Transcript Document

Business Studies Grade 12
Topic 4: Creative Thinking
 INTRODUCTION:
 Business enterprises are under constant pressure to outperform their
competitors.
 In order to maintain market position, business enterprises need to find
effective and creative solutions to problems.
 Before advanced problem solving techniques can be applied, the difference
between decision making and problem solving has to be understood.
 The difference between decision making and problem solving.
DECISION MAKING:
• Often done by one person of members of
senior management who makes it
authoritarian.
• It is the practice where a number of
existing alternatives are considered and a
choice will be made of which one will be
the best solution.
• Forms part of problem solving, because in
each step of the problem solving cycle,
decisions must be taken.
• Consists of three steps, namely:
1 Identify the problem.
2 Consider possible solutions.
3 Make a decision.
PROBLEM SOLVING:
• It requires creative thinking in a process
where alternatives are evaluated after
research on the problem is done.
• Is executed by a group op people and is
more inclusive than decision making.
• It encourages creative thinking to find
innovative solutions.
• Consists of 8 basic steps, namely:
1 Identify the problem.
2 Define the problem.
3 Identify alternative solutions.
4 Evaluate the alternative solutions and
choose the best solution.
5 Formulate / develop a strategy / action
plan.
6 Implement the strategy / action plan.
7 Monitor the strategy.
8 Evaluate the process.
 ACQUIRING ADVANCED PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS:
 All people and business enterprises experience problems.
 The problem solving cycle is a problem solving tool that is used to solve
problems.
 The process comprises eight steps which can be presented in a cycle diagram
– it is presented as a cycle, because the process can be repeated if the
problem is not solved by working through the process the first time.
 ACQUIRING ADVANCED PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS:
 The problem solving cycle
STEPS:
Step 1:
Identify the
problem
DESCRIPTION:
 Regardless of what crops up, you must know what the problem is
and understand it thoroughly before it can be resolved.
 This is a critical step because it focuses on the solution process.
 Write down what is the symptoms of the problem.
 Obtain opinions from as many people as possible to address the
problem from different angels of view.
 Obtain as much information as possible about the problem.
 If you have sufficient knowledge about the problem you have to
define the problem as specifically as possible.
Define the problem  Write down all the possible reasons for the problem.
/ find the possible
causes of the
problem
Step 2:
 ACQUIRING ADVANCED PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS:
 The problem solving cycle
STEPS:
DESCRIPTION:
 Generate a list of potential solutions through applying creative
thinking techniques, such as brainstorming, the force field analysis or
Identify alternative
the Delphi technique.
solutions
 There is usually more than one possible solution to the problem
(some better than others) but all possible solutions should be
considered that the most feasible strategy can be developed.
Step 3:
Step 4:
Evaluate the
alternative
solutions and
choose the best
solution
 Develop a set of criteria that the solution must meet to solve the
problem in terms of the:
• Costs and time involved.
• Probability of success.
• Risks involved.
• Degree of resistance or acceptance by employees.
 Keep in mind that different solutions may cause other problems,
therefore, each must be carefully considered and investigated
before a decision on a specific strategy / solution is made.
 ACQUIRING ADVANCED PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS:
 The problem solving cycle
STEPS:
Step 5:
Formulate a
strategy or action
plan
Step 6:
Implement the
strategy
DESCRIPTION:
 This strategy is the plan of action to solve the problem and require
further investigation before a decision can be made.
 Teamwork will help to formulate the best possible strategy.
 When a range of possible solutions are identified and developed,
there should be decided on one strategy which, according to the
opinion of the team, would be the best solution.
 Create a Gantt chart to indicate tasks, employees responsible for
the respective tasks and deadlines.
 The solutions that were developed in the previous steps of the
problem solving process are now put into action.
 The steps in the implementation of the strategy should be planned.
 Ensure that the necessary resources (financial, people, time,
equipment, etc.) to implement the strategy are available.
 ACQUIRING ADVANCED PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS:
 The problem solving cycle
STEPS:
DESCRIPTION:
 This step involves comparing actual results with desired results and deciding
which strategies worked and which strategies did not.
Monitor the  Check whether the implemented strategy solved the problem.
strategy
 If not, or whether the effect was not as effective as you thought it would be,
go back to step 3 and develop a different strategy.
