This is the second in a series of three articles I have created for you to help expand your innovation potential. Research has shown that innovation can be nurtured with teaching and training. Furthermore, with new ideas come new companies and a lot more new jobs.

In my last article, I shared research from the Small Business Administration (SBA) showing that 70% of all net new jobs in the U.S. over the last 30 years being created by innovative, growing companies and the clever leaders that run them.

The company I last highlighted was Hill shire Brands Company led by innovative leader Sally Grimes. Another such company is Ocean Spray Cranberries.

In 1930 three cranberry growers in Massachusetts set out to solve a prevalent problem in their industry; what to do with cranberries that did not pass quality assurance standards to be sold as fresh? The answer: cranberry sauce. To market this new product they formed a cooperative and called it Ocean Spray.

Since then they have grown into a $2.2 billion company by continuing to think outside the box. Over the years their product developers have engineered a wide range of new products including cranberry juice, blended juices, energy drinks and Craisins!

Craisinsepitomize Ocean Spray’s creativity in product development. During the process of engineering cranberry juice, the leftover berry hulls were worthless. In fact, the company needed to pay cattle farmers to haul away these hulls to be used as feed. Then their research and development team discovered that by re-infusing the hulls with juice, then drying them out, a tasty snack could be created! This business, which started as a small, 15-million-pound business in the early 1990’s, has grown into a 200-million-pound global business today creating many thousands of new jobs in the process!

Unfortunately, few companies think as creatively as Ocean Spray. Contrast this with another food company, Kellogg Co. The makers of Special K and Pringles,will layoff 2000 jobs or 7% of its global workforce over the next four years as part of a billion dollar cost-cutting program. Many product developers, quality engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, plant managers and production managers will loose their jobs. Instead of spending so much on a mass layoff, Kellogg might consider redirecting some of this money into retraining their displaced workers to improve their creativity to engineer better new products to expand their business.

Though there is no simple way to increase creativity, one outlet I suggested last time was Marbles The Brain Store  which carries a wealth of inexpensive products, designed to magnify your innovation. One tool I recommend is Color code which activates your parietal lobe, which is essential for proper spatial processing.

Though I cannot guarantee that your creativity will rise to the level of Ocean Spray after using Color Code, I can suggest that your innovation will be enhanced, which may lead to more scientific, engineering or technical breakthroughs and in turn more jobs for your company and the U.S. economy!