THE GUARDIAN: Hacked spaces, brainstorms, calligraphy ... where do great ideas spring from?

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Mark Batey, a senior lecturer in organisational psychology at Alliance Manchester Business School says we need to process information before brainstorming. “If you give people time, their brains can start working on ideas in the background. So when they do get to the idea-generation stage they are all ready to go.”

But, when seeking inspiration, business owners should also remain open-minded, watching new trends and technologies, even if they don’t seem obviously relevant to their industry. “By looking outside of their immediate sphere, a business can find the seeds of fruitful ideas,” Batey says.

But he warns entrepreneur-led companies that a founder or owner can get in the way of their staff. It’s easy for this to happen if a company is the brainchild of one entrepreneur who has become accustomed to being the main provider of ideas and solutions. In order to avoid this, they must aim to create a culture of creativity. “Business owners need to ask questions [of staff] but be careful to not give the solutions when framing those questions.”