• Radical creativity encourages leaders to change how they think and operate
• Aalto University Executive Education and Professional Development (Aalto EE) is developing its culture, practices, and structures to create optimal conditions for radical creativity
• Teamwork is the key to the future as collaborators can swap wisdom and work together to create new pathways

Evolution is key to staying relevant – as the saying goes, adapt or die. Some companies understand this better than others. Take Duolingo, for example. The company shook up the languages sector by throwing old learning methods such as sitting in classes or painstakingly scouring phrasebooks and dictionaries in the bin. Instead, Duolingo offered an app that provided learners with the ease and convenience to learn a new language at their own pace and in their own way.

The company has also built a reputation for utilising social media like no other and to great success. On TikTok in particular, the company has amassed nearly seven million followers, thanks to their unique brand of engagement.

Instead of focusing purely on selling their services, Duolingo delivered quirky, unhinged, over-the-top, and downright bizarre entertainment to followers with no strings attached. Through the characterisation of their chaotic and playfully passive-aggressive mascot Duo the Green Owl, the company hopped onto online trends, creating consistent meme-worthy storylines such as Duo’s crush on Dua Lipa and their one-sided rivalry with Google Translate.

To date, Duolingo has secured over 500 million downloads on both Google Play and the Apple App Store.

Duolingo wouldn’t be everyone’s favourite green owl without radical creativity. The ability to experiment, be creative and test new approaches to business strategy – from social media to boardroom decision-making.

It is this style of thinking and leadership that experts at Aalto University Executive Education and Professional Development (Aalto EE) believe is vital for business endurance. So much so, they’re training industry leaders in how to do it.

Radical creativity is a skill that all leaders need

In today’s fast-paced world, where change is constant and competition intense, we need to change the way businesses lead. Aalto has stepped up to this challenge with its Leading Radical Creativity in Ecosystems initiative, launched in the autumn of 2023.

The initiative aims to encourage leaders of the future to think differently, break free from old patterns and change the world with inventive and ground-breaking ideas. Aalto views radical thinking as a transformative skill that doesn’t just urge people to think outside the box but to reimagine it completely.

Doing so can help ensure not just business survival, but it’s evolution.

For another example think of Netflix, which first changed the landscape of DVD and video game rentals by introducing the ability to receive rentals by post instead of visiting a store, leaving then-reigning industry giant Blockbuster in the dust. Netflix the world by storm yet again years later, shaking up its business model with the launch of its streaming service.

Today, Netflix has transformed yet again. Not only does the company provide film and TV content to users, it now also creates it too.

The idea of reframing how business should be done is not held by Aalto alone. Professor Henry Mintzberg’s work also highlights how getting radical and challenging the status quo can lead to new, better and more progressive thinking – particularly when old methods no longer work.

Nana Salin, Director of Alternative Funding at Aalto agrees, “When usual methods won’t cut it, radical creativity steps in”.

And, taking this one step further, Aalto’s approach suggests that radicals need not stand alone.

Competition is out, co-opetition is in

Such radical creativity includes not only thinking up new ideas, but considering new ways to action them. At the heart of Aalto’s initiative is cultivating the concept of “co-opetition”.

By conducting multiple round table discussions and targeted interviews to uncover industry attitudes towards whether or not companies should work alone or with others, Nana and her colleagues are finding ways to enable organisations to work together finding common ground to tackle industry-level challenges and serve the greater good.

When rivals work together, she suggests, everyone wins.

There are some compelling case studies that prove her point. Tech giants Samsung and Apple may be fierce rivals of the phone industry (so much so that their customers are frequently at war with each other over which phone is better), have teamed up for not one, not two, but multiple endeavours to improve the both their products and the wider mobile and computer technology sectors for all.

Samsung have even, Salin says, found success in partnering up with those outside of their industry – such as its collaboration with Starbucks developing a line of attractive phone accessories.

Teaming up doesn’t just serve the betterment of industry but the planet too. Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper and Pepsi put their differences aside in 2019 by cutting back on plastic waste and setting up the “Every Bottle Back” initiative, a scheme to ensure plastic bottles could be recycled and reused.

And in doing so? By sharing secrets, lowering walls and considering new approaches by mixing with new people, Salin says there is much to gain. Partnering up could provide to be revolutionary – especially when exploring new markets and untapped resources.

By working together companies stand to make a greater impact and yield greater rewards. Furthermore, by swapping wisdom companies avoid making costly missteps and engaging in copycat behaviour as they try to catch up to one another and essentially re-inventing the wheel.

Though the Aalto project is in early stages, so far it has been a success. “Our fall trials were a hit, paving the way for what’s next,” says Salin. “We’re now zeroing in on how radical creativity can spur cross-industry teamwork and mutual benefits.”

AI wants in too

Looking to the future, businesses don’t only have the option of collaborating with their industry peers. Generative AI also has immense potential to be a valuable creative partner.

Aalto University’s Senior Lecturer Ville Eloranta says, “Generative AI is not about replacing human creativity but enhancing it, offering new perspectives that we might not consider. It can be a game-changer in interdisciplinary creative teams, bringing together varied perspectives and fostering a rich breeding ground for innovation and empathy.”

Whether inspiration is being driven by AI or human intellect, Salin’s view that teamwork and developing the mindset to embrace collaborative opportunities to be of utmost importance when it comes to innovation. Together businesses can make the world prosper like never before.

And with the many, seemingly impossible challenges the world currently faces, there’s never been a better time than now to do try doing things a bit differently.

By, Sharmin Ahmed

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