Issue 42: A Bulletin for Big Ideas and Better Business

OPINION/ CREATIVITY 

Impresario ideas: what the late Quincy Jones taught me about creativity

💬 Sir John Hegarty

The man in the seat next to me had a moustache, tinted spectacles, and was wearing a searingly cool suit (Armani, I discovered later). On a quick hop from Berlin to London aboard a Lufthansa flight some years ago, I found myself having a conversation with Quincy Jones, the great musician and producer who passed at the weekend at the age of ninety-one.

The contributions that Jones made to music and pop culture are without equal. He persuaded Frank Sinatra to turn Fly me to the Moon from a waltz into a swing number. He produced Michael Jackson’s three best albums – including Thriller. And in a career that spanned 75 years, he picked up 28 Grammy awards. A lesser-known fact is that he wrote the musical score for The Italian Job.

During the flight, we had a wide-ranging conversation. Jones told me about his philosophies to do with travel, work, and creativity (we might cover those later). But his most profound advice was this.

Creative tasks are better met with play than by hard graft

“Do you play any musical instruments?” he asked.

“The saxophone. But I could never practice enough to get proficient,” I replied.

He smiled broadly. I had, he said, made the mistake that so many would-be musicians make. It was my whole approach to the instrument that stopped me improving. I was practicing to get better. I should have been playing instead.

Jones explained how he saw this principle in places beyond music. Creative tasks are better met with play than by hard graft. Playing implies experimentation, spontaneity, humour and entertainment. Practice is boring. And crucially: playing means you’re more likely to pick up the instrument in the first place. Whatever you’re doing this week, don’t learn to play. Play to learn. Thank you, Quincy.

Now, where did I put that sax?

THE AGENDA

✏️ Pencil it in: your agenda for the coming week

1.
Diamonds are formed from intense heat and physical force. Organisers of the Dubai International Diamond Week know this well: their event’s theme is ‘Thriving under pressure’. An urgent item is how to better use comms to drive up demand.
11th – 15th November

2.
The seventh Paris Peace Forumis to take place at the Palais Brongniart. World leaders will gather for the event, which is chaired by the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
11th – 12th November

3.
The winner of the Booker Prize for Fiction will be announced in London. Recipient of the prize will earn £50,000 – and benefit from a new career chapter.
12th November

4.
The Building Awards 2024are to be presented at the Grosvenor House Hotel. The awards were established by Building magazine. Attendees will be hoping for an edifying experience.
5th November

5.
Japanese computer games maker Nintendo reports second quarter earnings results. Analysts are predicting a drop in revenue. The company needs to put its iconic IP to work in response.
5th November

USA / POLITICS

Destiny calling?
Contributor: American Photo Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Communications and conflict

The US election features an exhausting build-up. Yesterday the two candidates, vice president Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump made their final appeals to swing state voters. The race represents the most eagerly-watched communications battle in the world. And it has featured a dizzying array of twists and turns. There were two attempts made on Trump’s life. The first of which was estimated to have helped his chances in the race, playing into his narrative of conspiracy and victimhood. Then there was the sudden elevation of Harris. In the last four years, she has done little to inspire voters. But a personal rebrand put the Democratic party back in the fight after Joe Biden’s debate debacle in June. Despite the efforts of both campaigns, the outcome remains a coin-toss. There’s one certainty: the winner will have to govern a country that is more fraught and divided than ever.

ON CREATIVITY /

Credit: Sir John Hegarty

LEEDS / MEDIA

Conservation effort
Contributor: David Gee 4 / Alamy Stock Photo

Screen saver

Public service broadcasters are in great peril – and are worth protecting. That’s the main thrust of a speech that the BBC’s new chairman Dr. Samir Shah will deliver today in Leeds. A shift towards online formats and deep pocketed streamers is squeezing out publicly funded brands such as ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. Shah is expected to position such broadcasters as assets that transcend entertainment, and form part of the UK’s social fabric. “Action is needed now to future-proof public service broadcasters, otherwise our very British success story will be part of our halcyon past,” he will say. “No other country has anything like this. Public service broadcasters lie at the heart of our social and cultural life, and they are worth fighting for. And, to be frank, the fight is on.” He’s right. Media that is free from corporate pressure or government interference deserves preservation.

PARIS / ART

Rags to Riches
Contributor: M Ramírez / Alamy Stock Photo

Poor show

Arte Povera in Italian translates literally as ‘poor art’. A movement that hit its peak between 1967 and 1972, it marked a departure for practitioners. Where artists generally used things like oil paint on canvas, as well as bronze or marble, this new principle applied lowly materials – like rags, soil, and bits of twig. Now, François Pinault, the (fabulously wealthy) founder of Kering, has staged a comeback for Arte Povera at the Bourse de Commerce. When it comes to making a social statement, the irreverence and whimsy of the works is unparalleled. For instance, Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Venus of the Rags (1967) features a mass produced garden statue – based on an ancient sculpture by Praxiteles – with its head and body partly buried in a pile of worn-out clothes. It’s a clear comment on our obsession with creating new things and discarding the used. Art without truth is decoration.