February 12, 2001 Balancing Art and Profit

There was a fascinating article in a recent HBR written by the director of the design function at BMW. In it, he described the challenges of balancing art with commerce, and mediating the inevitable conflict between corporate profit and artistic passion.

Conflict between profit and passion? That's interesting!

He went on to unveil a couple of principles that have greatly enabled him to do this. One of those he cited was the need to "protect the creative team," that is, to shield his artistic designers from the unproductive commentary of others in the company. As he said,

"Emotional, sensitive, often egocentric artists don't respond to cold rational arguments. They need empathy and support - they don't respond well to dictatorial management. Designers are as emotionally attached to their creations as mothers are to their children, and a careless comment can be extremely damaging."

Two things came to mind as I read these comments. First, I totally agreed. When many of us think of a great artist, we conjure up the image of a moody, temperamental, hard to understand, eccentric genius, who must be dealt with very carefully. Under no circumstances, would we want to do anything that would interfere with his or her creative process.

But then, I thought about something else. Is it possible that we are surrounded by great artists, but do not recognize them. Is it possible that our corporate analysts, purchasing people, computer programmers and administrative assistants are all creative artists, in their own right? Is it possible that our direct reports are as well?

Unfortunately, we seldom view these people this way. After all, an artist is an artist, not an accountant. But, is it possible that some of our accountants may feel as much passion about their creations, as the designers at BMW or Porsche do about theirs. Is it possible that a careless comment to a programmer can be extremely devastating, and force that individual to lose heart and check out?

Perhaps one of the most effective things we could do as leaders, is treat our people more like artists - by standing up for them, shielding them appropriately, and providing them with an environment that stirs their passion.