Creativity

Management education has become more complex and challenging in the Post- millennium. The Global meltdown witnessed by USA and Europe in particular and South Asia in general has given a wakeup call to all the students and peers of Management to think differently. Creativity fills up that crucial gap between the theory and practice as innovation alone can bring about a paradigm shift from the existing tools and techniques of Management.

Creativity refers to visualization by a person to create something new, to generate new ideas, to invent and discover unchartered paths and to show a road map to achieve better results. It is an effort to a ‘Kaizen’ - Change for better. It comes as a beacon light to dispel the problem. Michael Mumford defines creativity as one which involves the` production of novel and useful product’. Baden holds that creativity is producing something new, a domain changing in contribution. Creativity is a transformative learning which is meaningful interpretation of action and insights. It is an inspiration that comes out with cognitive impulse having its roots in the knowledge, experience, plain and reverse thinking.

Being creative means dealing with ideas. The World runs on new ideas. All the great inventions and discoveries are the result of creativity and innovations. Acquiring detailed background knowledge on the subject is a key to being creative – because almost all new ideas are simply a recombination of existing ideas. A creative person always knows a lot about his subject. The flash of inspiration comes from a background of expert knowledge. ‘Chance’, Louis Pasteur said – ‘favours the prepared mind’. We used to see a person or an object and conceive its image in our mind. It was not very convenient to explain to others. But the invention of Photo-Camera settled the matter.

Everything we deal with in our life existed first as an idea. Henry Ford had imagined of a 4 wheeler much before the T-Model rolled out from the inventor’s workshop. It is said that ‘ideas can come to anyone who is willing to seek them out’. Many of the extra-ordinary inventions we use in our world today come out not from genius working in laboratories but from quite ordinary people.

How can One be Creative?

Albert Benet said, “I find that images appear only if we give our ideas uncontrolled freedom.” A few of these steps may help to churn out some creative ideas:

- Prepare your mind
- Find a place
- Relax
- Sensitise yourself/ hold yourself
- Ask questions
- Wait patiently, till you get some idea

An individual or an organization can become more creative if the following 6 steps are followed:
- Initiation
- Internalization
- Intensification
- Imagination
- Innovation
- Implementation

The above 6 steps were very brilliantly explained by Dr. Daniel Theyagu, Corporate Trainer from Management Development Institute, Singapore while participating in an interactive session in Accurate’s Campus on 29th December, 2010. The students should always try to think out of the box. They should always look upward – something to achieve extra-ordinary. Accurate provides an incubation centre to foster such imaginative and innovative ideas to help the butterflies come of their cacoon.

About Author

Ms. Poonam Sharma is Group Director of Accurate Group of Institutions, Greater Noida. She is well known in education sector. She is the recipient of prestigious 18th Devang Mehta Edupreneur of the Year Award- 2010. Earlier she was conferred “Best Woman Entrepreneurship Award” in All India Achievers Conference for her contribution in the technical and management education. Most recently she has been recognized among top 5 at the most prestigious Women Leaders in India Awards 2010 in two categories of “Best Young Woman Entrepreneur” and “Leader in Education”.

ACCURATE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY, GREATETR NOIDA

An ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14000:2001 certified institution; the institute is located in a 16 acre lush green campus at 49, Knowledge Park-3, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Greater Noida is in the suburbs of the National Capital Region of New Delhi. The Institute has various engineering and management programmes i.e. MBA, B.Tech, MCA and PGDM. All programmes are approved by AICTE, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India and all degrees are awarded by Uttar Pradesh Technical University. The Institute was established in the year 2006 and with in one year of its establishment the Accurate Institute was awarded for the Best infrastructure Award in Delhi/ NCR by Business and Management Chronicle in the year 2007. Since then it has won many accolades to its name by different independent rating agencies such as Best Placement in Delhi/NCR Award and Best Academic Excellence in Delhi/NCR Award in Management Institutes by Times Research. It has also been recognised amongst top 15 Private B- Schools of India in Placement and Infrastructure by Outlook and Business World respectively in the year 2010.

The main force behind the growth of the Accurate Institute as one of the premier management Institute in India is none but its Group Director Ms. Poonam Sharma. Far away from fancy & frills, she has the mastery over Time Management System. Simplicity is the Beauty to her. Foresightedness, vision in part of her character & habit and then embarking at once upon it, is her strength to succeed. She is the master of an agile personality. It is because of these traits that she was conferred with many renowned awards like-

• “Best Woman Entrepreneurship Award” in All India Achievers Conference.
  
  
  
• “Edupreneur of the year Award” in 18^th Devang Mehta B – School Affairs Award
  
  
  
• “Leader in Education Award” in “Women Leaders in India Award-2010”.
  
  
  
• Recognised among top 5 in “Best Young Women Entrepreneur in India” in the “Women Leaders in India Award-2010”.
  
  
  

With a view to prepare our students for International Platform and to give them Foreign Exposure so as to give them opportunity to immerse themselves in other cultures and to expand their horizons, the Institute is having tie ups with leading foreign universities like Nanayang Technological University, Singapore and University of Auckland, New Zealand. In collaboration with these Universities the Accurate awards a certificate in Executive Business Management Program to all the students after completion of short duration program at the campus of these foreign Universities. Most recently 80 students of PGDM batch 2009-11 went through this program in the month of Nov. /Dec., 2010 at University of Auckland, New Zealand and were awarded with Certificate in Executive Business Management Program. We also have had many renowned faculties from leading foreign universities at our campus. So far 14 such faculty members from USA, UK, Canada, UAE, Netherland and South Africa have visited our campus in the session 2010-11 to deliver lectures on various management topics.

The institute is imbibed with modern infrastructure with 24x7 Wi-Fi facility and technological support to facilitate teaching, learning and personality development. It has a good collection of books and Journals in the library. The volumes of books are more than 50,000 whereas the number of subscribed National and International Journals are more than 700. The library has all the state of the art facilities and all leading E-Journals and magazines are also available. Library subscribes to various national and international database including Ebsco, Emerld, Proquest, Prowess, Indianjournal.com etc. Excellent computer labs and other engineering labs have been provided for students comprising of latest configured machines linked to wide range real time learning experience.

Placement is on top agenda at campus for all. The entire gamuts of academic activities are oriented to provide the best possible placement in leading corporate houses/MNC. Accurate Institute has established a dedicated Centre for Corporate Relations for enhancing the exposure of the students to the corporate world and to act as an interface between the Institution and the corporate world. This year a total of 201 companies and corporate including Public Sector Company participated in the placement activities and multiple offers was achieved for individual students in leading corporate houses.

In the words of, Miss Poonam Sharma, the Group Director of the Accurate Institute of Management and Technology, “Accurate has a vision to produce the students having the knowledge comparable to the top Institutes of the Country. Our motto remains to impart vibrant, comprehensive and innovative learning to our students enabling them to be managers, entrepreneurs and leaders with strong cultural values and to provide an ideal teaching environment and ambience to develop their skills to meet the challenges of the global environment.”