Creativity and corporate confusion

The corporate world has gone mad. Too often, the wrong people are in charge (my personal favourite is the percentage of psychopaths who rise to top corporate positions), and when the wrong people are in charge, weird decisions and business emphases take root (perhaps as an extension of the Peter Principle?). This week, two examples of woefully mis-defined corporate 'creativity' have highlighted missed business opportunities.

I have a great relationship with - and respect for - marketers, and I believe every employee in a company bears some marketing responsibility, even if that's simply by doing their jobs well and setting a fine example to customers. I believe marketers do a wonderful job, and their roles often rely on creative principles. Many marketers are great leaders, too; they bring a flair for the company's image that bean counters or subject matter experts may lack. However, when marketers dominate the corporate decision-making process, things start to unravel.

The following examples of creativity involve actions made by marketers in decision-making roles.

The case of the 'creative hub'
My current company (a media group in New Zealand) made a big announcement this week about a new 'creative hub' that was being established. It was greeted with initial enthusiasm... until my team of content creators and I read the details. Bear in mind, this is at a media company, which has thousands of journalists, editors, presenters, and graphic designers across print, digital, and radio - all very accomplished storytellers.

So with the many possible permutations of a 'creative hub' and thousands of experienced creative storytellers at their disposal, what did my company choose to emphasise with its 'creative hub'? A new marketing team - specifically, the appointment of a couple of senior marketing managers.

Well, aside from the fact that in an era of frontline job losses and restructuring (of those creative storytellers and designers I just mentioned), the company seems to be investing in even more unnecessary layers of upper management. My team members were quick to share their gripes about this definition of 'creative'.

What is creativity, they asked; spending money on the company's image or actually creating the content - sharing the stories of everyday people and overcoming the tyranny of the blank page? My team was right. Millions were being pumped into branding, and this announcement was just the latest in a string of rebranding announcements, while resources for the core business of the company - actual creative content - continued to dwindle.

Not only was this 'creative hub' deeply insensitive to frontline staff members who were losing colleagues, it was, from a business and morale perspective, a lost opportunity.

Radio, print, and digital content creators, along with sales and designers, could have collaborated in a creative hub in so many ways to produce new products and forms of content. The magic was ready to happen - all that was needed was the right ingredients (people) to be brought together. Talk about a swing and a miss.

It is important to remember the value of the words we use. In the case of 'creativity' and my media company's 'creative hub', traditional ideas weren't being transcended. No new meaningful ideas were being introduced. It was just more self-important speak from marketers for marketers. The end result, despite good intentions, was a missed opportunity.

The author is Shane J Cummings, publisher, Brimstone Press. Re-printed with permission. Link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ 20141206203325-218492316-creativity-and-corporate-confusion?trk=prof-post