Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC)

The Case for the Critical Role of Creativity in Business Innovation

Creative leaders = successful leaders.

As you know, a 2010 IBM study revealed that today’s CEOs value creativity over integrity and global thinking [Fast Company]. About 60% of CEOs polled cited creativity as the most important leadership quality, compared with 52% for integrity and 35% for global thinking. Creative leaders are also more prepared to break with the status quo of industry, enterprise and revenue models, and they are 81% more likely to rate innovation as a "crucial capability."

Creative leaders are made in the classroom, and we're falling behind.

  • A 2008 report released by Arts Education Partnership, The ImagineNation, identified a new and growing constituency of voters in America who believe that, in order to meet the demand for innovation in the marketplace, we must teach skills of the imagination in the classroom. They are concerned that America, an historic leader in innovation, is falling behind as it devotes less attention to developing what voters perceive to be essential skills of the imagination and innovation than do other nations. 79% of voters strongly believe that imagination is key to innovation.
  • 56% of American voters believe that, when compared to other nations, America devotes less attention to developing the imagination and to innovation. Only 19% of respondents believe the United States is ahead.

Without creative leaders, there are no creative solutions.

Last summer Newsweek released a story entitled The Creativity Crisis, which indicated that for the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining. The potential consequences of a drop in creativity are sweeping, the article concludes. “The necessity of human ingenuity is undisputed. Yet it’s not just about sustaining our nation’s economic growth. All around us are matters of national and international importance that are crying out for creative solutions, from saving the Gulf of Mexico to bringing peace to Afghanistan to delivering health care. Such solutions emerge from a healthy marketplace of ideas, sustained by a populace constantly contributing original ideas and receptive to the ideas of others.”

Learn more about the Invest Montgomery: Creativity Fuels the Economy campaign here.

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