The industrial era was about efficiency.

How many widgets can the “machine” output each month, week, day and hour?

Inputs and outputs were closely linked together.

As a worker, the primary incentive was to “grind it out” and work as many hours as possible. There wasn’t necessarily a direct or immediate need for creativity but only efficiency.

With the rise of the knowledge economy, the discrepancy between inputs and outputs keeps rising. Instead of putting 1 hour of input in and getting 1 unit of reward out, you can make one decision that causes you to get a 10x 100x 1000x or a seemly infinite return.

‍That is because of leverage. The leverage of code and media.

This switches the concern from efficiency and productivity over to the quality of your judgement and the reach of your creativity.

‍So the job of a creative enterprise today is not to have creativity for the sake of creativity or to use creativity to win award.

But rather, creativity must be used to solve real world business problems in new and better ways.

To make better decisions with knowledge and to grow the enterprise with new ideas that work.

Creativity by its very nature is boundless and infinite.

As Bill Bernbach once said: “Creativity is the last unfair advantage we’re legally allowed to take over our competitors”

When you go to the Apple Store and they replace your headphones with no questions ask.

When you go to Costco and they return anything.

When you get free one day shipping with Amazon.

When you go to the local store and they know your name and standard order by heart.

These are investments that could have been placed elsewhere but was instead placed in a secret more fundamental place.

They made you feel like a human and they helped you solve your problems more deeply than a single ad ever could.