Jarl Jensen, Author at Global Trade Magazine

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many businesses to adapt or make major changes. The challenges presented required leaders to think creatively in order to solve problems and generate new ideas that can keep their companies competitive.

Now with record numbers of people starting businesses and entrepreneurial veterans trying to stay afloat, creative problem-solving is a key separator between success and failure – and in many cases requires an inventor-like mindset, says Jarl Jensen (www.jarljensen.com), the founder and president of Inventagon and the holder of several medical technology patents.

“Creativity is the most important attribute of an entrepreneur,” says Jensen, also the ForbesBooks author of The Big Solution: Deactivating The Ticking Time Bomb Of Today’s Economy. “It’s about innovative ways to tackle a problem and find a solution for it.

“You don’t necessarily have to be born with creativity. Many people have the potential to be creative; it just needs to be nurtured and strengthened. Right now we’re in an exciting place of both invention and reinvention. While you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, you do need to tap into creativity to stand apart, gain traction, and grow your business in an ultra-competitive environment.”

Jensen offers these tips on how entrepreneurs can become more creative and solve problems as a result:

Be prolific – and patient – with ideas. When the proverbial light bulb goes on, it doesn’t always mean the entrepreneur has had an epiphany that will lead to riches. “If you want a good idea to start a business and build it, the most important ingredient is the love of many ideas,” Jensen says. “Because very few ideas are actually good, so you will need the patience to sort through many of them.”

Learning how to habitually plant the seeds to create ideas is the key, he says.

“Take the time to daydream on a regular basis,” Jensen says. “Visualize all the places an idea can take you. See all the people it could help. We’ve been conditioned to think we’re wasting time when we sit idle and daydream, but it is exactly the opposite. Having quiet time to clear your mind and think freely opens the mind to great possibilities.”

Collaborate; don’t make it all about your own brainstorm. Jensen says the typical novice entrepreneur will want to file patents and rent out office space as the rush of a new idea takes over their imagination. But he cautions, “Don’t be foolish about your idea; it needs time to prove itself worthy of an investment.”

Engaging others around you in discussion about the idea is imperative, Jensen says, because it results in different viewpoints, new angles, and perhaps a more refined idea that can work.

“Collaboration that drives a company forward includes the sharing of and disagreement over ideas,” he says. “It’s the vigorous discussion, the opposing voice that helps refine and improve ideas. An effective partnership stimulates creativity and builds trust among team members that each is encouraged to contribute creatively.”

Stay focused. “It’s easy to waste time with too many ideas that are not going to work for you and your business,” Jensen says. “Know your company’s North Star – its mission statement – and what it needs to succeed. Does your idea align with your North Star? Adapt the solution to the problem. Shift negative thoughts into a positive mindset to provide concentration and clarity.”

“Your success as an entrepreneur is largely contingent on your ability to solve problems effectively,” Jensen says, “and the best tool you have is your creativity, and knowing how to cultivate it and harness it.”

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Jarl Jensen (www.jarljensen.com) is the ForbesBooks author of The Big Solution: Deactivating The Ticking Time Bomb Of Today’s Economy. He’s the founder and president of Inventagon, a company creating simpler research and development solutions for organizations across the globe. Jensen holds patents for medical technologies that have reached sales of over $1 billion. He founded EuroMed, a company he sold in 2016, and has written five books about the economy and its relationship with society.

Are some companies moving closer to having more robots than employees?

Recent studies indicate a trend in that direction.

The data: Research from Google Cloud shows two-thirds of manufacturers who use artificial intelligence in their day-to-day operations say that their reliance on AI is increasing. And a report from PwC predicts that by the mid-2030s, up to 30% of jobs could be automated.

The key questions: How much automation vs. how much human innovation? Which is better for a sustainable economy? And why are some businesses spending more on automation than people?

Thought leader’s take: Jarl Jensen (www.jarljensen.com), ForbesBook author of The Big Solution: Deactivating The Ticking Time Bomb Of Today’s Economy, says large inequities between the labor class and corporations exist in part because of cheap lending practices, enabling corporations to borrow large sums from banks – and one result is the trend toward more automation.

“Corporations would rather have an employee base full of robots, and a select few humans to monitor the robots, because it saves them money in labor cost,” Jensen says.

“Borrowing without a maximum limitation means it is easy, and often more affordable, for corporations to invest in automation or robotics than their labor force. It is cheaper to take a loan from a bank to finance the purchase of artificial intelligence software than it is to re-train workers or engage in improving work skills. The unfortunate reality of our economic system is that there is no incentive for banks to stop making loans to rich people and corporations – even if the end result is a decrease in jobs due to automation and artificial intelligence.”

Jensen thinks the economy can be engineered to make it more equitable – ”an economy for the people.” These are three of the tools he suggests to fix the economy:

Direct deposits. “The first and best tool at our disposal is the money that a new and better version of the Federal Reserve would deposit directly into the bank accounts of every American of working age,” Jensen says. “This is not a basic income. It is an essential liberty.”

Jensen’s idea is that the direct deposits would be made for future work. The amount each working person would receive would be adjusted according to the signals being received from the economy. “The way out of the debt trap is direct deposits,” he says. “Direct deposits put the people first. It forces the system to adjust to the needs of the people. The money we’re talking about for these direct deposits is money that the Fed simply creates out of thin air like it does when it issues money for loans to banks. But this money is not creating a debt that has to be repaid, thus does not grow the national deficit or become a debt burden for the Americans who receive it.”

Blue sky markets. Jensen describes blue sky markets as money for businesses that pursue the common good. This tool, he says, takes big problems out of the government’s hands and puts them in the hands of entrepreneurs. ”Blue sky markets issue money directly to fund commodity exchanges that effectively solve these big problems,” he says. “They create money for the purpose of fixing what is broken and making a more sustainable, stable, and compelling future.”

One example of implementing this tool is in addressing climate change. “Businesses would bid on the exchange to remove CO2 from the atmosphere,” Jensen says. “Money that is not debt-based, taken directly from the Federal Reserve, would pay the lowest bidder to remove the CO2. Competition for profits would compel entrepreneurs to figure out how to do it efficiently and effectively.”

New kind of savings account. “Today, any money you put in the bank doesn’t sit in your account,” Jensen says. “It gets repurposed. The bank uses it to invest, to loan out to other people or entities, and to create more debt. But if, alongside these new direct deposits, you had new high-interest bank accounts that are accessible to everyone, then that would keep some of the money out of circulation. Many people would choose to save the money and collect the interest.”

Jensen says the money to pay those higher interest rates would come from the Fed. With more people saving because of this high-interest incentive, and much less of that money going out in circulation, he reasons that inflation would not set in despite all the direct deposits and blue sky markets. “And as a huge bonus,” he says, “this system makes planning for retirement a lot easier.”

“Having an economy for the people is all about reimagining how we value money and restructuring how banks do business,” Jensen says. “It’s about real freedom, sustainability, and the optimization of society.”

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Jarl Jensen (www.jarljensen.com) is ForbesBook author of The Big Solution: Deactivating The Ticking Time Bomb Of Today’s Economy. He’s the founder and president of Inventagon, a company creating simpler research and development solutions for organizations across the globe. Jensen holds patents for medical technologies that have reached sales of over $1 billion. He founded EuroMed, a company he sold in 2016, and has written five books about the economy and its relationship with society.

A Time Of Invention And Reinvention: How Entrepreneurs Can Tap Into Creativity

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