People

Where business meets art

An innovative book will be launched in Cyprus this week. Eleni Antoniou meets its author

Talk about creativity and you are probably bound to wander into arts, crafts, architecture and fashion. Talk about business and you’ll be focusing on numbers, competitors and marketing. If you think the two have nothing in common, then you should probably pay attention and get your hands on Dimis Michaelides’ book, The Art of Innovation, billed as the world’s first management art book. It has been praised as ‘the Bible for 21st century CEOs’ and ‘a book that will inspire change in individuals, teams and organisations.’

“Despite years of academic research on the topic of corporate innovation as well as thousands of books on the subject, there are still too many misconceptions on how to promote innovation in organisations,” says Constantinos Markides of the London Business School in the book’s preface. “Prominent among these is the belief that innovation is all about coming up with new ideas. It’s not. Coming up with new ideas is obviously necessary and important but innovation is much more than that. It’s the implementation of these ideas in the market to satisfy customer needs in an economical way that ultimately creates value.”

The point is that over and above the ability to come up with new ideas, innovative organisations have something else. And it is this ‘something else’ that Michaelides has managed to identify. “Having worked for large organisations such as the World Bank, Zeneca and the Popular Bank Group, lived in Paris, London and Washington, among other places, and been a creativity leader, a consultant and a business speaker, I believe that designing work and life in organisations is an art and the synthesis of the twelve key points in the book is crucial because each one, while important in itself, is incomplete if it stands alone,” he says.

The book is about innovation and how to make it an integral part of an organisation. “In times past, creative ideas and the innovations they generated were the domain of just a small number of exceptional individuals,” says Dimis. “In the business world, it was not until the 20th century that the joys of discovery and profit led to the establishment of research and development departments – dedicated to inventing new products – and marketing departments – devoted to finding new ways of matching products and markets.”

Dimis believes that on the way, we discovered that all human beings are creative and that innovation is as much about R&D and marketing, technology and processes as it is about production and selling, service and operations, data and information, management and motivation.

What is most remarkable about The Art of Innovation as a book is its ability to combine art and business through symbols, quotes and original, high-quality artwork, presented in an eye-catching graphic layout. Colours are abundant and almost every page makes a statement of its own. “There were two reasons as to why I wanted this book to include art,” says Dimis. “First of all, aesthetically, it is pleasing unlike many business books that all focus on text. The way it is structured also means that one can begin reading from any given point without losing the main picture through a very unusual angle and with a very original frame of reference – which we know promotes creative thinking.”

Speaking in more local terms, Dimis explained that innovation is risky and this is an area into which many business in Cyprus do not dare enter. “We are in danger of remaining in a stage of knowledge and analytical thinking, which is something we are taught at university but that’s not all. Innovation can be dangerous, leading to losses, bankruptcy, breakdown and disappointment but it can also be rewarding, leading to profit, progress, joy, efficiency, motivation and wealth,” Dimis explains. “Look at Stelios Hadjioannou (EasyJet entrepreneur)! I’m guessing he used innovation!”

The Art of Innovation will be launched on Friday in the presence of Dimis Michaelides, Constantinos Markides and the book’s artist Umit Inatci, whose series of 16 paintings will be exhibited for the first time. Friday September 28, 2007. 7.30pm. Journalists’ House, 12 RIK Avenue, Nicosia. Tel 22 446090. It is available at all bookshops. Dimis’ company Performa Consulting also provides workshops for companies. [email protected] or call 22 315930

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.