How publishers can use creativity for business growth

Creativity has long been considered an inherent talent rather than skill that can be learned. 

However, creativity is a way of looking at the world, a certain state and perspective, according to Jamshid Alamuti, former MD at the Berlin School for Creative Leadership, at the Digital Innovators’ Summit on Tuesday.

“It’s been a long held belief that creativity is something you are born with,” Alamuti said. 

“But when it comes to creativity in business, this is a skillset.”

Alamuti suggested if publishers put the right environment together, give their creative people the space they need, they can raise the value of publishers’ organisation. 

“If you don’t give them the room they need, they will get bored and go,” he said. “If you need innovation to survive, you need creativity. It is juice for innovation.”

Key to innovation

There is key to unlocking and unleashing creativity in publishing – despite the silos that have been created. “Creativity is striving for simplicity,” Alamuti said. “We forget that simplicity has value. We try to make things complicated to show their value. But that is not the case.”

The key to innovation is using things someone has done before, he said. This process will involve failing, failing and failing again.  It is something most publishers don’t want to do, are scared of, as they don’t want to lose money or lose face, Alamuti said. 

Creative people work differently, so, support them.

“How far would you dare to go, and do some of those things?”

If publishers want to embed creativity in their organisations, they need to look at whether they can fit their organisation around creativity, take risks, then creativity cannot develop in their organisations.

Can creativity can be managed?

Publishers manage their creative resources, why can’t they do same with their staff and organisations? Alamuti suggested that to have diversity of energies and people, to dispose of silos. Instead, he proposed temporary organisations to enable creativity. 

“As everything is constantly changing, creativity is used through innovation to invent the future,” Alamuti said.  

Publishers can move forward using creativity, but they need to curate space to promote it. “If you want to have creatives you need to give them the right space they need,” he said. “Create an environment where you can feel like home. Then not only your people will want to work there, but your consumers want to be part of it, too.”

In every organisation, there should be creatives moving the organisation forward and creating value. Publishing organisations help people become more creative, he said. “Creativity needs inspiration and provocation. Publishers can create both of them, if they focus on the craft they have, this is what they produce.”