John Howkins - The Creative Economy: How People Make Money from Ideas

These diverse activities have one thing in common. They are the results of individuals exercising their imagination and exploiting (or preventing others from exploiting) its economic value.

This book is about the relationship between creativity and economics. Creativity is not new and neither is economics, but what is new is the nature and extent of the relationship between them, and how they combine to create extraordinary value and wealth.

There has been a rapid spread of patents, copyright and trademarks. Intellectual property used to be an arcane and boring subject, something for specialists only, but within the past few years it has become a powerful influence on the way everyone has ideas and owns them, as well as on global economic output. Accountants Arthur Andersen say electronics, software, health-care, consumer goods, telecommunications, media and entertainment are substantially dependent upon intellectual property; I would add biology, agriculture and education. When I look at some countries' patenting policies, I am inclined to add everything else.

When he was arguing the case for America's first federal copyright law, President George Washington said it would increase the stock of knowledge, and knowledge in every country is the surest basis of public happiness. Nowadays, a US president would be more likely to say it is the surest basis of business competition.

People with ideas people who own ideas have become more powerful than people who work machines and, in many cases, more powerful than the people who own machines. Yet the relationship between creativity and economics remains almost invisible. I decided to see if I could bring together all these elements creativity, intellectual property, management, capital, wealth into a single comprehensive framework. This book is the result.

First, some definitions. Creativity is the ability to generate something new. It means the production by one or more people of ideas and inventions that are personal, original and meaningful. It is a talent, an aptitude. It occurs whenever a person says, does or makes something that is new, either in the sense of something from nothing or in the sense of giving a new character to something. Creativity occurs whether or not this process leads anywhere; it is present both in the thought and in the action. It is present when we dream of paradise; when we design our garden; and when we start planting. We are being creative when we write something, whether it is published or not; or invent something, whether it is used or not. I use the word