Common Currency

Creative and cultural organisations bring new approaches to changing social contexts and markets. Is there something unique to creative and cultural organisations that other sectors can learn from?

One of the most successful sectors of the British economy is the creative and cultural sector. It is growing more rapidly than the rest of the economy and is a global leader within its field. At the same time, creativity has become increasingly important to other sectors as well.

The cultural and creative sector provides compelling illustrations of how to respond to today's challenges. 

The companies within these sectors have developed strategies, attitudes and processes to do the following:

• Manage creative people,
• Encourage innovation,
• Manage the risks - and sometimes failure - of creativity,
• Lead and manage on few resources,
• Be driven by external circumstances and contexts rather than following the internal logic of their own organisations,
• Satisfy multiple stakeholders,
• Lead with a sensitivity to workforce and social issues such as diversity and equality,
• Articulate a moral purpose that drives organisational ambition and performance,
• Be constantly open to new learning,
• Be adaptable, flexible and willing to change,
• Create cultures of trust, especially within ad hoc teams,
• Distribute leadership across organisations,
• Work across networks as well as within organisations.

NESTA partnered with Demos, Arts & Business and the Cultural Leadership Programme to identify themes of 'common currency' across businesses. 

Interviews

In 2009 we interviewed the leaders from a range of cultural and creative organisations, here's what we found out.

The Young Vic Theatre - David Lan, Artistic Director

Royal Shakespeare Company - Vikki Heywood, Executive Director

The Akram Khan Company - Farooq Chaudhry, Producer

Eidos - Ian Livingstone,Creative Director

Tate Media - Will Gompertz, Director

Zero Zero - Indy Johar, Co-founder