How many of us for the past week have spent money to buy a book, a ticket to watch a local play, a concert, live performance or a theatre movie? I bet we all have.
Well, guess what you have contributed to the creative economy which brings us to defining the creative economy as an economy that is based on people’s use of their creative imagination to increase an idea’s value.Now we could simply define an economy as a system where value circulates!
In simple terms you value good music, therefore, you pay to enjoy the experience and in turn, that money goes on to finance something else; that’s value circulating.
John Howkins developed the creative economy concept in 2001 to describe it as economic systems where the value is based on novel imaginative qualities rather than the traditional resources of land, labor, and capital.
Now, these traditional resources of economic systems have proved to not be pro citizen because not many of us have access to them and therefore economic inequality is still persistent in our continent exacerbating poverty.
The current economic policies have tended to empower certain circles and not trickle down to everyone.The things that are valued in the current economy are like land &labor which are limited to a few.But what about the rest of us who may take longer or never own such resources?
Well, in my opinion the creative economy may just be the answer we need : a strategic tool for sustainable development because its resources are are things that we all have in our mind, souls, gut, and emotions.
It values those products that come from our imagination which is sparked by our experiences.
Our experiences are our raw materials making this economy inclusive for all economic classes and the answer to economic inequality.
‘Creativity is not new and neither is economics but what is new is the nature of the relationship between them.
It occurs wherever individual creativity is the main source of value and the main cause of a transaction.
Creative economy comprises of the following elements; advertising, architecture, art, crafts, design, fashion, film, music, performing arts, publishing, Research &Development, software, toys and games, TV and radio, and video games.
The above elements shall be guiding us this November on;
Financial management for creatives.
Fashionomics
Fund sourcing, partnerships and business models for creative startups & businesses
How we can invest in the creative economy.
You may be thinking that creativity is not your thing and that you are best just being a professional, but allow me to challenge you: Every human being is a creative!
You can apply creativity in any field of science, technology, and professional practice be it business or construction.You can be an accountant in a creative firm or a creative in an accounting firm.Better yet you can be a creative accountant!
The creative force is changing everything from the way we live, the way we work to the application of rising in whole new industries such as the digital industry.
For example, Nollywood with a $590 million annual turnover is now the second biggest employer in Nigeria after agriculture hence alleviating poverty and fostering economic empowerment inclusively.
The Nigerian film industry is undoubtedly helping create jobs in a country with an economy that relies mainly on oil and agriculture. Over a million people are currently employed through this industry!
It’s time we as Kenya and Africa take the creative economy seriously rather than glorify and fund the white collar jobs that may not absorb a reasonable number to employment.
We all have the resources that are required to participate in a creative economy especially in the internet age that supports a lot of innovation and in turn gain the economic power in the transaction of a creative product.
A creative product is an economic good, service or experience resulting from creativity and with the characteristics of being personal, novel and meaningful.
A creative economy is a powerful tool for determining the values in our society because its a product we experience, feel, relate to.It can not only shape but instill values in the society.
It can put into society new ideas that didn’t exist for example currently in Kenya we are experiencing a Do It Yourself (DIYs) change where we have youtubers showing us how to do it ourselves to the consumer market wanting natural and authentic products made by kenyans for Kenyans.
Creative economies are more commonly found in market-based economies where they can benefit from intellectual and artistic freedom, lack of censorship, access to knowledge, availability of private capital, and the freedom to set market prices and where the population is able to exercise their own choice.
According to Howkins, current issues in the creative economy include Aesthetics, Branding, Business Models (Value Chains), Networks (Systems, Ecologies), Culture (intrinsic and instrumental values), Education and Learning, Intellectual property (proprietorial and open source), Management, Digital and Online, Policy, Pricing, Public statistics (definitions), Software, Start-ups, Tax & Urban design.
The 2014 OECD Forum declared ‘Creativity and innovation are now driving the economy, reshaping entire industries and stimulating inclusive growth.
The real mechanism of economic growth is that people come together, combine their creative talents, leverage skills and build more wealth.
We need a new social contract that recognizes creativity equalizes people, harnesses that creativity and invests in that creativity.
Our new economic rebuilding plan can no longer be a top-down national effort, it can no longer be a corporate effort but rooted its people’s creativity.
