The end product of design thinking can be new approaches to marketing campaigns, strategies, product design, branding, business objectives, operations or customer relationships. Design thinking is problem solving. Creativity requires the ability to think in unconventional ways. Creativity isn’t the visual product of a train of thought. Creativity is the train of thought. 

The recent Newsweek.com article,  “The Creativity Crisis”, brings to light that American creativity has been declining since 1990. The decline is most dramatic in kids from kindergarten to the sixth grade. Is it due to children playing video games for hours on end instead of making up their own games? Do schools provide enough opportunity for students to problem solve and recognize creative thinkers? This issue has effects beyond marketing from advances in technology to medical breakthroughs. How is American business and American society going to fare 20 years from now?