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Creative entrepreneurship, a seemingly contradictory term, is a unique and exceptional combination of skills. Balancing business and creativity isn't just a combination of skills – it's a superpower that can make one stand out in the business world.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky once asked, “How many of the Fortune 500 companies are [run by] creative people?” He even takes the question a step further, asking how many creatives there are on those boards. Chesky noted that he may be one of the few Fortune 500 CEOs who is a designer by trade, having studied industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design.
His creative edge, honed by his design background, shapes the way he runs the $88 billion global home-sharing company. Chesky sees himself as a designer, not a businessman, and that identity drives how he shapes his company to put good design and experiences above all else.
Creatives think differently. Entrepreneurs are resilient and efficient. By hiring entrepreneurial creatives, you embed creativity in your company's DNA and open up a world of measurable benefits that breed innovation and growth. Here's what you need to know about these secret superheroes, how they impact your bottom line, and how you can combine their powers.
Related: New report finds small business owners are taking three creative steps to meet their 2024 goals
Understanding the dichotomy: the creative and the entrepreneur
On one hand, creatives are often seen as free-spirited dreamers or visionary artists who challenge the norms – judged by their ability to tell stories and evoke emotion through their work. On the other hand, entrepreneurs are often portrayed as tough-as-nails or highly competitive leaders who are hyper-focused on the bottom line – judged on their ability to deliver returns to investors or scale the business at any cost.
The archetypes of the creative and the entrepreneur seem to be opposites. But when a company hires leaders who excel in both creativity and entrepreneurship, new levels of empathy and efficiency are unleashed.
Related topics: How to use entrepreneurial creativity for innovation
Creativity and the end result
A study by global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company developed a quantitative measure of creativity to examine the relationship between creativity and organizational performance. The results of this study showed that “creativity is strongly correlated with better organizational performance” – particularly better financial performance, innovation and growth.
Of the companies ranked in the top quartile for creativity—measured by the quantity, breadth and frequency of prestigious awards won over 15 years—67 percent of the highest-ranked companies for creativity had above-average organic revenue growth, and 70 percent of these quantifiably creative companies generated above-average total returns to shareholders.
Furthermore, the study found that “creativity is at the heart of business innovation and innovation is the engine of growth.” This reinforces the idea that creativity and business growth are powerful dynamics that complement each other well.
A person or organization that has both is unstoppable. So how do you bring creativity into your company? By hiring creative people.
Related: 5 Secrets to Building Your Superteam of Remote Freelancers – and How to Keep Them
The best of both worlds: Strengths of creative entrepreneurs
Creative entrepreneurs live partly in the clouds and partly in the numbers. We provide visionary leadership and have an exceptional ability to imagine an outcome (literally). We are also skilled at problem solving, have the business acumen to make practical and actionable decisions, and use systems and frameworks to execute on the larger vision.
After a successful creative career in advertising agencies and on the brand side, I can attest to how my business skills, knowledge and confidence grew asymmetrically as I explored entrepreneurship. I founded an e-commerce business which evolved into an award-winning candle brand selling direct to consumer and now expanding to retail in national and international markets.
Week after week, I go from curating mood boards, drafting brand guidelines, conceptualizing advertising campaigns, and writing clever email subject lines, scripts, or longer-form content pieces to cross-checking costs and profit margins, reviewing trend forecasting reports, and researching customs regulations to ensure product export compliance.
My creative mind is constantly challenged and in the process I have shaped and strengthened my business acumen. These are the kind of “joined forces” you only hear about in action movies, but they are certainly within the reach of any creative looking to develop their professional experience.
For businesses, it is equally beneficial to track down these secret superheroes. When creative people gain a foothold in business, it provides a comprehensive view of both worlds, which undoubtedly makes the creative work and the business more impactful, innovative and profitable.
3 Benefits of Combining Creative and Business Thinking
For companies that want to embed innovation and creativity into their culture, processes and organization, the hybrid creative and business mindset offers three benefits:
- Increase empathy: A blend of creative and business mindsets fosters a deeper understanding of your needs or the needs of your end client and the challenges the creative team faces. This enables more empathetic decision-making that resonates with everyone involved.
- Improve efficiency: By combining creative problem solving with business acumen, this unified mindset streamlines processes, reduces bottlenecks, embraces errors, and promotes innovative solutions that improve productivity and profitability.
- Better cross-departmental collaboration: This hybrid mindset bridges the gap between creative and operations teams and fosters a common language and mutual respect, which can lead to more cohesive and effective collaboration across your organization.
Integrating creativity into business
There are numerous team exercises and techniques that leaders can use to increase creativity in their organizations. But you can't become more creative through workshops.
Creativity must be present in the heart of your employees and in the soul of your company. It is not just a nice-to-have, but a necessity to encourage innovation and drive growth in today's competitive business world.
When you hire and engage creative people in leadership roles—and give them the opportunity to express their creativity—you gain the unfair advantage of instilling creativity in your company's DNA, which has been proven to drive innovation and above-average revenue growth and returns. But you must be forward-thinking enough to seize that opportunity with creative leadership.
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