FINAL WORD averages , language that could have been lifted straight from a science textbook . And the current AI revolution means there ’ s never been a better time for businesses to be crunching numbers in the hunt for insights and opportunities .
You might think , then , that the more a business embraces data and applies scientific rigour to decision-making , the more successful it will be . But it turns out that it ’ s actually businesses prepared to embrace imagination and creativity who can be most confident of delivering growth in the turbulent times we ’ re living through .
We surveyed 500 decision-makers across the UK and the US to assess how their businesses foster and invest in behaviours and processes aligned to creativity and imagination . Of those businesses whose answers
The best business leaders get this . They also recognise the risk and discomfort creativity in business can bring . In Business Stripped Bare , Richard Branson wrote : “ Business is creative . It ’ s like painting . You start with a blank canvas . You can paint anything – anything – and right there is your first problem . For every good painting you might turn out , there are a zillion bad paintings just aching to drip off your brush . Scared ? You should be . People in business who succeed have swallowed their fear and have set out to create something special , something to make a difference to people ’ s lives .”
In our survey , 61 % of the more senior respondents agreed that opportunities for creative thinking and experimentation are very important . That number drops to 44 % overall , though , suggesting a significant swathe of middle management who would instead carry on crunching data . And overall , only 29 % of businesses said their companies allocated significant resources to empowering imagination . Too many businesses are all data , no dreams .
Striking a balance
Whether we ’ re talking about businesses or people , it feels like we ’ re in serious need of a reset , one that breaks down some of these artificial barriers once and for all .
Ben Bush , Partner and Head of Strategy ,
The Frameworks
And talking of work , divided attitudes to science and the arts are alive and kicking in the business world .
Listening to both the scientist and the artist inside us can be transformative when facing life ’ s gnarlier decisions at a personal level ( spoiler alert : don ’ t play the lottery ). And only by getting people of all outlooks to come together to harness their collective imagination can businesses hope to thrive in today ’ s climate of uncertainty and reinvention . This doesn ’ t mean the end of number-crunching , incidentally . It ’ s still a vital way of testing and rationalising a creative possibility ; just don ’ t expect it to come up with the possibility in the first place .
In summary , don ’ t let fancy analysis or fear of failure stifle your business ’ s creative thinking . identified them as highly imaginative , 58 % said their revenue had grown considerably in the last 12 months , and 63 % said they were performing significantly better than their peers . At the other end of the scale , 92 % of the least imaginative companies reported declining revenues , with the same proportion reporting little or no confidence in their resilience .
Oh and maths is cool . So are books . Maybe have a read of one of Dr Fry ’ s . p
These figures are a stark reminder that no amount of data analysis – artificial or otherwise – will come up with a genuinely new idea . At best , it ’ s going to fine-tune what you ’ re doing already . At worst ? Ask Blockbuster .
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