Its so hard being a "creative" guy.
The tag carries unreasonable expectations. The work is not any less burdensome. The first problem is that the creative person's stock-in-trade is intangible and subjective. They are ideas. There’s no telling whether they will fail or fly. And everyone has different ideas about ideas. Everyone has an opinion, especially those whose opinions don't count.
But in order to earn a living, creative guys have to keep generating ideas and presenting them to people who will pay for them. And so after minutes and minutes of trying to "come up" with a clever solution to a persistent problem (yes, only minutes, because as the world shrinks in this information age, so do the deadlines allowed for the creative process) the creative guy is required to turn up and present some ideas.
Then the show begins.
"Why couldn't you just do it this way?" asks the belligerent opinion. " I just don't like it" the obstinate opinion stone-walls the presentation. "So, what direction do you think we should take?" the creative guy attempts to hide his growing frustration by using the inclusive 'we'.
The rebuttal is swift and brutal. " I don't know! You're the creative guy! Go figure it out".
So much for the inclusive 'we'.
Two days later, the panel gathers again. Except this time, the ‘Capo di tutti capi’ is in attendance. Which means opinions are not are not in generous rations today. "You mean this is all you could come up with?" asks the boss after studying the presented ideas in pregnant silence. " Can I see the initial ideas? The ones that you discarded earlier?"
The creative guy pulls out hitherto stone-walled ideas.
"Brilliant!" Exclaims the 'Capo'.
Shock and awe all round. " Why didn't you show us that in the first place, instead of these...these..."
A cursive glance toward the lynch mob who only days ago killed the ideas that have just been “Lazarized”.
All eyes are on the floor. Nobody admits responsibility for killing such brilliant ideas.
In fact, when push comes to shove: “Wow! Yes, we never saw those ideas. They’re exactly what we’re looking for!” But the creative guy knows which battles to pick. The victory won, he figures it prudent to let this one slide.
Fight another one another day.
Such decisive ‘Capi’ are a God-sent to the ideas business.
Sometimes the creative guy is not so lucky. I once had the misfortune of presenting advertising ideas to a marketing director who had showed up with a 29-member committee.
It was late afternoon and after my presentation, I watched in shock as the marketing director proceeded to ask everyone around the table for their opinion. I switched off around 9 pm as the junior assistant trainee was expressing her dislike for the colour of socks that the man in the third row of the photograph was wearing.
But that is the burden that every creative person must bear. Because for our ideas to become meaningful, we must “midwife” them out of our minds and into the real world.
And as we all know, the process of midwifery is often painful and difficult.
Its not easy being a creative guy.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
IS KENYA READY FOR THE CREATIVE ECONOMY?
The term "creative economy” was coined by John Howkins in his book published in 2001 about how people make money from ideas.
Since then, the debate around this idea has grown in both size and significance leading to the 2008 United Nations Report on the Creative Economy.
So, what exactly is the creative economy?
The Creative Economy is an economy where people’s ideas are the most important factors of production, and not land, labour nor capital.
And what, then, is creativity?
Creativity is often identified with the arts and its final product, which is culture. So when we talk of creativity we often think of fine art, music, design, architecture, fashion, theatre, publishing and so on.
This concept of the Creative Economy is especially significant in the Kenyan context as it proposes a new economic order built on ideas as a factor of production, replacing land, labour and capital, the factors upon which the industrial economy was built.
If its true that the industrial economy is giving way to the creative economy, and capital losing importance to ideas, then therein lies a significant opportunity for growing economies like ours to leap-frog the slow and capital-intensive process of industrialization and to begin using ideas as a means to accelerate social and economic development.
But designers and performers are not the only creative people. Prof Richard Florida, the American economist and urban theorist, in his influential book, “The Rise of The Creative Class” reckons that anyone involved in work that requires the forging of ideas, is a creative worker. And so he widens the “creative class” to include scientists, engineers, urban planners, researchers, and so on. People who add value to the economy with their creative input.
It is this creative class who build the creative economy.
Now, Kenya, with its much-respected human resource base, stands at an advantage to harness her “creative class” by establishing policies and programs that will grow the creative economy.
Much like China has done over the last few years.
In China, the “cultural creative industries” started booming several years ago. According to trade figures presented in the United Nations Creative Economy Report, 2008, China has become the leading player in the world market for creative goods. This has been the result of a clear determination by that government to fully explore the potential of the creative industries.
An illustration of the application of a creative-industry development policy in an urban setting is provided by Shanghai, where the Shanghai Municipal Government has clearly stated that the development of creative industries is one of its priorities during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010).
