Knowing how to combine good things is a wonderful form of creativity.
Nothing or everything
There is a story about a party attended by seven people, each of a different nationality: American, Russian, British, French, German, Italian, and Chinese. Everyone wanted to show off their country's fine liquor.
The Chinese person brought out Maotai liquor; the moment the bottle was opened, its rich aroma spread, drawing lavish praise from everyone present. The Russian brought vodka, the French person XO, the German dark beer and the Italian wine. All the drinks were excellent.
When the American’s turn came, he found an empty glass, poured in a little of each type of liquor, shook it, and held it up. What drink was it? It was the world-famous drink Americans call a ‘Cocktail.’
The American in the story above had nothing at all. He did only one thing: mixed the other countries’ liquors together, combining them into a blended drink.
Clearly, synthesis is creativity; knowing how to bring good things together is a wonderful form of creativity.
As Apple designer Jonathan Ive said: “What matters is how the content is organized.” Apple's success is enough to make people believe that combination can answer the question of creativity's origins. Moreover, Apple's enormous achievements have helped demonstrate the feasibility of this creative model.
Tianqiao Chen (Trần Thiên Kiều), founder, chairman and CEO of Chinese investment company Shanda Group, once remarked: Chinese companies can produce every technology and software application used in the iPod. What we lack is Apple's capacity for integrated innovation: hardware, software, networks, content, industrial design and services.
The core of creativity
Creativity is at the core of a business's development, the soul of a people's progress, and the driving force behind a country's continuous flourishing. Because creativity is so important, people constantly think and search for new ideas. The IT community has two basic definitions of creativity:
(1) Original creation from nothing to something: inventing a technology that did not previously exist.
(2) Integrated creation from disorder to order: combining existing technological achievements into a unified whole, optimizing their configuration for maximum effectiveness.
Anyone familiar with Apple knows that, in terms of technical innovation and original invention, Apple is not the industry leader. The iPod became popular worldwide, yet the product itself contained no extraordinarily sophisticated technology. Apple’s work was simply to combine the Internet with hardware, giving customers an unprecedented experience: a convenient, novel way to listen to music.
This creative model of satisfying consumer needs brought the iPod to consumers and delivered unprecedented success. Continuing this line of thinking, Apple later introduced the iPhone and iPad, both of which also achieved resounding global success.
Consumers can download all software applications for Apple products, including the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, through Apple’s iTunes, Appstore, and iBook Store. This innovative combination of hardware and software helped Apple escape its difficulties and then gradually dominate the market through its hardware, products, and technology.
Moreover, iTunes, Appstore and iBook Store can reinforce one another: combining software and hardware can increase product sales; in turn, as sales continually grow, more consumers become accustomed to using iTunes, Appstore and iBook Store.
This is clearly a beneficial business cycle, helping the company tightly integrate software and hardware to achieve its goal of capturing the market.
Collected.
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