Institution and Governmental Support

Our great academic institutions have come under attack in recent years. Often accused of being biased, unethical, and producing inferior academic standards, our universities are a tremendous resource for community and state initiatives. Those areas where the creative economy is strong, research universities and community colleges are actively involved. Our academic institutions create wealth and a sense of place. Many state universities and community colleges have seen the need and have responded with unique specialized programs, not just in the U.S. but globally. The same can be said of local, state, and national governmental agencies, who have supported the creative economy with programs and funding. The most successful creative economies happen when a group of state holders come together to collaborate and network to build a unique disruptive initiative. There are small disruptors who are building disruptive communities and companies globally. This chapter explores institution governmental support.

Developing the Disruptors

Disruptive leaders possess a deep understanding of the nonobvious. Developing solutions with a heightened creativity, solving problems and addressing risks, finding the right tradeoffs, and recognizing the wicked opportunities in the wicked problems, disruptive leaders scan the environment, identify trends, and envision the future. Often, this is done by finding superior solutions, products, and services. However, this is done with a strategic process and plan. In our current business environment, right when we get comfortable, we find ourselves having to adjust to a major change that requires us to shift time, energy, and resources to solve a problem or stay ahead of the market, or change our market. Every change that we encounter creates winners and losers. If we are disruptive in our leadership, these changes can bring about fabulous innovation and create new technologies that benefit humankind. Building a disruptive organization is the best way to thrive. This chapter explores developing the disruptors.

The Turbulence of Our Times

We are full swing into the era of turbulence, and at this time, our creativity is more important than ever. We have heard many scholars and business leaders ask the question, “Can we invent and innovate effectively to keep up with the fast changes happening around us?” This chapter explores how to develop a heightened creativity and help weak economic areas by using technology, the arts, and our unique cultures to ignite economic development. Attracting tourism; young, talented people; and entrepreneurs to rural and urban cores is essential to thrive in turbulent times. In times of turbulence, organizations often navigate on autopilot, failing to see unintended circumstances and implications. However, every time a decision is made there is a trade-off. A true understanding of the trade-off may determine success or failure. Failure could mean very high cost either monetarily or the organizational future in the marketplace.

International Programs and Possibilities

Leaders are responsible for allocating and managing resources for agility and absorption. The orange world may mean short-term careers, but short-term projects, with key leaders as the core of the organization who remain for long periods. In the blue world are global influencers. Capitalism is leading growth, and employees have everything they need to develop innovation, health insurance, and technology. In this blue world, leading and seeing people is the most important asset. The corporation will develop corporate cultures that empower the workforce and quality of life for employees. The green companies develop a powerful and influential social conscience and sense of responsibility. Often consumers will demand this by lobbying for a change in corporate behavior. Green companies develop strong controls over their supplier networks and demand ethical practice from all vendors in their supply chains. With the world becoming more complex and turbulent, now more than ever we must look at how we frame and reframe our organizations to fit the future. This chapter explores international programs and possibilities.

Emerging State Programs

When performing research for this book it was hard to pick the states to focus on. The following states opened the door to talk about their successes and failures. This chapter is about highlighting several states and position in the creative economy, what projects they are focusing on and their plans for the future. The author hopes that disruptive leaders will see the need and step up to fulfill the role of championing the creative economy in their states.

Cultural Districts

Basing the creative economy on a community's history and culture makes it unique. In addition, the community will have more buy in and participate in the changes. Often, disruptive leaders come from the fringes of our communities, seeing the uniqueness when others only want the status quo or are embroiled in just trying to make their business work. Often, local governments do not see the potential of thinking out of the box and need a push to go in a different direction. In larger communities, often there are multiple cultures living in their own ethnic areas. The need to create cultural districts to support the development of the unique creative economies of each district is a catalyst to igniting the creative economy. Capitalizing on cultural mapping, the history of a region, and getting support from local, state, and national governments can mean success or failure. This chapter explores cultural districts.

The Future

As we learned in Chapter 10, we are in a new world of doing business. Now that we have transcended into the fifth industrial revolution and the third stage of AI, we are at a crossroads with our own humanity. Our soul and creativity are man's alone. We are the captains of how we protect and guide humanity. This chapter goes into the wonderful technology that we are on the forefront of bringing into fruition. However, it is also a warning and a message to remember what is most important to our species. We have the potential to create a new enlightenment.

Branding and Funding

Branding is important in building the creative economy. Branding is the story of your history, values, beliefs, and vision. Branding is not based on whims, but on careful well thought out ideas, and the most powerful branding comes from disruptive thinking. The power of changing the thought process to using new methodologies and modern ideas cannot be underestimated. Creative cultural branding centers on branding that ignites the creative economy in your specific unique area. It is important to not only get early stage capital when building the creative economy, but all the help you can receive through grants. Government agencies and foundations can give disruptive leaders a start in developing the creative businesses to thrive in our modern times. Federal funding for the creative economy initiative can complement local and foundation funding. Typically, federal funding is for capital investment, not for planning or ideation. Understanding funding options and requirements is important. This chapter explores branding and funding.

Cluster Group Development

Cluster groups are those organizations or individuals who have similar businesses and relationships. Clusters usually form naturally and organically due to the nature of the economic activity or by disruptive leaders who see an opportunity. Regional and local economies grow and decline based on their ability to specialize in high-value industries and then evolve that specialization over time. Cluster groups aim to embrace advantages of productive, innovative, and creative mechanisms by sharing knowledge, infrastructure, resources, and suppliers. Successful cluster initiatives begin with a combination of data and analysis to identify and prioritize cluster opportunities in service of broader economic development goals. Local and regional leaders identify and prioritize potential cluster group opportunities from geographically proximate organizations in a certain field. Interdependence is complex, and it is important to have the understanding of how to design a cluster group. Cluster groups can be instrumental in developing the creative economy with their uniqueness. This chapter explores cluster group development.

Conclusion

Our future may be as simple as our own ability to be disruptive, creative, and persistent; not to allow failure to define us, but define ourselves by our ability to shift our life path and paradigm through a heightened creativity. Creative economies form organically and often with a disruptive leader who is self-directed and sees a need in the community. They form groups who become disruptors themselves and they work together to ignite the creative economy in their area. They find a way, when others tend to give up, to succeed. In the process, they create a sense of place. This is being done all across America and globally. This chapter explores this.