Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen! My Name is Nils Fuglesang and I am coming from Artlab Copenhagen in Denmark and have been working with how to implement creativity as part of modern business-life by bringing professional artist and professional businesspeople together in new and never tried before teamwork. Thereby we also bring business-life into art and creativity. But before going deeper into this matter I would like take my starting point elsewhere. I would like to tell you an ancient Indian myth: According to this myth, men originally lived side by side with the Gods. Men possessed the same powers, shared the same passions, creativity and the same problems as the Gods. However, this didn´t last in the long run: Men did not take care of their divine powers and possibilities in any way. On the contrary, they always tried selfishly to gain an advantage on the expense of others leading only to mischief and anxiety among the people and sorrow among the Gods. Something had to be done and the Gods held a gathering in order to solve this unbalance and source to so much unhappiness. It was decided to deprive men of their divine powers, but soon a new problem arose: Where to hide the powers so that men would not find them again? One God came forward with idea of hiding the powers in the deepest ocean on the Earth. Not good, said several Gods. Men would be seeking after the powers with unreduced strength and the deepest ocean was by no means scary enough for mankind. Some will succeed in finding the powers and many will be killed in the attempt. So let us hide the powers in the middle of the driest and hottest desert on Earth far away from any water whatsoever. That would discourage peoples’ desire for seeking after the divine powers. That might well be the case, said one of the oldest God, but it will not discourage everyone and then we will be back to square one! A deep silence fell upon the gods. HUREKA, cried one of the youngest Gods suddenly, I know where to hide the powers! This God was known to go his own ways, but always in blend of both old and new ideas. I know a place to hide the powers where no man will dream of looking for them: We will hide the powers inside man himself. And everybody agreed that this was the perfect hiding place. And so it was…Mankind lost its divine powers forever hidden inside himself…or at least for at long time... Since the dawn of industrialization some 150 years ago, machines have been superior to men and the factory owner superior to the employees. For many years, hard work, cheating, nepotism and mediocracy have been sufficient in order do have a decent life in decent surroundings. But not anymore. Like a thief at nighttime globalisation and the international reorganisation have silently crept upon us. What to do and how to survive? In the last 5 years a silent revolution has hit Denmark. 200 000 workplaces have disappeared – vanished into thin air by one scary word: outsourcing. Just three weeks ago it hit Denmark big time when our world famous brand LEGO - the toy factory of all kids - announced complete production outsourcing to Mexico and Czech Republic. The biggest outsourcing in Denmark so far said good-by to thousands of jobs that had lasted in decades. But the goodbyes are going to be replaced with hellos from new business. So we hope… And there is hope to be found. A very new research from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) shows that outsourcing is not a magic mixture. The survey shows that there is no best practice or winning strategy when it comes to which company (with 500 global companies in the survey) will survive - either due to highest level of efficiency, fastest outsourcing rate, best innovation power or creating good and well paid jobs in general. The survey shows, however, that there is a general and strong link between global success and level of education: If you improve and increase the level of competencies in a society as part of a life long learning strategy, you improve this society’s ability to adapt and survive the global agenda anytime. In other words, it is time to quote good old Charles Darwin correctly - and not like he has been quoted for the last 160 years. Darwin did not say: ”Survival is equal with the fittest,” although this was very fitting for the upcoming capitalistic world. He actually said the opposite in his book about The Origin of the Species. He said: ”Survival is not equal with the fittest, but the most sociable adaptable specie”. And that is an entirely different matter, but better later than never. In our days, it fits very well the age of globalisation and innovation. The roles in society are changing all the time. Innovation used to be the responsibility of the companies and institutions racing to meet the needs of the ever-demanding costumers. It was one-way relationship from scientist to user, from market to consumer, from lab to home. In such society the result of the creative process is a new product. Henry Ford and his revolutionary assembly line and philosophy behind it, that enabled the masses to buy a Ford T model, is a giant icon for this era. ”You can have your car in any color you want as long as it is black…” Take it or leave it. That is all history now and the road is undergoing vast change with many directions instead of only one. In the full-blown knowledge society the result of the innovation/creative process is yet another innovative process involving the end-users in the creation of a product. This leaves the innovation process open-ended. For example, BMW in Leipzig customizes every single model according to the wishes of the costumer, but it is still running along an assembly line in order to cut costs - not far from the line Charlie Chaplin used in the film ”Modern times”: The distinction between lab and home is dissolving. In the 21st century the role-model scientists played in the development of economics and society in the 20th century has been taken over by the creativity of man in general. This sudden and global shift of paradigms is the backbone of Artlab, where I come from, and the key to our success in the recent years. 100 years ago work was equal to 99% transpiration (sweat) and 1% inspiration. Today work is equal to 99% inspiration and 1% transpiration. Less is more. The age of industrialization is about to collapse and the age of creative man is here – also in Latvia – however, with a slight delay perhaps due to the outsourcing of many companies from Denmark. The age of Creative man is based on diversity and multiplicity instead of standardization and uniformity that used to be the fame in the era of the industrial society. In Denmark the government has just published its strategy in order to bring Denmark through these times of transition. ‘We should look at Nokia in Finland’ our prime minister said, ‘and use some of their philosophy that enabled them to change an old fashioned rubber boot factory into a modern high-tech mobile phone factory, today responsible for half of the national income in Finland.’ Is that a wise strategy? Maybe, but it is already been done and, in my opinion, it was very much based on traditional industrial standardization and strict rationality. We should also give further tax reductions to the Danes in order to support and stimulate the creativity and private initiative. But the biggest and best of all we shall give massive investment and funding to education, research, new experience economy centers and create master degrees in experience economy and in innovation. With this strategy Denmark should be the world’s leading knowledge society, the leading innovation nation and experience the strongest increase in creative industries and experience economy as a whole. Why do not you copy this strategy straight away? Well. Do not do it, because it is my strong believe that it will not make a genuine change. We are merely going to invest (again!) in frame providing before contents providing, bricks before brains, erecting mausoleums instead of life. We are by far hopelessly behind when it comes to resources and manpower in comparison with the BRIC countries (Brasil, Russia, India, China). Despite our long tradition and high level of education China puts out 260 times more PhDs EVERY year than Denmark can produce in 10 years. One thing is ambition. Another is reality. Just take this example: One could wonder how adaptable or ready the Latvian people really are (and Danes for that matter) for meeting the challenges of global village and all that stuff politicians are going on and on about. Are your people really devoted to the age of innovation, knowledge society and are they prepared for the global competition and agenda? Well, one highly unacademic way of finding this out, is going on the internet. What is today’s agenda in the world and in Latvia? If you google the word SEX you get 689 million international hits and 316 000 local Latvian hits. If you google the word INNOVATION you get 806 million hits international and 93 300 local Latvian hits. In other words, innovation has by far beaten the hell out of sex as being the hottest issue, but only internationally. In Latvia, you keep to the good old sex as being the focus point number one. But do not worry, you are not alone. I did the same survey for Denmark with the same results. It seems to be a mountain between politicians’ ambitions and people across the Baltic Sea. And this short-cut could be handy because both sex and innovation are here to stay. Creativity is the magic keyword. For decades Danish students and scholars have been taught not to cut corners or take the line of least resistance. That is unethical and bad sportsmanship. If you are bad in math you will receive extra classes trying to improve your skill of math, but that will not make you love it or use it. Most people will just reach a mediocre level of knowledge despite long hours of math. And if you are good at drawing or playing music already in primary or secondary school you are most certain of receiving extra hours of math and arithmetic in good intentions to save your soul and secure your future in the knowledge based society. Rational knowledge is still second to none in the education system. A system that teaches you what to think and not how to think! That is a shame and it shows that old habits die hard despite new knowledge and logistics from China and MIT surveys. Size and resources matter. And both Latvia and Denmark suffer greatly of absence of critical mass. Our populations are simply too small, but even ants can fight back and do a difference if they do it wisely. We must learn to release the powers within us and be playful, creative, curious and wondering. We tend to forget that the biggest discoveries or inventions in the world are due to divine coincidence, stupidity, accidents and lustful play. It is only due to mass deception and closely guarded and very creative storytelling that we think that our future ONLY depends on rational serious research deep inside labs, behind stacks of books and high fences. The truth is that creativity and a fearless ”Ready – Fire – Aim” parole instead of the predictable “Ready- Aim-Fire” brought out the cutting edge results in the past. So why not try it for the future – again. The future belongs to those who have the ability to eradicate old knowledge from mind and bring in the new without the slightest remorse or lingering nostalgia. In Artlab, we prove that everyday and we are getting more and more support to that claim. In order to innovate both knowledge and products you must have a good idea, and good ideas only come as a result of a good brainstorm. It takes about 3000 ideas to come up with a handful of projects and 1 success. Most people do not realize this and jump to hasty conclusions with bad innovation as a result. Albert Einstein who had high hopes and dreams of Riga acknowledged both playfulness and creative ‘vast time’ as source and key to future products, thoughts and discoveries. He once said that ‘if at first the idea is not absurd then there is no hope for it!’ And who can be more far out and seemingly absurd than professional, creative artist? Ever since the Danish movie director Lars von Trier and his Dogma brothers came, saw and conquered the world, thereby helping to brand Denmark as a major film nation, again – after 90 years in the desert – CREATIVITY is an ever stronger password. Now it is also ringing outside the centercourt of art. Danish moviemaking – with an annual state support of 20 million lats every year for the last 10 years – was soon followed by a Danish pop group called Aqua. In year 2000, when the government saw and realized that the export revenue just from these 4 youngsters surpassed the world famous Danish bacon export, new strategies came into light. A dynamic duo of Arts&Business began to take shape and form, but still silently outside the center spotlight. Old habits die hard as I said before and so does storytelling with it. We have 15 000 professional artists in Denmark today and due to both filmmaking and popmusic these creative talents have kicked off more than 150 000 jobs today in what we now call the creative industries. These industries as part of the experience economy altogether is on its way in Denmark of being responsible for a increasingly larger piece of Danish national economy every year since 1997. The annual turnover and export revenue from the experience economy in Denmark is today 1½ times bigger than our famous agriculture sector and counts for 16% of our export income. Despite this we still present and pride ourselves as being a nation of agriculture, but this is only due to a long history of heavy agricultural lobbyism and