C R E A T I V I T Y

I am naturally an extroverted person. I love talking and sharing with people, and I genuinely appreciate an alternate perspective. As a result of having such a social outgoing personality, being alone isn’t enough for me to be creative. I have found that when I truly WANT to be alone and focused is when I can become the most creative and thoughtful. If I don’t want to be alone, I will just click on the Google chrome icon on my computer and wire myself into some social interaction, I’ll pick up my phone and text someone, anyone, even my mom, because I generally don’t like or want to be alone. When I can rid myself from all the distractions and find the serenity in being alone, I can really start innovating or coming up with new ideas or new approaches to things. Most recently I have been working on a multimedia dream catcher piece of art. The circular top part I painted on a canvas and the bottom stringy parts with the beads and feathers were added later with hot glue. I finished the drawing and painting very shortly after buying all of the supplies, but then the half-finished piece of art sat in my living room for at least two months waiting for me to finish it. With school starting and my friends coming back into town any spare time I had I was either sleeping or catching up on school or social things. One day I just clicked, and “got the bug” to stay in, pour myself a glass of wine, and finish my piece. The end result looked a lot differently that what I had originally intended because in that moment I was able to make creative design decisions that were far better than my original concept. I also think that the time I spent between starting and finishing the project allowed me to adapt and create a much better end result that I would have done all in one sitting. By waiting to finish, and spending little of that time thinking about the project I was able to finish it with fresh eyes. I am especially uncreative under stress or in cases of urgency; I like to be able to take my time with things. This doesn’t mean I can’t finish on a deadline, but that I can’t wait until the last minute.

I have had an extremely bad personal experience with organizational creativity. I used to work at a fairly nice boutique, not particularly high end but definitely had classier elements. There was horrible organizational culture and communication. The store’s owner had a very absentee mindset and gave all of the power to the store manager. The store manager was very close to me in age, around 3 years older. She had a very closed off attitude and would often shut down ideas that were different than hers even if they were better because she took them as a threat. The store owner had no idea this was happening and in her eyes everything was perfect. The sales associates became very disengaged and uninterested in solving the stores problems such as revenue declining or not meeting daily/weekly/monthly goals. I often times felt embarrassed to speak up if I had an idea for a twitter or Facebook campaign or post, or if I had thought of a potentially better way of doing simple tasks to save time or effort. The manager’s cold shut off snobby attitude made it very hard to want to do anything besides show up for my shift and sell to customers. Anything beyond that was effort that a lot of my fellow sales associates did not want to give.

Although I think being creative for me at many times is something I find easier to do in solitude I wouldn’t disregard the benefits of working within groups. What I have found to be most successful when working in groups, especially in the business school when my groups are full of members who truly want to work and put in the effort, is to converge and “brainstorm” and then diverge and delve deeper. I cannot discredit the value of different perspectives and attitudes brought from different people to solving the same problem, but to really get at the heart of some group work I think brainstorming general ideas and coming up with tasks to divide between members has produced some of the best work. It ensures everyone is on the right page while still allowing individual members to work independently and be creative without having to constantly check with everyone else and be interrupted.

I think what would benefit me most personally is train in various approaches and learn, and then apply specific techniques when I see fit. I see no harm in performing more of the activities like the one we did in class on the creativity day, to get myself in the mindset of different ways of thinking and being creative so that in the real world I can have a sort of toolkit of approaches to choose from. I don’t think one way works for every situation and I myself would love to learn new ways to be creative.

Infographic- Food Truck Issues and Insights

 

All of the pie charts are stop signs, representing the issues that are impeding the success of food trucks. All of the insights are included on the food truck itself.

Anonymous E-Commerce and Bitcoins

The Silk Road is an anonymous, online, peer to peer marketplace operating in the encrypted “deep web” off of a network known as Tor and the digital currency Bitcoin. While The Silk Road gained notoriety by being a largely black market bazar selling goods illegal in most places around the world, the product offerings included many legitimate items as well. In the marketplace you could order art, clothes, jewelry, cigarettes, books and legal services. On the other hand you could also order marijuana, heroin, cocaine, MDMA and the list of illegal substances goes on. One thing the administrators, and the philosophy, around the site really stressed was that nothing that was made for the direct purpose of bringing harm to others could be sold. You could not find weapons on the site, couldn’t hire assassins, and you couldn’t obtain any child pornography. To be a buyer on the site you have to buy a bond as a sort of insurance policy for the people on the site, until you are proven to be a trustworthy individual you do not get your investment back. Along the lines of eBay and Amazon, users can rate and review sellers creating a reputation based trading system. Within the deep web there are three major online marketplaces: The Silk Road, Atlantis, and BlackMarketReloaded. The Silk Road was the original, and until recently, was the largest and most popular. The Silk Road was seized by the FBI on October 2, 2013. Prior to its shut down, The Silk Road was by far the most popular among users of the deep web. The site administrator, under the username Dread Pirate Roberts, depended solely upon word of mouth for the first two or so years of the sites operation, while the administrator and CEO of the competitor Atlantis took a much more public approach appearing on Reddit’s “Ask me Anything” series as well as even posting a commercial on YouTube. Recently the Silk Road administrator brought the site more to the mainstream by doing an interview with Forbes magazine as well as creating a website on the “surface web” to allow less technically savvy internet users to learn how to access the Silk Road via Tor.

What truly intrigues me about this company is the philosophy behind its creation and existence. The company’s administrator sees himself not as a drug dealer, but as a liberator and restorer of human rights. To him the website and Bitcoins are just tools used for the larger purpose of giving the flow and distribution of information and flow of money back to the people, cutting the state out of the equation and deregulating society and business. It was just genuinely intriguing to me when I found out that this website existed, not that I was particularly interested in the products offered, but that something so radical existed and was completely legitimate. The whole concept of Bitcoins and decentralized deregulated currency and its implications are also of extreme interest to me.

