The Case for Creativity

Confused by the visual above? It’s a real-life example of creative thinking making a major impact. These shade balls, used in drought-stricken Los Angeles, are…

Confused by the visual above? It’s a real-life example of creative thinking making a major impact. These shade balls, used in drought-stricken Los Angeles, are a simple solution to a dire issue. They’re projected to reduce evaporation from water reservoirs by 85–90%, saving nearly 300-million gallons of drinking water and $250 million over time.

With such a cost-effective solution resulting from creativity, why is that creativity gets the back burner when it comes to the C-Suite? Typically we’re trained to be concerned with numbers, and the ROI of creativity can be notoriously difficult to measure. What’s important to your business, and is more tangible to measure, is the innovation that creative thinking can lead to—that’s where you see those desired spikes in performance.


“I’m a numbers person,” you say. “Why should I care about creativity?”

Contrary to popular belief, the effects of creativity can be measured, and it has been in a study conducted by Forrester Consulting. The Creative Dividend: How Creativity Impacts Business Results compiles the input of senior managers from a range of industries, with the expressed goal of qualifying and quantifying how creativity affects the bottom line.

Check out a few of their key findings, paraphrased below.

1. More companies that foster creativity achieve exceptional revenue growth than their peers.
Firms that fostered creativity found a 10% increase in revenue over their previous fiscal year.

2. More creative companies enjoy greater market share and competitive leadership.
Of those companies reporting market-share leadership, creatively minded companies outnumber their less creative counterparts by a factor of 1.5.

3. More creative companies win recognition as a best place to work.
Creative companies create a high-performing work environment, and 69% of creatively minded firms surveyed reported winning awards and national recognition for being a “best place to work.”

4. Creativity thrives with leadership support.
Regardless of business type or industry, results found that executives and business leaders should nurture, fund, and promote programs to increase creative capability.

 

“But what does this look like in action?” you ask.

Good question. Business leaders have enough on their plates—how are they expected to constantly come up with improvements to external offerings and internal processes? By simply supporting creativity and making it part of the company culture.

Market leaders FedEx and Google have put creativity in action in similar ways: by turning to employees. Talent is your greatest asset, and when given the opportunity to provide input, your best will often surprise you.

FedEx gathers employee input in the form of FedEx Day. Employees are given 24 hours to create teams, brainstorm and develop ideas, and deliver them to senior management. Google has its newly structured 20% Time, which allows employees to dedicate up to 20% of their time to passion projects that align with business objectives. This direct support of creativity has lead to the development of Google News, Gmail, and AdSense.

 

“This is all well and good, but we’re not Google—we can’t afford to do that!”

Not many companies can! So it’s best to start small. One step you might take to instill more creativity in your culture is opening the door to more cross-department communication. New teams with varied experiences and talents will bring a new perspective and solutions. When creative solutions are brought to the table, reward them! The more you encourage this behavior, the more of it you will see. A third option to kick-start the process is to align with creatively minded companies *ahem*cough*cough*. An outside perspective can bring invaluable insight and workable solutions.

Last but not least—and perhaps the most compelling aspect of creativity—is its effect on stress levels. Creative outlets are proven to lower your stress, providing countless health benefits—who doesn’t want that? It’s even spurred the trend for more and more adult coloring books, if that’s a new hobby you want to pick up.

The truth of the matter is that most of us want to increase the bottom line, have a more innovative culture, and lower our level of stress, but without having to dig out the old box of crayons.

If that’s the case for you, get in touch with us.

 

Want to know more benefits of creativity? Watch for our upcoming post about the importance of design when it comes to gaining a competitive advantage.