Here in Barcelona this friday Clint Eastwood’s movie ‘Invictus’ is getting released. The movie is based on John Carling’s book, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation. The book covers Nelson Mandela’s actions during Rugby World Cup, 1995 in South Africa. This made me think about similar other instances where Sports have inspired Arts. While I was looking at several examples, I stumbled upon this very interesting radio programme from ‘RadionNacional de España – 3″, (Channel 3 of Spanish National Radio). Given below is the link to the MP3 of these songs. It has some very interesting and very melodious musical pieces from Brazil. And on Minute 54 (it’s more than an hour long) you can hear the legendary footballer Pele sing a song with the most marvellous brazilian singer of all times, Elis Regina.
Songs of Football – click here to listen online or download. (Courtsey : RNE 3. Program – Cuando los elefantes sueñan con la música)
I was surprised to see this article in Businessweek. The article introduces ‘Jugaad’ (pronounced as joo-gaa-rh) as the next management buzzword in making. Translating ‘Jugaad’ is rather difficult. It rather means ‘getting something done by any means’. In this article Jugaad has been presented as a new Innovation philosophy. As per the article, the term has already entered MBA classrooms and in-company training sessions.
Interestingly Jugaad also reminds us of ‘Jugaad vehicles’ we normally find in rural parts of northern India. These vehicles are made by using a diesel engine and a wooden cart. But, how different is Jugaad from improvisation, ingeunity or creativity? Well, only time will tell, how the term evolves within management lexicon.
Artist Liu Bolin ....'invisible' in front of a cannon. Source: Daily Mail, UK.
Sometime ago through an article on MR, I ended up discovering the incredible artwork by Chinese artist Liu Bolin. His series, titled “Hiding in the city” has become very popular across blogosphere. Look at the picture on the top. The amazing thing about his art is that he doesn’t use any special trick or technology. All he does is to paint himself. He says that the objective of his art is to convey how our surroundings affect us. His art studio in Beijing was shut down by the authorities in 2005. That’s what inspired the title of the first series of photographs, ‘Hiding in the city’.
In general, artists are considered to be creative. Painting a nice landscape or taking an interesting photograph, itself is a creative activity. But what do we call an artist like Liu Bolin? Artists like him, create a new trend, discover a new expression and redefine the boundaries of art. There are some who do a routine thing creatively. But there are a few like Liu who do a creative thing creatively.
Liu Bolin "invisible" in front of a graffiti....source: Daily Mail, UK
In a fastcompany article, I read this fascinating story about well-designed barcodes. Since 2005, D-barcode has been creating amazing design barcodes for its customers. This is an excellent example of creativity. Creativity not just lies in bringing out a novel product but also lies in expressing the same thought in aesthetically a more pleasing way. Barcode is probably one of the most ‘un-cool’ elements in any product. But D-Barcode has converted this very mundane element into an excellent example of ‘Expression Creativity’. The concept of Expression Creativity, originally proposed by Dr. Pradip Khandwalla deals with expressing an existing idea or object in a novel and creative manner. You can check their creative barcode galleries here and here.
Dai Cooper, who is currently pursuing her Masters in Anthropology at University of Toronto, Canada uploaded an ‘Anthropology Song’ earlier this month. In less than a month’s time, the song has received some 20,000 hits and it has been widely discussed across academic blogosphere. It wouldn’t suprise me if the song is soon used in introductory sessions of Anthropology courses too. ¡Quite Creative!
I am attaching a video from New York Times, where A.O.Scott reviews Coen brothers’ Hudsucker Proxy. The movie is one of the funniest by Coen Brothers and we often recommend it to students to understand better (and with some humour) the dynamics of organizational change and innovation. It’s an interesting story about how an idea, no matter how dumb it appears to be, could turn out to be a huge fad. If you happen to teach Change Management, Innovation or something similar, I recommend to use this movie in your classroom.
This movie presents one of the best performances by Paul Newman and Jennifer Jason Leigh. In fact Paul Newman’s performance is especially interesting as he potrays a completely de-glamourized character where he neither uses his signature smile or charisma. A highly recommended watch!!
In Harvard Law School’s newsletter ‘Negotiation’ I came across an interesting piece about David Burke Townhouse, an upmarket restaurant in New York City. The newsletter cites an article by Katy McLaughlin in NY Times (which I can’t locate on its website). In the month of May, David Burke Townhouse adopted a creative strategy to navigate economic downturn.
The article states
“…Imagine you’re celebrating a special occasion with friends at an upscale restaurant. Soon after you take your seats, the wine director introduces himself and hands you a list of high-end bottles of wine. You notice that the prices – all in the $200 to $600 range – have been slashed through with a red pen.
