Creativity is the birthplace of successful ventures
When I founded my second business Yi Lian Ng Floral Atelier in 2013 after spending a decade in publishing as a magazine journalist, I constantly dealt with self-doubt, such as not believing that a creative like me could establish a profitable company.
For many years, I’d thought that a creative mind and being business-minded were mutually exclusive. But as my business quickly became lucrative consistently, I eventually realised that creativity is the birthplace of successful ventures.
In our career feature Creativity (page 102), the founders of The Curious People Solutions echoed my belief: “Creativity happens any time an employee thinks of a novel way to solve a problem; creating value for people, whether it’s to improve customer experience, enhance employee engagement or develop a lean enterprise.”
Creativity is not just a trendy buzzword or the new good-tohave skill that came up after Covid-19 threatened the status quo of every workplace. As artificial intelligence is predicted to take over half of human jobs in the next 10 years, it has increasingly become a must-have capability. After all, creativity is a uniquely human trait that no algorithm can replace.
This is why I’m in awe of the young female creatives we’re championing on page 112. Some of the up-and-coming enterprisers are bold enough to pursue an alternative perspective to their work so they stand out within their industries, while the rest are thriving despite the times because their creativity helped them to develop a different approach to their existing businesses.
It’s imperative that we place more emphasis on the importance of the arts and humanities, and with the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) declaring 2021 as the year of Celebrating SG Women, I hope to see more empowered female creatives being celebrated.