Comments on: Don’t Assume You’re Normal: What You Can Learn from Other Creative Cultures

By: Nikki May | Web Content Writer

Nikki May | Web Content Writer — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:42:28 +0000

I’ve just finished reading Fareed Zakaria’s The Post American World, and I found it interesting. I came across this post, so I thought I will share a comment here. Given that today, China and India are on the forefront of economic growth, fast becoming economic “powerhouses”, what we are entering is indeed a period of the “rise of the rest”.

Given this strong economic growth, there countries are boosting their national pride and political confidence – and are playing an increasingly important role in global trade.

These countries will be leading polluters, given the vast coal-fire power plants and massive manufacturing bases they are building. They will be leading producers and consumers, with devastating effects on the environment.

Today, the largest infrastructure and construction projects are being built outside the USA, reflecting that indeed, other countries are on the rise. This changes the dynamics of the world today – unlike in the past, the US is not the one on the rise of all fronts.

By: Kruse Internet Marketing

Kruse Internet Marketing — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:19:23 +0000

Hundreds of years ago (but not too many) here in England it was solemnly held that our King was God’s representative on Earth. This was an article of faith. When the King spoke it was God telling us what to do. This was no more than conceit, and when it got overdone in the 1600s it led to the downfall of the ruling monarchy and the beginning of the cosmetic monarchy we have today. People got fed up with it, basically.
The relevant word there is conceit. Our king, and our king alone, spoke with the authority of God. Not just any God, mind you, not some piffling local deity; ours was the Lord of all, the one true God.
Nonsense and an obvious conceit.
So is any idea at all that the Western way of doing business is the right or proper way to be doing it. A risible conceit and nothing more. Collectively we’ll be better off for putting such arrogance behind us.

By: MarkF

MarkF — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:26:01 +0000

Over the last few months I have been growing aware that the UK/English notion of the Creative Industries and subsequently the Creative Economy is rapidly reaching the end of its useful life as a way to focus policy effort and resources from central government. I think that the decade long emphasis on creative cultural life as a way to support economic development is pretty much over. It will be interesting to see if Mark Whallinger’s White Horse will be the last epic piece of Public Art for a long time

In England there is a drive away from exceptionalism of the creative act and the businesses that depend on it.

Time for another paradigm shift.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:07:01 +0000

Thanks Eric, I knew I could rely on you to deconstruct the pseudo-collaborative rhetoric.

By: Eric Poettschacher

Eric Poettschacher — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:56:08 +0000

One last thing that came to my mind. Does the term “trickle-up innovation” point towards a level playing field? Sounds more like “we up here get fresh ideas from them down there”. Before that our products and services would trickle-down.

It is still the same paradigm. Just the words have changed.

By: Eric Poettschacher

Eric Poettschacher — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:05:02 +0000

Mark,
I believe that this article fits perfectly into this discusssion.

When it comes to reducing costs (McKinsey is really famous
for this one) Western economic logic is of course eager to
harvest the best ideas from all over the planet. Not because
we really want to understand why it is so extremely cheap to run an Indian bank in its own context – that might be far too irritating – but rather because the figures are so intriguing.
The motivation is obvious: Help me to cut costs and then we speak the same language. Pharmaceutical corporations have been using emerging markets for the longest time because these places are the cheapest human test lab on the planet. Now we are applying the same principle to other sectors, too.

Let me ask you a question: Will the guys from McKinsey pay the people they had been learning from in the Third World pay a commission for the revenue they make on those ideas in the West? I doubt. It´s a free trial innovation lab. The profit margin for McKinsey could not be any better.

The one thing that I find really interesting, though, is the fact that we in the West might soon face the same life circumstances like people in emerging markets. Maybe it is a good idea to learn from them. We do not have a free ticket to be the First World forever.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:01:36 +0000

Thanks for a great article Eric. Did you see this piece in the latest Fast Company?

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/133/as-the-world-turns.html

A funny thing has happened on the way to globalization: Innovation now trickles up from emerging to advanced economies. And it may be the way of the future.

I’d be interested to hear how closely you think the Fast Company article matches your own perspective on global innovation.

By: Ms. Odat

Ms. Odat — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:08:44 +0000

I most certainly agree “that Westerners are too quick to assume that they are the ‘leaders’ of the creative economy.” AAMOF, it seems that Westerners pretty much think we have the inside track on just about everything “important”. Of course we are not alone in this type of delusion.

I see this form of parochialism as a barrier not just to the “creative economy” but to relations from international on through the spectrum.

To the extent that my ‘superiority’ remains an unexamined foundational principle, I am incapable of benefit from or assistance to – in ANY interaction.

By: Amrit Hallan

Amrit Hallan — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:39:36 +0000

Lots of creative and innovative things come from the West and there is no dispute about that. Even people from India perform better when they are in a western country simply because there are very few hurdles, the environment is quite conducive for new thought, and facilities that are luxury in India are taken for granted in the Western world: electricity, conveyance, connectivity, infrastructure and communications for instance.

Other than that there are lots of innovations and original thoughts that have come from “the rest of the world”. Take for instance the decimal system. People use it for making fun but even zero came from India . I think more awareness is required for the world to become more accepting and ready to work together.