|
More than ever, the nature of work
is evolving with a trend of people performing multiple
roles across functional areas in business. The change
is having an extraordinary impact on the workplace where
working lives are doing their best endeavours to adapt
and stay competitive.
Today's ever changing business world
urges executives to keep abreast with the market trends.
To stay competitive, continuous learning is defi nitely
a key channel for executives to enhance their management
capabilities.
As we see from the changes taken place
worldwide, countries around the globe, moved by the
development of information technology and the wave of
globalisation, tend to go towards mergence in terms
of economy, cul tur e , ideology, value s and knowledge,
etc, resulted in blurred boundaries. There appears a
shift of focus from traditional "hard power"
to "soft power". Stuart Crainer, a noted British
commentator and columnist to Financial Times and London
times, also points out that the trend of management
goes from hard management from an economic and technical
perspective to soft anagement from a social and cultural
perspective.
Cross-disciplinary
Talents Lead in Mainstream
With the growing emphasis on soft power, the business
world will be no longer in demand for "jack of
all trades" or specialist in merely one discipline.
Talents are urged to develop acute cultural sense and
master knowledge of multi disciplines. It is expected
that cross-disciplinary talents with a merge of background
in humanities and business studies as well as the ability
to create and innovate will come into the mainstream.
In response to the global trends,
there have been a couple of management courses relevant
to culture and creativity launched in Hong Kong. As
the Hong Kong government identifi ed the cultural and
creative industry as one of the six Industries where
Hong Kong enjoys clear advantages for further development,
and the West Kowloon Cultural District is soon to be
completed, the demand for creative management talents
is expected to increase continuously. Earlier, Hong
Kong Chief Executive C. Y. Leung expressed his continued
support for the development of the industry in his 2012-13
Policy Address, which has reflected that the industry
will be a key direction for economic development in
the future.
The cultural and creative industries,
or creative industries, refers to industries that create
wealth and employment opportunities for society through
a range of economic activities that integrate culture
and creativity with a focus on knowledge such as innovative
thinking, innovation skills and technology. The cultural
and creative industries comprise a wide range of sectors
including advertising, architecture, art, crafts, design,
fashion, digital entertainment, film and video, comics,
music, performing arts, publishing, software and computer
services, and TV and radio, etc, while it has a close
economic tie with other industries such as travel, hotel,
museums, conference and exhibition, cultural heritage
and sports.
Prof. Edmund S. T. Kwok, President
of New Asia Arts & Business College, Deputy Managing
Director and Honorary President of Nishan Sage Academy,
Shandong, and Special Advisor and Visiting Professor
of Faculty of Social Science of Hong Kong Baptist University
has been devoted to the study of urban development,
cross-cultural management, creative industries planning,
corporate culture, etc in the past decade. He points
out that the concept of the cultural and creative industries
first appeared in 1990s when the British government
started to develop strategies to push the economy and
explore the possibility to merge culture with economic
activities in the knowledgebased society, and develop
the creative industries with a modern management approach.
On the other hand, China absorbed the concept of merging
culture with creativity for economic development in
1998, and has achieved great progress on the industries'
development in the recent 7 and 8 years.
Culture,
Management and the People
In Prof. Kwok's opinion, with the growing attention
to the development of the cultural and creative industries
worldwide and the demand for creative talents, it is
of utmost importance that executives grasp the management
skills in managing in the cultural and creative industries.
"Our society is growing towards the age of a knowledge-based
economy. The knowledge-based economy has higher expectations
for lifestyle and cultural qualities. It emphasises
knowledge application and innovation, and promotion
of commercial activities, organisations and management
with creativity. In the meantime, a knowledge-based
economy is also a learning community where everybody
has to pursue continuous learning to enrich their knowledge
and maintain competitive. In fact, management and people
are interlocking. Management has to be conducted in
a cultural environment. Therefore, cultural development
has an impact on everyone. Executives need to keep abreast
of the times, learn the management skills in the cultural
and creative industries, and develop creative thinking,"
he says.
