1 - False Separations and Creative Connections
"Creativity and strategy are much discussed but poorly understood." Advice often relies on stereotypes and hypothetical scenarios that ignore the complexities of interaction in a real situation, and as a result ends up being merely bluster that is used as window-dressing while the familiar but unsuccessful practices are continued. Most damaging of all, "creativity" often is used as an excuse to abandon rational and productive processes, to go with "gut feel" and result in a battle of egos.
This book intends to peel away the stereotypes and misconceptions to suggest valid creativity and its proper use in driving strategy. Having surveyed numerous organizations in a variety of industries, the authors assert that the most successful strategies are creative, and that creative thinking results in a shift in strategy. The two are not only compatible, but inseparable.
The authors study also has identified a common process that is used, with some variation, by all such firms, based on four basic elements: innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership, and organization.
For the majority of organizations, strategy has tended to be uncreative - and as a result, it has been unproductive - and what is needed is a broader view of strategy, But first, the authors intend to deal with a number of misconceptions and "false separations" between the two - the maintenance of which have required a book such as this to be written.
Five False Separations
The first false separation is the notion that strategy is aloof, and stands apart from other business disciplines like accounting or marketing. In academia and literature, it is defined as a separate discipline, with little thought of the way it relates to all others or requires their support. To make matters worse, each discipline in business has its own approach to strategy, and in practice business units seek to set their own strategy with little regard to that of the organization as a whole. As a result, strategy has failed, to the point where it is regarded as useless ritual, and management takes a heads-down approach to do whatever seems rational to achieve short-term results with little thought to the overall impact.
The second false separation is the idea that creativity and fundamentally are different and incompatible. Leaders equate "creativity" with things that are spontaneous and unplanned, and decidedly outside the realm of "business as usual" - represented by entirely different hemispheres of the human brain. The result is a conception of strategy that attends to efficiency at current practices rather than the discovery of more effective practices - which is to say that it makes strategy entirely un-strategic.
Of all the areas of business, strategy should be the most strategic - it should seek out new and more effective initiatives rather than focusing on mere efficiency improvements. Instead, they are seen as opposites because business leaders do not recognize creativity, and misconstrue it to represent unpredictability and reckless spontaneity. It is ironic that the same leaders recognize the value of creativity in starting a new enterprise or new product line - but when it becomes successful, they seek to clamp it down with "strategy," and often smother it in the process. It does not occur to them that creativity can improve existing processes in addition to creating entirely new processes.
A third false separation is the assumption that economic growth and recession require radically different strategies. In effect, when the economic climate cools, innovation must hibernate and conserve energy until the weather improves. This pointedly ignores the fact that many of the firms that best weather inclemency in the markets have continued to be innovative while their rivals have been retrenching. In some instances, creativity creates new growth that counterbalances, and in some instances outweighs, the retraction in the marketplace. In other instances, creativity can define new and more efficient processes.
Economic hardship separates talent from mediocrity - the best of firms are motivated to be more creative, original, and focused. It also clears out the dead wood, driving the worst of firms to extinction, and in the process also claims the good firms that turn to bad practices in an attempt to survive the storm.
The fourth separation is the notion that the new generation of business leaders (Generation X and Millennial) are fundamentally different from previous generations (Silent and Boomer) and categorically reject the values of previous generations out of mindless rebellion. However, the authors suggest that the newer generations have the same goals and many of the same values, but go about achieving them in different ways. In particular, the younger generations embrace change whereas their elders fear it. As such the younger generations of workers are less attached to tradition for tradition's sake, and more comfortable changing and adapting.
The last separation is the belief that establishing a business requires a separate approach to operating a business - in particular, that the nature of leadership is different in these stages, and that once the firm is established, creativity and innovation are no longer necessary. The authors believe that creativity is germane to both - it may be more obvious when a new venture is started, but it is also critical to maintaining the relevance of an existing one. As environmental factors change, the enterprise cannot remain entrenched.
Creative Connections for the Future
Having addressed common assumptions and misconceptions, the authors now turn to some of the "emerging connections" that give rise to creative strategy.
Creative strategy is not limited to exciting innovations, but must also be applied to management of the ongoing operations of an established organization.
There is some argument over whether creativity is the result of an active attempt to innovate or the passive discovery that results from observation. It can be either. It can likewise be effected through diligent attention to the facts, or it can be effected from unfettered imagination.
To be innovative and entrepreneurial requires a leader to adopt certain qualities in managing his subordinates, and a company to foster and support a specific type of culture, both of which will be considered in greater detail later in this book.