My boss was the first person I remember who said about 2 years ago, 'ah, blogs - we should pay attention.' 12 months ago he gave me and my colleagues a copy of Daniel Pink's "A Whole New Mind" 12 months on Pink's words are starting to bear even more fruit.
Pink's now well-read book can be summed up in two sentences, thus. In this age of automation, cheaper labour in Asia, and abundance; the winners in business in the 21st century will be the right-brainers: the empathisers, the artists and the story-tellers. Conceptual thinking will defeat linear thinking.
Nintendo v Sony v Microsoft is my favourite latest case study. I worked with Nintendo during the N64/GameCube era and the atmosphere was very different. At the time, a games producer from one of the large all-format software publishers showed me a demo of a sports game with such pride, because the grass blades on the pitch flickered that much more than version 3. 'Who gives a shit?" I suggested politely, "what does that do for the game?" I interpreted his private thoughts as 'this guy just doesn't get it.'
The video games industry went nuclear when Sony's Playstation brand granted social acceptability to the sector. The figures speak for themselves. But Nintendo have been entertaining people for 100 years. Playing cards, games, dabbling in a taxi company, eventually moving into video games in the 1970s - they are a compelling and fascinating example of a Japanese creative company. Nintendo have never needed to remind themselves to get back on track by chanting glibly 'content is king.' It's in their blood - and it's their ability to see the bigger picture in gaming - to symphonise to use Mr Pink's terminology - which is bringing them financial success now.
Games are about having fun. Wii meets that basic human need for all ages - without getting into a technocrat arms race. It's conceptual. It's right-brained. It's profitable and they can't knock them out quickly enough.
The technocrats have been given a bloody nose, and they won't be the last.
generally creative people have to run their ideas by left brain people to detirmine if they see the light of day. oddly this is not true the other way round. image the change in our environment if rational/organised types had to pass all their ideas through right brained...did you hear the story about the engineering firm who wanted to spend 10 odd million on making the lifts in a building 10 seconds faster as everyone complained about how slow they were. along came a creative thinker and spent 10k on installing full length mirrors on all the floors. now the people spent the time checking themselves and each other out and forgot about the wait.
Posted by: giles rhys jones | March 04, 2007 at 07:52 AM
Hi Jim, Thanks for passing by at Planning in Thailand blog.
How's life in HK? I have been there 3-4 times, i really love bay area.
Posted by: oakie | March 04, 2007 at 11:55 AM