In the global economy, innovation and creativity are growing increasingly important. According to the American economist Richard Florida, the biggest challenge for countries and regions in fact lies in attracting and retaining creative and innovative individuals – and to ensure optimum conditions for promoting creativity. Is Denmark a region or part of a region that encourages creativity? And can we point to any particular creative values as a platform for a ‘Danish’ profile in the global competition?

By Mads Nygaard Folkmann

Innovation and creativity are difficult concepts to pin down. And they can be accordingly difficult to measure. Nevertheless, one can make the attempt in order to ascertain whether one is on the right track. In an analysis based on quantifiable criteria presented in the books The Flight of the Creative Class (2005) and Who’s Your City? (2008), the American economist Richard Florida points out that future economic development will take place in mega-regions, networks of two or more owerhouses such as Milan and Turin or Frankfurt am Main and Stuttgart. According to Richard Florida, Denmark and Scandinavia has a problem in this respect.

Filip Lau, a partner in the consultancy firm ReD Associates with head quarters in Denmark, disagrees. He points out that Scandinavia has certain shared values and a particular cultural background – especially reflected within the field of design – which we should maintain, cultivate and use for branding purposes.

Danish values. The consultancy firm ReD Associates did a project for the City of Copenhagen to identify the values that the city should use to market itself. The conclusion was that under the heading you can have both, the city should demonstrate that apparent contradictions are not necessarily incompatible, for example industry/organic living, career/children, past/future – Copenhagen is a real city, but still, the harbour is clean enough for a swim.

Critical mass 
In an interview in the Danish weekly Mandag Morgen on 10 March 2008, Richard Florida said that Scandinavia might be considered a “world-class centre for the creative economy, but it lacks the critical mass of the mega-region”, where an efficient infrastructure and strong innovative environments ensure optimum development. Hence, Florida recommends that Scandinavia attempt to build links with the large northern European mega-region of Amsterdam, Antwerp and Brussels.

But is that the whole story? Strictly put, Scandinavia does not even constitute a ‘valley’ between the peaks of mega-regions but lies isolated on the outer edges of the periphery. Instead of lamenting this fact, one might ask what Denmark and Scandinavia have to offer in the global economy, or whether Scandinavia even represents a cultural unity where it is meaningful to talk about things Scandinavian.

The welfare state as a value
To Filip Lau, who is based in Hamburg as head of ReD Associates’ German branch, it makes perfect sense to talk about Scandinavian culture and to talk about an approach to product development and innovation based on Scandinavian values.

“Seen from the outside – and especially from a position just south of the Danish border – there is no doubt that ‘Scandinavian’ refers to something unique, which stands out from the Northern European region that I live in,” says Filip Lau.
“Consequently, there are many notions in this region about what this Scandinavian quality is, for example in the value of the welfare state, which provides the setting for a good life.”

Filip Lau points out that Danish/Scandinavian values can be a competitive parameter in the global competition.
“Microsoft’s largest development department outside the USA is in the Danish town of Vedbæk. Why? Because Denmark offers conditions that are attractive to talented people.”

He believes that one of the key factors is the fundamental approach to work, where Denmark has a strong cultural tradition for solving tasks in a collaborative approach and for maintaining a strong focus on the project at hand rather than office politics.
“But a particularly crucial factor is the fact that the welfare state is set up to relieve the labour force of a lot of social concerns, such as childcare. In Denmark, the balance between private and public makes for a good work/life-balance, and that releases a lot of productive energy for the job,” he says.

Scandinavian taste. In order to succeed in the European market, Samsung sought to incorporate Danish design values – simplicity, stylistic clarity and functionalism – in a new series of flat-screen TVs. The kinship with the Danish design tradition was also employed in the subsequent marketing campaign.

Design values
The Scandinavian values are also reflected in the design of specific products. ReD Associates was involved in a large project with the Korean electronics giant Samsung to develop a new series of flat-screen TVs for the European market. Filip Lau explains that Samsung focused on Scandinavian ‘taste’, i.e. a simple, honest and functional design expression.

