Creativity and its importance in Thailand's future economy
By Jon Fernquest |
Even the most boring jobs can be made interesting, my father used to tell me.
His examples were the repetitive tasks on the assembly line of his golf club factory. Tasks like grinding the rough edges off golf club heads after they they were cast from metal or putting golf club grips on the end of shafts, hundreds if not thousands of times every day.
How could such a task be made interesting and fun?
By continually looking for ways to improve the quality and speed of doing the task. Making the task a sort of competition against oneself.
This week the Bangkok Post business section featured an article on the "Creative Economy." As the article points out "40% of the jobs in the world today expect the people who do them to be creative while the figure is 82% for new jobs."
As markets become saturated with products and competitors, entrepreneurs look for new ways to make their product different from other products (product differentiation), to stand out from the crowd, to attract customers, and win market share.
Take the small border town of Maesai in northern Thailand where almost everyone in the town sells cheap goods imported from China to day tourists visiting the town. Competition is intense and profit low. Contrast this with the city of Chiang Rai, 60 kilometers down the road. In Chiang Rai's night bazaar one can find a continual stream of new ideas from wood carving to home made silk fashions. Another 12 hours down the road, the Thailand Creative & Design Center (TCDC) in Bangkok is at the forefront of encouraging innovative Thai design that is competitive on international markets.
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The beauty of Thailand is that anyone who has will, initiative, and a little cash can start up a small business fairly quickly. This simply isn't possible in most fully developed western countries.
However, government policy usually focuses on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by large multinational companies that will spend a lot of money in the economy, ignoring the fact that the most creative new business ideas often come from smaller "creative entrepreneurs" which could stimulate the Thai economy with knowledge and new ways to do things, not just money.
(Photos above are from the library of the Thailand Creative & Design Center (TCDC) at the Emporium on Sukhumvit)
Here is the article in full:
MANAGEMENT
Businesses pressed to be creative
PARISTA YUTHAMANOP Thursday June 05, 2008Is it not ideas that make the world go round nowadays? Is it not creativity businesses that will be the winners in the globalisation race, when all human beings yearn for a better, more productive and cost-effective ways of doing things?
If so, it will be worth it for every society to do some soul-searching about how it can contribute to the world and prosper in this aspect, based on its culture and skills.
According to a study by the law firm Baker & McKenzie, 40% of the jobs in the world today expect the people who do them to be creative while the figure is 82% for new jobs, says John Howkins, United Kingdom-based expert on creative economy.
"Creativity has been categorised as culture, not business. But in the last 10 to 20 years, things have changed fundamentally. It has become two thirds of the UK economy. Now creativity has involved all human activities, even in agriculture," Mr Howkins said.
"To foster creativity, at the very least, calls for us to be passionate in our jobs. If not, why waste time and potential. The thrust of a creative economy is freedom it gives to its people and ambience like urban planning and environment management.
"For an organisation to be creative, it not only has to hire good people, but also must have environment that allows people to adapt," he said at a recent forum held by Thailand Creative & Design Center.
"The essence of creativity is to challenge by asking: 'Could it be done in a better, cheaper or any other more efficient way?"'
Governments should start with defining a creative economy in the context of each specific country and explore resources and possibility for creativity to be developed into businesses. Above all, it should be mindful not to impose obstacles such as red tape or high capital requirements.
"The creative economy is about trying and failing. In reality, we fail in order to succeed," he said, adding that the reason Hollywood was where it was today was because it was a long way from Washington.
But a government can promote such development by mapping its resources, ensuring facilities such as intellectual property are in place and increasing value chains. Society at large should as well change its attitude and admits that creative jobs are among top jobs.
"People who are now in retirement would be in deep pain if they hear their children say they want to be in a rock band or work in the video-game industry. Now parents should be reassured that their children living on their ideas is a top job," he said.
Chris Powell, chairman for the National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts in the UK, said countries should be aware of the potential of a creative economy because it was what the burgeoning middle class would look to spend on.
Vocabulary:
a task - one piece of work or activity that is part of a larger project
repetitive tasks - tasks that you repeat, do over and over again, several times everyday in your work
an assembly line - the series of steps (workers, machines) in a factory that a product passes through as it is produced (See Wikipedia)
grinding - using a machine (a grinder) to make an object smooth, polished, or sharper
golf club heads - the object on the end of a golf club that hits the ball
cast from metal - pouring hot metal into a mould to create a metal object (for example, a metal statue of the Buddha)
a grip - aspecial place to hold an object, or holding an object tightly
a shaft - a long thing part of spear, golf club, axe, etc.
a saturated market - a market that is full of products and companies competing (so the market is difficult to enter)
an entrepreneur - a person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a new business start up (See Wikipedia)
product differentiation - making your product different from other similar products to attract customers to your product
stand out - easier to see than others
market share - the percentage of sales in market that the company has (See glossary)
Thailand Creative & Design Center (TCDC) - a center and library devoted to promoting and advancing design in Thailand, located on the top floor of the Emporium on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok (See website)
at the forefront of Y - are ahead of others in activity Y, have a leading and influential position
will - the determination to do something, the mental effort needed to get things done
initiative - acting quickly and decisively (without delay or waiting for people to tell you what to do)
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) - when a foreign company invests directly in production in another country, either setting up their own factory or buying a company in the country (See Wikipedia)
a Multinational Corporation (MNC) - a corporation with factories or operations in many countries, very large multinationals spend more money than many countries, also have a powerful influence in international relations and local economies (See Wikipedia)
creative entrepreneurs, the creative economy - business people who start businesses that are concerned mostly with using the creativity of themselves and their employees to create valuable products and services (See Wikipedia)
make the world go round - are very important (keep the world operating and developing)
creativity - making new ideas, and adding new energy and interest to old ideas [Thai: Jintarakan] (See Wikipedia)
yearn for - want to get very much, but unlikely to get, long for
do some soul-searching - a long and careful examination of
contribute - doing something unique to help the world, rather than just survive (for example, Thailand's night bazaars are a unique form of night time entertainment and shopping that brings the community together with outside visitors traveling in the area)
prosper - when people and businesses do well and succeed with their goals
changed fundamentally - changed completely, now it is very different
passionate - a person with very strong feelings and beliefs about something
waste time - take too long doing something, not use time efficiently
waste potential - not use an opportunity that you have effectively
ambience - the character and atmosphere of a place
an environment - the situation surrounding you, in which you work
impose obstacles - make it difficult to do something
mindful not to impose obstacles - being careful not make it difficult
red tape - official rules and procedures that cause delay and that often seem unnecessary (See glossary)
high capital requirements - a large amount of money must be invested in the business
Intellectual Property (IP) - owning the creations of the mind (just like physical objects you can hold), includes musical, literary, and artistic works, inventions, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce, including copyrights, trademarks, and patents (See Wikipedia)
value chains - a chain of production activities that add value to a product (the chain of activities gives the products more added value than the sum of added values of all activities, a diamond cutter is an example, the cutting activity may have a low cost, but the activity adds to much of the value of the end product, since a rough diamond is significantly less valuable than a cut diamond) (See Wikipedia)
attitude - the way you act and behave in a situation (for example, she was easy to work with because she had a positive attitude towards the work)
change its attitude - change the way you behave and act in a situation (usually improve attitude)
burgeoning middle class - a middle class that is growing and developing quickly
