There is a common conception that business people must be powersuit wearing, networking savvy, multi-tasking, ambitious men and women. This conception sends the message that in order to succeed in business, you need to first understand the business world mentality. You then adopt that mentality and succeed by mastering it. This notion of business is missing something, something very important. Creative employees are vital for the success of new and existing businesses.

The U.S. West Coast, specifically California, was Mecca for the U.S. hippie movement that began in the 1960s. During a time period that spanned two decades, millions of people talked about free thinking, pacifism, anti-institutionalism, non-conformity, and much more. Given a business context, all of this hippie talk may seem out of place. Certainly the only hippies who interact with business people are the ones sitting on corners, playing guitars, and hoping for a bit of the successful business peoples’ change. What does a vintage 1960s hippie have to do with business success today?

Why is it that it was the West Coast, not the East, that led the country and really the world in the computing innovation? As many have pointed out, the East Coast had a long history of dominating high tech industry. An alley known as the “computing axis,” was dense with technology research and ran from New York City to MIT in Massachusetts. Nevertheless, it was not on the East Coast where the computing industry prospered the most.

The same area that was once haven for the hippie movement’s “free thinkers” is now home to the computing technology innovators. East Coast computing and technology firms programmed their employees as they did their machines, updating them with adult software, deleting them of all of their outdated childish thoughts and tendencies. Meanwhile,
West Coast innovation, growing out of the hippie movement, encouraged and drew upon novelty and creativity. The success that came out of the West Coast’s free thoughts is self-evident.

Neither the suggestion nor the point here is to praise and thank hippies; many of them probably had no intention or awareness of the potential of their ideas. The suggestion is that the counterculture movement in the 1960s and 1970s left people influenced by it, infused with more creative thought. The point is to highlight the effect that creative minds can have in our markets. New businesses must have new ideas in order to succeed. In most cases, a new business must either discover something new that is not being offered by the market or offer an already existing product in a new fashion. Either way, novelty is the key to surviving. Creativity is important for pre-existing businesses as well. People and thus markets change. Businesses that remain stagnant seldom succeed. Again, creativity that yields novelty is the key to success. Traditional business concepts do not really encourage creative thought in the workplace. While businesses often preach “thinking out of the box” they simultaneously discourage true creative thought through hierarchical business organizations and performance based reward structures.

There is one supply of creative employees whose value is often not realized by businesses. Every year hundreds of thousands of students graduate from colleges and universities in the United States. Students have minds that are connected to their creative potentials. College and university classes typically encourage and often require original thought and analysis. Thus students and graduates have recent practice at tapping into their creative sides. Also, College and university campuses expose students to nontraditional ideas, creative expressions, and even countercultures. Finally, simply because of their absence in the business world, students and graduates are less likely to have had their creative tendencies suffocated than are business people who have been working in unimaginative offices atmospheres.

The techies who led computing innovation did not replace West Coast hippies; they were born out of them. Businesses need to rethink the kind of employees who they seek out. If businesses want static performance then they should employ easily programmable unimaginative people. Remember, however, that a rigid business model will only succeed in a rigid world. If businesses want dynamic and innovative performance then they should employ imaginative individuals.

-By Natalie Pruett