BY KIDENDEI CEGERETI

Innovate and Disrupt: new challenges and opportunities in the Creative Industries — by Robert DeFillippi

The explosion of technology in the last few decades has caused fundamental disruptions within the creative industries, leading to both excitement and fear for their future. Professor Robert DeFillippi argues that it is vitally important that creative organizations understand the drivers of disruption and devise strategies for coping with these so that threats may be turned into opportunities.

No set of industries has experienced more disruptive change than the so-called creative industries (e.g. publishing, television, film making, design, video games) whose basic technologies and methods of creating and distributing their products and services and monetizing their investments have been disrupted by the revolution in digital technology and the rise of a net savvy generation of culture consumers who demand more choice, more access and a lower price (free is preferable) than any previous generation.

Disruption as commonly understood refers to a transformation in an industry or sector often linked to technology-based innovation in products, services and/or business models. These disruptive innovations typically create business threats and opportunities not nominally predictable from past historical experience and thus require incumbent participants to engage in strategic behavior and organizational practices that represent a departure from past successful and familiar strategies and practices. The academic study of disruption has roots in the academic research and theory of disruption promulgated by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen. The notion of disruption, however, has attracted a wider community of both scholars and practitioners who have recognized the emergence of disruptive phenomena in a widening range of industries and institutional sectors.

A number of factors are driving disruption in industries. These pose both great challenges and potential opportunities for organizations seeking to thrive in this age of disruption.

Hardware and software for digital content creation and editing

During the past thirty years digital content hardware have evolved from analog (physical film media) based to digital (electronic image sensor) devices which has fostered an innovation trajectory of smaller, lighter, more mobile and easier to use devices. Associated with these hardware technology developments has been the improved visual quality and lower costs associated with employing software to edit digital content. These trends have also increased the participation of amateurs in the creative content production arena since there are fewer cost based barriers to entry and individual creative artists can self-manage the content production and editing processes.

Digital platforms for content aggregation and distribution

The Internet and its associated Web 2.0 tools for communications, connectivity (community) and commerce are putting the aggregator (e.g. Google, Amazon) at the center of content distribution. Moreover, the most web savvy aggregators are developing digital platforms that can collect and distribute a wide range of digital content from a variety of sources, both internal and external. These platforms are developing APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow both digital content suppliers and buyers to conduct their respective transactions with the aggregator with ease.

Participatory culture

A major development in a growing number of creative industries is the rise of a participatory culture in which media content consumers are engaging with media products and services as content evaluators, content producers and content co-creators. A key consideration in participatory culture is the altered sensibilities of a new generation of media consumers who are digital natives and accustomed since childhood to actively participate in both the consumption and creation of their media experiences. Moreover, this is a generation that is accustomed to sharing their media creations and media experiences with others online.