Today’s Transparent Online Global Market Requires Creativity

Creativity is not always innovative, but innovation is always creative. When it comes to innovation, it’s creativity that differentiates products and services from the competition in a world of:

1. product proliferation, where thousands of new products are created each year;
2. a global economy that’s increasingly integrated, where options are transparent and easy to buy online; and,
3. business, that’s easier than ever to start and get going online.

I recently gave a presentation to explain more about the creative economy and why creativity is so critical for differentiation, which we turned into a fun short video.

What we see is that most innovative businesses go beyond supporting creative talent on an individual level, to cultivate an overarching culture of creativity that is replicable and scalable. In these environments, deviations from the norm are not only acceptable, they’re encouraged, with the understanding that the seeds of creativity can propagate innovation.

Reinvent Yourself

In this world of transparent global competition, routinized services and products end up going to the cheapest location. Creativity and innovation help keep a business or products fresh and harder to replicate. Sometimes, businesses need to reinvent themselves to ride a shifting landscape. Take Netflix, for example. As streaming technologies surpassed physical rentals, they overhauled their business model to focus on streaming subscription models. As a result, Blockbuster went bankrupt, and Netflix went on to be one of the fastest growing stocks in 2013.

Companies that don’t seek creative solutions to innovate end up regressing and can potentially die. Make creativity part of your innovation culture to stay competitive and avoid becoming obsolete.