Creative Thinking and Problem Solving Business Report

Table of Contents Executive summary 2 1. Introduction 4 1. Strategy and success: Lady Gaga-creative thinking 5 1. Strategy and success: Jeff Bezos and Amazon- problem solving 6 1. Strategy versus tactics 8 1. Tesla Motors: A case study in disruptive innovation 16 1. Decision making- based on problem solution. Conclusion 18 2. References 19 1. Introduction Creative thinking is the aspect of looking into problems in a very unique perspective in order to provide a viable solution. In order to accurately solve a problem it is necessary to clearly define the problem so that the solution can be very specific ad direct to address the specific issue. The cause of problem once identified, multiple alternative to its solutions should be formulated. The solutions should then be ranked on priority and then a decision then made on the best of the available alternatives (Goetsch and Davis, 2014) 1.

Strategy and success: Lady Gaga-creative thinking Creative thinking is important in a business as a tool for identifying and exploiting new opportunities and providing effect solutions to problems as a way of improving the overall productivity and profitability. Business starts with taking risk and the magnitude of risk that an investor takes reflect the expected returns. The modern technology offers many platforms for interacting with customers such as through YouTube, face book, twitter and other social media platform. These can also form a way of advertisement. According to Moriarty et al (2014), pp 421 “the principle of advertising have also been observed in studies of award-winning work and its effectiveness is based on the focus, truth and uniqueness”. The business ideas should therefore involve being up to date with the technology which reaches out more people and builds up a stronger relationship with customers.

This also extends to matters of developing competitive advantage by coming up with more unique and innovative ideas that will lure people to liking the services offered by the business. It requires serious strategic planning and fast decision making. Some business is flexible in the sense that they can take a different perspective from the original idea. This causes some problems in management and requires critical thinking in order to adapt the new line of business. Bezo had uncompromising ambition to make a dream come true and as result, there was aspect of flexibility in order to solve in any new incoming problems of whatever nature in the line of business. However, there are a number of problems to be solved in order for a business to grow fast such as the balance between the costs of services offered to customers’ willingness to pay the set prices.

They include pricing, product, marketing, operational and financial strategies. Pricing strategy deals with the prices charged for commodities and services offered by a business. Some lower their prices to encourage buyers and dominate the market while others equate the quality of their goods to their prices so they do not lower their prices as a result. Some choose to offer discounts on their products while others give credit services to their credit worthy customers ranging from a grace period of one month to one year. Microsoft therefore has cut prices in its products to attract more customers and in turn expand their companies to ensure that they remain within the expected profit margins. It however has drawbacks such as requiring expertise to be able to implement the set goals such as expansion and rebranding and in most cases this is expensive which requires the business to add more products on their line to cater for the expenses.

Some business have limited options especially those that operate on short term opportunities (Selznick, 2014). Estate Agency Estate industry involves two groups of people which are the realtors and the buyers. Realtors help find apartments for those that would like to rent while the buyers tend to assess the market so as to know what costs to rent or sell their apartments. Pestel analysis focuses on the macro environment of a business that may affect it either in the present or the near future. This in turn may lead to closure of a number of estate agencies which decreases the volume of sales of houses for example about 4000 of estate industries which made up at least a quarter of the estate industries in UK were shut down between 2008 and 2009 due to decline in volume of house market sales.

This rendered a number of estate agents insolvent due to low demand for property. Social An increase in population would have positive impact on the house market since there will be increased demand for houses therefore growing the estate agency industry in the long run. This may also lead to changes in the consumer tastes and preferences since more people will tend to prefer single occupant houses and this may increase the number of houses sold. Technological Use of the internet may outdo the estate agents over time since the buyers are able to negotiate with the realtors directly unlike before when the estate agents were acting as middlemen. It helps one identify where power lies and this helps improve areas of weakness, avoid mistakes, understand current competitive situation and the strength of the position the business would like to move into.

These forces include: Competitive rivalry. Increased numbers and capability of competitors offering undifferentiated products and services would make the market unattractive. At least 4000 estate agents offices were closed down in UK between 2008 and 2009 which might have as a result of stiff competition in the housing market. Decrease in demand for property may lower the volume of sales of house market rendering estate agents jobless. Estate agency business has many buyers due to increase in population speculated in the near future. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Suppliers may have the ability to raise prices of products especially when they supply differentiated products and services. The more the suppliers in the market, the higher the chances of rise in prices of products and services if the products and services are not similar and it means that prices would decrease if they are supplying similar products and services.

The simplicity of this model is a merit since it is easy to use and understand and enables make decisions whether to enter or leave an industry. Is it also criticized that it is static and business structure cannot remain static due to competition that force changes to the structures (Rothaermel, 2015). Creative people have an experimental nature and a childlike sense of wonder and intrigue; usually explore unusual hobbies and collections (Cavusgil et al. While creative people have various positive traits, they also have a negative side. Most of them are temperamental, disorganized, careless, uncooperative, forgetful and stubborn. Some are moody, sarcastic or rebellious at times. Creative people can either be self actualized or special talented; the self actualized approach all matters of life creatively while the special talented have great abilities in particular areas and cannot easily adjust.

These are great factors that affect the consumer behavior. In the airline travels, the customers’ satisfaction and safety are a crucial factor such as etiquette by the air crew. There are various techniques that ensure that more customers are well attracted to the business such as use of the social media technology and magazines to reach out more people. Customer comfortability is an issue of crucial consideration, and therefore the advertisement strategies should involves explanations on what customers expect while on their journey. Marketing strategies play a great role in the success of a business by providing final steps of the outline of the overall business plan. Generally, Tesla is well endorsed with innovativeness that is rare to beat and hence has remained successful over years (Spieth and Schneider, 2016).

Decision making- based on problem solution. There are a variety of problems that mostly affect businesses causing them rag behind or decrease their profits over time. If these problems are not looked at, they can make a business to end abruptly therefore these problems need to be looked at to ensure success of businesses. In order to be able to solve a problem, one should be able to define it which is the first step in solving the problem. The uniqueness of a business determines it fast growth and ability to cope with already existing market. The level of satisfaction of clients in a business is the key to increase in their loyalty in the business. Therefore, entrepreneurs should always focus on being innovative and progressively coming uop with new viable ideas into their business to improve the customer experience.

This can also be achieved by continued customer satisfaction evaluation through online rating of how much they are satisfied by products and services. Innovation and creative thinking should be part of a business in order to be able to immediately solve any emerging problems.  Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan. Brennan, R.  Business-to-business Marketing (pp. Springer New York. Pearson Australia. Crane, A. and Matten, D.  Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press. Gibson, R.  The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking. John Wiley & Sons. Goetsch, D. L. Hair Jr, J. F. Wolfinbarger, M. Money, A. H. Integrated approach of real estate market analysis in sustainable development context for decision making.

 Procedia Engineering, 172, pp. Kimbell, L.  The service innovation handbook: Action-oriented creative thinking toolkit for service organizations. Amsterdam: BIS publishers. and Spence-Stone, R.  Advertising: Principles and practice. Pearson Australia. Puķīte, I. and Geipele, I. L. Hunger, J. D. Hoffman, A. N.