#CreativityInContext: Thanks, Dirk, for sharing your creativity and innovation management experience with us!
On January 20th, 2022, the Chair of Industrial Management welcomed Dirk Wirth, Innovation Manager at Atruvia AG, for a keynote in the context of the Organizational Creativity course.
In this context, Dirk gave the students an insight into both his many years of experience as an Innovation Manager in various companies and his experiences with the topic of creativity. In particular, he reported on the change and the changing awareness of the topic of creativity in (industrial) companies. While at the beginning of his 30-year career in Innovation Management, creativity was often associated with artistic activities and ridiculed, the awareness of this really important skill and topic has changed. With the help of various examples from the corporate context and funny everyday situations, Dirk was able to illustrate to the students the change and today’s value of problem-solving creativity in companies. Furthermore, the students got an insight into the toolbox of an Innovation Manager. Skillfully illustrated with examples, various creativity and innovation techniques such as brainstorming, the 6-3-5 method and the headstand technique were discussed with the students in the context of the creative process. In the subsequent discussion, the students were given the opportunity to exchange ideas with Dirk and to ask questions about his person, experience and creativity in context.
Prof. Dr. Kai-Ingo Voigt, Dr. Oscar Pakos, and Lars Friedrich thank Dirk very much for his impressive keynote and the passion with which he shared his experience with the students and us. In particular, we were able to learn that everyone is creative and that companies today need to treat their employees with fun and at eye level in order to foster the creative potential of their employees.