Business Creatives - The new corporate lynchpins

Does the corporate world need another job function? We already have the lofty job titles inflated by the “LinkedIn effect” where Sales becomes Global Sales Team Leader & Business Development Manager / Lead Gen Expert or HR becomes Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist. And that’s when it’s not just plain ridiculous.

But a Business Creative (BC) is a world changer. They deserve some recognition and a better definition.

Changing the world

At Google, a BC that would come up with a change impacting the bottom line even as little as 0.01% is generating more than five million dollars in additional revenues. It is applicable to any multi-billion company with a scalable business model. 

A famous example of a BC at work is the increase in toothpaste sales by 40% simply by suggesting to make the hole bigger. No complex projects and next to zero costs. Mission accomplished.

The rare bird

So, what is a Business Creative? Well, let’s start with what it is not:

Not an entrepreneur

Although the Business Creative leans towards this role, the scope of responsibilities required to deal with a solo leader career is not in his character. The potential growth opportunities would be somewhat overwhelming for the BC where the entrepreneur would focus on going fast forward to make the business a viable one. 

Not a CEO

In the same vein as the entrepreneur, but with an established structure. The BC could fake that position but a sort of paralysis would occur when so many venues of improvement available in this role. The BC is a CEO’s best asset though. An invaluable sparring partner to build a new business model from scratch. The spark to kickstart the day.

Not a CMO

The CMO and the BC have not so much in common. Any HR manager trying to figure out where to put a BC in a standard organisational chart would think first of the Marketing department. But that would be a mistake as they would be unable to distance themselves from the traditional perspectives. There would be too many limitations for Business Creatives, often resulting in only having access to one side of the organisation. No chances to deep dive into operation processes or, even worse, solely focusing on the company’s industry only.

Not an Art Director nor a Copywriter

In a creative agency, the tandem Art Director/Copywriter has been the traditional set-up for decades now. A BC has a different mission. Whereas the creatives will create on request, based on a brief coming from the customer (with a reinterpretation from the agency’s strategy department), the BC will create in a boundless environment (even regulatory might not be an obstacle for the best BCs). The creative process though has some similarities: find what worked well in another field and recreate the recipe with different ingredients.

Not a consultant

The BC has to belong to the organisation. Although the BC and consultant often start their thinking process with the analysis of a current “pain” in the company, a BC could solve it beyond the scope of a boxed improvement.

Not an expert

The BC craves the expert’s companionship. They will go for coffee, have long conversations in the cozy company pods or outside of work during shared activities. But the BC cannot hold all the laser focus knowledge and close-up views that the expert possesses. The BC also needs several sources of inspiration that the expert does not necessarily require.

Not a career coach

The BC is a people person. A skilled relationship maker. What the career coach will bring to one individual, the BC will bring to a whole organisation (and might inadvertently help people as well). On the other hand, a career coach (or life coach depending on your personal situation) would make a prime BC convert if he/she can think at a meta level.

So what is the profile of this person with a maybe-tremendous-value?

That’s would be the intricate part for any recruiter. Some traits are pretty common amongst BCs though:

• Ultra optimistic with a vibrant aura
• Well travelled for work or for fun
• Always curious
• Good listener, always waiting for that “last drop of coffee” when someone is answering one of his questions
• An unorthodox career path: delivery boy, luxury hotel concierge, team leader, pro-athlete, office manager are star BCs in the making.

A BC is continuously screening the news. Not just the financial pages (which are the lion’s share) but everything. That is the most challenging part of the job. There is so much to digest and finite time, it's never quite over ’til the BC decides he is done. However, this is where mental connections are made and the magic happens.

In his Concepting book, Jan Rijkenberg makes a description of what is close to Business Creatives. He writes about the ten steps to building the right environment for them. Step 5 is probably the most representative of what a BC requires: “Allocate the team a generous budget and give them carte blanche to it. Do not be surprised, for example, if they suddenly fly off to Barcelona, Los Angeles or Seattle for inspiration. Also do not be surprised by the number of magazines they subscribe to, or the pile of literature they buy or the time they spend surfing the internet. Judge them only by the concepts they come up with, not by how they come up with them. ” and concludes that you need somewhere around nine months to produce a selection of five to ten testable concepts.

All this is worth it, as very good concepts are rare gems. So are great Business Creatives.