1. How Financial Marketers can Develop
Creative Problem-Solving Skills
Dr. Oyewole O. Sarumi
LMS Consulting Ltd, Lagos, Nigeria
https://lms-consulting.org

2. Oyewole O. Sarumi – MBA, PhD
• A Leadership Coach
• Conference Speaker
• Trainer of Trainers
• Personal Finance
Planner
• Marketing
Entrepreneurial Teacher
• An Author

3. Retail banking needs innovation
and creative thinking as much as
any industry, if not more. Here’s a
guide with some tips to help bank
and credit union marketers
sharpen their creativity skills.

4. Introduction
• Banking is not known for being the most
creative of industries. And one of the perils of
working in a single vertical (retail financial
services) is stale, repetitious thinking.
• After you’ve developed 43 different auto loan
promotions in your career, it can be a little
tough to come up with number 44 …and 45
…and 46.

5. • Indeed you’d be hard pressed to find an
industry with a worse reputation for stifling
creativity than banking.
• But the marketing of financial services
requires just as much innovation and
creativity as in any another industry, if not
more.

6. How Bankers Can be Creative
• Being creative is innately human. We are all wired
to be inventive; it’s an instinct we all possess to
one degree or another. And the good news is that
creativity is a skill we can all master.
• The first step is to understand the process.
Whether you’re trying to craft a slogan, come up
with a new deposit product, write a jingle or
develop a theme for next month’s ad campaign,
almost all creative problems are tackled with the
same four discrete phases:

7. Phase 1: Information
• Information – Saturate
your mind with everything
you can find on the subject.
It’s nearly impossible to
solve any problem in an
information vacuum.
Information is brain food,
the raw material that fuels
creative output.

8. Phase 2: Incubation
• Incubation – Creative
solutions almost never come
instantly. You need to digest
and distill all the information
you’ve consumed, and this
takes time.
• It’s best to not rush the
creative process, because the
more time you allow ideas to
percolate, the better and
more plentiful your ideas will
be. At the very least, you
should sleep on it overnight.

9. Phase 3: Inspiration
• Inspiration – This is the
ah-ha moment you’ve
been waiting for. After
filling your brain with
information and letting it
roll around a while,
something you think of, or
remember, or see, or hear
sparks an idea.

10. Phase 4: Illustration
• Illustration – An idea has no
value if you can’t convey it.
Many times, the success or
failure of a creative solution
hinges on how well its creator
can articulate it.
• There can be many ways to
express a single concept
(visually, mathematically,
metaphorically, etc.). You need
to work on finding the best
way to communicate each
idea you have.

11. THE CREATIVE APPROACHES
BANKERS CAN USE

12. 1. Einstein’s Paper Clip
• Here’s a simple creativity test. Name as many uses as you can think of for a paper
clip. The average person may come up with ten, perhaps even 20 or 30 different
answers. But geniuses like Einstein can come up with literally thousands. Why?
Because they shed arbitrary rules and dismiss all assumptions. People like Einstein
ask questions like, “What if the paperclip was the size of a jumbo jet? Or only two
microns small? Or made of glass? Or made of light? They don’t assume the
paperclip has to be an inch long and made of steel.
• When faced with a problem, Michael Michalko, a best-selling creativity expert,
says we will typically think about it in terms of similar problems we’ve
encountered in the past. We try to identify something in our past that has worked
before. We ask, “What have I been taught in life, education or work that I could
use to solve this problem?” Most people will develop solutions based on past
experiences. But Michalko says this kind of thinking is limiting.
• In contrast, Michalko says when geniuses are confronted with a problem, they ask,
“How many different ways can I look at it?” “How many different ways can I solve
it?”
• Key Insight: If you only rely on what you’ve been taught — what you think you
know — you’ll always struggle developing innovative solutions.

13. 2. Half of 13
• Okay, now that your mind is all lubed up with Einstein’s paperclip, let’s try
it out: What is half of 13? How many creative answers can you come up
with? Most people get stuck on 6.5. Mathematically, 13 is a prime number,
half of which is 6.5 (or expressed fractionally as 6-1/2). But what else?
• What’s half of 13? When you approach the problem creatively instead of
mathematically, there is almost an infinite number of possible answers
• It can be tempting to dismiss a problem by convincing yourself that all the
good ideas are taken — that all the ideas worth doing have already been
done by someone else. Just remember “half of thirteen,” then think about
all those auto brands who keep finding one new way after another to
advertise their cars — even though the industry has plowed through tens
of thousands of ideas.
• Key Insight: Remember there are always a new, creative solutions, even to
old and familiar problems.

