Your left brain is becoming obsolete

Sure, you can crunch numbers, calculate return on investment, complete a risk analysis or whip up a balance sheet with the best of them ... but these skills won't help you create what your customers and clients really want and need in the future.

That was the key message Dr. Larry Thompson, president of Sarasota's Ringling College of Art and Design, told CEOs at the Gulf Coast CEO Forum's Nov. 14 meeting.

Citing research from the book “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future,” by Daniel Pink, Thompson said the increasing trends of abundance, Asia and automation threaten America's traditional way of doing business. The companies who will survive in a global market are those who can enact creativity (right-brain thinking) to find new solutions and products to drive demand. “The M.F.A. is the new M.B.A.,” Thompson says.

Typically, Thompson says, business has rewarded left-brain thinking, which involves analytics, logic and linear thinking. Things like achieving greater efficiencies fall into this category. Problem is, anything that can be done by following directions also means anyone can do it. Thus with increased globalization, tasks that are easily replicated or outsourced should be. Companies should instead focus on building competitive advantage in another way: using creativity to set services and products apart.

Thompson advocates that companies need to prize right-brain thinking, the kind that considers the human element, and the emotional aspect of business. He gives examples of Target using design to create demand over Wal-Mart's bottom-barrel prices. Or Starbucks creating an inviting environment for customers that makes their $4 cup of coffee so appealing. Or Apple, which has built its success from its motto: “think differently.” Apple isn't a tech company, Thompson argues. It's a design company. “The question is, how do you make it so your customer wants to come back for more and more?” he says.

Locally, Ringling College has formed a “Collaboratory,” in which Ringling students work with area companies to take creative approaches to their businesses. In one such partnership, Thompson says Ringling students worked with cup maker Tervis Tumbler to improve its operations. “It's kind of like open-heart surgery,” Thompson says of the process.

To hear Thompson briefly explain five ways to become more creative in your business, watch the video below.