Dying for a Paycheck and A Return to Beauty

What it has become, and how it can be — “Business, Innovation and Art” Special Series - Introduction and Issue #1

“Business, Innovation and Art” Special Series — Introduction

For much of human history, art and craftsmanship were a natural ingredient in product-making and commerce. The industrial age, taken over by machines and assembly lines, squeezed cultural values and uniqueness out of products in favor of uniformity, volume and speed to minimize costs and maximize profits. While industrialization improved human condition in many ways, the “dehydration” in business extended to all its aspects — humans were used as simple machines to enable mass production; corporate offices were places for making a living but not living a life; and 20th century management was all about efficiency, the bottom-line, and shareholder value (with an obsession about quarterly earnings). Art went its own way, with artists either starving or celebrated in museums and auction houses away from everyday life, or somewhere precarious in between. The bifurcation led to longstanding antipathy between the two worlds, taken for granted in modern societies. Artists view businesspeople as philistines, and businesspeople cannot see much use of art in corporate life beyond decoration in the lobby and maybe some branding value, even though some may patronize art after making their pile.

In spite of such unquestioned but unnatural perceptions, business has much to learn from the arts, and management is more of an art than people recognize. Successful artists and executives share common prerequisites. Business can grow artistically by the alchemy of invention.

And ironically, after its predecessors turned people and organizations into machines, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is turning machines into humans — unlike machines in the 19th and 20th century, digital machines of today and tomorrow not only make things the way an artist and craftsman would, they have more and more biological and cognitive properties embedded in them. This is not only resurrecting the renaissance man, but also reuniting art and business without frenzied corporate executives and “disruptors” realizing. As companies find their business environment increasingly complex to navigate, like perpetual whitewater brought upon by unprecedented technological and social changes, art can be a powerful tool to catalyze innovation and transform culture, helping companies discover/re-discover their compass, create new rafts to conquer the rapids and find “blue ocean” market spaces far ahead of competition.

At least monthly for the coming months, Essinova Journal will be dedicated to the topic of “Business, Innovation and Art”, starting with select writings by leading thinkers and educators already published in renowned journals, followed by contributions to the Special Issue as they become available. Together they will demonstrate a neo-Renaissance movement, revival of humanism in the age of artificial intelligence, arts-based learning and leadership, and art-thinking for radical innovation. They will explore a richer, multidimensional relationship between art and business, in which art is not just a beneficiary of corporate philanthropy: on societal level, art is an active economic driver and agent of change towards a more sustainable and equitable economy; for individual firms, art can be a strategic asset for innovation, a cultivator of a more creative, resourceful and passionate workforce, and an impactful investment with measurable returns, leveraging exponential technologies.

BIA Issue #1

What it has become

By Jeffrey Pfeffer,
Stanford University
Harper Business, March 20, 2018

In one survey, 61 percent of employees said that workplace stress had made them sick and 7 percent said they had actually been hospitalized. Job stress costs US employers more than $300 billion annually and may cause 120,000 excess deaths each year. In China, 1 million people a year may be dying from overwork. People are literally dying for a paycheck. And it needs to stop.

In this timely, provocative book, Jeffrey Pfeffer contends that many modern management commonalities such as long work hours, work-family conflict, and economic insecurity are toxic to employees — hurting engagement, increasing turnover, and destroying people’s physical and emotional health — and also inimical to company performance. He argues that human sustainability should be as important as environmental stewardship.

“I want to wake people up. This is a serious issue that has serious consequences for corporate performance and for people’s well-being.” — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Read more on Stanford Graduate School of Business Faculty Research…

How it can be

By Nancy J. Adler,McGill Universityand Andre L. Delbecq, Santa Clara University
Journal of Management Inquiry,
April 1, 2018

Highlighting Aristotle’s appreciation that “The soul . . . never thinks without a picture,” this article weaves together art and ideas into an aesthetic encounter with beauty, leadership, and our humanity. […] You are invited not only to engage in reading the words presented on each page but also to stop and to reflect on their meaning. You are offered the power of art to intensify your experience and understanding. The article invites you to enter into a contemplative silence designed to increase your appreciation of your own and others’ humanity while deepening the beauty of your own leadership. […]

More than 2 millennia ago, Confucius encouraged leaders to seek wisdom and perspective through contemplation, not simply by attempting to create success based on their own and others’ experience. Validating Confucius’s ancient insight, Harvard Professor Howard Gardner’s (1995) contemporary research revealed daily reflection as one of only three core competencies that distinguish leaders who make an extraordinary difference in the world from their more ordinary counterparts.

Read more on Sage Journal of Management Inquiry…

Coming up next:

(BIA Issue #2) Work of Art
by Esko Kilpi

(BIA Issue #3) Arts and Design as Translational Mechanisms for Academic Entrepreneurship: The MetaLAB at Harvard Case Study
by Luca Simeonea, Giustina Secundo and Giovanni Schiuma

(BIA Issue #4) The Hand and the Head
by Piero Formica

To be followed by:

Articles to be published in “Business, Innovation and Art”, MDPI Arts