Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option

Box 6.1Design as a key ingredient for growthIn his youth, Ingvar Kamprad began buying and selling a variety of items and reinvesting the profits. While he was still a teenager, he founded what wouldeventually become the multi-billion-dollar interior design company, IKEA, which has 104,000 employees worldwide. In 1947, his introduction of furnitureinto the company product line met with such success that in 1951, he dropped all other product lines and focused on furniture. The design processalways starts with the price tag. Kamprad’s vision “to create a better everyday life for many people” has guided the company, spurring creativity by forcingit to always strive towards new, ground-breaking design solutions. The aim is to produce well-designed yet functional products accessible to as manypeople as possible while encouraging innovation.The company also has a long history of working with talented, internationally recognized designers. In the 1960s, for example, it was helped by famousdesigner, Taipo Wirkkala, a recognized glass artist whose works can be viewed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The tradition of these collaborationshas continued to give customers the chance to decorate their homes with something a little more special. At the same time, it helps artiststo reach a wider audience through the remarkable influence and large target group of the company. The encouragement of design innovation has notonly proved successful in terms of economic revenues but it has led to widespread recognition through several design awards, such as the ExcellentSwedish Design Award and the internationally prestigious “red dot for highest design quality”.With a strong concept that is characterized by Swedish values, Scandinavian design, a healthy environment, cost-conciousness and informality, the companynot only helps to put Sweden on the map but it also uses its origin as an engine to reach its own goals since it is not tailor-made policy programmesthat explain the company’s success but rather, general conditions that enabled the company to grow. Professor Richard Florida, author of The Rise of theCreative Class, places Sweden at the top of his list for a global creativity index.By Tobias Nielsén -Lena Rune, QNB Volante.6.3 Intellectual property and the creative industriesThere are different approaches to identifying which arethe creative industries, depending on the criteria chosen. TheWIPO perspective stresses the relationship between creativityand intellectual property protection, most notably copyright.Creative industries are involved directly or indirectly in thecommercial exploitation of intellectual property-based goodsand services, i.e., mainly cultural, information and entertainmentgoods. Intangible capital and intellectual propertyprotection play a fundamental role in these industries.From the WIPO perspective, the creative industriesmay be divided into four groups according to the degree ofuse of copyright material. 2 The most important are “coreindustries”, which are generally regarded as synonymous withcopyright industries. The core is made up of industries thatproduce and distribute works that are protectable undercopyright or related rights: film and video, music, performingarts, publishing, software and database, television andradio, advertising, copyright collecting societies, and visualand graphic art, including photography. The core industriesare wholly engaged in the creation, production and manufacturing,performance, broadcast, communication and exhibition,or distribution and sales of protected works.A second group, the “interdependent industries”,comprises those industries that are engaged in the production,manufacture and sale of equipment whose function isto facilitate the creation, production or use of works andother protected subject matter. The interdependent industriescomprise such economic activities as manufacture,wholesale and retail of television sets, radios, CD players,DVD players, electronic games equipment, computers, musicalinstruments, blank recording material, paper, photocopiers,and photographic and cinematographic instruments.A further group, the “partial industries”, includes those inwhich a portion of the activities is related to works and otherprotected subject matter. They comprise architecture, apparel,textiles and footwear, interior design, household goods,china and glass, furniture, jewellery and coins, crafts, wallcoverings and carpets, toys and games, and museums. Thelast category comprises the “non-dedicated industries” inwhich a portion of the activities is related to facilitating6The role of intellectual property in the creative economy2 WIPO (2003). Guide on Surveying the Economic Contribution of the Copyright-Based Industries. See chapter 1 for the comparison of the models used in the WIPO report.CREATIVE ECONOMY REPORT 2010171