Every creative business is about communication and risk and most often about communicating risk to clients, employees and colleagues.
The difference between creative business and other businesses, however, is that, at its essence, risk is emotional, entirely personal and wholly irrational (and perhaps illogical).
If an interior designer needs to focus on the flow of a space and where she places the lighting defines that flow, then when the value of the placement is questioned it becomes a risk she cannot bear. To another interior designer this is not a significant risk at all. Because of this very personal and specific perception of risk, it is virtually impossible to generalize risk as it is other businesses. Then the designer is caught between perception and her reality and all too often compromises.
In the compromise, we find ourselves in a culture of marginalization and commodification. In the wedding space, have a look at the Wedding Wire and Knot merger. The goal is not to highlight the power of the wedding professional but instead marginalize her. The same is the strategy for many other digital enterprises. No judgement there, this is a very smart and reasonable business practice and strategy. We have seen it before with superstores (Target, Walmart, etc.), mass fashion (H&M, Gap/Banana Republic, etc.) and even bookstores (pre-Amazon — Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc. and then, of course, Amazon itself). Eliminate the value of individual risk and force commoditized risk onto consumers and then you control the supply chain.
Make no mistake, if creative businesses do not own the risk that they themselves hold as unacceptable and support other creative businesses in the risk they hold as unacceptable (even if it is not theirs) we are all sunk except at the highest level. It is the true death of luxury. The demise of Henri Bendelis a multi-faceted story but it is rooted in the unwillingness of a culture to support the definition on an icon. This at the same time Michael Kors purchases Versace. No disrespect to Michael Kors but Versace it is not.
Perhaps this is the way of the world and what we can all expect our future to look like. And for those who see the benefits of mass culture and a willingness to reap the rewards of commodification, it will be. However, there will also be another set of drivers, which Seth Godin discussed in his recent post: We are also about community and decisions about what is valuable to those communities to which we choose to belong. This, I believe, will become the very definition of luxury and assessment of personal risk.
So if you are unwilling to define your risk as your own, how is it ever going to be possible to define your community? You will not and you will be marginalized. Period. Instead, allow all those to know what you will and will not tolerate in service of your art and your creative business. And reciprocate in that understanding.
For far too long we have defined risk as a power struggle. Clients want you to compromise you, your art and your creative business beyond what you are willing to accept and, likewise, you want to push clients past where they are comfortable. Those who take the power control the game. Of course, there will always be an element of this struggle as in any situation where an expert is tasked with transformative work for those who do not have the expertise. However, and it is a big however, there has to be a spirit of community — a desire to improve the lives of those in the community with the benefits each bring to the relationship. Simply, we have to respect what matters intrinsically to members of the community to give them permission to do what they do as they most believe they need to be able to do it.
The rest of the discussion of risk matters too. Systemic and project risk from poor client/vendor behavior still matters and needs attention. Most creative businesses still suck and communicating this risk to clients, employees and colleagues alike. It is a work in progress that must continue. However, emotional risk — the unwillingness to compromise (or outsource) your core – must come to the fore in the face of those who seek to minimize, or worse, ignore its value as anything other than an idiosyncrasy. If not, we erode the very power of art and its inherent ability to change the world. A day I, for one, never wish to see come to pass.
