DEFINITIONS PAPER

Definitions Paper

Definitions Paper

In today's business world, words like innovation, design, and creativity, are no longer found solely in the meeting rooms of marketing, design, and engineering departments, but have rather become profitable words necessary to the growth of an organization. Around September 1995, a young software developer sat down and began to write programming code on an unknown website, beginning by listing a single broken laser pointer as a test, rather than a serious offer intended for sale (Hsiao, 2008). He was surprised that the item sold for $14.83 and by 1996, the company became large enough to require the skills of a strong business team whose creative efforts, website and process design, and continuing innovation, produced the most popular shopping website in the world; ebay.com (Hsiao). In this paper, this author will define innovation, design, and creativity, compare and contrast the terms, and discuss their business implications. Although organizations may have achieved success by other means, they will lose their competitive advantage without an ongoing dedication and investment in the creativity and design of innovative products and services.

First, it is important to know the definition of innovation, design, and creativity, in order to understand how to compare and contrast the terms. Unfortunately, no all-inclusive definition exists for any of the terms. Creativity and innovation are often used interchangeably and different people 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).

To compare and contrast the terms, one can look at examples of ...