What Does the 'Creativity Crisis' Mean for Innovation? Newsweek reported that our country is facing a creativity crisis. What does it mean for the future of entrepreneurship in America and what can we do about it now?

By Jeff Wuorio

This story originally appeared on Business on Main

Newsweek

Creativity would seem to be at the heart of entrepreneurship and innovation. But does a reported decline in the creativity of young people carry implications for the startup community?

A recent Newsweek article titled "The Creativity Crisis" reported that creativity among children -- measured by a 90-minute test -- has been declining since 1980. "The potential consequences are sweeping," the story reported. "The necessity of human ingenuity is undisputed. A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 "leadership competency' of the future."

This troubling news might naturally lead to concerns about declining creativity's impact on entrepreneurship and business startups. But a sampling of entrepreneurial authorities suggests there's little fallout related to this particular metric, given that a variety of other factors also contribute to innovation.

The creativity equation
"Is [creativity] part of the equation? Yes, it is," says Charles Hofer, a professor at Kennesaw State University's Coles College of Business. "But I don't think it's particularly crucial to entrepreneurship."

For one thing, the concept of creativity doesn't exist in a vacuum when it comes to starting and nurturing a new business. That's as much a matter of following through as it is cooking up one brainstorm after the other.

"There's no shortage of creative ideas in a given day," says Gregg Fairbrothers, a founding director of Dartmouth College's Entrepreneurial Network. "But it's doing all the hard work to execute the idea that really matters."

Hofer takes the issue of execution a step further by citing research indicating that some great companies didn't specifically derive from an initial burst of insight or creativity.

"Less than 20 percent of them started with an idea other than the one that made them great," he says. "It was only when they were up and running did they discover that "aha' moment."

Learning creativity through experience
Creativity also shouldn't override the value of experience in identifying and carrying through an idea for an actual working business. And, adds Hofer, experience can come in a variety of forms.

"You can leverage years of experience working in business development, just so long as the experience is relevant," he says. "Experience can also mean a kid with 10 years of experience working with a computer or the Internet."

Others note that the very nature of being an entrepreneur mandates a different level of creativity and resourcefulness not necessarily shared by larger businesses. As Angelo Mastrangelo, an adjunct assistant professor of management at Binghamton University, points out, larger companies don't have to be excessively creative to grow.

"Small companies have always been the innovators," he says. "If you're big, where's the incentive to change? They have no skin in the game." In other words, entrepreneurship by its very nature demands creative thinking on the fly. But is creativity something that can be learned through experience?

David Greenberg, founder of Parliament Tutors, a New York City-based tutoring and test prep company, thinks so. He notes that a challenging economy has not only funneled people into entrepreneurial roles, it's also encouraged fresh thinking among many who may have never thought of themselves as particularly innovative.

"Today, adversity is mostly affecting recent college grads. When I graduated college in 2009 with an economics degree from NYU, like many of my counterparts, I was unable to secure a job," says Greenberg. "When companies stopped hiring, many of their potential employees -- including myself -- were forced to consider alternatives. Adversity creates flexibility, and that flexibility fosters creativity."

The standardization of innovation
However, others say there are occasional but real signs of a lack of genuinely creative ideas -- although that may be as much an issue of securing funding as it is possessing an innate sense of innovation.

"An entire generation of entrepreneurs has been rewarded for trying to jump on the buzzword bandwagon and then through the venture capital hoops," says Stever Robbins, an adjunct lecturer at Babson College. "More and more, I hear entrepreneurs going to the same VC-run boot camps to learn "the way entrepreneurship works.' Standardizing by its very nature is designed to drive out deviation. And what is creativity, but deviation from the norm?"

Even if young children are experiencing a decline in creative juices, entrepreneurial experts note that it's always possible to regain creative mojo later in life -- ideally, through instruction where would-be entrepreneurs learn by actually experiencing the challenge of confronting a problem and sorting through options to address it.

"Creativity can very much be learned -- primarily in ours and other programs, through experiential learning," says Dartmouth's Fairbrothers. "But it's important not to overvalue that singular creative moment."

Jeff Wuorio is a veteran freelance writer and author based in southern Maine. He writes about small-business management, marketing and technology issues.

Editor's Pick

Related Topics

Business News

Apple Moves to Sever Ties With Goldman Sachs — Here's What That Means for Apple Card and Savings Holders

The end may be near for one of the most prominent alliances between a technology firm and a banking institution.

Business News

Mark Cuban Is Reportedly Selling the Dallas Mavericks to Another Billionaire

Cuban purchased a majority stake in the NBA team in 2000 for $285 million.

Business News

Mac Without Cheese? Kraft's Newest Product Is Going Vegan

Kraft is releasing a plant-based version of its iconic Mac & Cheese called "NotMac&Cheese."

Business News

This Influencer Has Nearly 150,000 Instagram Followers and Makes Over $10,000 a Month. There's Just One Catch—She's Not Real.

Aitana López has over 149,000 Instagram followers and brands love her. Is she the future of social media marketing?

Business Plans

She Wrote An 'Escape Plan' to Quit Her Job and Move to an Island. Now She's There Generating Nearly $300,000 A Year

"My detailed, step-by-step plan on how I would quit my job and move to a Caribbean island."

Marketing

5 Scrappy Ways to Create Quick Marketing Wins

Marketers are under pressure to create both short-term and long-term successes. Here's how you can create quick wins easily alongside your bigger strategy.