14. 3. Innovation is a Volume Business
• Truly creative people will admit that most of their ideas
aren’t very good. You aren’t going to hit a home run
every time. Indeed Thomas Edison confessed to 10,000
failures before finding success. And it took a team of
four copywriters to come up with the famous ad slogan
“Got Milk?” Four people for two words?? Think about
how many other ideas do you think they discarded
before finding gold? Hundreds? Thousands perhaps?
• Key Insight: The only way to have a good idea is to
have a lot of ideas.

15. 4. Explain the Problem to an Outsider
• With any problem, one of the first things you should do is find its most simple
expression. How can you boil the problem down to its most basic level? It’s easier
to come up with a solution to a simple problem than a complex one.
• One of the best ways to distill a problem is to explain it to an outsider, someone
unfamiliar with it — a layperson, or co-worker, or friend. If you have a loving,
supportive and patient spouse, try explaining your problem to them. They may ask
a bunch of silly questions, and they may offer a lot of inappropriate solutions, but
through this process you’ll find a deeper level of clarity about what you are trying
to accomplish.
• How would you describe your problem to a six-year old? Keep working until you’ve
reduced your problem down to a sentence or two. Ideally, you’re shooting for 5-10
words.
• Key Insight: Talk through your problems with others. Always take the opportunity
to explain your creative challenges to anyone who will listen. It isn’t their response
you’re necessarily interested in. It’s the simple articulation of your problem that
you’re really after. Forcing yourself to explain your problem many times to many
different people will crystallize your focus.

16. 5. Geniuses Make Their Thoughts
Visible
• According to Michalko, the creativity expert, one of the main reasons people like
DaVinci and Galileo are regarded as geniuses hinges largely on how they expressed
their ideas: visually. Galileo, for instance, revolutionized science by making his
thoughts visible with diagrams, maps, and drawings while his contemporaries used
conventional mathematical and verbal approaches. Indeed the entire Renaissance
period was marked by an explosion of creativity tied intimately to the recording
and conveying of new knowledge.
• Creative practitioners usually develop a skill in visual and spatial abilities affording
them the flexibility to communicate new ideas and information in different ways.
Even though Einstein is often thought of as a physicist and mathematician, he
always found it necessary to express his ideas in as many different ways as
possible, including diagrammatically.
• Perhaps you’ve tried explaining something to someone before and they just
couldn’t quite grasp what you were saying. ”Do you need me to draw you a
picture?” Yes! That’s exactly what people need.
• Key Insight: Humans are deeply visual. We digest and respond to information best
when it is presented in a visual context.

17. 6. Write Down All Your Ideas
• This isn’t for posterity. The reason you need to
write down all your ideas is so you can flush them
out of your system. If you don’t transfer all your
ideas from brain to paper, you risk getting
creative constipation. You wind up feeling stuck
because your mind keeps returning to the same
ideas over and over.
• Key Insight: Write down everything, even the bad
ideas — especially the bad ideas. Purge that stuff
out of your system so you can move on.

18. 7. Keep a Pen and Paper With You
• This may sound stupid or obvious, but it is neither. Disciplined
problem-solvers are always sure to have a pen and paper handy.
Why? Because you never know when or where a solution to your
problem may come to you. It could be in the elevator, or in the
bathroom, or in bed in the middle of the night. Just because you’ve
blocked out 1p-3p on Tuesday to work on your problem doesn’t
mean that’s when you’ll generate all your answers. The human
mind is a funny thing, and it doesn’t like to let go of sticky riddles.
You’ll often find yourself pondering your problem in the most
unlikely of places. Make notes before you lose your train of
thought, because you never know when you could be
interrpute… “Hey Bob, you got those TPS reports finished yet?”
• Key Insight: It’s tough to write down all your ideas when you don’t
have anything to write with, or on.

