Creativity: Unconventional Wisdom from 20 Accomplished Minds Book

To Nandan Nilekani business creativity is in understanding different trends and different incidents that are completely unconnected in some ways and saying, "Hey, maybe if we take these two or three things together, this is the likely way thing s will go. If we do the right thing, we can take advantage of that."

A lot of business creativity has to do with visualising a future that others don't see, explains Nilekani, co-Chairman of Infosys, in one of the essays included in Creativity: Unconventional Wisdom from 20 Accomplished Minds edited by Herb Meyers and Richard Gerstman ( www.palgrave.com). "You can't predict where the idea will come from, nor can you centralise ideas. But you can create an ecosystem where ideas flourish," he says. Karim Rashid, a renowned designer, declares, in a different chapter, that we are all born creative. Yet, we need to be encouraged to be creative, he argues. A major hurdle, according to him, is laziness. To Steven Holl, who was named 'America's Best Architect' in 2001 by Time magazine, creativity is the breaking out of the habitual ways of thinking. "Creativity is central to our survival. Imagination is central to our survival. Without these, we are dead." Creative people are driven by factors of validation and a sense of acknowledgement, says Chris Bangle, BMW Group chief of design. "That does not mean they need a third party to do the acknowledging." "Often it can be a dialogue only between the designer and the creation, but this needs to be a loop of personal satisfaction to the tune of: 'I came, I designed, you exist.' The bigger the loop and the more people that enter into it, the more energy a creative person is usually rewarded with." Great collection.