“Any one thing can move a company. It’s the quality of the idea that counts. I’ve been surprised how many times over the years little creative ideas have grown into something big.”
– Michael Eisner
Ideas are the currency of commerce. Not “a” currency. The.
Too much of business today is based on analytics and data. Those tools have their place, but you don’t serve a client base by being a robot. Robots don’t have ideas, and ideas are the stuff that moves the needle. No data or analysis suggested that human flight was possible, that virtually any of the major medical breakthroughs could be accomplished or that man could set foot on the moon.
Everything else matters only when ideas are the currency of record.
Somewhere along the way (I think it might have been my sister), a wise person gave me a copy of the book The Imagineering Way, a compilation of essays on creativity written by Disney’s “Imagineers.” As The Heston Group begins this next chapter — and as you do in your life and your business — the realization that creativity — ideas — are the currency of commerce is True North for those of us intending to make a difference.
Eisner points out that the quality of the idea counts, and he’s right, of course. In the meantime, let’s focus on quantity of ideas, to force the discipline of trading in the currency that will make a difference, for us, our clients and the people we love the most.
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