Creative Guru inspires those in developing countries

by Surekha Galagoda

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People in developing countries can leapfrog by thinking out of the box and being creative, said Creative Guru Fredrik Haren.

The author of The Idea book which can also be used as a notebook was in Sri Lanka to address a seminar at a leading Girls' School in Colombo and launch the English translations into Sinhala and Tamil.

He said that in Sri Lanka the Sinhala and Tamil translations are sold at cost as a CSR project because he wants every Sri Lankan to get a book and read and be creative as this is the only way out of poverty.

Haren said that in developed and developing countries people put a lot of emphasis on knowledge. People have to study but that alone is not sufficient as everybody can acquire knowledge.

In today's world knowledge is a commodity as everybody can own books, and a computer.

"If you want to compete in the globalised world you have to be creative as this is the only way to be ahead of the others. But this has never been taught.

If a person is creative he can combine it with the knowledge he acquires and my book is all about this, said Haren.

Most people think that creativity cannot be taught but according to him this is not true. Haren said that he wants to provide this book as a creativity training tool and see how people improve themselves. The book has been already translated into nine languages and sold in 40 countries and my ambition is to publish it in 100 languages so that more people would benefit out of my exercise.

He said that creativity can be in your day to day life or to improve your living standards. It is not about having more money but about being creative and making the best use of the money you have.

Speaking of his book, he said that it is not a nobel prize idea but it is a different idea. Therefore, read it and apply it at all times of the day and be a different person.

Haren was the Speaker of the Year 2006-2007 in Sweden, having received an Honorary mention in Innovative Thinker of the year Award 2004 and was Entrepreneur of the year 2003.

He has delivered over 1,000 speeches, lectures and conducted workshops about creativity, idea generation and entrepreneurship for over 100,000 people and held seminars for hundreds of organisations in over 20 countries. Haren, a native of Sweden is one of the best-selling authors in Sweden.

His best-seller The Idea Book has been translated into many languages, including English, Japanese and Chinese.

Hundreds of companies including HP, Sandvik, Ericsson, Volvo, China Mobile and GE use "The Idea Book" as a training tool for creativity. It was ranked No. 4 in the best-selling list of business books at Amazon Japan in 2005.

The Idea Book has been already included in the Swedish Education System.