Cultural Creatives

Hemal of TheEightFold recently attended the TrendBuero day in Hamburg which focused on Karma Capitalism. Alongside a ’spirited’ speech by PSFK fave Mohammad Yunus, Hemal notes that Josephine Green, Head of Trends & Strategy at Philips Design, gave an interesting presentation on cultural creatives and how they’re “fundamentally: transforming human consciousness. Here’s an extract:

Who are cultural creatives? They are the 25% of our population who are claming traditional means of cultural production for themselves. They are choosing to ignore brands as cultural icons to instead define their own values and create new creative solutions for the rest of us. They are changing the world in technology, creating global networks and will fight for a more sustainable world.

Traditionally, we like to think of these people as “conscious consumers” or “consumer activists”. However, it’s time to change old world thinking. They aren’t a customer segment, and they can’t be put in a box. They are young and old and of every race, culture, religion and politic on the planet. They are the best and brightest coming out of MBA programs, entering organizations and foregoing careers as “productive resources” to shake up the world. And thanks to the power of the internet and opportunities in a service economy, they are growing.

For those of us who want to pursue Karma Capitalist strategies it means creating intelligent networks with them. For Companies unwilling to hear them, it means the beginning of a significant brain drain that will jeopardize their organizations.

t h e e i g h t f o l d » Karma Capitalism Conference Part 3: Who will make it