“The prices on our reserve list are negotiable tonight”, the wine director says. “Would you care to make an offer on a bottle?”……….”
Wine director of the restaurant reported that at least on five bottles per night the restaurant earned more than the reservation price (the minimum that the restaurant expected). It’s always been said that customer is always ready to pay a huge premium for additional prestige. Possibility of quoting a high price at a posh restaurant earns you get prestige. Well, the result was that while other upmarket restaurants in Manhattan experienced about 15% decline in revenues, David Burke Townhouse’s sales was down by only about 8%.
An interesting strategy indeed!!
Source : Negotiation; Vol. 12 No.8; August 2009. Harvard Law School.
Jonathan Ive - The most creative individual in business
Recently Fastcompany has come up with the list of 100 most creative people in business. It’s an interesting list and over next few posts we will talks about some interesting individuals featuring in there. Apparantly there is no common criteria for selection. The introduction to the text states that they “……looked for dazzling new thinkers, rising stars, and boldface names who couldn’t be ignored.” Inclusion and exclusion of several names from this list, could be debated. However, one name that can’t be questioned, neither for its inclusion in the list nor it being at the top: Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple.
Jonathan Ive is one of those who are responsible for the design revolution that Apple brought about a decade ago. He has been the chief designer for iMac, Apple Powerbook, MacBook, iPod and iPhone. Creativity scholars define creativity as “Useful novelty” and in that sense Aple’s products are a great example of creativity in business. The fusion between art, technology and customer focus has been the strongest driving force behind Apple’s success in last decade. Last year, Daily Telegraph named him the most influential Briton in America. Celebraing his influence the article mentions, “If this is the age of the media gadget, Ive is its multi-platform deity figure.”
Slate has run an interesting slide show presenting virtual history of credit cards. The merchant specific cards came in use as early as 1930s, when companies started offering, what they used to call “charge-plates” to their customers. However, the individual who is credited with introduction of the current credit card system is Frank McNamara. Frank McNamara was one of the founders of Diners’ Club.
source - www.slate.com
However he got the idea of a Credit card system from an embarassing situation. He was having dinner at a restaurant and when the cheque arrived he realised that he had forgotten the wallet. That’s where he got the idea of having a system where one can “buy now and pay later, any time, anywhere”. The first card which was essentially for eating out at restaurants was a simple wallet-sized card made of paper. However, the concept behind it was revolutionary and within 60 years it has revolutionized shopping habits of people world over.
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce - The inventor of Photography
World's first Camera up for exhibition in Macao
Right now in Macao, world’s oldest camera is on display in an exhibition. This reminded me of what I had read about Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. Niépce was the inventor of photography.
However it’s interesting how he got the inspiration to invent photography. In those days, popular form of catching images was with “Camera Obscura”. Camera obscura was basically a box with hole on one side of the box. So through passing of the light, the image in front of the hole would get reflected on a thin paper on the opposite side of the hole. Once this image was reflected on the paper, the person (or ‘photographer’) was required to trace the image with the help of a pencil. This is what Niépce couldn’t do. He didn’t have a steady hand. Since he couldn’t draw, he had to find some other way to be able to take photographs.
View from the window at Le Gras, 1827. The first photograph ever....
He tried to look for alternatives where he wouldn’t be required to use his hand. He experimented with lithography – a method for printing using metal plate or stone. He replaced the thin paper in the ‘Camera Obscura’ with a metal plate. After experimenting with different metals and chemical coatings he finally produced the first photograph on a highly polished pewter plate, coated with bitumen. After an eight hour exposure in the camera, the plate was washed in a mixture of oil of lavender and white petroleum to produce the first permanent positive image. Here on the left, you can see the image. By the way, Niépce had termed this a ‘Heliograph’, recognising the power of the sun. (source)
Here in Barcelona this friday Clint Eastwood’s movie ‘Invictus’ is getting released. The movie is based on John Carling’s book, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation. The book covers Nelson Mandela’s actions during Rugby World Cup, 1995 in South Africa. This made me think about similar other instances where Sports have inspired Arts. While I was looking at several examples, I stumbled upon this very interesting radio programme from ‘RadionNacional de España – 3″, (Channel 3 of Spanish National Radio). Given below is the link to the MP3 of these songs. It has some very interesting and very melodious musical pieces from Brazil. And on Minute 54 (it’s more than an hour long) you can hear the legendary footballer Pele sing a song with the most marvellous brazilian singer of all times, Elis Regina.
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