Albert Einstein considered himself to be “creative”. Having grown up with a notion that everyone who works with numbers is extremely left brained, I found Einstein’s description of the invention process highly surprising. Einstein constantly combined and recombined ideas until he found his solutions. Knowing the facts was not enough, he had to think outside the square and formulate questions that have never been asked before.
Great analysts tend to work in the similar manner. Working closely with analysts day to day, I am constantly surprised at their ability to spot new trends through re-combining the data that has never been previously combined, and coming up with additional questions that they can answer by overlaying the trends. They may have the left-brained logic and numerical acumen, but also display a high degree of creativity and imagination to hypothesise alternative solutions.
So if you’re ever in a position of hiring an analyst, give them multiple sets of data and ask them to come up with trends that are yet to be discovered. The degree of creativity they apply to the process will give you a good indication of how capable they are to come up with solutions that are applicable to real world challenges.
Written by:
Lana Bruskina – Strategy and Insight Manager
For further information on THINK Global Research, please contact Kristy Ihle (Managing Director) at info@thinkglobalresearch.com.
