Everybody and his sister has emailed me about the cover story in the new Business Week. It’s a good piece, but a few paragraphs sound a tad, er, familiar. Here’s an (annotated) sample:
“The Knowledge Economy as we know it is being eclipsed by something new — call it the Creativity Economy. Even as policymakers and pundits wring their hands over the outsourcing of engineering, software writing, accounting, and myriad other high-tech, high-end service jobs — not to mention the move of manufacturing to Asia — U.S. companies are evolving to the next level of economic activity. [You might even say we’re moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age! -ed.]
“What was once central to corporations — price, quality, and much of the left-brain, digitized analytical work associated with knowledge — is fast being shipped off to lower-paid, highly trained Chinese and Indians, as well as Hungarians, Czechs, and Russians. Increasingly, the new core competence is creativity — the right-brain stuff that smart companies are now harnessing to generate top-line growth. [Do you mean that the era of ‘left brain’ dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are giving way to a new world in which ‘right brain’ qualities-inventiveness, empathy, meaning-predominate? Good point! -ed.] The game is changing. It isn’t just about math and science anymore. It’s about creativity, imagination, and, above all, innovation. [Yeah, high tech is waning. High concept and high touch are what it’s all about. Great stuff! -ed.]”