otegi

José Ramón Otegi (a), Ibon Miranda (b), Javier Baztan (c)
a Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain b Maier Technology Centre, Gernika, Spain c Cegasa, SA, Vitoria, Spain

Creativity for Research firms has a different meaning than for Manufacturing ones. The objective of creativity projects and the organisation to develop them show significant differences; the role of the Project Manager is also differently addressed.

This paper presents the result of an action research project executed in two mutually independent medium sized companies, one of each type. The objective of the project was to identify the differences and to provide a learning ground for both organisations. Differences in approaches were sought in the supporting structure for the development of creative projects, and in their use in decision making processes.

The first company is a manufacturing one which serves portable energy solutions to industry; the second is a research centre owned by an automotive parts producing company. Both companies are located in the Basque Country.

The project has been developed following the annexed scheme:


 * Definition of the Creativity Management Structure Presentation of each company
 * Elaboration of a Creativity Profile Diagnostic Tool
 * Self assessment based on the Creativity Profile Diagnostic Tool
 * Interchange of materials (Creativity Management Structure Presentation and Diagnosis Tool result) and analysis
 * Exchange of visits and benchmarking
 * Elaboration of Learned Lessons and Conclusions