storytelling. It is a pity and very discouraging, but money does not talk that loud when coming from the autonome creative people who have always been regarded as retarded outsiders of society. This explains why united artists are a rare sight and that is very lucky fact for some people in today’s world! But perhaps there will be a new shift of guards soon. Our national water supply, bays and inlets are suffering on the brink of death due to pollution from the farmers and their ever-growing pig farms. Creativity and culture are becoming more and more in focus as a life saver for modern man, modern working life and modern family values. If pork and pollution give men a momentary meal to survive, now creativity and culture give back to modern men their hidden forces with money, health, values and the future that enables them to kick ball in the global soccer match! PriceWaterhouseCoopers, an international consultancy company, has just estimated and anticipated that by 2010 the global creative industry will be responsible for a turnover of 100 billion lats. But how to transform these figures into national strategy and consistent everyday life? Well, it takes Artlab where I come from into the arena. Artlab is part of the Danish Musicians Union and came into existence in 1998 in order to secure survival of the professional artists in Denmark before they were forced to take up ordinary work outside their primary skills. In a global world visibility and profitability become equal with existence and we made courses for artists to improve their knowledge on this fact. Later came the mission on how to enable the professional artist to take active part in society personally and how to be a co-player both in arts and in business life. We have made a variety of courses that aim at interdisciplinary cooperation and teamwork between different artistic skills. In doing so, we have obtained magic results and have brought new sense of fellowship amongst the creative circles. Former competitors became colleagues, and prejudice, borders and bad excuses died out. We practice a dogmatic business approach on market conditions in order to visualize the artist and his unique skills in the artistic field – and for some who want more – also outside the artistic field. If we can teach the artist to verbalize the unique process of creating art, then he will have a tool that is very valuable to business life and to future brainstormings that could lead to genuine innovation – the gold of tomorrow. Due to heavy global competition and lack of academic manpower, many knowledge based industries have taken the artists inside their research centers in the hunt for future products. This has become an increasing opportunity for artists in Denmark and to big surprise for many artists also a source of renewal of their own creativity. They are met in the factories and in research departments with a genuine interest for creativity – eye to eye and brain to brain. To big surprise for many people working in heavy knowledge based companies, they suddenly find themselves more creative in teaming up with professional artists. As a result surprising results jump swiftly into action. This happens because artists are intuitive, with no overload of factual knowledge and therefore cut corners and follow the line of least resistance. We have observed that artists reignite the hidden creative forces within knowledge workers and the creativity is being reborn after have been lost for so many years due to education and fear of failure. Creativity is now resource number one. It is a new cutting edge and makes a difference to the benefit of society, business and mental balance. Fail Fast Forward is now becoming a funny part of working life and a pre-condition for true innovation. A new and creative agenda is dawning by the mere fact that people realize that imagination and innovation are chips of the same block. Creativity is here to stay. In Artlab, we are still trying to push the borders in order to find a limit to artistic influence, but so far without luck. In the last 6 years we have educated more than 1 600 professional artists and sent about 100 to more than 140 different companies. So far all with very successful results. After attending training courses at Artlab, many artists make their own private companies and make big business on delivering specific outputs to specific branches on a regular basis. These art&business companies are expanding by the numbers because the demand for innovation in today’s business world is never ending. The main challenge is how to prepare your employees to cope with all changes at the same time improving company’s competencies, market position and uniqueness. We have seen actors, movie directors and opera singers delivering training sessions to our national army, transportation system, police force or to schoolteachers who have panic fears of meeting the parents of the children. Actors move in to help and improve the communication between the boss and workers by using and teaching simple acting skills. Designers and painters help the employees with rearranging the interior of a factory in order to stimulate a creative environment. Movie makers visualize background and form new scenarios for new products and thereby add fire in any group of scientists who has been appointed to develop a new product or invention. Management groups learn how to hang loose and be coaches instead of kings. The alpha business Boss will soon be totally extinct like the Tyrannosaurus Rex who also had problems with being sociable adaptable specie at times, according to Charles Darwin theories. Personal motivation and personal ownership to the different but essential phases of innovation are key issues in everyday working life. And artists can easily challenge daily routines with creative why’s and how’s in order to solve vital tasks. The small word ‘why’ is often the source to many changes because the answer in most cases is: ‘Because that is how we have always done it!’ This is fatal answer if you want to be a part of the global society and competition. Artists are often seen as the little boy in the tale of the Emperor’s clothes (he has got no clothes on!). And best of all: All this interference from artists helps bringing creativity into all corners of society and bring out the hidden forces inside people in general with mutual respect disregarding level of education, background, color or status. Only this can make a difference both local and global. This brings generosity – the end result of creativity – into daily life and makes future worthwhile to obtain. We need generosity badly and promptly and without further delay. Remember that every big adventure or journey starts with just ONE SMALL FIRST STEP!!! No step, no adventure. But beware – creativity can be a life long addiction! May the Gods be with YOU! | 
