Improve your creativity or lose your job

The economy upon which companies and employees have built their future has changed. The creative economy requires that you improve your creativity or lose your job

Just do a quick comparison of market capitalization to book value for public U.S. companies over the last two decades.  There is a dramatic rise in value attributed to intangibles – ideas, innovations, intellectual capital, etc.  In 1978, book value averaged 95% of the market cap – machinery, buildings, etc.  Today, the book value makes up 28% of the market cap. That means that 72% of the value attributed to companies is now coming from intangibles.

The value attributed to such things as intellectual capital is evidence of the transition we are experiencing to the creative economy which requires different skills from its workers.  It places a higher premium on creativity and the ability to translate the ideas generated into meaningful innovations.  A well-known formulation of this argument comes from Robert Reich, who argues that the economic well-being of any country now depends on the creativity of its workers rather than the profitability of its corporations.

The economic well-being of a country depends on the creativity of its workers rather than a company's profitability.

In this new world, wealth creation is dependent on continually being able to create new ideas.  Workers who have embraced this creative economy by improving their innovation skills earn an average of $20,000 a year more than other workers. So you better get started and improve your creativity.

A Conference Board survey of CEO’s found that creativity is growing in importance (97%).  To reinforce this point, these same CEO’s said:

“they prefer the creative employee over the technically skilled one” 63% of the time.

Do you have the creative skills to succeed?