Step 7:
 Whether the strategy was successful or not, it is still important to evaluate the
whole process that was used to determine the strategy.
Evaluate  Through the evaluation it can be determined whether the procedure was
the problem
effective or perhaps it can be made even more effectively.
solving
 The following can be determined during evaluating:
process
• Lessons to be learned from the problem.
• Can these lessons be used in other areas of the business?
• Was there perhaps a better / cheaper solution?
 During the evaluation, the input from everyone involved in the process, were
obtained.
Step 8:
 ACQUIRING ADVANCED PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS:
 Some examples of problems/challenges that may occur in the business environment.
MICRO
MARKET ENVIRONMENT:
MACRO ENVIRONMENT:
ENVIRONMENT:
 Lack of or change
in mission and
vision.
 Business risks
 Inefficient
organisational
culture.
 Procurement,
storage and
distribution of
resources.
 Difficult
employees.
 Negotiations with
unions.
 Strikes, etc.
 Urbanisation which leads to the
depopulation of rural areas.
 Supplying of credit to
consumers.
 Demographic issues.
 Consumers’ bargaining power.
 Insufficient stock supply form
suppliers.
 Intermediaries that increases
the cost of distribution.
 Services by intermediaries who
do not meet expectations.
 Strong competition.
 Consumer protection such as
debt counselling.
 Inflation / Interest rates /
Exchange rates.
 New technology.
 Infrastructure not being
maintained.
 Rising costs because of e.g. etoll.
 Lack of fuel.
 Poor electricity supply.
 Weather changes.
 Increase of people in informal
settlements.
 High unemployment rate and
other socio-economic issues.
 Increased demand for environmentally friendly products.
 ACQUIRING ADVANCED PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS:
 Advanced problem solving skills
TECHNIQUE:
DESCRIPTION:
Pro others
Involving
 Problems may fall outside the business’ scope of expertise.
 Management can then make use of consultants.
Working in teams
 Some problems are too complex to be dealt with by individuals.
 Dividing employees into problem solving teams is a creative
problem solving technique with several advantages, including:
• Viewing the problem from different perspectives.
• Having access to a broad base of knowledge, skills and expertise.
• Obtaining a careful analysis of the problem.
Pro-active problem  Pro-active problem solving means to anticipate problems and to
solving
prevent them form occurring.
 This strategy will ensure that resources are not wasted on problems
that could have been prevented.
 ACQUIRING ADVANCED PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS:
 Advanced problem solving skills
TECHNIQUE:
DESCRIPTION:
Intuitive decision
making
 Problem solving teams are often required to make a decision or
solve a problem when time and information is limited.
 In such cases, problem solving teams must rely on their intuition,
common sense and past experience.
SWOT analysis
 A SWOT analysis forces management to analyse the enterprise’s
strengths and weaknesses.
 This helps management to anticipate problems and prevent them
from occurring.
 ACQUIRING ADVANCED PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS:
 Advanced problem solving skills
TECHNIQUE:
DESCRIPTION:
PESTLE analyses
 The PESTLE analyses assesses a business’ position in terms of:
• Political (what happens on political level? E.g. tax regulations,
labour laws);
• Economic (What happens in the economy? E.g. economic growth,
unemployment, cost of living);
• Social (What happens on social level? E.g. cultural norms and
standards, health, population growth);
• Technological (How does technology influence the business? E.g.
What new technology is available?);
• Legal (What changes to laws is there? E.g. import and export laws,
labour laws); and
• Environmental factors (What happens in the environment? E.g.
global warming)
 and will help management to anticipate problems in terms of these
factors.
 The PESTLE analyses is suitable for bigger business enterprises.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 What is Creative Thinking?
 To offer anything new or to think original.
 Creative thinking can help entrepreneurs to come up with better
ideas than their competitors.
 Existing products can be improved through creative thinking.
 It also assists to develop innovative marketing strategies.
 Problems can be solved through creative thinking.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 Creative thinking can be developed by the following:
 Think constantly on what is happening around you and question
decisions made by other people.
 Listen to what others say. You can use what is said and with a
few changes, you can develop it into a useful product or business
idea.
 Write down the ideas you have.
 Constantly ask questions about something you take for granted.
