Creative thinking can help generate lots of ideas, find new ways to make money, solve problems, re engage new markets or products, modify ideas or ways of doing things and ensure you are more competitive.

So what is creative thinking in business? Well it’s when you are looking at something that everyone else is looking at but you see something different, or you are looking at opportunities or possibilities others haven’t seen yet. Or you are challenging assumptions in different ways.

In fact, being creative is as much a core competence in small business now as leadership, financial management and marketing is. It may even be more important. Just have a look at the following two examples:

Reverse some of your most basic assumptions about how you do business. Do performance reviews at the beginning of the year not the end. Give the financial budget to front line people. Instead of you deciding what products you are going to develop, let customers develop products/services. Its about looking at the opposite to see if it generates any different thinking. Okay it these may not be the solutions for you but it gets you thinking differently.

Manipulation of existing and new ideas in business. Chose something you want to adapt or change or modify or whatever. Break it down, list what could be changed or variations on the service or product and then look at different combinations of development.

As an example, imagine you want to improve customer service. You break it down into four aspects or use the customer process such as politeness, responsiveness, delivery, referrals, after care, complaints handling. Then ask the following question:

What could be done to improve customer service in these four areas?

List the alternatives you come up with, get five for each and then try and connect them. Find useful improvement combinations. Try and think of different ways of connecting responsiveness with referrals or after care.

Think about it, if you list five alternatives for each of the four areas of customer service you can generate around 3000 combinations of development. If only 10% are useful, that means 300 new ideas for developing customer service. You don’t need me to tell you how useful that is!

Everywhere we look big businesses are burning the midnight oil trying to look, and in some cases, be smaller than they actually are. At the other end of the spectrum us smaller businesses are tapping our imaginations hard trying to look bigger than we really are. What a farce! If we spent just as much brain power on developing new ways of doing business, being creative or creating a leading edge product, things could be a lot different!

As I’ve mentioned before, traditional marketing is over, thankfully. I was never comfortable with it anyway. Now the playing field is more level. Technology, the internet, mobiles and global inter-connectivity mean that small business can play with the big boys or girls! You don’t need a multi million pound budget to reach your customers. A few thousand quid will often do.

But what do we do instead, we act like big corporates when they grow and hit a certain age. Small businesses stabilise, systems rule the roost and ideas run out. They become boring, risk adverse and whilst the larger business usually has huge cash reserves to weather the storm, the small business doesn’t. In fact the small business should have just done the complete opposite, taken the risks, kept nimble, utilised its close team and generated lots of ideas that it could quickly take to market.

Our biggest and most aggressive enemy is complacency itself. Small business must not lose the character that made them successful when they first started up. They can easily be closer to the customer, better able to add value to the customer and have more chance of making creative decisions than big business.

Times are tough, the buzzword of the moment is recession and the strong economic climate looks like it’s taking a battering and for some time to come. Customer confidence is wobbling, cash is tight and we are all feeling more than a pinch. So its easy to take a knee jerk reaction and try to cut costs, yet perhaps thats the easy route and a route to nothing. So what are you going to do?

The best answer is before you do anything…….. ‘think.’ Here I offer some thoughts:

1. It’s a long haul - whilst there may be some quick hits you can implement, make sure you don’t cut costs too much, an anorexic business ain’t going to get you far in the long term. Being overstretched will only work for so long.

2. Understand what creates the true value in your business. Is it the staff? Is it employees? Is is your products? Is it your customers? Whoever provides the value, they are providing the profit and they need supporting it’s as simple as that.

3. Differentiate, differentiate, differentiate. Get to grips with why people buy from you, invest in marketing and sales tactics that communicate that and if you have creative thinkers…..these are the last people you get rid of in these tough times.

4. Lead your team through this period. Don’t make it tougher for your staff. Encourage, engage, motivate and inspire them to become better at what they do and more productive. If they are led with those words in mind they will come up with the solutions and make it easier for you. Keep morale high and don’t start slashing expenses, bonuses without doing it properly. Strong, clear communication is priceless.

5. Concentrate on customers even more. Identify your top 20% of customer performers ie: those contributing to profit, growth and cash and go visit them. The last thing you want to do is lose customers at this time because in the panic you forgot about them. Set targets for increased spend from these customers. If your top 20% of customers spend 10% more this next year, what difference would that make?

6. Do something now. Get on with it and don’t put it off…you don’t want it biting you on the bum in the next few months. Think, understand and prepare for the actions required. Don’t let decisions be forced on you and think long term solutions.

Looking back on these points, perhaps it’s timely reminder that tightening the old belt can sometimes be good for us!

Here’s an interesting question:

What will happen to your business in the future if it is defining itself by it’s products and results instead of its real competencies, ability and values?

Well, potentially you could run out of steam, all market places are changing faster than they have ever done before. Products die, become obsolete, old fashioned and you can’t adapt to that change quickly enough.

A company that defines itself by it’s values and ability grows. It can respond significantly to changing markets. It recognises and sells it’s competencies, it motivates the people it engages with both employees and customers. And, it sets itself apart by clearly stating its purpose, difference and beliefs.

Which type of company is yours?

One of my most popular slides in the seminars I deliver is from the Leadership Challenge course we designed a couple of years ago so I thought I would share it with you. A few delegates reminded me the other day how it made a difference to them!

In an interconnected world where boundaries are increasingly cultural not geographic, where we are managing the human imagination not muscle power, where expectations are hugely different from 30 years ago and where change is spirally out of control, it’s important to understand and practice those things that help leaders of people make a contribution, add value and bring that extra dynamism to the organisation that ensures order, yet creativity at the same time.

So what is the difference between managers and leaders, well here is my stab at it:

1. Managers does things right, the leader does the right thing
2. Managers focus on the now, leaders focus on the future
3. The manager seeks control, leaders relish change
4. Managers appeal to reason not emotion, leaders appeal to both
5. A manager will use control, a leader relies on trust because they have created that culture
6. Managers organise and will often do the work, leaders engage people to do the work
7. Managers will often apply incentives (typically financial), leaders inspire
8. A manager will use the official approach, leaders will always appeal to the common approach
9. The managers goal is efficiency, the leaders, effectiveness and added value
10. A manager will often use positional authority, a leader personally influences
11. A manager will ask what contribution their staff are making, a leader will ask him/herself, what contribution am I making first
12. A manager will say they have all the answers, a leader will truly believe that together they have all the answers

I could go on and, okay, I accept that occasionally you have to be both, particularly in a small business. But and its a big but, if you are the head, director, owner, MD, of a small business, you should be behaving as a leader at least 80% of the time with your managers/supervisors, employees behaving like managers.

Behaving like a leader gives you time, time to catch your breath and think about where your heading. What the purpose is, the true purpose of your business and it gives you chance to stay ahead of the strategic curve and manage the rapid change more effectively.

I recently conducted a seminar about small business growth. As usual, it all got a little interactive and we got talking about keeping objectives as simple as possible especially at start up and the growth stages. This is what we came up with:

1. Produce lots of loyal customers

2. Attract new customers at least cost

3. Reduce costs as far as possible

4. Increase customer spend by getting them to buy more

5. Build reputation and brand equity

I would argue/debate/discuss that keeping focused on these objectives will drive your business forward….wouldn’t it?

Just finished a few books! There are so many books out there, it can be easy to read stuff that’s boring, old school and simply rubbish. Here are a few I think will get you thinking about how to do things better:

“The Laws of Simplicity” - John Maeda

“Authenticity” - David Boyle

“Small is the New Big” - Seth Godin

Well worth your time. Enjoy…..let me know what you think.