The "dream team" for brainstorming

How do you come up with an interesting idea? Some would say that "being creative" is the ability to think of new ideas. The Latin word creāre, meaning “to produce” or “to cause,” gives us the root cre. Words from the Latin creāre have something to do with producing or causing. To create something is to produce it. Anyone creative is able to produce new and original things. The "creatives" who work in the "creative industry" are often considered to be "arty" types (whatever that means!), however for me, being creative in Music, Literature or Art is no different than being creative in Science. Creativity, is one of the key ingredients for any start-up business. It isn't a quality that all of us possess in equal measure: similarly not everyone possesses the mathematical aptitude of Sir Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein. Working in a team, trying to generate new ideas, such as a promising business idea, or designing an experiment to tackle a Biological phenomenon, has always been one of my favourite activities. The one thing I have learnt from brainstorming, is that it always works best with others: typically half a dozen others. Preferably, all should express a different "phenotype": so 6 accountants or 6 biochemists, or 6 mathematicians isn't always the best formula for "creative thinking". I personally enjoy multidisciplinary brainstorming. Most company "boards" comprise individuals with different skills and backgrounds. Genentech, arguably one of the world's most successful Biotechs was founded by an accountants and a Molecular Biologist.

Are you defined by your academic CV? The answer to this is both yes and no. At

school you make choices largely driven by your academic aptitude, the advice of teachers and parents, and of course your friends. Are those opting for Sixth form Science any different to those opting for English or History?  To some extent they are. When I sit next to an academic colleague at a University staff meeting, it doesn't take too long to spot the Biologist or the Engineer, or the Economist. When I sit round the table at a small company, with the key staff, I find it much more difficult: the prism of business seems to have a greater refractive index than in academia, in my experience. However, being creative in my limited experience, is rarely a function of CV. I have met just as many creative Physicists as Artists. I would therefore like to propose six "phenotypes" for a ideal creative team. They are not in any particular order and some roles may be duplicated!

• Leader
• Accountant
• Communicator
• Lawyer
• Philosopher
• Pragmatist
  

The Leader (the Chief Executive Officer). I don't think I need to define the term leader, s/he leads the group. Typically leaders have a strong, confident personality and should ideally have the respect of the team (typically a majority). Many successful leaders are charismatic, good listeners, brilliant communicators, and ultimately stand or fall on their judgement and decision making skills. Some names spring to mind. There are the historical figures, for good and bad (or both!) such as Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell, Genghis Kahn, Abraham Lincoln, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher: all of whom we associate with "winning battles" and "carrying the crowd". Don't get me wrong, I am not claiming any of these individuals are flawless, but someone like Adolf Hitler, possibly the most evil of the pack, were successful in persuading large numbers of people to follow them.

Leadership is also a critical phenomenon in team sports: whether you like or dislike Alex Ferguson or Jose Merino, they command(ed) very high salaries because of their track records as successful leaders off the pitch, while some of us in England, remember the halcyon days of Bobby Moore in football or Mike Atherton in cricket. Politicians and business leaders who regularly appear in the "league tables" of the most successful include John F Kennedy (one to ponder perhaps), the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Richard Branson, Mahatma Ghandi, Bill Gates etc.

How do leaders get to lead? When you sit round the table with others you don't know, or who you know only superficially, how do you appoint a leader? This will be one of your earliest challenges. Again in my own experience, leaders emerge. If (as many of you will be) you are selected for Jury service, you all sit together in pretty challenging circumstances and, following a "get to know each other" or a "break the ice" discussion, someone will say: "does anyone want to volunteer to be the jury spokesperson (foreman)?" When you meet with your M2M team members, my advice is to sit down and describe yourself in a minute or two and then for someone to ask this question of the group. At this point, most group members usually avoid eye contact, and one or two will look around to judge whether they should say "pick me". Sometimes, an individual will immediately announce that they are the only possible choice. S/he may well be the best person.. As a group, electing a leader is a critical step and I suggest it should not be irreversible! If you feel after a couple of meetings that the person elected is not meeting the group needs, you must be willing, as a group to hold a second election. Any elected leader should be aware that they are expected to earn their status! 

You may wish to elect a provisional group leader and see how it goes. There is a really important lesson here in respect of enterprise, and that is that the terms of reference of the "company", the allocation of roles, responsibilities and the "shares" of the company (often laid out legally in the "Articles of Incorporation") These issues should ideally be defined and agreed at the outset of the formation of an enterprise: they are critical to the success of the business and the downstream "entitlements" of the founders. You only have to look at the number of legal battles over financial disagreements between members of successful rock bands to see what happens when there is a lack of clarity on day one!

