Create Britain: giving creativity a seat in the boardroom

The British get a bad rap sometimes. I read the press and find it hard not to react. I understand some of the criticism, but I keep coming back to one thing: Britain has created, and continues to create, some extraordinary things.

Think about it. Tim Berners-Lee gave us the World Wide Web and changed how the world connects. The Sex Pistols helped turn music into a cultural movement. Jony Ive helped shape Apple’s products and changed what we expect from design. Alan Turing laid foundations for modern computing and artificial intelligence.

You can debate the good and bad that followed, but the ability to invent, challenge and change things is undeniable. For a relatively small island, we have contributed an enormous amount.

Yet we often seem happier letting others commercialise our ideas than backing them ourselves. Meanwhile, we take the criticism for plenty of other things. It can be frustrating, but we tend to respond in the familiar British way: stiff upper lip, carry on.

Today, I still see that creative ability everywhere. What frustrates me is how little importance we seem to give it, particularly in education. Creative subjects have been pushed to the margins, just as we enter a period when we may need them more than ever.

AI is going to change knowledge-based work profoundly. It already produces images, words and ideas, and we would be foolish to dismiss what it can do. But that makes human judgement, original thinking, cultural understanding and the ability to ask better questions more valuable. We need people who can decide what is worth creating, why it matters and how it should move us forward.

Britain should be investing in that ability, from the classroom to the boardroom.

For me, two things need to change.

The first is how we prepare the next generation to work across global markets.

English is already widely used in international business. That gives many young British creatives a useful starting point, but language alone is nowhere near enough. The real opportunity is to understand people, cultures and the connections between them.

In our work, we deal with Arabic, French, German, Spanish and English across packaging, signage, digital experiences and communications. You quickly learn that translating the words is only a small part of the job. You have to understand what people value, what something means locally and why an idea that works in one country might fall flat in another.

That is where creativity becomes powerful: seeing what cultures share, respecting where they differ and finding something that connects.

I would like to see more students encouraged to look beyond Britain from the outset. Study other markets. Understand their ambitions. Explore what you can contribute and what you can learn. There is enormous creative opportunity in emerging markets, but you have to be curious enough to recognise it.

Our young creatives have tools, access and opportunities that previous generations could only have imagined. We should be helping them use those advantages to build relationships and create across borders.

The second change is to bring creativity and brand into the boardroom.

Look at the leadership structure of many businesses. Chief executive officer, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, chief technology officer, chief marketing officer. All important roles. But where is the person responsible for what the business stands for, how it expresses itself and what it could become?

Chief brand officers and chief creative officers exist, but they are still far from standard. Why?

A recent conversation with my colleague Neil Gridley, who does a great deal of work in this area and supports the Design Council, brought this back into focus for me. It feels like a significant gap for something that deserves far more attention.

I also read the Design Council’s Design Economy report, which is a very well put together piece of work. What struck me was its recognition of the value British design brings to international markets, and the benefits that activity brings back to the UK.

My one small criticism is that I would like to see branding recognised more distinctly from graphic design. The two are closely connected, but brand strategy reaches into the direction of a business: what it stands for, who it serves, what it offers and how it intends to grow. That thinking should inform both design and marketing, and it deserves recognition at that level.

Too often, brand is treated as a logo, while marketing moves from one campaign to the next: a product launch, a seasonal promotion, an offer. Each activity has its targets, each team has its KPIs, and everyone is under pressure to show an immediate return.

I understand that pressure. Businesses need revenue. But who is looking after the meaning those activities create in people’s minds over time? Who is asking whether this month’s successful campaign is strengthening the brand or gradually weakening it?

There are excellent CMOs who understand this deeply. The problem is that businesses often ask them to build long-term value while rewarding them primarily for short-term results.

Brand, invention and creativity need attention at the highest level. They should influence what a company makes, how it behaves, where it invests and how it grows. They deserve a voice in the decisions that shape the business.

So, two things: help the next generation understand global markets and their place within them. And give brand and creativity a proper seat in the boardroom.

We have the talent. We have the history. We still have the ability.

 Let’s give it the backing it deserves.

 Create Britain.

If Joe's thinking has struck a chord, we'd love to hear where brand and creativity sit in your business. Get in touch

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