Business doesn’t have to be about being the biggest, fastest or strongest. Entrepreneurs don’t have to be short-sighted, aggressive and unfair. “Entrepreneurialism has nothing to do with hardwired personality traits.” This is what Robert Kelsey says in this article in the journal of the Royal Society of Arts. I agree totally. Unfortunately, the popular image …
Category: Leadership
The Creative Business: 12 Modules
The Creative Business is a series of 12 modules of information about developing creative enterprises, written especially for people running businesses in the creative industries. The information is particularly relevant to creative businesses and cultural enterprises in the fields of Advertising, Literature and Publishing, Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Music, Design, Cultural Heritage, and Crafts. Written …
Creative Business Guide
A useful and readable ‘Creative, Cultural and Digital Industries Guide’ has been published by Business Link West Midlands It is available in hardcopy from Business Link West Midlands and downloadable as a free eBook in PDF format below. This creative business guide was written by David Parrish, author of the book ‘T-Shirts and Suits: A …
… and what we didn’t do
The most focused creative enterprises are clear about where they want to go and have a clear vision of the future and exactly what ‘Success’ means. In a ‘Designing Your Creative Business’ workshop for creative entrepreneurs in Taipei, sponsored by the British Council in Taiwan and the Taiwan Design Centre, I suggested a technique to …
Get out more!
At the launch party for Creative Times Online, which was full of ‘creative industries’ people clustering together, I met a civil engineer. Civil/structural engineers don’t normally attend these gatherings of ‘creatives’ (fashion designers, musicians, writers, film-makers, advertisers, artists, website designers, broadcasters and publishers, graphic designers, performers, computer games programmers, designer-makers, etc.) So I was intrigued. …
Rolls and Royce: a shared vision
Successful creative businesses need a combination of creativity and business strategy – what I call ‘T-Shirts’ and ‘Suits’. Sometimes, one individual has both of these elements in good measure, but more often than not, the harmony of creativity and business is formed by two people, or a larger team. Frederick Henry Royce met Charles Stewart …
Leading Creative People
“We say it’s like herding cats!” was a comment about leading and managing creative people when I was a guest speaker at the Munich meeting of MAGNET – the Marketing and Advertising Global Network. My presentation to the owners of advertising agencies from around the world was on the subject of Leadership. One aspect they …
Six Leadership Styles for Creative Leaders
Leaders and managers of creative businesses in the media, design and technology sectors can use these six leadership styles to improve the effectiveness of their leadership, their teams and their creative enterprises. According to Daniel Goleman, there are six leadership styles which are associated with the various elements of emotional intelligence in different combinations. The …
Level 5 Leadership
The best leaders are not always ‘charismatic’. “Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It’s not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious – but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not …
‘Lateral-Thinking’ Leadership
The most effective leaders learn from other industries and sectors. “Most [executives] think they are in touch with the outside world if they play golf with the vice-president of another company in the same industry.” – Professor Peter Drucker. Management Guru. (Financial Times. London. 16 November 2004.) Research commissioned by the UK Government’s Department of …