The Accountant (the Chief Financial Officer). Let's assume one of your business aims is to make money (everyone will need paying and you will need a place to work, which comes with overheads). There are a number of different types of Business. You may be a "sole trader" providing a service (a window-cleaner, a management consultant, a free-lance architect etc). In this case you will need to make enough money to pay yourself sufficient to live on: any extra profit may be used to develop the business, purchase your tools of the trade etc., or buy yourself a holiday home! At the end of every year you will be expected to declare your income and pay your taxes (in the UK) via the Inland Revenue's self-assessment system. Therefore, even at the simplest level, a business is expected to keep records of money out, money in, business expenses and profit margins. This is an accountancy function, which for many small businesses, is often outsourced, but for businesses where investment is essential for "getting off the ground", there is usually a finance officer on the board. This individual will be responsible for "stepping in" when strategic business decisions incur costs and where savings need to be made to mitigate risk of closure of the company. Accountants at this higher level are called CFOs and are often the most influential individuals in a company, especially if the sole trader becomes a Private Limited Company and, after an IPO, a publicly traded company.

The Communicator. This term encompasses the public relations and sales and marketing functions. If you are in the business of developing and marketing GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in the UK, how do you deal with claims of "Frankenstein Food" or how do you "manage" the departure of your CEO under a cloud of corruption. Equally, how do you raise the profile of your company? Traditional marketing, which started with Victorian entrepreneurs, was given a major boost when Marlborough introduced us to the "cool" Cowboy image of the Marlborough smoker in the 1950s. PR companies became high value enterprises, and in high demand through the 1950s, '60s. '70s until the '80s, when recession and austerity changed the budget priorities of CEOs. Today, depending on your idea or product, there are sales and marketing "channels" that are thought to enhance sales and raise profile of a company. Originating in art-work and newspapers, communicating a company's identity has moved from TV to Social Media. Choosing the right channel for your company's products is a key function of any start-up.

The Lawyer (or Council). All companies must operate within the law of the land (in which they are incorporated): legal advice is essential for financial negotiations (contracts, employment law etc) and for the management of IP (intellectual property). If your business is an ideas business, or you are using an experimental finding to develop a new drug, you will need to protect your intellectual assets (your IP). A single patent will cost around £2 000 to file, £20 000 to secure, and annual fees of a similar amount. Large companies like GSK hold many patents. The bigger the company, the more likely they are to retain an in-house patent team (since patenting costs are a combination of filing fees and fees for lawyer's salaries). One of your team should take on this role in order to get a feel for the world of patents, since it is (like much of the legal domain) a culture with its own peculiar (and often arcane) language. It is essential that you appreciate the pros and cons of patenting. For example think about the two businesses: the soft drinks multi-national Coca cola and the pharmaceutical giant, Roche. The former have no patents, just trade marks and  copyrights, while the latter made a fortune out of licensing PCR technology, for which they held (and still hold) many of the patents. 

The Philosopher. An odd description maybe? What I mean is someone who is a thinker, who brings "out of the box" ideas to the table. A lateral thinker who looks at problems and challenges in an unorthodox way. When you are trying to decide how you market a PCR enzyme, the Philosopher might suggest patenting the PCR machine and giving the enzyme away. This is the thinking behind the low cost of computer printers and the high cost of printing inks! When you are planning a business, the initial idea benefits from the input of the Philosopher, who might also bring ideas of behaviour to the table. Historically, the VHS videotape format (now defunct) dominated against the competitor format, beta max. Anyone in the business, knew that beta max was technically better, but the VHS promoters were better organised and were faster off the starting blocks. Sometimes the best technology loses, which brings me nicely to my final category...

The Pragmatist (or Chief Operating Officer). When the brainstorming sessions begin to carry on into the wee small hours. When the arguments over patenting or withholding know-how, become inconclusive, someone needs to bring everyone down to earth and summarise the position in order to ensure that "something happens". The CEO and COO usually work together to ensure that ideas are managed and decisions taken are practical. The COO is then charged with getting on with the job in hand and overcoming logistical, legal and financial barriers to progress towards sustainable business success. In small companies, the CEO, CFO and COO may work together to manage the Human Resource (the staff) or employees. As a company grows, HR is first often outsourced and later embedded. In short the Pragmatist is there to keep everyone "on message"

I hope these short profiles help you when you meet. Next I shall discuss branding ideas and defining your company culture and image.