Page 12 - Sphere No.8 (Mar 2003)

and earning approximately US$123
billion a year. Most importantly, he said,
creative industries are growing at a rate
of 9% annually, while other industries
feel the pinch.
“Creativity is about risk-taking,
about spotting the next trend,” Sir James
added.
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Home
Affairs, Dr Patrick Ho, said Hong
Kong, with its melting pot of cultures,
was a “perfect testing ground” for
creative industries: “We have the
platform and we have the critical mass,”
he said.
With Hong Kong and the Pearl
River delta together ranking among
the world’s top 20 economies, he saw
enormous potential for collaboration.
“We’re confident that, like China’s
creative invention of gunpowder, this
region will go with a bang!”
Chris Hamnett, a Professor of
Human Geography at King’s College
London, agreed that Hong Kong was
ideally placed to capitalise on a post-
industrial economic base to embrace
creative industry. Manufacturing’s
contribution to the economy had
shrunk dramatically from 50% in 1980
to less than 10% today, he noted.
“We’re in the era of late-capitalism.
Creativity is critical for productive
strategy. People don’t buy a car; they
buy a brand, an image, a lifestyle. It’s a
triumph of style.”
In recent years, London has
reinvented itself as the “coolest city on
the planet,” but this didn’t happen by
accident. Graham Hitchen, head of
Creative Industries at the London
Development Agency (LDA), said
decisive political leadership had been
key.The LDA was specifically established
in 2002 to spearhead the city’s “culture-
led regeneration,” starting from the
ground up by providing creative in-
dustries with affordable rents and
business support.
Sir Michael Bichard, rector of The
London Institute, said the key to
creativity lay in education. Art colleges
not only produce fine artists but also
designers, filmmakers, pop groups,
writers and the entire range of creative
talent that is energising and re-inventing
London’s economy. After graduating,
these young people continued to need
support in the form of advice, capital
and management skills. The business
community therefore needed to be much
closer to the creative community, he said.
CREATING W EALTH
So how can creativity contribute to the
hard-nosed business world?
Hutchison Whampoa Group Man-
aging Director Canning Fok took the
podium to make the corporate case.
Ever realistic, Mr Fok was quick to
pre-empt the sceptics.
“Creativity doesn’t always make
money.There are a lot of poor artists in
this world,” he said.
“So what’s so creative about bus-
iness?” Mr Fok continued. “Isn’t it just
about buying low and selling higher?
Maximising profit? Bargain-hunting?
Turning inefficient companies into
efficient ones?”
Not entirely, Mr Fok said. In fact,
creativity contributes in many ways to
corporate growth, shareholder value
C O M M U N I T Y
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and the bottom line.
“Business must be creative, and
Hutchison especially encourages creat-
ivity because that’s what got us where
we are.”
He went on to explain the Chinese
phrase for business: Sang yee . “Sang
means lively; yee means ideas. Our
word for business literally means
‘lively ideas’. It means flexibility to
adapt to a changing world. Doing things
differently. Thinking out of the box. In
short, being creative.”
Mr Fok pointed out the famous
shopping centre at Whampoa Gardens,
which is built in the shape of a ship and
has become a Hong Kong landmark.The
idea was obviously “out of the box” but
Li Ka-shing immediately saw the po-
tential, gave his approval, and the build-
ing’s uniqueness put Hutchison’s first resi-
dential “Garden City” on the map.
“The ship caused a sensation.
Everyone heard about it. It was in
magazines and newspapers outside of
Hong Kong,” Mr Fok said. “Whampoa
Gardens became so popular the invest-
ment paid back in two years.”
Mr Li has consistently demonstrated
a taste for backing creative enterprises.
Creativity certainly counted at
Whampoa Gourmet Place, the
“hawker” centre that rescued a tradition
of street-stall dining in Hong Kong.
“As Hong Kong modernised,” Mr
Fok recalled, “hygiene regulations put
hawkers out of business. When we
looked at opening a food court we could
have chosen familiar brands. But we
thought out of the fast-food takeaway
box. We got a famous food critic to
invite legendary hawkers to set up in
business.The hawkers got back to work,
the public loves it, and the food court
makes money!”
Branding is yet another example of
how Hutchison works with creative
talent to impact markets.
“When we first moved into telecoms
in the UK, a lot of people laughed at our
brand-name, ‘Orange’. I must admit, I
also nearly fell off my chair when our
creative people suggested the name! But
we went with it and the market soon
realised that our brand was no lemon.
Orange became the fastest-growing
mobile phone operator in the UK. It also
won an advertising industry award for
‘capturing consumers’ imaginations’.”
Orange, of course, sold for a
handsome profit to fund Hutchison’s
boldest step yet in telecoms – the third-
generation system recently launched