At first glance, creativity and business may seem antagonistic, but when it comes to managing a creative area, we are forced to face this duality and even take advantage of it. How to ensure that meeting financial goals does not turn us into an assembly line? Can a manager be creative? In this fourth article of the Twelve Months, Twelve Themes series, Marcus Cerdeira and Catarina Norton talk about the challenges of managing a creative industry.
Creativity and business, how to reconcile?
The creativity is not limited to creative areas only; I believe we have to be creative regardless of our professional field. In today's fast-evolving times, with rapid developments occurring day by day and week by week, creativity must be a quality that spans various facets of managing a company. In our case, as our company deals with creativity, we essentially have these two creativities: pure creativity, which is the object of our work, but then we also have to know how to transpose it in the best possible way to all the more administrative or "bureaucratic" areas directly related to managing a company. (Marcus Cerdeira)
Not only do I think it is possible to reconcile, but it is truly essential to do so. Creativity and business always go hand in hand, almost hand in hand. It is creativity, as a process of generating ideas and materialities, that will provide differentiating results, and it is these differentiating results that, in business terms, will set us apart from everything and everyone. An immense challenge arises in this management, related to the time we allocate to this creative part. Finding this balance is finding the key to success. (Catarina Norton)
Can we tame the creative act, often described as a breath, an unpredictable and incalculable moment?
Especially when it comes to managing a company, we cannot let creativity flow endlessly. It is crucial to find the balance point, to understand where to put the brake, whether we can even call it a brake... In any case, contrary to what one might think, creativity is not something that flows in a disorganized way – that thing of brainstorming without an axis – no. There is the possibility of being truly distinctive when we are creative in how we manage the company. The way we plan, how we create a line, a plan for everyone, where various tasks fit in, is itself distinctive. And it is, above all, a creative job. Being creative is being able to organize in a "happy" way, a series of situations related to our life, our culture, experiences, and narrowing it down to achieve the final product or result. It is a process of organization and planning. (Marcus Cerdeira)
I would not describe being creative as something 100% spontaneous and disorganized. Those moments exist, of course, but being truly creative involves knowing how to recognize them and give them shape. I truly believe that there is almost a very mathematical grid behind our creative thinking – and this is the key to success. Another question that I find truly interesting arises here, which has to do with not perpetually seeking the perfect result, not getting lost in thousands of options and idealizations; what matters, above all, is being able to give the best answer for a given moment. (Catarina Norton)
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