CORPORATE CREATIVITY: THE NEW CHALLENGE.
I)
The Emerging Prevalence of Innovation and Creativity
1.
From Technology to Creativity
For many years now, people used to
delegate tasks to the different technologies available to them. In other words,
over the time, technology has replaced people in the achievement of routine
jobs. However, thanks to the Globalization, technology tends to become more and
more inexpensive and universally available; especially for developing countries
like China and India. As a consequence, the developed countries’ competitive
advantage, based on “exclusive access to advanced technology and well-trained
workforce”, tends to disappear.
2.
Today's innovation driven-economy
From now on, Dyer,
Gregersen and Christensen explain, in their article called “Why Today’s
Business Leaders Must Be Innovators”, that organizations are more than ever
under an intangible pressure to be market leaders, to overtake their competitors
in other words. Furthermore, they explain that the companies who succeed in outperforming
their competitors have only one but not least secret: they are innovative companies.
According to them, “innovation has become integral to company’s success” and
they strongly advocate that organizations must unleash the creative gene to be
successful.
In his book, A Whole New Mind (2005), David
Pink rationalizes this newly prevalence of innovation by demonstrating that a
shift has occurred, and that global businesses are now evolving in the age of
creativity. Indeed, “[left-brain linear analytical thinking are being
replaced by right-brain empathy inventiveness] as skills most needed by businesses nowadays”, says
Pink. “Asia, automation and abundance” are the reasons behind the shift.
3.
The importance of innovation
But how can we
differentiate innovation and creativity?
The National Innovation
Initiative (NII) defines ‘innovation’ as “the intersection of invention and
insight leading to the creation of social and economic value”.
Linda
Naiman clarifies that “creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative
ideas into reality. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, and then
producing. Innovation is the production or implementation of an idea. If you
have ideas, but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative.” As a fact, creativity appears to be an essential factor in
the innovation equation. And for innovation to flourish, organizations must
create an environment that fosters creativity.
Now that we are
aware of the importance of capital creativity for firms, let’s analyze concretely
what this revolutionary shift means in terms of business practices. Actually,
the common trend is to turn the workplace into a
playground: resulting not only in material offices but also through
intangible environments. Mainly based on the idea that creativity and
innovation can be stimulated by opening the minds to other perspectives and by
feeling at ease while sharing its thinking, lots of companies have came up with
revolutionary facilities and services in the office.
II)
Concrete Illustrations of the Revolutionary Shift
1.
Google
Undoubtedly, the
trendsetter of these practices is Google
with its “Googleplex”. Wishing to keep the atmosphere as a “small” company,
Google intends to achieve its business goals, while having fun doing it. All of
its offices in the world do not have the same facilities at their disposal but do
have some common particularities like for example:
-
Offices
are differently decorated according to the country they are located in
-
“Googlers”
share open spaces, diverse workspaces and meeting rooms
-
Laptops
are available everywhere so that the employee can send emails, take notes, etc wherever
he wants it to
-
Various
facilities such as table football, table tennis or billiard tables, a
volleyball field, video games, or even gyms and dance studios
-
Various
and numerous non-profit organizations are created by employees (like meditation
courses, film clubs or salsa courses)
The “Googleplex”, the
international headquarter of Google, located in Mountain View, California.
2.
Pixar
Pixar,
the filmmaker company, is also considered as one of the most innovative
companies as far as creative ways of organizing the office is concerned. Its
philosophy is clear: “You get great creative people, you bet big on them, you
give them enormous leeway and support and you provide them with an environment
in which they can get honest feedback from everyone”. This is how we understand
what really matters for Pixar and what effort the company does to achieve it. The
first idea is the focus on the recruitment process: what matters is the
competence of the employee, not its experience. Second, all occasions for teams
to meet and share with each other, without barriers of discipline or of
hierarchy, in an environment of trust, are given countenance. Finally, they
intend to “create a culture of fun in the workplace [so as to] help to unleash
the creative potential of employees”. Thus, one of the keys is to offer
employees more than 100 training classes (sculpting, Pilates, etc.) but also
“unusually” and funny designed offices.
Some personal “offices”
of Pixar’s employees
3.
SAS Institute
Last but not least,
the example of SAS Institute is the
perfect illustration to understand that this revolutionary shift is not only
the turn of offices into physical playgrounds but also a huge change in
relationships between employees and managers. SAS Institute Inc. is a major
producer of software and is located in Cary, North Carolina. We can find a lot
of accommodations for the employees on campus: medical facilities, a day care
center for children, basketball courts, a pool, an exercise room but also
massages, dry cleaner service or haircuts at reduced prices. Moreover, it is
very important for SAS that the employees feel that they are part a community: they can all take advantage
of these benefits, whether they are chiefs or “simple” worker. Finally, we have
to highlight one of the main principles at SAS: the egalitarianism. They assume
that the cooperation and the communication between managers and employees can
only be better when the employees feel they are trusted and respected by their
hierarchy, when the managers have also earned the respect from their employees
and when they feel free to share with each other, no matter the level in the
hierarchy. To achieve this goal, managers at SAS ask a lot of questions, gather
frequently employees into groups “to facilitate the exchange of ideas and spur
innovation”, and support them by systematically providing them with every
materials they could ever need.
