Adapted from a report by Lisa Hoashi, Mercy Corps Senior Internal Communications Officer.

Mohammed Gawdat.

Creativity means doing something new. Innovation means doing something differently.

Our world of scarcity needs both.

That's the argument mounted last week in Cairo, at Mercy Corps' bi-annual Global Leadership Gathering, by Mohammed Gawdat, Google's Vice President for Emerging Markets. The set of principles Gawdat laid out matter as much to social entrepreneurs and innovators as to more traditional ones.

Gawdat reviewed four types of innovation:

Product innovation, when someone improves an existing product. For example, Apple's iPod is a product innovation over the MP3 players that came before it.

Process innovation, when an existing process is improved to be more efficient. Toyota innovated when it began to use "lean manufacturing" to make cars.

Service innovation. With stores that feel like "home," Starbucks focuses on selling an experience, rather than just a product, coffee.

Business model innovation. This type of innovation focuses on improving the way that a product is delivered. Amazon.com's online store, which virtually sells everything, fundamentally changed the way that consumers shop and make purchases.

Everyone is born creative, Gawdat said, and has the ability to innovate. "Surprisingly, all you can really do to innovation is block it," he said. "Leadership just has to know how to get out of the way."

Google's nine rules of innovation

1. Start with a clear, simple vision. Gawdat's example was Google's: "To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

2. Hire the best. Gawdat showed this clip from the movie Ratatouille, where a rat tries to prove that he knows enough about cooking to be accepted as a chef. "Just because he's a rat doesn't mean he doesn't know what he's doing," Gawdat said. The "best" employees are whoever are "the best at the mission," he said, regardless of who they are and what credentials they have.

3. Find ideas everywhere. When you come up against someone or an idea that you don't like or find odd, ask "Why?" You never know where it might lead you.

4. Share. "Sometimes the truth hurts," Gawdat acknowledged, "but it's important to share it." At Google, information is thought to be better shared than hidden. Projects in development are shared across the company, and anyone can comment on them.

5. Morph ideas, don't kill them. Don't make the mistake of letting an idea stop at step one: let it shift. Google developed three social networking platforms before arriving at Google+.

6. Speed matters. Fast is better than slow.

7. Data trumps hype. At Google, Gawdat said, "every claim is backed up by data." Solid data drives all decisions.

8. Users come first. (And second, and third, and fourth...) Focus on what the customer wants, and then put resources toward addressing that.

9. Give permission to innovate. At Google, employees are encouraged to use 20 percent of their work time on any project of their choosing that's approved by their manager. "If [a Google employee] says they want to use that time to make a better car, then that's O.K.," said Gawdat. "No one is allowed to say, 'That is not what we do.'"

In closing, Gawdat showed Apple's classic Think Different ad, which ends by saying that "the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."

"At most organizations," said Gawdat, "it is the few crazy people that are the ones that drive it forward ... If people are passionate about something, then you should allow them to move forward."

There are two salt deserts in Bolivia: the Salar de Coipasa and the Salar de Uyuni — both of which could be destroyed in the mining of lithium. Photo: Jessie Reeder (flickr)

Does Bolivia have a resource as valuable as Saudi Arabian oil?

The auto industry has historically relied on oil to power cars, but is now turning to new sources of energy. Consequently, raw materials like the lithium in electric car batteries are now in demand.

Ford and GM have invested in the research and production of electric cars, while Toyota has announced plans to build a hybrid electric and start selling an all-electric car by 2012.

So where does Bolivia come into the picture? The introduction of the lithium-ion battery allows cars to go farther on a single charge, making them more convenient and economically viable. But there is a catch: The lithium needed for these batteries is a limited resource, and according to this BBC video report, half of the world’s supply is under Bolivia’s salt flats.

Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, could benefit enormously from mining and processing lithium. But extraction industries have always been controversial. Political tensions over exporting natural gas have ended two presidencies and led to calls for regional autonomy. These tensions have damaged Bolivia's tourism industry, which makes up 6.1 percent of Bolivia's economy.

Mining lithium poses a potential economic Catch-22. Most tourists are drawn by Bolivia’s unspoiled landscape, with the salt flats being a particular point of interest. Mining for lithium could destroy the salt flats, while processing could lead to environmental degradation.

Although electric cars have often been hailed as the future of an environmentally conscious auto industry, lithium has the same Achilles heel as oil: it is a scarce resource. In addition, it is unclear whether the auto industry will even have access to the amount of lithium they would need to launch these ambitious plans. Bolivia’s president Evo Morales is famously cautious about allowing foreigners to mine, and he's considered a fierce environmental protectionist. The decision to mine the salt flats is Bolivia's. Ultimately, the country will have to weigh the benefits of economic development against environmental protection, tourism and foreign influence.