Ideas are the Currency of the New Economy

Numbers tell the story
By Linda Naiman

Genius level creativity

In 1968, George Land distributed among 1,600 5-year-olds a creativity test used by NASA to select innovative engineers and scientists. He re-tested the same children at 10 years of age, and again at 15 years of age.

Test results amongst 5 year olds: 98%
Test results amongst 10 year olds: 30%
Test results amongst 15 year olds: 12%
Same test given to 280,000 adults: 2%

"What we have concluded," wrote Land, "is that non-creative behavior is learned."

(Sources: Escape from the Maze: Increasing Individual and Group Creativity by James Higgins; also George Land and Beth Jarman, Breaking Point and Beyond. San Francisco: HarperBusiness, 1993)

Why aren't adults as creative as children?

For most, creativity has been buried by rules and regulations. Our educational system was designed during the Industrial Revolution over 200 years ago, to train us to be good workers and follow instructions.

Organizations that understand the relationship between creativity, innovation and performance, actively promote creativity in their employees; will win in the marketplace. The root of invention and innovation is creativity.

ROI Return on Investment

High-Performance Work Practices...

* skills training
* coaching and performance appraisals tightly linked to compensation
* cross-functional teams
* involve employees in corporate decision making & production processes

...and how they pay off

If the average company implements these work practices, within a year it can expect (per employee):
$27,044 more in sales
$3,814 more in profits
$18,641 more in market value

Source: Mark Huselid. "The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Turnover, Productivity, and Corporate Financial Performance."
Academy of Management Journal. July, 1995.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a two year in-house creativity course at General Electric resulted in a 60% increase in patentable concepts.

Participants in Pittsburgh Plate Glass creativity training showed a 300% increase in viable ideas compared with those who elected not to take the course.

At Sylvania, several thousand employees took a 40 hour course in creative problem solving. ROI: $20 for every $1 spent.

Hewlett-Packard invested over $2 billion in R&D in 1999, and generated more than 1,300 patent applications. Net revenue: $42.37 billion. (Source: HP 2000 Annual report)