Issue 26: A bulletin for big ideas and better business.

⚡️ Giveaway ⚡️
October Course Cohort

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The heat ☀️ is on

It was St Swithin’s Day yesterday in the UK. According to folklore, whatever the weather does on this date, it will continue to do for the next forty days and forty nights. Summer (sort of) starts here. This issue is about art fairs, Hemingway look a-likes, and how being rude hurts your chances of creativity. But first, Sir John is boycotting your favourite eyewear brand.

OPINION/ CREATIVITY 

A new proscription

💬 Sir John Hegarty

Cubitts is the spectacle brand I always dreamed of. The principles on which it was founded represented a revolution in the category. Its creators reasoned that spectacles (I repeat this word because it never refers to such products as ‘glasses’ or ‘eyewear’), ought to be ‘loved, not tolerated. Wanted, not needed.’ So it is with deep regret that I announce a full boycott of the company, and its exquisitely crafted frames. The reason is this: incidentals.

I bought my first pair of readers a year or so ago. They arrived with a fetching silver case. Then I bought a pair of prescription sunglasses, which arrived in an identical container. Chaos ensued if I would seize the wrong cassette from the hallway table while leaving the house in a hurry. Only a handful of people can carry off the sunglasses at night look – Karl Lagerfeld, Corey Hart, Heidi Klum – sadly, your narrator isn’t one of them.

Only a handful of people can carry off the sunglasses at night look

The anarchy was compounded when my wife arrived at home brandishing a third case, containing her own pair of Cubitts. While she and I had both asked whether we might opt for a different design – perhaps one with a splash of colour, or a little mark of distinction – the answer was a definitive ‘no’.

Great brands are made not just with fundamentals, like great design, smart philosophy and high desirability. They are also marked by an emphasis on incidentals and polish. When you receive a smile from an air steward, it makes you more attached to the airline. In your local supermarket, a member of staff helping you locate an elusive ingredient makes you more likely to visit again. It’s add-ons, perks and little bonuses that make an experience memorable. No such luck here.

My wife and I are hopelessly attached to our Cubitts, so we have no other choice than to live with this ongoing game of Russian-roulette. We are plagued by the uncertainty of arriving at a crucial appointment equipped with the wrong glasses. Until the company will grant us a personalised case (perhaps a Business of Creativity-branded collab?), we will remain a three-pair household. Let me be clear: The fact that I could just get a sticker with my name on is beside the point.

THE AGENDA

✏️ Pencil it in: your agenda for the coming week

1.
Is there anything more quintessentially British than the BBC Proms? The nation’s classical chops will be audible at the Royal Albert Hall over the coming eight weeks.
19th July – 14th September  

2.
The 2024 Tour de France will wrap up on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. Creativity and strategy play a bigger role than most spectators realise. To acclimatise to rising temperatures, cyclists train in hot environments – one entrant reportedly did so in a shed with a heater blazing.
21st July  

3.
The fifth Royal Academy of Arts Young Artists’ Summer Show opens. It’s a free, open submission exhibition for students aged 4 – 19. It’s the place to spot future creative talent.
16th July – 11th August  

4.
Ernest Hemingway look a-likes will assemble in Key West, Florida to compete over who most resembles literature’s original tough guy. The author lived and wrote there throughout the 1930s.
17th – 21st July  

5.
Tired of all the pomp at the Proms? Head to the annual Salzburg Summer Festival. Its varied roster of events includes opera, concerts and theatre.
19th July – 31st August

LONDON / LUXURY

Looking for light.
Contributor: dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo

Entrenched problems?

Analysts used to declare that luxury was immune to downturns and market shocks. While most sectors struggled, high-net-worth folk would continue to spend regardless. Not anymore. A slowdown in China is causing problems for European brands. Few more so than Burberry, which appears to be enduring a spot of heavy weather. Sales are down, and yesterday news broke that its CEO Jonathan Akeroyd would be replaced with former Coach chief Joshua Schulman. But what of the British brand’s creative revival? A revamp – it was hoped – would help bring the company to higher echelons of prestige and commercial performance. Now there are murmurs of leaders changing tack, and chasing the middle market. The future of the business is on the line, but cheapening the brand isn’t the answer. Daring creativity trumps cost-saving.

ON CREATIVITY

Contributor: Sir John Hegarty

HONG KONG / FREE SPEECH

Leafing through.
Credit: Sipa US/Alamy Live News

Free-writing

With Beijing insisting on the passing of a National Security Law (NSL) in Hong Kong in 2020, some fear that free speech is under threat there. When the right to spread ideas – especially subversive ones – is put in jeopardy, putting on a book fair becomes a delicate business. The annual Hong Kong Book Fair opens tomorrow, and sometimes the big story isn’t which titles or authors will exhibit, but which ones will be quietly cut from the agenda. When organisers were quizzed by press lately on whether any works had been banned, they remained tight-lipped – replying that all participants should comply with the law. When ideas are smothered, creativity dies. Thoughts and words – like people – require freedom.

LONDON / LEADERSHIP

Rude mood 

Can you be creative and rude? Not according to research by the Academy of Management. It found that discourteousness in the workplace hurts performance on both everyday and creative tasks. While trying to motivate with verbal abuse and bullying is a poor strategy to get the most from colleagues, we should find a way to empathise with those who fly off the handle at work. The study revealed that rudeness often stems from envy, and unfavourable comparisons people make between themselves and others. The biggest toll it takes on organisations? Diverting time and attention from the real task at hand. Manners matter.

Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.

/Plutarch