Creative thinking is essential for developing innovation in products and services. But applying Creative thinking in business can run into a brick wall — the philosophy of business is to apply uniform production processes to permit scale, making the unique aspects of creativity play second fiddle to cost and productivity concerns. The key to solve this impasse is to find strategies to leverage creativity where its value can be unleashed to benefit a business.  A book that offers advice on how to address this impasse is Creative Clarity: A Practical Guide for Bringing Creative Thinking Into Your Company  by Jon Kolko. It highlights creative skills and management products for use in running your business. Kolko is a partner at Modernist Studio and the founder of Austin Center for Design. He has worked with both startups and Fortune 500 companies so he brings a unique perspective and set of experiences to business management. What is Creative Clarity About? Creative Clarity: A Practical Guide for Bringing Creative Thinking Into Your Company is about applying creative skills as a way of finding new solutions to the rigorous demands of a business environment. As Koljo states on the opening page: “Most companies don’t know what creativity really is, so they can’t benefit from it.” The book encourages the reader to seek a problem solving framework — particularly when working with creative professionals like designers, graphic artists and journalists. Kolko goes on to provide a few frameworks for the reader to consider.  The aim is to incorporate good processes that leverage what creatives bring to the table and yet at the same time fit within the business constraints of product development. The fourth chapter Managing Spin, explains the idea of wasted creative cycles that do not push an idea forward. Chapter 5 offers insights on managing critiques, while the last chapter deals with building a creative culture. The book is a good read, only about 180 pages with supporting material at the end. What I Liked about Creative Clarity I like that the chapters within Creative Clarity: A Practical Guide for Bringing Creative Thinking Into Your Company focus on a mix of…