So you think you're inventive? Take our 20 question quiz and see how you rate.
Innovation: Part II
Are you innovative? Do you run your company in an innovative fashion? If you've read the first two special sections on innovation in Inc, then those are two questions you may have been asking yourself. The following quiz should help you find the answers. Some of the questions, we realize, will seem rangy and random. That's intentional. To design the quiz, we relied on a wide variety of information about innovative minds -- both in the business world and out of it. One source, for example, is a book called How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, by Michael J. Gelb. Another is the Tom Peters opus The Circle of Innovation. So buckle up, gentle reader, and get ready: you'll be able to calculate your innovation quotient in a matter of minutes. And if you wind up displeased with your score, don't worry. True innovators often don't do well on standardized tests.
1. If I were in school today, I might be diagnosed with which one of the following:
a) attention deficit disorder
b) chronic fatigue syndrome
c) anger-management issues
d) separation anxiety
2. Which of the following can you honestly say is a true statement about yourself (check all that apply):
a) I know the color of all my friends' eyes
b) I am comfortable with ambiguity
c) I know what all the controls on my stereo system are for
d) I often adjust the controls on my stereo system and can tell the difference when I do
3. True or false:
a) In 1993 two executives from Rubbermaid toured an exhibit of Egyptian antiquities at the British Museum in London. They came away with 11 specific product ideas, including some derived from Pharoah's kitchen utensils.
b) A 3M employee came up with the idea for Post-it Notes after using bits of paper to mark the hymns he sang in his church choir.
c) The first woman known to become a millionaire for one of her inventions was an African American named Madame C.J. Walker. She created hair straightener for black women in 1905.
d) The actress Hedy Lamarr, an innovator of on-screen nudity (in the 1932 Czech film Ecstasy), received a patent in 1942 for helping to invent a radio-controlled torpedo.
4. Complete the following quote from management guru Tom Peters: "Leadership has been implicit in every page of this book. Now we get explicit: a deep and sustaining commitment to innovation means leader-as-dispenser-of-____________."
a) enthusiasm
b) solutions
c) Pez
d) creativity
5. In trying to hire an innovative employee, which of the following Japanese words describes the quality Sony looks for:
a) setsu (eager, earnest, ardent, kind, keen, acute)
b) seizen (orderly, regular, well-organized, trim, accurate)
c) netsuretsu (ardent, passionate, vehement)
d) neyaka (optimistic, open-minded, intellectually diverse)
6. If I wanted to learn about the anatomy of a frog, the first thing I would do is
a) go to the library
b) call a biology professor
c) check the Internet
d) catch and dissect one
7. When working on a project for a client, I rely on the perspective of at least _____ outsiders.
a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 3
8. When asked to remember the most delightful aroma I've ever known, I
a) have to think for a minute or so
b) know instantly
c) consider who's asking
d) blush
9. Match the items in the left column with those in the right column:
| a) burrs |
_____1. the tabs on aluminum cans |
| b) conch shells |
_____2. Velcro |
| c) bananas |
_____3. spiral staircases |
10. Fill in the blank in this quote from management czar Peter Drucker: "Above all, the innovative company organizes itself to _______ the old, the obsolete, the no longer productive."
a) ignore
b) subsidize
c) abandon
d) compete against
11. If I were stranded in the desert, the question I'd be most likely to ask myself is:
a) How do I get to water?
b) How do I get water to come to me?
c) What is the meaning of (my) life?
d) How can I make (my) life more meaningful?
12. Every day you take a walk outdoors. You carry with you a notebook and pencil. After a month, your notebook is most likely to be filled with
a) thoughts and opinions
b) several "to-do" lists
c) drawings and doodles
d) phone numbers and E-mail addresses of people you meet
13. The graph (please refer to page 92 of a hard copy of Inc magazine) depicts what's typically known as an S-curve. The vertical axis measures the performance, in sales, of a particular product. The horizontal axis measures the investment and labor that your company puts into that product. At which point along the curve would you begin an effort on a next-generation product?
a) Point marked "1"
b) Point marked "2"
c) Point marked "3"
d) Point marked "4"
14. Below are four statements. Number each statement 1, 2, 3, or 4, depending on how true the statement is: "4" means the statement is absolutely true and "1" means the statement is absolutely false.
____a) I would just as soon steal a good idea as think of it myself. If it's a good idea, who cares about its source?
____b) My organization puts each and every process and product on trial for its life every 18 months to two years
____c) Employees at my organization openly share their ideas for improving our products and processes
____d) My organization has a process in place for actually implementing changes
15. At left is a sketch from one of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks (please refer to page 92 of a hard copy of Inc magazine). Your first impression is:
a) They call this guy a genius?
b) I see lots of cats. Is that one in the middle a dragon?
c) My, what terrific use of chiaroscuro, that is, the interplay of dark and light for dramatic emphasis
d) All the animals are curved
