The future of the Dutch creative industries

The impact of the credit crunch on the Dutch creative industries has many faces. Next to cost cutting and bad results of (media) companies, Dutch newspapers are asking the government to invest in newspapers to survive. Ruud Hendriks gave his unsalted opinion on this topic during the symposium 'Creativity means business'; don't invest in companies which are in trouble because of mismanagement. Walter Amerika, another speaker of this symposium showed some results of a research on the creative industry. The industry is suffering from not enough financial injections. This situation can become even more problematic because the Dutch government has given a warning to the Dutch creative industries. As long as the industries aren't able to work closely together with other parties within the industries the government will stop facilitating / financing innovation.

I understand that there is a fundamental difference between investments in products, companies and industries. But, it seems like no one is interested to invest in creative products, creative companies and creative industries anymore. Does this mean that the creative industry will disappear? In that situation creative products and services are only generation a cash flow when it is served bundled with other (paid) services from other industries. This means the 'feels like free business model' will survive. This also means that other products and services which are served as part of the bundle, will become more expensive. Nice to have a greater customer experience with the products thanks to the creative products which you are getting for (feels like) free, but how long will the customer pay for this experience? The consumer will look for other ways to get the product for a lower price. Imagine what will happen when the products will be available via social media for free (or a lower price). Other industries of the bundled products and services will start collapsing as well. My advice to business people: look what is happing in the creative industries. Learn from their mistakes because it will be soon happening to your industry as well! Be prepared: It's innovation time!

Funding by friends, fools and founders

Last Saturday I went to a beer & innovation meeting with some Dutch music start-ups. Today I met some venture capitalists. Now I am wondering if and how entrepreneurs find investors and how they communicate with them. I think it's not always easy for entrepreneurs and investors to find and understand each other. Are investors mainly thinking in terms of Return on Investment (ROI)? Are entrepreneurs able to translate their message about passion and ideas into a message about ROI? Or should the investor try to understand the passion of the entrepreneur? I think both. Building a sustainable business is only possible with passion, focus, hard work and full support of your most important relations. Your investor is one of these relations. So, a good relationship between an entrepreneur and the investor is one of the informal terms & conditions for a successfull business. But, is it always necessary to find an investor? Remember: funding can be done by friends, fools and founders.

Suggestion: Goal setting

Happy New Year everybody! The start of a New Year in combination with a short holiday break is a good moment to evaluate and reset your goals. Why should you set goals for yourself? 

1. Well, companies are setting goals as well; sales targets, budgets to control costs, and so on.  

2. Goal setting is one of the main topics which you can find in almost every book, program, magazine or e-book about success and entrepreneurship. The most quoted author on this subject is Napoleon Hill. In his book 'Think and Grow Rich' he wrote: 'Goals are dreams with a deadline'. So, it's about dreaming, thinking through the things you want to achieve and trying to get some focus in your daily activity. 

3. Stay focused. This element of goal setting is becoming more important in our 'attention society'. Every company, brand, band, blogger and 'social networking friend' is asking you to buy, read, listen or connect. But what about your own plans? Can you give your friends, family, business and customers enough attention? You'd better set goals, plan and act to survive the information overload.

Funny enough most of us will plan to write more blogposts, to use Twitter more frequently and to enlarge our social digital network even more. Great when these activities are part of your plan, beware if it doesn't!