Innovations as Art: Using the Childhood Magic of Play-Doh ™ to Craft Entrepreneurial Ideas

Abstract

Once assumed the sole province of musicians and artists, creativity classes abound in business schools as a critical component of entrepreneurship curricula. The exercises explained in this article, designed for a creativity or entrepreneurship class, but equally applicable for strategic management or even engineering classes, address the ubiquitous question of how to recognize and stimulate potentially lucrative ideas. Two exercises are sequentially paired to help students first identify business opportunities and then imaginatively craft potentially feasible business ideas. The Zeitgeist Exercise allows students to brainstorm business trends and radical innovations using PESTEL, then list or draw their observations on an expansive whiteboard, thereby capturing the intellectual climate of our times. The tactile nature of Play-Doh™ Exercise encourages students to playfully explore solutions to opportunities identified in the first exercise. Students may mold trademarks or artifacts that symbolize their innovation or the innovation itself.