Prof. Kwok highlights the significance
of having great vision, "While our future society
is shifting towards the creative industries and a knowledge-based
economy, all executives, from a management perspective,
are suggested to learn about cultural and social change,
and the connection between culture and the economy.
Executives in other industries should also learn these
management skills. Given the importance of social change
and culture and creativity, culture and creativity will
be a key element in learning, whether for undergraduate
or postgraduate programmes."
An Integration
of Culture and Business
Social development and transformation leads to the demand
for creative management talents among organisations.
It is because these talents are able to transform innovative
ideas into economic value, which is greatly beneficial
to the sustainable development of businesses. To nurture
management talents in the cultural and creative industries,
Prof. Kwok reveals that he is presently planning to
launch an MBA programme in creative industries. He explains,
"It is a programme offered by University of Wales
(Newport, UK), coorganised by New Asia Arts & Business
College and International Academy of Management. The
programme covers various disciplines of the industries
with the key elements of design policy, which aims to
provide business management training to the talents
and assist them in developing creative thinking and
discover creativity in relevant disciplines."
As a pioneer in the study of the cultural
and creative industries in Hong Kong, Prof. Kwok launched
a master's degree programme in cultural management,
which is the first cultural management programme in
Hong Kong. Commenting on the trend of management education,
he points out that in the recent decade, tertiary programmes
for specialised disciplines such as arts, design and
music were supplemented with elements of business studies,
indicating an emphasis on application other than academic
study. "The future world is on the way to integration
between culture and business, which exactly matches
with the philosophy of our college. Last year, I was
actively engaged in promoting Chinese cultural education
in Shandong and Hong Kong, and integrated Chinese culture
with modern social and administrative anagement (including
public administration and business administration).
Now, by launching this programme, I would like to integrate
the British concept of creative industries and its academic
foundation with the Chinese cultural concepts of our
college, so as to meet the future development trends,"
he adds.
Prof. Weili Wang, Director of Cultural
Institute of Shenzhen Academy of Social Sciences has
been a dedicated scholar in the study of cultural and
creative industries for years. The renowned expert in
cultural and creative industry studies in Shenzhen told
us that it is a global trend for countries to develop
the cultural and creative industries. As mentioned by
Prof. Kwok, the Chinese government strives to develop
the industries in the recent 7 and 8 years and has achieved
great progress. "The Chinese government has long
been supporting the industries' development. In recent
years, a number of new plans have been launched in major
cities. For example, the central government has set
up objectives for the industries' development in Shenzhen
¡V to increase the industries' percentage of the city's
GDP to over 14.5% by 2015. We can see that the cultural
and creative industries have been positioned as a national
strategy. In addition, the deepening economic transformation
leads to broader room for development. Thus, executives
should deepen their knowledge and understanding of the
cultural and creative industries, which will facilitate
both their management work and career development,"
says Prof. Wang.
"China'seconomy is under going
a transformation period, which creates both challenges
and opportunities for executives. In my views, executives
should leverage this opportunity for self adjustment,
learning new knowledge and pursue further education,
which will definitely do no harm to their development.
Since the cultural and creative industries encourage
business development, executives, with an aim to create
greater value for their organisations, are highly suggested
to enrich their knowledge in managing in the cultural
and creative industries, while knowing more about the
industries' status, the government's policy and international
cases, etc." he continues.
Good for
Self-enhancement
As Prof. Wang points out, with frequent business transformation
in China, programmes in managing in the cultural and
creative industries offer executives good learning opportunities.
International programmes are particularly good as they
introduce concepts and management approaches from other
advanced regions that enable executives to know more
about international practices in management, while absorbing
experience from other countries enhances their personal
levels. "On the one hand it helps executives master
the knowledge and combine it with their existing one
for a solid foundation, on the other hand, it benefits
sustainable business development." Prof. Wang agrees
with Prof. Kwok's
|
