Value of Creativity in Business
As human civilization develops rapidly, year by year, human life expectancy rises. With this comes a more significant population number and a tighter market in many sectors, including the job market. Many struggles to enter those markets as individuals or as a business. Not to mention, the dawning of Artificial Intelligence on us threatens our place and values in society. But as these threats overshadowed us for some time, we somehow still find our place in the world. How? One of the reasons our place endured is because we have the natural skill for creativity.
Creativity is the root of limitless imagination, which is highly important to form connections between emotion and facts, or in other words: empathy. Empathy is arguably something that no artificial intelligence has achieved yet. By imagining the emotion and facts spilled or even obscured by our work counterparts or the subject of our jobs, we can then understand what kind of roles and values we can bring to society. At most, this should be the core reason for creating a business. Because why would we create something that’s not needed or won’t be required by society? The impact of doing business in that way can be catastrophic to the company and the world.
Creativity is not only valuable when a business is initiated. It’s helpful in every spectrum and business timeline, such as when it’s already running or even closing down. Regarding running a business, companies of the 21st century have to boast creativity as one of their business operating skills. Not only because it’s a way to make a company more futureproof, but it has been found that creative companies perform better financially.
McKinsey & Company found a strong correlation between creativity and a company’s financial performance, where 67% of companies with creativity scores had above-average organic revenue growth. One of McKinsey Digital's articles on marketing & advertising companies stated, “We found that the most creative companies, based on their ACS, did better than peer firms on two key business metrics: financial performance and McKinsey’s Innovation Score.”
The consulting company stated even further that they found those most creative companies do things differently. Creativity is equal to innovativeness at many levels, whether operating as a company, problem-solving as individuals, or as part of a team.
What about the value of creativity when a company is closing down? For us, creativity is one of the greatest assets to remain hopeful and become resilient. By employing a creative mindset, a company may continuously find a way to induce a reborn, whether by choosing a different business model or perhaps finding the opportunity of Merge & Acquisitions. The team equipped with creativity first will also not see a company dive into an abyss as their doomsday. They will remain hopeful and see that this is an opportunity to find new ways of living.
That being said, investing in creativity is always worth it. It can start in simple and manageable ways, such as the leaders’ attitude in leading the team. McKinsey & Company proposes five simple techniques that leaders can use to boost the creative output of employees at any level: Immerse, Challenge, Discover, Limit, Unify. Meanwhile, Harvard Business School claims that Design Thinking can help put creativity in structure and be helpful to make creativity less abstract, and that structure is: Clarify, Ideate, Develop, Implement.
Whether it’s McKinsey or Harvard Business School, we think the core idea is the same, there is a way to implement creativity in a business, and usually, it comes through a process of approaching any kind of problem by triggering a mindset or perspective change.
Implementing the structure of creativity into a company may not be easy for some. some executives might still think they can’t do this “creativity thing.” In this case, consultants can enter the system and help companies with various points of the business process and goals. Consultants like Erin Hersey and Prophet focus on innovation and culture, and many focus on injecting creativity into service delivery and products.
But unfortunately, as our experience recalls, whoever the consultants are engaged with, it’s not enough to experience and explore the creativity structure in a short period. There should be continuity to make creativity an ingrained culture inside a company. We should think of Creativity as a muscle that needs to be exercised. And by continuously triggering a perspective change, hopefully, we can make muscle memory out of thinking creatively and make ourselves more futureproof.