SAS Institute – Mumbai (India)
Outside SAS Institute in Toronto
III.
The benefits of this revolutionary shift in Global
Business Practices
1. Creativity
and Innovation
Undoubtedly all
these changes in the workplace do have a cost for companies. Nonetheless, the
benefits brought are much more important and are numerous. The first one is of
course the development of innovation and creativity for employees. Many
examples show us that employees are more apt to develop innovative and creative
thoughts when they are “in a relaxed state and a good mood”. Let’s mention the
Google’s 20 percent time. It is a measure that Google has implemented and that
allows engineers to take 20 percent of their work time to work on whatever
project of their will, to develop every ideas they could have, in a very free
way. Thus, Google could have come up with a lot of innovations, including Gmail
or Google News. Besides, we have seen that companies tend to foster
brainstorming, the share of ideas in a respectful and trustful way: “people
learn from and inspire each other”, which is undeniably a source of creativity.
Google
Zurich – “From
these pictures it is obvious that working in the Google is a real fun,
employees must be very happy”.
2.
Motivation and Commitment
Second, this
revolutionary shift is source of motivation, a greater commitment to the
company, and then a superior performance.
Indeed, by being that much stimulated, workers have the feeling that
they have a challenge to accomplish; hence they are much more motivated to do a
good work. Moreover, the commitment of employees in such firms is higher than
in other “classical” firms. Thanks to all measures that bring people together,
that encourage them to share, but also that make their life easier (services,
on-site leisure activities …), they eventually feel that they are part of a
community, where their thinking is taken into account and respected. Thus they
are much more committed to the company. As a clue for this idea, we could
mention the employee turnover rate of SAS. As it were, the latter fluctuates between
3 % and 5 % while the industry average rate is about 20 %.
Selgas
Cano Architecture: “SCA office is very beautiful having large windows office is
below the ground level. Everywhere you can see plants and trees. Employees must
be feeling like working in a jungle”.
3.
Save of Money
Then, we can also
mention more “down-to-earth” benefits for the company. As we have seen, the
turnover rate in such companies is lower than in others. Thus, the company can
save a lot of money in some fundamental human resources functions. Not only is
the recruiting process less expensive, but also the formation costs are reduced:
by keeping their employees longer, they do not need to spend that much on the
formation of new workers and then focus on building a trust relationship among
the employees. Furthermore, by providing employees with services such as
on-site leisure activities or medical services, the company can save time, so
money. Indeed, they can minimize the time when employees are away from the work
and then improve the productivity.
Nike - "It’s modern in parts but futuristic
beyond belief in others. The Nike Office in London is one seriously cool place
to work. TV’s everywhere, branded sports equipment neatly housed on shelves on
every wall".
4.
Customer’s Satisfaction
Finally, as far as
SAS is concerned, the main goal of its implementations is “to harness the
creative energies of all its stakeholders, including its customers, software
developers, managers and support staff”. Thanks to this revolutionary shift, we
can realize that all the people and organizations involved or concerned by the
company can find benefits. We already mentioned those from people who are in
the company (employees and managers) but what about the customers? They have an
important place in the company’s way of thinking as interactions between
customers and employees, feedbacks or conferences to understand and anticipate
what they need are more than encouraged. Moreover, we have seen that the
workplace environment provided by the company is a source of a superior
performance for the employees. All in all, this provides ultimately better
products for the customers, which is actually one of the major goals of every
company.
So far, the most known examples of creative space and workplaces transformed in playgrounds are: Google, 3M, Lego, Pixar, Aol (Patch's venture), Red Bull (London), Skype (in Palto Alto), Hyves.net, Selgas Cano Architecture, Nike (London).
References:
Managing for Creativity, by Richard Florida and Jim Goodnight, Harvard
Business Review, July-August 2005.
How Pixar fosters collective creativity, by Ed Catmull, Harvard Business Review, September
2008.
The
Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas by Jennifer
S. Mueller, Shimul Melwani and Jack A. Goncalo, 2011.
Why Today's Business Leaders Must Be Innovators: The
Importance of Creativity and Innovation in Maintaining Your Company's
Competitive Edge, by Jeffrey H. Dyer, Hal B. Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen, Harvard Business Press Chapters, 2011.
A Whole New Mind, by David Pink, 2005.
Creativity and innovation: key drivers for success, by Susan Meisinger
The Google Way: Give Engineers Room, by Bharat Mediratta; as told to Julie Bick.
Office or Playground?? , by ‘Staci’.
What is creativity? , by Linda Naiman.
How many
post-its can we handle?, by Naomi den Besten, 2011.
Room to explore, by Naomi den Besten, 2011.
Magic in the workplace – how Pixar
and Disney unleash the creative talent of their workforce
