Innovative thinking skills aren't something a privileged few are born with, it's something that can be taught, said Drew Boyd, an assistant professor of Marketing and Innovation at the University of Cincinnati.
"Innovation is a skill, not a gift. It is something you can be trained to do like learning a new sport or new hobby," Boyd said.
He should know. Boyd is a recently retired Johnson & Johnson executive who spent 17 years in marketing, mergers and acquisitions and international development. He's now the Executive Director of the
MS-Marketing program, and teaches a class on innovating thinking that's quickly becoming popular at UC.
The graduate level course, Innovation Tools, teaches five techniques that foster innovative thinking.
"There are five patterns that help you take a product or service and morph it into something innovative," Boud said. "These patterns have a structure that allows us to be more creative."
For instance, one technique Boyd teaches involves tying together two aspects of a product. One feature of the product changes alongside another feature of the product or the environment. A recent example from Boyd's class involved using this technique (called attribute dependency) to innovate in the athletic shoe arena. One student invented COLOR EX, where the user's exertion is tied to the color of the shoe. With this innovation the fabric color of the shoe changes based on how hard the athlete works. For example, as an athlete's heart rate rises, the shoe may turn red. As it lowers, blue.
You can see the COLOR EX, and several other athletic shoe innovations in a blog entry Boyd wrote
here.
About 45 students take his class each semester, and though its designed for business students, students outside the business world find it useful including the disciplines of DAAP, engineering, law and medicine. Students innovate around a set of categories including medical devices, airline inflight services, cosmetics, marketing research methods, online education and more.
Though the athletic shoe and other innovations are academic, Boyd's class will be partnering with internationally known companies including P&G, GE and L'Oreal to develop innovative product ideas.
"All the ideas are turned over to the companies, and they are meant to be used. They are meant to be real ideas," Boyd said.
In the past, several class ideas have been put to use by local businesses and organizations, including the Cincinnati Art Museum," he said.
Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: Drew Boyd, Drew Boyd assistant professor of Marketing and Innovation at the University of Cincinnati
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