I grew up in Grinnell, Iowa, a small town in the rural Midwest. It’s not exactly the place you would expect to find the most prolific scoring basketball team in the nation. Grinnell College’s run-and-gun offense is considered unorthodox, even chaotic, but it is fun to watch. Grinnell’s record as of February 22^nd is 18 wins and 5 losses. In the second game of this season, senior guard Jack Taylor scored 109 points, the third highest in NCAA history in a 173-123 victory over Crossroads College. According to Head Coach David Arseneault’s book titled “The Running Game: A Formula for Success,” his strategy is based on five basic principles:

The team must take at least 100 shots in a game. The goal is to attempt a shot every 12 seconds and try to get the ball back within 10 seconds.

In keeping with our innovation theme this week, let’s take a more in-depth look at the driving force behind innovation: creativity.

We live in a world saturated with messaging. It’s this saturation, argues Jez Frampton, CEO of Interbrand, that makes creativity more important than ever before. The market is not necessarily a meritocracy (as much as we like to think it is sometimes); it’s often the case that the product presented most creatively is the one that is heard above the noise. This makes creativity, not product features, one of the most powerful differentiators your company can showcase.

DocuStar’s MarketHUB+ marketing resource management system is a finalist for this year’s Innovation Awards to be announced this week! In the spirit of that designation, below are some guidelines for building a culture of Innovation within your company.

In an era of rapid change and evolving technology, companies that provide the culture, resources and willingness to innovate are better poised for long-term success. But in order to build a culture of innovation, businesses need to think about what innovation means to them. Too often, we hinder our ability to innovate by only thinking of innovation in grandiose terms – “What’s the next greatest product ever invented,” – and overlook smaller, more practical ways to stay ahead of the curve.