In today‘s guest blog post, Philip Morley, talks about the future of Creativity. Philip began his advertising career at 17 and rose through the ranks to become senior writer at Ogilvy Hong Kong and creative director at DDB Worldwide. In 1997, he decided to go it alone and develop a business selling thinking and now has clients in the USA, China, Israel and the UK.

You didn’t hear it here first. Creativity is more important now than at any time in the planet’s history and our only hope in the downturn. Creative ability will separate the chairmen from the boys. Or prove the killer blow against Chinese and Indian manufacturing dominance. Even now, the clip art lightbulb cartoon is being employed slightly more often in Powerpoint presentations than multiple exclamation marks and there is talk of yet another Eureka! moment at the water cooler.

What’s odd is that none of us heard this first in Creative Review. More likely, Fast Company, the Economist or even GQ. In other words, domestic, non-industry mags. Creativity is today what Total Quality Management was in the eighties.

So, is the future of creativity outside the creative industry?

The Seth Godins of this world have, over time, given everyone permission to be creative. And definitions of creativity like the excellent one coined by Sir Ken Richardson – “it’s the process of having original ideas that have value” – give confidence to the thinker and a shot in the arm to the innovator. Even Edward de Bono’s 1960s assertion that thinking is a skill like playing tennis or cooking, that can be learned by everyone, has found a new relevance.

Add a dash of Tom Peters W-O-W! and you could be forgiven for thinking that creativity is the operating system for all of us. Almost as if the O&M and DDBs of this world stole it from us in the first place.

What are we waiting for? Let’s get ideating.

Well, using de Bono’s analogies, I think most people who begin to embrace the power of creativity quickly realise they’re not actually very good at tennis. And they can do little more than boil a decent egg.

There’s a simple explanation: creative people – people who are paid to be creative – aren’t necessarily creative all the time but they think without thinking about it. It’s second nature.Consequently, they are likely to be better at it and want to keep doing it. Whereas many clients who go on courses about creativity will be immediately be disadvantaged when they get back behind a desk, as process and commerce throw their deadly eiderdown on top of originality and what-ifs. They begin to believe that there really are right and left-brain people again, after all.

So, maybe the future of creativity will be outside the creative industry but inside the client’s business – using experts from inside the creative industry. This way, businesses that say they value innovation can do more than pay it lip service and give it a cheque.

Maybe, over time, it will be commonplace for clients to have creative directors, just like heads of R&D or marketing.

This is not what the traditional creative industries want to hear but I’m reminded of an expression I heard within weeks of starting work as an advertising copywriter: a good idea doesn’t care who conceived it.

When all’s said, done and Tweeted, the only creativity that will endure in the future will be the creativity that people find remarkable enough to tell people about.

No change there.