 People tend to do things the same way. Break away from this
‘habit’ and try something else.
 Do not be afraid to make mistakes.
 Surround yourself with creative people.
 Assume that there is more than one method to tackle issues.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 Creativity is not just required from the owner / management:
 Encourage employees to develop new ideas.
 Encourage creativity as an approach to all situations.
 Stimulate and develop employees to be more creative.
 Welcome flexibility and innovative ideas from employees.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 The role of creative thinking in problem solving:
 Creative thinking plays an important role in the success of a
business and promotes the moral of the workers.
 Creative thinking skills are important to find a variety of options
to solve problems in the business.
 Essential for a successful and sustainable business in a competitive
business world.
 Development of ideas, formulation of plans and problem solving
requires an element of creative thinking skills.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 Routine thinking against creative thinking:
 Routine thinking: The management team assume that the future
will be the same as the past. Problems are therefore undertaken
in the same way as in the past with the expectation that different
results will be obtained. Nothing new is tried, because the point
of departure is: we have always done so and changes will only
bring problems.
 Creative thinking: Break away from routine thinking and use
lateral thinking through discussing of the problems, even if the
solution does not seem feasible. Try something else to address
problems through innovative and new thinking.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 Business’ challenges are becoming more complex due to the
influences of the external business environment such as
improvement in technology, etc. and therefore the management
teams of businesses must put in more effort to understand and
implement more complex techniques to solve challenges.
 The most appropriate technique or combination of techniques
should be applied to handle a specific problem / challenges.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 The force field analysis
 The force field analysis examines all the forces for and all the forces
against a decision.
 The force field analysis is prepared on a grid:
Forces for a decision:
Score:
Problem statement/
Decision to be
made.
Forces against a decision
Score:
 State the problem or the decision that needs to be made in the middle.
 The forces for a decision are listed in the left column and the forces
against a decision are listed in the right column.
 A weighting from 1 to 5 is assigned to each force, where 1 indicates
that the effect of the force is weak.
 Calculate the total score for each column.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 The chair technique
 The chair technique involves two people sitting on chairs facing one
another.
 The person sitting in one chair has to identify all the advantages
concerning a particular choice or problem.
 The person sitting in the other chair must identify all the disadvantages
regarding the problem or choice.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 The Delphi technique
 The Delphi technique involves obtaining the opinions of experts without
the experts having to meet in person.
 These experts help to create ideas and explaining them to reach
consensus to make informed decisions.
 Pre-compiled questionnaires are used to gather information and
opinions to receive feedback from different people.
 These opinions / information are then processed to determine the best
possible solution..
 The idea behind this technique is that people in groups talking about a
problem, do not have the same impact as when individuals separatly
have to answer questions about it
 It is a time-consuming technique that increases expenses due to
increased administrative costs.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 The Delphi technique
 The process is as follows:
 Identify the problem, design a questionnaire about the problem and
ask the participants to submit any possible solutions to the problem.
 Each group member completes the questionnaire individually and
anonymously.
 The response of the people is analysed at a central venue.
 A copy of the processed results of all respondents, are given to
each group member, after which the group members (respondents)
again completed a questionnaire after the results of the previous
questionnaires have been studied.
 This response is then analysed again, etc.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 Brainstorming
 This technique is often used in problem solving when the business’
management team wants to get a group / team involved in the
process.
 Brainstorming promotes creative thinking and creative problem
solving by encouraging idea generation without participants
criticising the ideas of fellow participants.
 One of the biggest advantages of brainstorming is that
participants build on one another’s ideas.
 Group members can come up with ideas without fear of criticism,
and team members can build on each other’s ideas.
 It can be an effective and motivational technique, but it must be
properly managed by a facilitator to ensure best results.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 Brainstorming
 The following three aspects are essential if brainstorming is used
as a problem solving technique:
 all the people in the team / group must contribute positively,
 free imagination. and
 judicious criticism of other group members’ suggestions.
 As a result of technological improvements, an E-brainstorming
session ca be held in which group members share their ideas
online.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 Brainstorming
 Brainstorming work as follows:
 The facilitator explains the definition of the problem to the group(s).
 Once everyone in the group understood the definition clearly, a time
limit is set in which the problem should be solved
 Group members exchange ideas and it is written on a flipchart by
each group leader.
