Recyclables and rubbish a test for business ingenuity

‘Business’ may be synonymous with profit margins, KPIs and market liquidity. But the importance of being creative, innovative and thinking outside the box was the focus of a lesson where WITT business students put their imaginations and craft skills to the test.

Students enrolled in the New Zealand Diploma in Business (with strands in Accounting or Leadership and Management) stepped away from desktops and databases to use recycled materials for a hands-on entrepreneurial exercise. With glitter and glue.

Tutor Phillipa Watt says the topic on innovation paved the way for students to create a product for an identified user using waste, recycling and other discarded rubbish.

“Business Studies is about being imaginative, entrepreneurial and innovative”, says Phillipa, who is keen to highlight the value of a creative, fun approach in achieving business success. “Students had a fun being innovative in this way, with serious theoretical underpinnings.”

Each group was given a bag of random rubbish – including old computer parts, unwanted stationery, bits of fabric, and old fancy dress costumes. They had to create something usable or beautiful while keeping in mind potential customers or clients.

Creations included:

• Wi-fi extender - suitable for anyone who has ‘dead spots’ in their house.
• Build your own catapult game – for kids who love building and busting things. Played as a two-person game as there is a catcher for the ball.
• Bikini and evening wear for a trip to a tropical island or party theme – for a young, fashionable tourist.
• Box for medals or jewellery – for a military veteran.
• Medical mask model – a 3D reminder (for witches and others who believe magic spells are enough to ward off contagious germs).
• A multi-gender mannequin for a clothing retail store – the user being retail stores who want to attract a wider demographic than a traditional two-gender one.

Students had to apply the Design Thinking Process (DTP) to their work. “The DTP follows an iterative process (of Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test) and to consider creativity from the perspective of Tina Seelig’s Design Engine Theory (knowledge, imagination, attitude, habitat, resources and culture),” Phillipa explains.

Professor Tina Seelig is an American educator, entrepreneur and author of several books on creativity and innovation, and a faculty member at Stanford University. 

The concept of kaitiakitanga - nurturing and carefully managing the natural resources to ensure sustainability – is embedded in modern business practice, Phillipa adds.

“Being innovative and creative means being resourceful – and being resourceful means considering the environment which in turn aligns with Te Tiriti principle of protection of the natural environment.”

Caption: (Left to right) Tara Greiner, Jaimie Cerda, Anita Jansen Van Rensburg (kneeling), Kara Wells, Sophia Seddon and Leila Bridgeman.