. Design thinking is not simply the Six Sigma of Design–a rigid process that, if followed exactly, delivers innovation. This rigid interpretation of Design Thinking will not give you disruptive innovation.  Thinking like a designer means having an open mindset to understanding what your users actually desire and crafting a product or service that is both unexpected and delightful to use. With that comes great value. And a good chance of your startup becoming a unicorn.

Oh yes, Indian engineers can do one more thing to help them increase their chances at launching a successful startup. My book, Creative Intelligence, is published in India. They should buy it and learn how to increase their creative capacities–and learn to think like a designer.

You can measure the maturing of a startup into another Big Business by its edifices. Often, you can even measure the apogee of success by its edfices.   Starting up, its all about low-cost, renting and what-ever works. When gargantuan, expensive and starchitect-driven headquarters rise, it often becomes a forget-the-cost, own, and ego exercise. With tech companies, there is always an overlay message of promoting more innovation by building bigger, better space. 

We now have huge, new headquarters going up for Apple, Amazon and a bunch of other companies. I was an business journalist for many years at BusinessWeek and I can tell you that on Wall Street, this would be a sign that the companies have shifted from Growth to Value–from innovation to milking the innovation to squeeze out money. 

Its all good. Creative Destruction depends on moving along the curve of creativity and innovation. But how to assess that movement? Look to a company’s edifice complex.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/3b3aa566-157a-11e3-950a-00144feabdc0.html#slide0

Check out The Business & Leadership category on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=s9_dnav_bw_BoBiz_b?_encoding=UTF8&node=4919327011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-4&pf_rd_r=DF09367C51B14345BA9F&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1531130962&pf_rd_i=390919011

Corporations are racing to build up their creative capacities to deal with the cascading changes disrupting all of us today. Creative Intelligence provides strategic advice on how to generate, manage and scale creativity. And it reminds all of us that creativity is the core of economic value and serious profit.  

After nearly two years of research and writing, my book Creative Intelligence is officially launched today. I believe the book contains specific things people can do today and tomorrow to help them reduce  their Creativity Anxiety and to build up their Creative Capacities.  It provides specific ways businesses can become more innovative tomorrow. 

Thanks to all of you who preordered the book. Creative Intelligence is already trending strongly on Amazon.

It’s trending # 5 on Amazon in the category of Creativity and Genius for ebooks.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/156524011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_kstore_1_5_last

And # 5 for Cognitive Science in ebooks.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/158028011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_kstore_2_7_last

Creative Intelligence is trending # 18 on Amazon in Business Decision-Making and Problem-Solving for hardcover books.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/2679/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_1_4_last

Richard Florida was kind enough to read my book and offer this blurb–“Creative Intelligence lays out the forces that will drive us toward a prosperous future. Read this book if you want to be inspired and provoked to lead the way.”

Creative Intelligence is now on pre-order and you can get it in print or ebook from various sources, including:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=

9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&

iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/creative-intelligence/id533403255?mt=11

The official book launch date is March 5. I’m a little nervous but it’s all very exciting.