Don't get me wrong here - I admire people with creative talents - and in the eighties there was a true explosion of creativity, which really made a difference to consumer experiences, and business successes, with clever branding, marketing and unique creative ideas and executions.
But like anything there is a point when saturation sets in true revolution is difficult to achieve. It is then that you set forward on a path on minor changes to achieve enhancements and this is, just like Darwin monitored with his Finches - evolution.
Design now, in my view is more a process of evolution with less radical steps of creativity, where the key to success is in the relationship with the client, the understanding of the goals, the challenges and the objections they will get. It's about being rapid to respond, estimating and charging what you say you will, and being less revolution and more evolution.
My job as CEO of Sohnar is sometimes an enlightening experience - coming from client side marketing, having worked in the senior ranks of the mega businesses (Head of Marketing for Royal Bank of Scotland and Head of Electronic Marketing for Forte Hotels) I understand innately what it is that needs to be delivered. You see when you have a monolith engine as a client they don't necessarily want the best creative approach, they mostly want the predictable response rate, the well managed costs, and the clear transparency on your processes - that's how they run their businesses and that's what they expect and admire in their suppliers. Shocking reality I know.
Yesterday I met the MD of a large Creative agency - and I knew instantly that this man knew the figures on his business - he wanted to know who the most profitable person in the business was - he wanted controls, he wanted to make sure that he knew where his business was coming from and which clients were his best source of revenue - he didn't want to know about who did the most creative job, he didn't want to tell us what great creative ideas they came up with. It was very clear he understood where the revenues came from, that 50% of their growth was from new business (they had repeat business of course!) So can you imagine my surprise when he told me he was from client side marketing having like myself been the Head of Marketing for a very large blue chip - nope not in the least bit surprised - it simply cemented my thinking all along - Successful design businesses are no different to any other business - they are successful because of a cumulative approach at every facet to good business practices. Marketing, sales, project management, cost capture; operational transparency, robust processes, and business focused accounting practices (billing in advance). Simple and not surprising don't you think?!