Challenge of Change conference

On 19 October PricewaterhouseCoopers, Performa Consulting and the Ministry of Finance organised a conference at Hilton Park, Nicosia on the Challenge of Change to examine creativity and innovation in organisations.

Speakers at the conference came from Cyprus and abroad who demonstrated that innovation is an essential ingredient for the survival in a competitive and changing environment and examined together with the participants ways of promoting innovation through brainstorming sessions and effective teamwork, personal development and leading style in the context of five interactive workshops.

Paul Sloane, business consultant, trainer and author of 15 books on lateral puzzles, discussed the role of the leader in creative teams and presented in his workshop how someone can run the perfect brainstorming. According to Sloane “Most leaders recognise the need for innovation, but don’t know how to succeed. Innovation is not a matter of improvement; it is a matter of survival.”

Linda Caller who specialises on issues of creativity marketing and advertising, noted that “it is important to be creative in the way we think and in everything we do.” She addressed the issue of how organisations can be guided into creative thinking so that they can produce more innovative solutions on a regular basis.

Oliver MacDonald added a different tone to the conference and with great energy asked for the participation of all delegates bringing out their individual creative abilities. In his workshop MacDonald introduced elements for a creative climate in organizations.

Dimis Michaelides, Managing Director of Perfoma Consulting, explored the meaning of creativity and innovation in organisations and described its various components in practice. He considers that “if the 80s and 90s were about productivity and quality, today we are in the era of innovation, and leaders must encourage the development of creative culture and structure.

Philippos Soseilos, Board Member of PricewaterhouseCoopers Cyprus, presented the “Blue Ocean Strategy” conceived by professors Kim and Mauborgne. Soseilos believes that “The greatest barrier for innovation is in the mind of the managers.  It is in their inability to invest time in new ideas.”

Noting that by most criteria Europe appears to be seriously lagging behind the US in innovation, the EU is now actively promoting strategies for the development of innovation as an indispensable element of long term development for facing competitiveness.