According to the Shanghai Creative Industry Center, 3,000 companies from 30 countries had entered one of the 75 new creative industry parks (2.2 million sqm) around the city, creating job opportunities for more than 25,000 people. In 2005, the creative industries of Shanghai realized an increase of 54.9 billion yuan in turnover, nearly 18 per cent higher than that of the previous year. In 2005, the total turnover of the creative industries accounted for 6 per cent of the GDP of the city.
The statistics are impressive, no doubt.
But even more impressive is the thinking behind the statistics.
To demonstrate importance with which Chinese authorities consider this idea, John Howkins, the father of the creative economy, so to speak, is a leading figure in China’s creative economy.
Howkins is Chairman of the John Howkins Research Centre on the Creative Economy, launched in 2006 by the Shanghai Municipal Government at the Shanghai School of Creativity at the Shanghai Theatre Academy and also an adviser to the Shanghai Creative Industries Association and the Shanghai Creative Industry Centre.
Moreover, the impressive economic performance of China over the past several decades has made its development experience rather distinct from those of many other economies. China had the fastest economic growth in the world for more than 25 years and recently has been attracting FDI on the order of $60 billion per year. As a result, in a relatively short period starting in 1990, its exports of services increased eightfold, amounting to $70 billion in 2005. Much of this, can be attributed to China’s emphasis on the importance of tapping into the creative economy.
The question now is, can Kenya take advantage of its vastly skilled “Creative Class” both within and outside the country, and tap into the creative economy to fast-track social and economic development?
Since then, the debate around this idea has grown in both size and significance leading to the 2008 United Nations Report on the Creative Economy.
So, what exactly is the creative economy?
The Creative Economy is an economy where people’s ideas are the most important factors of production, and not land, labour nor capital.
And what, then, is creativity?
Creativity is often identified with the arts and its final product, which is culture. So when we talk of creativity we often think of fine art, music, design, architecture, fashion, theatre, publishing and so on.
This concept of the Creative Economy is especially significant in the Kenyan context as it proposes a new economic order built on ideas as a factor of production, replacing land, labour and capital, the factors upon which the industrial economy was built.
If its true that the industrial economy is giving way to the creative economy, and capital losing importance to ideas, then therein lies a significant opportunity for growing economies like ours to leap-frog the slow and capital-intensive process of industrialization and to begin using ideas as a means to accelerate social and economic development.
But designers and performers are not the only creative people. Prof Richard Florida, the American economist and urban theorist, in his influential book, “The Rise of The Creative Class” reckons that anyone involved in work that requires the forging of ideas, is a creative worker. And so he widens the “creative class” to include scientists, engineers, urban planners, researchers, and so on. People who add value to the economy with their creative input.
It is this creative class who build the creative economy.
Now, Kenya, with its much-respected human resource base, stands at an advantage to harness her “creative class” by establishing policies and programs that will grow the creative economy.
Much like China has done over the last few years.
In China, the “cultural creative industries” started booming several years ago. According to trade figures presented in the United Nations Creative Economy Report, 2008, China has become the leading player in the world market for creative goods. This has been the result of a clear determination by that government to fully explore the potential of the creative industries.
An illustration of the application of a creative-industry development policy in an urban setting is provided by Shanghai, where the Shanghai Municipal Government has clearly stated that the development of creative industries is one of its priorities during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010).
According to the Shanghai Creative Industry Center, 3,000 companies from 30 countries had entered one of the 75 new creative industry parks (2.2 million sqm) around the city, creating job opportunities for more than 25,000 people. In 2005, the creative industries of Shanghai realized an increase of 54.9 billion yuan in turnover, nearly 18 per cent higher than that of the previous year. In 2005, the total turnover of the creative industries accounted for 6 per cent of the GDP of the city.
The statistics are impressive, no doubt.
But even more impressive is the thinking behind the statistics.
To demonstrate importance with which Chinese authorities consider this idea, John Howkins, the father of the creative economy, so to speak, is a leading figure in China’s creative economy.
Howkins is Chairman of the John Howkins Research Centre on the Creative Economy, launched in 2006 by the Shanghai Municipal Government at the Shanghai School of Creativity at the Shanghai Theatre Academy and also an adviser to the Shanghai Creative Industries Association and the Shanghai Creative Industry Centre.
Moreover, the impressive economic performance of China over the past several decades has made its development experience rather distinct from those of many other economies. China had the fastest economic growth in the world for more than 25 years and recently has been attracting FDI on the order of $60 billion per year. As a result, in a relatively short period starting in 1990, its exports of services increased eightfold, amounting to $70 billion in 2005. Much of this, can be attributed to China’s emphasis on the importance of tapping into the creative economy.
The question now is, can Kenya take advantage of its vastly skilled “Creative Class” both within and outside the country, and tap into the creative economy to fast-track social and economic development?
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