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CHAPTER 15: LEADING CHANGE 465
vacuum, which gained a 50 percent market share in Europe within two years. “We
never used to create new products together,” says engineer Giuseppe Frucco. “The
designers would come up with something and then tell us to build it.” The new
cooperative approach enhances creativity and saves both time and
money at Electrolux by avoiding the technical glitches that crop up
As a leader, you can help the organization be
as a new design moves through the development process. 33 Action Memo
Leaders can use the characteristics of innovative organi- more innovative. You can encourage curiosity,

zations to ignite creativity in specific departments or the entire playfulness, and exploration and provide
organization. Consider how leaders at Samsung Electronics have people with diverse stimuli to open their
applied these ideas to encourage creativity and get designers and minds to new ideas. You can also build in
engineers to come up with innovative products rather than crank mechanisms for cross-functional collaboration
out cheap imitations.
and information sharing.
Kun-Hee Lee, Samsung Electronics
IN THE LEAD When Kun-Hee Lee, chairman of Samsung Electronics, realized that

consumers had come to regard Samsung products as cheap, low-quality knockoffs
suitable only for the bargain bin, he vowed that the company would become a world-
class innovator. “We must change no matter what,” the chairman proclaimed.
One step executives took to create a new mindset that values creativity,
cooperation, and innovation was to set up the Innovative Design Lab (IDS), where
designers, engineers, marketers, and managers from various disciplines took a year-
long series of courses aimed at fostering a creative, collaborative environment. The
courses gave people the skills and confi dence to risk thinking differently. Ongoing
programs at the IDS help designers learn how to better champion their ideas,
and cross-discipline teams study consumers and create what-if scenarios about
the world’s future buying patterns. Samsung further stimulates creativity with the
Global Design Workshop, which sends employees to the world’s great art and de-
sign centers. Designers get Wednesday afternoons off to explore for ideas outside
the office. To put cutting edge ideas into action, people from different functional

areas work side-by-side in the Value Innovation Program (VIP) Center. At the VIP,
there are no interrupting phone calls, no annoying administrative tasks or other day-
to-day matters to distract people from the project.
Today, Samsung is the global leader in 8 consumer electronics categories, and

the consulting firm Interbrand calculates it is the world’s most valuable electronics
brand, outstripping previous leader Sony. Between the years of 2000 and 2005, the
company won more awards from the Industrial Design Society of America than any
34
other fi rm on the planet.

By encouraging entrepreneurship, allowing for unofficial activity, providing employ-
ees with diverse stimuli, and encouraging internal communication and collaboration,
leaders have transformed Samsung Electronics into a hotbed of creativity and
innovation.
Many organizations that want to encourage innovation also strive to
hire people who display the characteristics of creative individuals, as listed
in the right hand column of Exhibit 15.4. Creative people are often known
for open-mindedness, curiosity, independence, self-confi dence, per-
sistence, and a focused approach to problem-solving. Clearly,
Complete the exercise in Leader’s Self-
these characteristics are stronger in some people than in others. Action Memo
However, recent research on creativity suggests that everyone Insight 15.3 on page 466 to see if you have
has roughly equal creative potential. The problem is that many
people don’t use that potential. Leaders can help both individuals a creative personality.
and organizations be more creative.