Creative Advantage Wp

Creative Advantage Wp

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  TURNING CREATIVITY INTOA COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE KEY TAKEAWAYS • Inspiration comes from many places and it must be made actionable for users, regardless of where they find it. • The right technology creates an environment that supports creativity without stifling it. • Inspiration and enablement result in creativity that leads to competitive advantage. THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES
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  CREATIVITY: ARE WE WHAT’S SO HARD OR AREN’T WE? ABOUT GETTING Creativity provides competitive advantage. Whether it is innovative MORE CREATIVE? design, new functionality, or a way of marketing that taps deep into customers’ needs—creativity can result in “killer” products and The very nature of creativity makes it an attribute that can be inspired services. Companies that embrace and incorporate creativity as part but not imposed. Forget mandates and think play dates. The main of their cultures tend to repeat success more frequently than those factors standing in the way of creativity today include: that don’t. For example, Fast Company’s list of The World’s 50 Most Innovative LACK OF TIME Companies is led by Apple, and few people would argue that Apple is Creativity requires time and space. While businesses prioritize one of the most creative companies ever. It is no accident that Apple efficiency and productivity, creativity includes lots of side trips and is also the largest U.S. company ranked by market capitalization— non-linear activities. outpacing the second-place corporation by $106.85 billion (Online Investor, December 5, 2012). Creativity drives success, and the faster that an organization can marshall its creative assets and apply them MARKET PRESSURES to customers’ desires, the sooner it will begin to experience growth. In the fashion world, it takes weeks to go to shows, gather content, analyze influences, and turn inspiration into production. Accelerating Business success driven by creativity also tends to drive overall time-to-market for new collections rarely allows time for the cultural economic growth. This conclusion is supported by data in the April and social immersion that drives creativity. 2012 State of Create global benchmark study produced by Adobe. In this study, 80 percent of survey respondents from the U.S., U.K. IMMEASURABILITY Germany, France, and Japan said that creativity is key to driving It’s hard to measure return on creativity, so many companies are afraid economic growth. to invest in it. SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES CREATIVITY DRIVES GROWTH Organizational processes and systems designed to hold people accountable for success stifle a firm’s creative teams. A company in which left-brain and right-brain perspectives continuously clash can paralyze its forward motion. INFORMATION OVERLOAD Finally, although the Internet provides instant access to millions of inputs and opportunities, it also can undermine your confidence that you are up to date and not missing something important. A regimented system State of Create global benchmark study, Adobe, April 2012 LEFT RIGHT for creativity will not BRAIN BRAIN work. Right-brained Three in five respondents say that being creative is important to them. Logical Random Yet the very same study found that only 25 percent of respondents feel Sequential Intuitive creatives don’t that they’re living up to their creative potential. Rational Holistic want a set of best Analytical Synthesizing How’s that? Objective Subjective practices—they want If the vast majority believe that creativity drives business and economic Looks at parts Looks at wholes an “environment” or development, but a similar majority doesn’t think that they are living up a “playground.” to their creative potential—this is a big disconnect. If this disconnect can be overcome, enhancing creativity in organizations can literally change the world. When Brains Clash
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  LET CREATIVITY FIND CURATED CONTENT Attack information overload with curated content that brings the LOOSE best, most relevant information and inspiration to the top of the pile. Recommendation engines, curated collections of information, and filters help cut down creative “noise.” How does an organization begin to encourage creativity? Regardless of whether you want to inspire fashion designers, truck mechanics, SUPPORT SHARING AND scientists, or retail clerks—there are tangible things you can do to unleash them so that your organization can improve its competitive COLLABORATION Sharing and workflow collaboration is a critical underpinning of advantage. creativity. Research shows that most creative people benefit from working closely with other members of their team. Workspaces that EMBRACE INSPIRATION support folder sharing, recommendations, updates, and notes to each Yes, it’s messy but you can create an environment that welcomes other help nurture creativity by simplifying processes. inspiration when it shows up. Embrace the fact that inspiration doesn’t just come from one place or at certain times. It can come from a website, blog, magazine, billboard, overheard conversation, personal experience, and other creative people. It can not show up for weeks and then suddenly explode. Help users feel powerful by making all of their inspiration actionable, regardless of where they find it. PROVIDE TOOLS Surround creative people with outstanding content and workflow tools that help them imagine and produce. Provide the left brainers with the systems and structure they need, such as spreadsheets, databases, and analytics systems. Give the right-brainers the playground they need with tools such as media, images, video, access to inspiration worldwide, and others. Sharing and Collaboration USE TECHNOLOGY EFFECTIVELY Technology must support workflow. Give people the ability to work with the things that inspire them by making ideas and information easy to LIBERATING collect, store, and use. Do you see a great shoe in Paris? Take a picture and upload it to a cloud-based content folder. Read a product review CREATIVITY AT in a trade magazine and decide you need to have it? Make it easy to source materials. Can’t attend a key trade show? Make it possible to STYLESIGHT download the presentations and videos. Stylesight is the industry-leading content and technology solution for professionals in the style, fashion, and design sectors. Our mission is simple—to inspire and enable creativity. The Stylesight platform provides a system for management to inspire creativity with demonstrable cost savings and return on investment. At the same time, it provides creatives with unmatched breadth and depth of images, proprietary expert content, curated information, and tools for search, storing, arranging, and sharing ideas and inspiration. Our 200+ person team combines proven forecasting and trend analysis, the industry’s largest image library, and workflow tools to make the creative journey more inspirational, as well as more efficient and cost-effective. Today, 3000 companies rely on Stylesight every day to be their eyes and ears in the most important fashion cities and to provide the latest trend, business, materials, and sourcing information. Our mission—to inspire and enable—is changing the face of fashion every day. Effective Tools; A Stylesight Workspace THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES
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  Stylesight is theindustry-leading content and technology solution for professionals in the style, fashion, and design sectors. Our mission is simple—to inspire and enable creativity. The Stylesight platform provides a system for management to inspire creativity with demonstrable cost savings and return on investment. At the same time, it provides creatives with unmatched breadth and depth of images, proprietary expert content, curated information, and tools for search, storing, arranging, and sharing ideas and inspiration. NEW YORK GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS: LONDON EMEA HEADQUARTERS: +1 212 675 8877 | [email protected] +44 (0)20 7613 6280 | [email protected] 25 West 39th Street, 14th Floor Unit 1G | Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street New York, NY 10018 London, EC2A 4HJ HONG KONG APAC HEADQUARTERS: STYLESIGHT CHINA in partnership with CTIC: +852 2530 0553 | [email protected] +86 21 6278 7201 | [email protected] 702-703 7/F Winway Bldg. 50 Wellington Street 7F32 ShanghaiMart | 2299 Yan-an-xi-lu Central, Hong Kong Shanghai, China, 200336 For more information visit www.stylesight.com THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES