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332 : APPLYING CREATIVITY TO THE IDEA DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

realisation that the American market would eventually ‘run out of feet’
and that other product areas such as clothing and the international
market should be explored.

This divergent–convergent pattern of working also led to the insight
that the company should convert its vulnerability to import quotas from
the Far East into a strategic advantage through innovative improvements
to its long-term contractual arrangements with the supplier base.

By the same token, Knight’s intuitive grasp of NIKE’s business
performance was supplemented by a strong left-brain focus born of his
training as an accountant, which allowed him to focus on a few key
quantitative performance indicators. Whole-brain thinking has allowed
NIKE to race across the business and athletic worlds. From its humble
beginnings, NIKE now turns over more than $12 billion per year.

why is creativity a must? Phil Knight’s success with NIKE

vividly illustrates how creativity must be applied at every step of the
idea development process. Certainly Knight had the initial creative
vision of the market potential for high-quality, economically sourced
running shoes which led to the creation of Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS,
Inc.), but it could all have come to nothing when the Japanese exporters
threatened BRS, Inc.’s very survival. This threat to Knight’s initial
vision led him to renew his vision and to break the conventional rules
by designing and sourcing his own NIKE-branded product.

creativity must be applied at every step of
the idea development process

He continued to apply creativity throughout the idea development
process, whether structuring innovative deals with Far Eastern
manufacturers to secure capacity at economical prices or using heavy
brand advertising to reinforce the expert endorsement of Olympic-
winning athletes.

don’t front-load creativity As we saw earlier, it is a mistake to

assume that a superficially attractive business idea can automatically be
developed into a profitable business. This mistaken assumption is
perpetuated by the conventional model of the innovation process,