The Creative

Economy

Prof. dr. Velimir Srića

 Why me?
INSPIRATION
EDUCATION
 Gymnasium Classicum, BBA, MS IT
Management, MBA - Columbia
University, New York, PhD
Management Information Systems

EXPERIENCE
 Tenure professor Zagreb University, PERSONAL
Visiting associate professor, UCLA, Los
Angeles, Slovenia, Austria, China, B&H,  Guitar, foodball, chess, tenis,
Montenegro, Hungary Dubai… The Club poetry, film, travelling
of Rome member, World Bank expert for
Change Management
 Member of Croatian Government,
President - Alps-Adriatic R&D
Committee, President Zagreb City
Assembly, IT and management consultant
Books
 The Creative Economy
• John Howkins (2001) - economic systems where
value is based on creative qualities rather than
the traditional resources (land, labor, and capital)
• Compared to creative industries, which are
limited to specific sectors, the term is used to
describe creativity throughout a whole economy
• The narrower, culture-based models concentrate
on arts, design and media
• Creative economy occurs wherever individual
creativity becomes the main source of value
UN Creative Economy Report
 A Few Numbers
• The creative economy – audiovisual products, design,
new media, performing arts, publishing and visual arts
– is one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the
world economy
• World trade of creative goods and services totaled US$
624 billion in 2011; more than doubled from 2002 to
2011
• It is also a highly transformative in terms of income
generation, job creation and export earnings
• Between 2002 and 2011, developing-countries
averaged 12.1 % annual growth in exports of creative
goods
 The UN Report Conclusions
• Recognize that the CE generates non-monetary value
that contributes significantly to achieving people-
centred, inclusive and sustainable development
• Understand that investing in the CE makes culture a
driver and enabler of economic, social and
environmental development processes
• Stress the fact that the CE helps reveal opportunities
through mapping local assets of the creative economy.
• It pays off to invest in local capacity-building to
empower creators and cultural entrepreneurs,
government officials and private sector companies.
UNESCO Creative Cities
 My British Experience
• Tech City, Reading Thames Valey Project, Creative Hubs

• Fabrica: 'an educational institution, research workshop and

studio with a desire to positively impact upon social and
cultural change‘
• Institute of Making: 'a cross-disciplinary research club for
those interested in the made world’
• Bethnal Green Ventures: 'is an accelerator program for
people who want to change the world using technology'
• Watershed: 'is a cross-artform venue and producer -
sharing, developing and showcasing exemplary cultural
ideas and talent‘
• Repair Café: ‘is a global network of free meeting places
and they’re all about repairing things: together'
 The Creative Society
• There’s a growing need to change everything:
– Institutions (democracy, market, corporations,
universities…)
– Culture (values, e.g. harmonious instead of
disharmonious, cooperation vs. competition)
– Leadership (win-win, creativity, multiculturality)
– Infrastructure (crowdsourcing, crowdfunding,
bitcoin, social networks, cloud…)
 Change in Institutions
• The corporation as we know it, which is now 120 years
old, is not likely to survive the next 25 years. Legally and
financially yes, but not structurally and economically.
Peter Drucker

• Banking is necesary but banks are not!

Tom Peters
 Why Culture?
We cannot solve our problems with the same
thinking we used when we created them
Albert Einstein

FIVE MONKEYS
 Sorce of Competitive Advantage

• Small and imature: Resource Management

(money, raw material, plant&equipment,
people, knowledge…)
• More mature: Process Management (ISO
standards, ERP, best practices…)
• Sophisticated: Organizational Culture
(leadership, creativity, communication,
conflict management, teamwork…)
 Creative = Different
• Workers evaluate their bosses
• Reversed pyramid
• Strategy by consensus
• Organizations based not on fear but on harmony
• No titles, ranks or positions
• Employees can say “No”
• Each person “creates” his workplace
• Self-formed (organic) teams
• Innovation: 99% technology, 1% organization
 Internet = CE Paradigm
• Endless Creativity
• Full Adaptability
• Inspirational Environment
– Ideas compete on equal footing
– Innovators&hackers are heroes
– The tasks are chosen, not administred
– Authority does not depend on position
– Hierarchies are natural, not imposed
– Teams are self-organized
– Leaders serve
– Resources are attracted by idea quality, not by budget
 New Values in Hiring…

Old paradigm  New paradigm

FORMAL EDUCATION PASSION
DILLIGENCE CREATIVITY
OBEDIENCE INITIATIVE
INITIATIVE FORMAL EDUCATION
CREATIVITY DILLIGENCE
PASSION OBEDIENCE
 The Future is Here
• Googleplex: You have access to everything except what you cannot
have access to
• W. L. Gore – no hierarchy, no organizational charts, no titles or rank
• Butan – success is measured not by the GDP (Gross Domestic
Product) but by the GDH (Gross Domestic Happiness
• Firm Yell goal – Yearly increase of employee satisfaction by 20%
• Grameen Bank – Societal Company – dividends are reinvested in
socially relevant projects (Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus)
• 3M – 15% of employee time is devoted to development of new ideas
• In USA 60% of CEOs believe that the main sources of innovation are
not scientists, consultants and universities, but the company’s own
employees
• Crowdsourcing, Crowdfunding
• Live-Work-Play Revolution
 Personal Examples

• SMS Parking
• Rimac Concept Car
• Tetsuya Kaida
• Split Ultra Festival
• Teddy the Guardian
• Startup Croatia 2014
 Croatia 2020 = Creative Economy
• An island for Bill Gates
• Former military outposts along the Adriatic = campuses
• Croatian Diaspora: strategic partner
• European partners from the Far East (China)
• Organic food from the minefields
• Knowledge islands network
• Cruisers – floating universities
• Lifestyle tourism
• Summer software camps
Thanks for Your
Attention!

www.velimirsrica.com

vsrica@efzg.hr

velimir@velimirsrica.com