Creativity, Imagination Key to Corporate Success
By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
Many local companies have adopted creativity and imagination as key words in management.
To be creative and imaginative, Professor Chin Hyung-joon of Hongik University says entrepreneurs need to take a look at a football formation and a popular local comedy show, rather than benchmark exemplary overseas firms.
"An imaginative and creative organization keeps reflecting on itself, and pursues a balanced transformation in an integrated and active way, " Chin told The Korea Times. "'Total football' and 'Gag Concert' could offer a good example for CEOs searching for creative and imaginative organizations.
"In total football, every player should be aware of his role and the overall tactics to take over any position in the team. And any subsection of Gag Concert competes within itself to improve in the pursuit of appealing to the audience and television viewers, not to be better than other parts."
The French literature professor has delved into symbols in novels for decades. Last year Chin pushed boundaries when he ran a class under the title of "Imagination and Creative Management" at the Hongik business school.
Reviewing contemporary books and trends gave him new enlightenment that changed his viewpoint on business management.
A number of scholars and theorists began to emphasize imagination and visceral aspects of men rather than rationality in business management.
"For example, Rolf Jensen foretells the transformation from information to imagination, and says the future belongs to 'dreaming entrepreneurs' in his bestseller 'Dream Society,'" Chin said.
However, the professor is afraid that theories on being creative are misled here, citing the concept of "blue ocean," which has been prevailing in Korean businesses.
Chin says many CEOs embraced the blue ocean concept to find new niches for honing competitiveness but it's a serious misunderstanding.
"In a nutshell, it's about a paradigm shift to see everything in a bigger picture, in a totally new perspective. Actually the blue ocean theory urges us to be free even from the aspiration of being competitive," Chin said.
The same is applied to adopting the concept of imagination and creativeness in South Korea. That goal will not be achieved through mocking successful examples outside Korea, according to the professor.
"Here, imagination is taken as the latest trend in the business world and most try to benchmark overseas exemplars. It simply won't get us anywhere, because we will end up following other's trails," he said.
Imagination, in its authentic meaning, is something more rebellious that could upset the current Westernized paradigm. This means a real imaginative society will support its members, eager to create a new paradigm themselves, so they can plunge into businesses and spearhead accompanying changes.
To lead new standards, it takes a globalized stance to grasp generalized viewpoints, but that doesn't necessarily mean Korea should abandon what belongs to the country.
Chin says Korea needs to take a serious look at itself to find out what it lacks in becoming an imaginative society, because, contrary to what most people believe, creativeness doesn't come out of nothing.
"The recent trend of globalization created the new variation of 'glocalization.' Under this new concept, globalization doesn't lead to uniformity but contributes to giving more vividness to local communities," he said.
"Such an organic thinking, which can link the world to us, is necessary. Finding out what we need most and what we lack most will be the baby steps to creativity."
But the search needs more review right now because the nation might have already made more than it had thought, in a hopeful sign that Chin sensed at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
"Look at Kim Yu-na and other young gold medal winners in speed skating. They overcame what we have long been regarded as falling behind in, and now stand tall in the world," he said.