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Creative entrepreneurship, a seemingly contradictory term, is a unique and extraordinary combination of skills. The balance of business and creativity is not just a skill stack — it's a superpower that can set one apart in the business world.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky once asked, "Of the 500 companies in the Fortune 500, how many of them are [run by] creative people?" He takes this question even further, asking how many creatives exist on those boards of directors. Chesky noted that he might be one of the only Fortune 500 CEOs who's a designer by trade, having studied industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design.
His creative advantage, honed through his design background, shapes how he runs the $88 billion global home-sharing enterprise. Chesky sees himself as a designer, not a businessperson, and this identity informs how he molds his company to value good design and experiences above all else.
Creatives think differently. Entrepreneurs are resiliently efficient. By hiring entrepreneurial creatives, you bake creativity into the DNA of your organization and open up a world of quantifiable advantages that yield innovation and growth. Here's what you need to know about these secret superheroes, their impact on your bottom line and how to leverage their powers combined.
Digging into the dichotomy: The creative and the entrepreneur
On the one hand, creatives are often seen as free-spirited dreamers or visionary artists who challenge the norms — judged by their ability to tell stories and evoke emotion through their work. On the other hand, entrepreneurs are often pictured as hard-and-fast or highly competitive executives who hyperfocus on the bottom line. They are judged by their ability to deliver returns for investors or scale the business at any cost.
The archetypes of the creative and the entrepreneur seem like opposites. But when an organization hires leaders who excel in both creativity and entrepreneurship, new layers of empathy and efficiency are unlocked.
Related: How To Use Entrepreneurial Creativity For Innovation
Creativity and the bottom line
A study by the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company established a quantitative measure of creativity to examine the relationship between creativity and business performance. The results of that study showed that "creativity is strongly correlated with superior business performance" — specifically, better financial performance, innovation and growth.
Of the companies that ranked in the top quartile of creativity — as measured by the quantity, breadth and frequency of prestigious awards won over a span of 15 years — 67% of the companies ranked highest for creativity had above-average organic revenue growth, and 70% of those quantifiably creative companies had above-average total returns to shareholders.
Further, the study revealed that "creativity is at the heart of business innovation, and innovation is the engine of growth," supporting the idea that creativity and business growth are powerful dynamics that complement each other well.
The person or organization that possesses both is unstoppable. So, how do you introduce creativity into your business? By hiring creative people.
Related: 5 Secrets to Building Your Super Team of Remote Freelancers — and How to Retain Them
The best of both worlds: Strengths of creative entrepreneurs
Creative entrepreneurs are part in the clouds, part in the numbers. We offer visionary leadership and have an uncanny ability to (quite literally) dream up an outcome. We are also adept at problem-solving, have the business sense to make practical and actionable decisions and embrace systems and frameworks to execute the broader vision.
After a successful creative career in advertising agencies and working brand-side, I can attest to how my business skills, knowledge and confidence asymmetrically expanded when I explored entrepreneurship. I started an ecommerce business that evolved into an award-winning direct-to-consumer candle brand, now expanding into retail across domestic and international markets.
Week over week, I go from curating mood boards, drafting brand guidelines, concepting ad campaigns and writing clever e-mail subject lines, scripts, or long-form content pieces to cross-checking costs and profit margins, reviewing trend forecast reports and researching customs regulations to ensure compliance with product export rules.
My creative mind is constantly being challenged, and in the process, I've melded, formed and strengthened my business mind. These are the kind of "powers combined" you only hear about in action movies, but they are certainly attainable for any creative seeking to evolve their professional experience.
It's equally advantageous for businesses to scout these secret superheroes. When creative people become entrenched in business, it offers a well-rounded view of both worlds, undeniably making the creative work and the company more impactful, innovative and profitable.
3 advantages of the hybrid creative and business mind
For companies interested in embedding innovation and creativity into their culture, process and organization, here are three ways the hybrid creative and business mind is advantageous:
- Increase empathy: A hybrid creative and business mind fosters a deeper understanding of your or your end-client's needs and the creative team's challenges, enabling more empathetic decision-making that will resonate with all stakeholders.
- Improve efficiency: By blending creative problem-solving with business acumen, this merged mindset streamlines processes, reduces bottlenecks, embraces failure and encourages innovative solutions that improve productivity and profitability.
- Better collaboration across departments: This hybrid mindset bridges the gap between creative and operational teams, fostering a shared language and mutual respect that can lead to more cohesive and effective collaboration across your organization.
Baking creativity into business
There's no shortage of team exercises and techniques to help C-suite executives boost creativity within their organizations. But you can't workshop your way into becoming more creative.
Creativity must exist within the heart of your hires and in the soul of your organization. It's not just a nice-to-have but a necessity for fostering innovation and driving growth in today's competitive business landscape.
When you hire and embed creative people into senior and executive leadership roles — and let them exercise their creativity — you grant yourself the unfair advantage of baking creativity into your business' DNA, which has proven to foster innovation and above-average revenue growth and returns. But you have to be forward-thinking enough to take that chance with creative leadership.
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