There are two primary customer segments for this company: the illegal drug user, and the privacy concerned law abiding citizen looking for a way to escape “big brother”.

For both segments the key value proposition is in security and privacy. For the drug user specifically the value proposition is centered more around a place to find and obtain illegal substances in a legitimate, safe and secure way. The online privacy aspect removes a lot of the potential for violence and theft that can happen in the real world drug trade. It also obviously takes out a lot of the legal ramifications involved. For the law abiding citizen the value is derived more in the anonymity that cannot be found on the “surface web”. Some people are just sick of the government intervening in their lives and the Silk Road is the beginning of anonymous online markets.

An interesting prospect to me is the possibility of the anonymous deep web markets moving into more mainstream and non-illegal markets for the legitimate privacy concerned law abiding citizen to circumvent the eyes of big brother.

Me

Journey Map: Bradley H Senior year Finance Major with Accounting Minor

With the original intention of going to law school, because he liked arguing with people, Bradley decided to major in economics. Through talking it over with professors, parents, and friends, he decided that business would be a better degree to receive, and would still leave the option of law school open to him. As his undergraduate career progressed Bradley honed in on his interest in finance specifically in the energy field.

The Sister in Law: an Empathy Map

She’s married. She’s closer to 30 than 40, and she has multiple kids.

Thoughts and Feelings

Family is first and foremost the single most important thing in her life. Her world revolves around her children and she is deeply committed to her husband. Status and affluence are important, to some degree, but it is less about materiality and showing off, and more about ease of living and comfort ability. She wears J crew and Ralph Lauren, but isn’t above shopping at Old Navy and Target. She is more willing to spend money on things that improve the home, save time, cut costs, conserve energy and provide comfort. Brands don’t matter as much as quality and value. Structure and organization are extremely valued by her. Since her world revolves around her children, the rigidity of their schedules comes at the expense of her and her husbands’, she would rather leave a dinner party early to put her children to bed, than have them stay up and disrupt their schedule.  She is not concerned with new trends in the internet and social media and technology. She has more pictures of her children on her Facebook page than she does of herself, doesn’t post many statuses and likes revolve around clothing, family, and home improvement, her alma matter and her community. She is worried about affording a new home to fit her growing family, before her family becomes too big. She is worried about what school her kids will go to, what the community will be like. She wishes she could work more. She worries about if her children will get along with the other kids at school, if they will eat their dinner that night, if they’ll be successful. She worries that her husband will have to work late, and that he is stressing himself out too much.

What does she see?

The sister in law lives in a suburban area has two main “home” environments- the house and the car. She spends most of her time in either of these places. The neighborhood becomes an extension of the home environment as well. She may work a few days of the week, and she certainly spends a lot of time in shopping centers and grocery stores in and around her community. She keeps a tight group of friends, the few best friends she still has kept in touch with from college, her sorority or organizations, and her even smaller group of friends she has kept in touch with from her childhood. A few neighbors will become friends, especially those with children around her age. She has a small number of friends, but has a high quality of connectedness with them. She may go to church and have friends from a church group; she may have peers from work. The market offers her products for taking care of her children, for timesaving and for improving her home. The sister in law values a new toy for keeping her children entertained, while having educational value at the same time. She values a trusty durable wine opener, as well as an insert for the dishwasher made to specially fit bottles, and children’s dishes and utensils.

What does he or she say and do?

In public the sister in law is calm and polite. She is a rule follower. She lets the person waiting to turn left go, and gives a wave if she’s waiting to turn left and is given the chance to go. On the day to day basis the sister in laws appearance/clothing choice is relaxed but still put together [always put together when in public]. She may have her pajamas-all-day days but is usually more of a jeans and t shirt kind of girl. She always brushes her hair and teeth and has a no frills approach to makeup. She likes to dress up when going out to dinner or with friends, but she isn’t vain.  She is always respectful and polite to others, but not overly or in a fake way. She isn’t afraid to voice an opinion or disagree. She is always engaging and listening, and is always conscious of others.

What does she hear?

Friends are always giving and asking for advice on starting/ raising a family, tricks and timesavers in the house and of course pinterest projects. Always is sharing funny, cute, not so cute stories about their children. They are sendinig her invites for special deals on dresses, photography sessions and summer camps. Her bosses offer a break from the conversations about kids and family, and giver her validation on her worth outside of child raising and home making. They offer her a sense of self-worth outside of being a mother and give her advice on how to balance home life and work life. Influencers such as parents, or parents in law, offer validation on the raising of her kids and also advice on what to do in situations they may have experienced in life. The news media provides a resource for events in the community that may have a huge impact on her community and her life. She is constantly learning about new trends in raising children.

What are her pain points?

The sister in law fears failure. She fears losing her job; she fears divorce, her children not being successful. She is afraid of what society is becoming, and what it means for her children. She is afraid of her children growing up too quickly. She fears chaos. The sister in law is frustrated with her husband’s work schedule. She wishes there were a better solution to her children receiving a better education than sending them to private school. She is frustrated that she can’t see her out of town parents more and she is frustrated when technology fails. Obstacles include staying healthy and a slowing metabolism. It is hard balancing work life and home life especially with children.

What does she hope to gain?

She needs structure and organization, and the tools to make finding this easier. She wants simplicity in her life. She wants her children to have a better life than she did, really. She wants to go on vacations every summer, and be able to eat at nice restaurants. She wants to join the neighborhood pool, be in a home owner’s society and improve the neighborhood. She wants to travel to Europe. She needs a car that will have enough storage for all of her children’s things, has good gas mileage and is comfortable.  She measures success through happiness. She does require some social validation, college degrees, sorority, church group, book club etc.