Creativity is the way forward for business, especially now. Of course it always has been the spark of brilliance that's started great companies. But we need fresh ideas more than ever. All industries need innovation to move forward, and not moving forward in today's economy means you're going backwards. There's no in between. It's a very fast moving world. Full of very savvy individuals who have seen it all before and got the T-shirt. To cut through the crap we need to stand out and be noticed. Connecting with an audience is not always about shouting the loudest either. It could be about ticking a multitude of possible boxes. And nothing gets boxes ticked quicker than a good original idea - A creative innovation that is noticeably better than what went before.
The Dyson vacuum cleaner springs to mind. Not only is it a great innovation but so is the way it has been made and marketed. It has over half the UK market share and now 20% in the US. A phenomenal success, yes, but behind it a painful fifteen year battle to get anyone interested at all. It illustrates the state and status of creativity in our society. Firstly, as human beings we're intrinsically creative. We think therefore we are. In the UK we're famous for it though our education and society often do their best to stamp it out of us from an early age. We're more than just encouraged to follow the crowd. We're talked out of risk-taking in a bid to avoid failure. But where would Dyson be without challenging convention and making thousands of failures before perfecting his bagless design. There's no success without failure.
So, what of the value of ideas and creative thinking? Are we becoming complacent and forgetting this vital craft? We're certainly not as great at making things in the UK as we used to be. Even Dysons are now made in China. If we as a nation cease to be good at making things let's hope our ideas don't dry up. It's a sad story for Rover Cars. We must learn that being safe is in fact very risky. In the creative industries (one of new Labour's great hopes for the economy) we solve business problems with ideas. So how do we do it? How can we transform businesses, careers and lives by creativity? |  |
We start by asking lots of questions, examining the problem from all angles, and having the confidence to know that there will be a spark that will create the answer. There always is.
Ian Sutton
Director
Milestone Strategic Design
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