I’ve just completed year one of a Music & Creative Industries MBA with the Henley Business College. The program combines the highly rated Henley UK MBA with an added element focused on the creative industries, developed by London based powerhouse Helen Gammons.
Its been a massive learning experience so far, and a white water ride of the highest and most exhilarating order!
Currently I’m on tour in the USA and Canada with the Johnny Clegg band, doing 38 cities in two months. At the same time finishing an MBA assignment and starting the pre-reading for the upcoming Strategy module. All from the back lounge of our band tourbus!
One thing I am seeing very clearly is that business is viewing creativity in a totally new way. Gone are the days of creativity being a soft, fluffy and indulgent money waster, barely tolerated by the motor industry giants of Detroit in the 1980’s.
Fast forward to present day. The Knowledge Economy. The Information Revolution. The biggest hitters around today are based on one resource only … CREATIVITY.
Apple. Amazon. Google. Uber. SpaceX. Tesla. Facebook. All these companies are built on creative innovation. Ideas rule. Cupertino rules. Detroit is a ghost town.
Now everyone wants a piece of the innovation action!
One snag. How the hell do we come up with the ideas? Certainly not via the traditional business school route, or by climbing the corporate ladder or using business speak in board meetings. You can’t do business in a new way using old methods, right?
The answer lies with the artists: painters, sculptors, musicians, songwriters, script writers, actors, inventors and dreamers. In this paradigm ideas are never in short supply!
Let’s wind back a bit to the late 1800s and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade from Africa to the New World. Millions of people from Africa were ‘transported’ and turned into human capital for the emerging economies. At the same time, however, they brought incredible musical creativity, and as a direct result: the hugely profitable modern music industry. Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Prince, Beyonce, Bruno Mars. The list goes on.
The question to ask here in Africa today: why are we not really tapping into the huge resource of creativity on this continent, when its power is repeatedly documented in history?
Time for Africa to get with the picture, I’d say?
Not the old guard, but the millennials.
Develop, manage and control your collective creativity to enrich yourselves and the world. Use Cupertino as a model of best practice. Do this and the game changes.