19. 8. Maintain a Creative Warehouse
• It’s not like the loan promotion you did last quarter is going to be
the last one you will ever do. With marketing financial services,
there is a lot of repetition. On the downside, this repetitiveness
gets old and boring. But on the upside, that means you can
anticipate the creative challenges you’ll be facing in the future. If
you’re keeping pen and paper handy, and diligently recording all
your ideas for each creative project you face, you can begin building
a warehouse of reference material for future projects. Create files
for creative ideas: “Auto Loans,” “CD Promos,” “Community Events,”
“Strategic Workshop Sessions,” “Annual Reports,” etc.
• Key Insight: The next time you have to solve a recurring problem,
think about how valuable it would be to have a folder you’d been
stuffing ideas into for the last five years. Get started, now.

20. 9. Combination is the Key to
Innovation
• If you’re holding out for that big lightning bolt or major eureka
moment, you could be waiting a long time. Most innovations aren’t
wholly original ideas. Unique innovations that transform the
financial industry — like ATMs in the 80s and the internet in the 90s
— are few and far between. Innovation is most often a process of
fusion or evolution. Someone looks at someone else’s idea and
says, “Hey, I like that. How can I make it better?” Or someone looks
at a new technology, or what someone else is doing, and says, “I
wonder how I can make that work for me.” This is how 99% of
percent of innovation works in any industry.
• Key Insight: “Innovation-through-combination” is easiest when you
respect the steps in the creative process — (1) Fuel your brain with
as much relevant information as possible. (2) Write all your ideas
down. (3) Maintain a library for past ideas.

21. 10. Get Away From the Office
• There are two primary reasons you need to do this. First you want to
eliminate distractions and interruptions. More importantly, you need to
get out of your comfort zone. Take a walk, go for a drive, stroll the beach,
visit a bookstore or café. There’s a side benefit to this as well: it’s feels
good to steal away from the office for a while, and having a positive
mental attitude will help you solve your problem more easily.
• Many people feel more creative when travelling, whether for either
business or pleasure. Why? When you’re in strange and unfamiliar
settings, your senses are heightened. You notice and pay attention to new
things, any of which might serve as inspiration for the problem at hand.
• Getting out of the office can be particularly helpful when you’re stuck on a
problem. It can be pretty frustrating spending hours, days, even weeks on
a problem with no success. That’s when it’s time to hit the gym, chop
some wood or engage in some other physical activity that helps you blow
off steam.
• Key Insight: Familiar settings lead to familiar solutions, while fresh
environments foster fresh thinking.

22. 11. Brainstorming Sessions
• Some people really love brainstorming sessions. Others don’t, and prefer working independently to
avoid “group think.” If you’re going to have a brainstorming session, you should follow some basic
guidelines.
• Group Size – Experts recommend keeping groups between two and ten, with four to seven being
ideal.
• Appropriateness – Some problems lend themselves to brainstorming sessions better than others.
Highly technical and complex problems aren’t suited well for larger groups. The simpler the
problem, the more people you can invite to participate.
• Suspend Judgment – When ideas are brought forth, no critical comments should be allowed.
Criticism is like pouring weed killer on the creative process, so qualitative evaluation should be
reserved for later. There are no “bad ideas.” In fact, there should be several ideas in every session
that are so off-the-wall that they make the group laugh.
• Quantity – The whole point of a brainstorming session is to generate a lot of ideas. Don’t dwell on
any single idea with a bunch of discussion. Stay focused on idea creation. Some experienced
brainstormers fix a quota, committing to 50 or 100 ideas before agreeing to quit the session.
• Write It All Down – Everyone’s ideas should be written on a board or butcher paper so the group
can see them. Ideally, your scribe should be a non-participant in the brainstorming session, since
it’s hard to be thoughtful and creative and write down everything all at the same time.
• Key Insight: There are pros and cons to brainstorming sessions, just don’t use them as a crutch to
avoid doing your own creative dirty work.

23. Credit to:
• Creative Thinking In Retail Banking. Culled
from the FINACIAL BRAND MAG. Oct 23, 2012
http://thefinancialbrand.com
• Tony Proctor. Creative Problem Solving for
Managers: Developing Skills for Decision
Making .... 2 Park Square, Milton Park,
Abingdon, Oxford UK.