Navigating the phase change to the creative economy

Abstract

Purpose

This article argues that successful leadership needed for the Creative Economy requires different ways of managing, leading, following, thinking, speaking and acting in the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach

The article outlines both the principles and implementation steps and conditions for success.

Findings

Five principles are core to the new way of managing: 1. Organizational goal: a shift from an inward-looking goal maximizing shareholder returns to an outward-looking goal of delighting customers profitably. Innovation and transformation are now imperatives. 2. Organizational structure: a shift from managerial command and control to enabling collaboration among diverse self-organizing teams, networks and ecosystems. 3. Coordination of work: a shift from coordinating work by hierarchical bureaucracy with rules, roles, plans and reports to dynamic linking, with iterative approaches to development and direct customer feedback from, and interaction with, teams, networks and ecosystems. 4. Values: a shift from a single-minded preoccupation with profit and efficiency to an embrace of values that will grow the firm and the accompanying ecosystems. 5. Communications: a shift from top-down directives to multi-directional conversations across organizational boundaries about working together on common goals.

Practical implications

Offers leaders a roadmap for managing during market phase changes, a complex transformation in human behavior produced by a new way to satisfy consumption needs.

Originality/value

It alerts top management of the need both to recognize and anticipate many coming phase changes and explains how to revolutionize the process of managing the response to them in the creative economy.

Citation

Denning, S. (2014), "Navigating the phase change to the creative economy", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 42 No. 2, pp. 3-11. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-01-2014-0001