From Apple’s late CEO, Steve Jobs, to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, great business leaders know that creativity and innovation is key to running and expanding a successful business. Not only does it create new products, growth, and profitability, but also harnesses employee enthusiasm and pride. Most importantly, it creates a positive cycle of success and optimism. In fact, for businesses to survive and thrive, implementing a creative culture is essential. In our world of accelerating global competition, ever-changing technology and radical changes to employee expectations, businesses must be able to successfully innovate and deliver new ideas fast. But the problem many companies face is how, exactly, to get the initial seed or spark that will capture people’s imagination and snowball into a creative culture. The majority of company leaders simply do not know how to harness creativity effectively or use it to its full potential. Others see it as a ‘mystery’ that’s impossible to get a grip on. This is where new how-to business guide The Spark: How To Ignite and Lead Business Creativity by Greg Orme — released by Pearson, the world’s leading educational publisher — comes in. Based on robust research and real-life experiences of high profile executives, The Spark sets out strategies on how to instil a ‘non-conformist and slightly anarchic’ ideas-fuelled culture inside teams and organisations. Packed with countless tips and invaluable ideas on how to achieve creativity within the workplace, it also emphasizes the rewards which businesses and executives will reap as a result, including Higher profits. Businesses which innovate outperform their rivals Faster growth: 80 per cent of leaders identify innovation as vital to benefit from the economic recovery Innovative new products: to survive accelerating ‘creative destruction’ driven by new technology and globalisation Victory in the ‘war for talent’: staff turnover in creative companies is lower Higher returns on research and development investment: there’s currently little correlation between R&D spend and shareholder return Improved business processes, such as re-imagined business strategies, and reduced costs. Written in a fresh, fun and friendly way – the antithesis of the usual overly-academic tomes — the guide is easy-to-implement and demystifies the leadership and management habits necessary to create creative sparks. Importantly, it also has wide reach and relevance across a range of sectors including Managers who need to promote creativity and innovation in a certain level or across their whole team Industries which depend on a consistent stream of new ideas, such as retail, technology, leisure and fast-moving consumer goods Industries where people, knowledge and expertise are the key drivers, such as law and recruitment Creative industry businesses, such as the independent digital, media and marketing spheres, who need to reflect on their creativity and how to sustain it Those who manage ‘creative hotspots’ in marketing, communications, branding, sales and product design Those in spheres not traditionally seen as creative, such as IT and HR, to help them develop a more innovative mindset Throughout the book, author Greg Orme draws heavily on his 20-plus years of experience within the digital media and marketing sectors, working with senior executives to help transform businesses and develop inspiring leadership. Orme is an associate programme director at the prestigious London Business School and has worked with many of the UK's best-known brands through his own consultancy, Kirkbright — which runs creative leadership programmes — including Sky, Ogilvy & Mather, Virgin Media, the International Olympic Committee and Aardman Animation. By following his expert tips, techniques and ideas, readers can expect to see a “creative explosion” with real change within their organisation. Speaking about The Spark, Mr Orme said: “Creativity and innovation drives business growth, profitability and staff engagement but it is not well managed in most companies. People think it’s a mystery and impossible to manage but this book makes it doable. “With the recession and its focus on cost-cutting and productivity on the back-foot, and industries expanding once again, this is an opportune time for business to move forward in an exciting and passionate way. To grow your business, sparks must fly!” After reading The Spark, creativity will come naturally, producing results you want to see. The Spark: How To Ignite and Lead Business Creativity by Greg Orme (Pearson) is out now, priced £14.99, from Amazon and all good book shops.
