Written By: Joey Kramer March 26th, 2018
Discovering new ways to generate higher profits has been in the forefront and on the minds of business owners, management personnel, and CEO’s in every industry across the globe since Capitalism has existed. For many years, the predominant thinking in business was that in order to increase a company’s revenues, they had to make the tough decisions, usually cutting staff, limiting their hours, shortchanging their products and the overall customer experience; all this, while tightening up their internal processes. As this was a common practice for most, and a logical means to an ends of reaching their goals, science has now proven, that this way of thinking has been, and is, completely wrong; usually doing more harm than good for all that have pursued this path.
The past few years have seen a massive shift from this outdated way of thinking. Successful industry leaders from company’s large and small, have begun placing a high value on creativity and innovation, as they have recognizing the importance in company culture, in contributing to an advantage that helps them outperform their competition. This shift in the new direction of companies creative strategies can be attributed in part to Adobe, who commissioned a study in 2014 to explore the creative dividend; that provides us with the statistical data and facts that now show us how creativity actually impacts business culture, market share, and growth.
The report by Forrester Consulting explains how “a company’s ability to foster innovation, exceptional talent and leadership, and a high degree of brand recognition — is influenced by its creative perspective, practices, and culture.”
The underlying question they were out to answer was, “does creativity impact a company’s bottom line, and do companies experience more business success if they foster creativity?” The study found something astonishing that most of the well known visionaries, and many of us creatives have already known for years; having embraced creativity in our everyday lives. The study discovered that companies who embrace creativity outperform their peers and competitors on key business performance indicators, including revenue growth, market share, and talent acquisition. They also enjoy a high performance working environment, driven by progressive leaders and managers who provide processes, methods, and funding to back creative initiatives.
The benefits of creativity in the workplace are now proven and numerous, and can have meaningful, and immediate effects on nearly every aspect of a company’s performance. Unfortunately, it was found in Adobe’s study, that out of all of the companies who participated in their surveys, 61% of them did not see their companies as creative.
4 significant discoveries that were noted during this study were as follows (as cited by Forrester’s Paper):
- Companies that foster creativity achieved exceptional revenue growth versus that of their peers. In fact, fifty-eight percent of survey respondents that said their firms foster creativity experience 2013 revenues exceeding their 2012 revenues by 10% or more. In contrast, only 20% of less creative companies performed similarly.
- More creative companies enjoy greater market share and competitive leadership, as creative companies outnumbered their less creative counterparts by a factor of 1.5.
- More creative companies win recognition as a “Best Place To Work” at a much higher rate than those who did not. It was discovered that 69% of creative firms reported winning awards and national recognition for being a “Best Place To Work.”
- Creativity thrives with leadership support, and at creative firms, leaders tend to invest resources specifically in creativity and accept failure as a byproduct of any business pursuit. Furthermore, the leaders at creative companies are three-and-a-half times more likely to fund projects focused on creative pursuits than their less creative counterparts.
In conclusion of this article, it has become imperative and evident to me, that today’s leaders must incorporate creativity into their workplace as a key ingredient for a business’s innovation, growth, culture and success. The ability for an organization to simply embrace a creative mindset is only the first step of this process, and not the final solution. Leaders must first embrace creativity, and then take action on it, by putting it on the business agenda; allowing at that point, to begin leading the company towards more success. Organization’s must also learn to empower their employees, and reward them for their creative gambles regardless of the payoff. In embracing a culture of creativity, it in turn, will help to make your brand experience stand apart from the competition, as those companies that plan for success, must continue to invest in technology and creative learning activities that support both creative experimentation and collaboration with customers and employees, for the years to come.
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References:
- A Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper Commissioned By Adobe August 2014
- Teresa Amabile, “Creativity and Innovation in Organizations,” Harvard Business School, January 1996.
- Custom Strategist Journal: Vol. 8, Issue 1