The idea is that Scandinavian consumers are picky consumers, so-called ‘high-end life-seekers’, whose are so demanding that if a design can make it in, say, the Danish market, it can make it anywhere. The result was a new product line that was exhibited at the Danish Design Centre as an example of the great potential of the Danish design tradition.

Thus, certain intangible factors play a crucial role.
“The Korean designers had tremendous respect for our design tradition, and they were keen to become a part of it,” says Filip Lau.

“As part of the development process, they came to Denmark – naturally in order to exchange ideas but also in order to sense the atmosphere of the place, which can be hard to grasp in the sort of quantitative, financial calculations of creative potential that Richard Florida represents.”

Filip Lau thinks that the magazine Monocle was on to something earlier this year when it placed Copenhagen first in its so-called Quality of Life Index, which includes ‘softer’ factors such as the experience of actually being in a particular place.

Across the mega-region
The idea that it is possible to explore and identify a value platform for working with design, creativity and innovation is certainly not new to Richard Florida and others who embrace his ideas. Charlotta Mellander, research director at the Prosperity Institute of Scandinavia at Jönköping International Business School, which is part of Florida’s scientific network, agrees that there is room for a variety of local strategies such as a strong knowledge and educational profile.

Scandinavia on the periphery? Based on the economist Richard Florida’s mainly quantitative criteria, Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia do not have the geographic position required to become a powerhouse. But we may be able to compensate by virtue of the unique values associated with Scandinavia, thus attracting innovation and creativity. Source: www.whosyourcity.com.

“I would say that regional human capital level can compensate for size to a large extent,” explains Charlotta Mellander.
“In other words, if you can’t develop a mega-region you can compensate by attracting talent and invest in education. However, I very much agree with Richard Florida that size is important. Agglomeration effects have a powerful impact on productivity.”

On the other hand, it is also true that local Danish complacency with our own virtues is not the ticket. With its deliberate choice of a global strategy, ReD Associates is a case in point: Their field of operations and their development potential are not limited to Denmark. Filip Lau recommends that others too embrace their Danish values – in combination with an open and internationally oriented mindset.

Values with future potential
One possible strategy for Denmark is to pursue two different approaches at the same time.

On the one hand, we can continue to draw on our design and social traditions. This is the basis for the common research profile developed by the four design institutions behind the Danish Centre for Design Research. Tradition becomes obsolete unless it is constantly renewed and reinvented without prejudice.

On the other hand, it is crucial to create optimum conditions for growth and the promotion of creativity. That is exactly Florida’s key point and the reason why he emphasises the importance of the mega-region. We ought to take this point seriously and consider how we might attract and retain the brightest and most talented people, even though we are not part of a mega-region. We should strive to build a society that emphasises the three Ts that Florida sees as characterising and encouraging the creative class: talent, technology and tolerance.

Relevant links:
www.creativeclass.com
www.whosyourcity.com
www.redassociates.dk
www.ddc.dk/presse/DDC/Samsung_og_dansk_design
www.prosperityinstitute.se

 

The creative class With his book The Rise of the Creative Class (2002), the American economist Richard Florida sparked a widespread debate about what creativity is, and what fuels it. He coined the term ‘the creative class’ in reference to the individuals who create growth and development in today’s post-industrial society. The creative class goes beyond the classic production and service professions and includes a wide range of professions within such areas as science, product development, education, the experience economy and design. The creative class is not only defined by job type but also by the characteristics that promote the expression of the creative aspect. Richard Florida highlights the three Ts: talent, technology and tolerance. A large talent base and a certain level of technological know-how and innovation are necessary preconditions for creativity to unfold. Similarly, Florida states that an open society that is tolerant to things and ideas that are new and different, alternative lifestyles and immigration is the ideal platform for new developments and innovative thinking.

Mind Design #11, 2008