Clara Kluk – Creativity Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Social Innovation

Our seventeenth episode of the Creative Flow: Thinkers and Change Agents Podcast Series features Clara Kluk, a renowned global leader in creativity, author, and entrepreneur from Mexico. She started as a successful artist in Mexico City and suffered a tragic experience that altered her life forever. She attended a Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI) Conference where she met Dr. Gerard Puccio, Chair of the Master’s Degree program in Creativity. She developed a close connection with him and quickly decided to change direction to pursue her MS in Creativity from the Center for Applied Imagination, SUNY Buffalo State. She tells the story of her incredible career and life journey, a gift for which she is forever grateful. Clara started a Creativity and Innovation Company called Grupo Piensa, which grew to become the largest organization of its kind in Latin America with 14 offices worldwide and a team of 140 people.  She describes the successes she worked on with her varied client base, from commercializing the stainless-steel credit card to achieving 12 patents in fuel cells for hydrogen energy to developing new processes for Coca-Cola.  She is passionate about taking the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process beyond the corporate setting, and this creativity and social innovation became the topic of her first book. Her company helped people in poverty start businesses and partnered on social innovation topics, from developing new forms of proteins to harnessing the energy of spoiled bread. Clara has recently finished writing a manual on ISO 56000 to help businesses manage innovation as a process, set an international standard for innovative practices, and develop master innovation professionals. Don’t miss the fascinating discussion on the future of creativity. She sees innovation as essential to the future of economies and expressed a desire to see the community continue to grow through ongoing study, accepting new methodologies, and nurturing individuals. Her Creative Flow is not when she is working or facilitating a CPS process but evident in her personal life, playing with her grandchildren, and being in nature. Clara shares great wisdom and humor in this episode while she details her incredible life and work.