 The facilitator encourages all group members to participate and
ensure that no one’s idea / suggestion will be criticised, because it
will discourage group members to come up with ideas.
 When the time has expired, or if no one has any more ideas, the
flip charts are put up in front of the room.
 Similar ideas by different groups are grouped together by
compiling a new list and the ideas are refined.
 The group evaluates the ideas and arrange them in order of how
successful they think each idea will be.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 SCAMPER
 Suited as creative thinking technique in the process of developing new and
improved products.
 Think for instance how cars, cell phones, etc. have changed through the years.
 Manufacturing enterprises mainly use this technique to develop new products
and improve existing products.
 SCAMPER is the acronym for the following techniques:
 Ask questions related to the each of the following:
Substitute
 Which part of the product can be substituted by something else to
remove the problem/create an improvement.
 E.g. parts, equipment, raw materials, workers
Combine
 Which people/processes can be combined to eliminate the problem /
create an improvement.
 Current product’s various functions, technologies, equipment.
 E.g. Nowadays cell phones have different functions for example:
personal communication, sms, camera functions, games, etc.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
Adapt
Magnify/
modify
 What can be changed to eliminate the problem / create an
improvement?
 E.g. a toothbrush working with a battery.
 What can be modified / magnified to create an improvement?
 E.g. new car models that differ from previous models in terms of form.
Put to
 How else can this problem be solved? E.g. can this product be marketed
another use
overseas? For what other purposes can the product be used?
 E.g. a bench that change to a bed.
Eliminate
Rearrange/
reverse
 What will happen if parts of the problem / process / product are
eliminated?
 E.g. original cell phones came out with an aerial on top of the phone.
Modern cell phones have an inbuilt antenna.
 What if the problem was approached from another angle?
 E.g. a jacket worn on both sides.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 Nominal group technique
 This technique is used to eliminate the disadvantages of group
discussions. In a group there is usually one or a few people taking
over, while other members are passive because they do not have the
confidence to express opinions
 Give each participant in the conversation on problem-solving, a card on
which any possible solutions to the problem can be written.
 This is anonymous cards, which means nobody writes their name on it.
 Take in all the tickets and hand it out to other participants.
 Each person reads the possible solution(s) on the card in his / her hand
aloud.
 The facilitator writes down all the proposals for all to see.
 All the proposals are discussed with regard to pros and cons and then
the most suitable solution is chosen, after all proposals are ranked.
 The final choice can be done by secret ballot where each member
anonymously votes for the best solution.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 Forced combinations
 Hand out paper with an object, slogan, words or picture imprinted on it
to each participant.
 Each person gets a different object, word, picture or slogan.
 Example: one gets a picture of an elephant, the following participant
receives a paper with a calculator imprinted on it, the next a slogan
‘We can’, etc.
 There may therefore be a great variety, according to the problem that
must be dealt with.
 Write down the problem that must be dealt with so that everyone can
see it.
 Everyone should then use the picture, object, word or slogan on the
paper as symbol to create possible solutions to the problem.
 Write down all the possible solutions and choose from them the best
solution.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 Empty-chair technique
 Similar to the chair technique, except that only one person is
involved.
 The person spoke to the ‘fictitious person’ on the empty chair.
 This technique stimulates the person’s thinking.
 It helps for better understanding of the problem, because you
need to explain it to ‘someone else’.
 You give possible solutions aloud to ‘someone else’.
 Psychologists says some people find it easier to utter their
problems and grievances when no one is hearing them.
 What was “said” are recorded by the ‘speaker’ for future use.
 APPLYING CREATIVE THINKING TO COMPLEX BUSINESS PROBLEMS:
 Mind maps
 It is diagrams portraying ideas / concepts.
 It can be used to develop new ideas, solve problems, show notes to
exchange orders, serve as a summary in studies, etc.
 This technique works as follows:
 Decide on the central problem and find a word / picture that
describe it. This word / picture form the core of the map.
 Break the central problem in main ideas and write them down on the
main branches of the map.
 Divide the main ideas in sub-ideas and indicate it on the smaller
branches of the map. (The main and sub-ideas can be assessed
through a brainstorming session).
 As far as possible single words must be used to indicate the mainand sub-ideas.
 Colour and different forms can help to indicate the ideas logically.