I don’t know about you but I seem to be bumping into the idea of art in business a lot recently.
First, it was with Seth Godin last month when talking about his new book: You can’t make ‘Art’ if you are not willing to fail – Interview with Seth Godin on The Icarus Deception.
Next, there was this quote from Andy Warhol that I used in a workshop that I gave to a bunch of creative folks the other month:
“Making money is art, and working is art and good business is the best art.”
The quote comes from Andy Warhol’s book: THE Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)
Then, I saw this from Hugh MacLeod of Gaping Void:
Finally, I came across these videos from Ritz Carlton, where ‘The Art of the Craft‘ puts some of their employees and their ‘art’ on show. There were two videos, in particular, that I liked:
1. The Shoe Shine Valet
2. The Housekeeping Supervisor
What stood out for me in each of these videos was how much attention to detail they paid to their work, how much they care about their work and how they mentioned and included feelings of their home in their work.
Going through all of these, I started asking myself a series of questions:
- Am I seeing more ‘art in business’ because I am looking for it?
- Or, is it becoming more and more important as a way of standing out in a competitive market?
- Can it help business establish better and more human connections with their customers?
- Are these people the exception or are they just exceptional?
- Or, does the system and culture allow them to flourish and excel?
These are some of the questions that I am thinking about/grappling with.
What do you think? Can you help me find some answers?
Thanks to Leon Fishman for the image.
