Innovation seen as key to Rhode Island’s future
If creativity is about taking five minutes out of the day to sit in a corner and come up with ideas, then it would seem that creating a “creative economy” wouldn’t be very complex or time-consuming.
But it’s something not well understood, which is why there are some skeptics, said Christopher “Kip” Bergstrom, executive director of the R.I. Economic Policy Council.
Those who think of creativity as a driver of economic success, however, have seen it work firsthand. It worked for film and television executive John Howkins, author of “The Creative Economy – How People Make Money from Ideas,” who spoke at a recent community forum at New Commons, a Providence-based “think-and-do tank” created to solve problems for corporations, entrepreneurs, governments and communities.
For example, Howkins said, he would use creative thinking tactics at staff meetings when he was working in television. He would suggest ideas, even bad ones, to encourage employees to start thinking about creative solutions to problems.
“The creative economy is centered on the individual,” Howkins said. It’s about “people spending most of their time, making most of their money from ideas rather than from capital and land,” he said.
For example, it could be someone who writes screenplays or novels. But he said it’s becoming more about people who think creatively at their own jobs – and it applies to every industry, including government.
Take the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council, Bergstrom said. Though it is primarily a permitting agency, it is starting to focus more on answering questions such as “What kind of bay do we want?” he said, referring to Narragansett Bay.
In manufacturing, creativity relates to the research and development of new products, Howkins said. Instead of worrying about the $2 mug from China ruining business, if manufacturers focused on developing a well-designed mug sensitive to what people want to drink their coffee out of it would give them the competitive edge.
“It’s about ideas, individuals and their ideas being the driving force of the 21st century economy,” Bergstrom said. “It’s something that we’ve been pushing for a number of years.”
He said the creative economy is “where we have to go” because Rhode Island doesn’t have the cheapest labor, the cheapest land, or the cheapest energy. “Either we get good at innovation or we decline.”
Howkins said the “creative economy” is something people do on their own time and don’t get paid for it, but the good news is “there are no barriers to entry.”
It’s also very competitive, he said, “because we are laying ourselves on the line, laying our private thoughts on the line.” For example, when someone writes a script it can be very revealing of their inner self. And the same is true when sharing an idea with a group of designers at a manufacturing plant.
“Confidence is very important,” Howkins said. “It takes confidence to be alone in a corner and think, then come back and convince others your idea is the greatest idea since sliced bread.”
But Howkins pointed out that the “creative economy” has its challenges. Because creativity is a “talent,” not necessarily a skill, it cannot be taught, he said. People can mentor others to help them be more creative, or set an example, but in the end it has to come from the individual.
Howkins said intellectual property is the “currency of the creative economy.” And that poses a challenge because it is a sensitive subject. Laws regulating patents, trademarks and copyrights determine “if we get access, or if we’re able to copy them, share them, collaborate with others.”
For one year Howkins has been working on a charter with a commission of 20 artists, scientists, lawyers, Internet activists and environmentalists to come up with an explanation of what intellectual property should be used for. The charter suggests it ought to be for the public interest, he said, but not everyone agrees.
Time can be another struggle.
Asked what happens when people can’t find the time between work and home obligations to think creatively about solving problems at work, or developing new ideas for products or new ways of delivering a service, Howkins said “people have to recognize its value” in order for it to work. They have to “want to do it.”
“The creative economy is a way of operating,” Howkins said. “It could be the mark of a new kind of society, a new way of thinking of ourselves in society.”
