Is creativity always needed to excel ahead?

Innovation is the main key to survive in the market today, there is no point in keeping the same business strategies, and you have to innovate and evolve to survive through the competition. Creative artists are spread across everywhere; they have this innate power to create ads that will attract your buyers. you might have studied the case of jack, Lou and Marla in my previous articles, do you see a difference or take a different outlook towards life’s responsibilities and the power and qualities you are born with? You might have seen how they made fortunes of millions of dollars by sheer devotion and dedication towards the things they liked to do like painting, drawing, arts, etc.

There was a time when Lou, an MBA by profession was the hot favorite in industrial circles mainly because of his fine tuned productive system. During that time creative artists like Jack and Marla were not taken seriously of having those qualities, it was just one step back from Lou’s end and people are turning their heads to Marla and Jack to do business with. There might be something that is attracting people towards Jack and Marla, even Lou might be or is not aware of. The word creativity and individuality were very far from business world and why suddenly there is great demand in corporate world today, may be that those serious individuals holding high posts in office might have realized that there is something else in the world of business other than capitalist business and that there is even more than chasing dollars and there can be minds which can be curved artistically and there exists talent with innate creative minds. There is more to the mind than what our eyes see; somewhere inner in our heart we lounge for peace and being an artist has its own pleasures in life.

There are lots of opportunities if we search for one, the exciting and thrilling opportunities that we see are actually the tip of economic iceberg, you have to prove yourself to exists in this highly competitive business world. We have to mould ourselves in the present shape of the economy then can we reach our  goals and fulfill them. As Daniel pink states in his new book that we are moving from information age to conceptual age where everything is based on the concepts. The economy as its advantage and professional success doesn’t just come through logic, skills but also from concepts, designs, creativity, relationship skills, etc. so all the people who had great demand near about in 20th century are making way for storytellers, artists, inventors, consolers, designers, caregivers and the people who are thinking big in terms of productivity and profits for the company.

The writing is basically for US denizens, in his book Pink identifies 3 fundamental reasons for the change that has occurred in the last century.

1. United States of America is a rich nation and all of its economy is flooded with surplus products, it has adequate resources to fulfill its nations needs and the demand from the people. the goods here are reasonable priced making it affordable even for a common laymen to afford it. The country has never faced any crisis like in developing or under developed nations, this very reason have made its consumers more discerning and more demanding. There are different demands from consumers like attractive packaging, products to be attractive or something which will excite them in buyin.
2. We have seen many a “made in china” products not only it has wider demand all over the globe but they are cheap rated so the people good attractive things at throw away prices. As we have seen the main hub for computer programming are asian nations like china and India, they have made their mark in industries like copy editing, accounting and engineering too. What drives all this? Its money, says Pink, the author of the book, a designer in India get $1000 for chip designing job where as the same person will get $7000 for the work this is leading to brain drain and economies all over are getting unstable.
3. The age of automation has marred everybody and everything, it was in the year 1987 that chess grand master Garry said that no computer can ever beat me and in 1997 the IBM computer deep blue beaten him to everybody’s amazement. And more recently it was heard that Kasparov stated that after some years they be capable of beating everybody in any match. What Pink tries to signify here is Kasparov is a knowledge worker like any other in the field of programming, accountancy, etc and we have seen even doctors are making use of automated computers to help them. Automation has lead to many a changes and there are issues which can be solved with just a click of a mouse rather than moving here and there.

The concept age relates to survival, Pink asks us 3 questions before we set out on our decisions:

1. before handing over the work to some party, ask if there is possibility to get the work done cheaper overseas?
2. Can you make use of computer to do your task?
3. Whether whatever you are offering in abundance is in demand?

Ask yourself these questions before heading out in taking any major decisions. Creativity is not about fun thing or stuff you can relate to spending nice times. It’s a talent, in-grown talent which takes efforts to come up with creative ideas after all if you want to survive in the economy. In my experience I have seen that its difficult to automate the task which are creative in nature or rather complex in nature. Creativity helps you transfer utilitarian products in to artifacts that everybody would love looking at, its all about the design, the shape, the utility, the features that people would love using probably that may be the reason people stand out in queues to get the first hand on an I-phone or an attractive gadget.

The people who have the capabilities to show their creativity in their work or products will surely gain financial rewards and you would say that people with such unique talents are treated like rock stars, in the case of Marla, after all creative talents are must in this economy. Recently I attended the Innovation edge conference held in London which was organized by National Endowment for science, technology and arts which is commonly known by the name (NESTA). The theme was that of creativity and innovation and whether they are really critical to the future of the economy of United Kingdom. The subject was put up in academic terms.

We know the increasing competition in the economies all over the globe and innovation is the key idea to survive in this economy, you can exploit and implement as many ideas you wish when it comes to making use of your creativity. We have seen mature economies like the US and the UK putting all of their strengths in manufacturing, yielding them good creative results because of the creative use of their ideas, we have always dreamt of being an innovative nation like that of US. The new labor government which bought us cool image of Britannia ads, thanks to the wonders done by creative industries, today London is recognized as the key destination for creative ideas a total of 20% of UK’s workforce is engaged in creative world which has great rivalry with financial services also. There was on of these conferences named with the title “where the UK leads and for how long”, the seminar specially focused on different challenges faced to maintain the tradition of surviving in the innovative world, we cannot take things for granted like that of US. The bottom line of the matter is that you will suffer if you too take up a path like that of Lou.

The idea of focusing on the creative work appeals to westerners especially when you are shipping them with new ideas and generating the new innovative ads and stuff, the ideas might sound as appealing but they are equally dangerous too. China provides unlimited resources because everything here is automated, it is still not content with what it is producing at larger scales across the globe, whether it may be an economic foresight or a cultural pride, china knows it for sure that the cheap labor cant stand the booming period for longer time. The driving national mission of the country no more remains in traditional labor intensive units its more of a media, fashion, design, latest technology and stuff.

This was the first ever impression I got about the china designs which are not exhibited at V&A museum in London which showcases the glittering fashion, graphic design, and architecture which is so similar to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Still there is plenty of evidence of Japanese and western influence and there are yet many memorable and startling works which has a distinct Chinese identity, lots been said and done about Chinese economic power as the labor here is cheap and human resource is huge the most attractive thing that stuck me here at the Chinese exhibition was its cultural wealth which rediscovers the pre revolutionary heritage that is actually a rich source to get inspiration for the modern day Chinese creativity.

Going through the recent book written by Michael Keane which has the Chinese government and business leaders as its main topic of discussion are focusing on replacing “made in china” to “created in china”. This needs to take up a great leap forward which is so very much imminent, the world factory is after all not always the priority through developmental aspect. China is no doubt a number 1 contender for cultural and service economies around the world.

In the Book Keane makes a point that there are lots of important barriers to innovation in political system and Chinese economy. It’s the western industry that enjoys the creative head start which is again reflected in the fact that they have showcased Olympic buildings at china design show out of which only one was designed by Chinese architects. But through this mega exhibition, Chinese have made their point clear by letting their creative ambitions know to all different nations of the world.

Whatever part of the world you are or whichever city you may be in things are perceived differently and every view will give you different opinion too. But globalization brings all different banners of the world under one roof doesn’t matter whether its Shogi, chess, or xiangqui or even if its new board games finally what matters is the view. A single entity or a single nation cannot decide upon the rules of the games and thus collaboration is a must in different cases of the life as we have seen that Jack is coming forward as a players and Marla a grand master in her world of arts.

Whether you like or not, money will travel to the destination where there is abundance of currency and loads of labor markets too. The labor and current markets makes it the ideal destination for making profits. You have to just charge the premium amount for giving the services so cheaply. Develop your own skills and tuck yourself in a race, a price war and mark your own prices in the market with your inner talents. Change brings a lots of difference in the economy, the 3 As here are automation, Asia, and abundance with increase in technology there is abundance through automation especially in Asiatic regions of the world.