Creative businesses in a recession
Three leaders in the creative sector shared their thoughts about recession, with advice on how to run a business in a grim financial climate.
The dance company producer
Farooq Chaudhry is producer for the Akram Khan dance company.
Apply business thinking to your art
"I started Akram with this combination of being someone passionately in love with dance, but someone who really respects the need for commercial discipline.
“All our dreams and ideas need to be wrapped in some kind of really strong business framework. I didn't start in the conventional sense. I did arts management at university, I was very entrepreneurial, I sold my flat to fund the very first piece that we made. So it was all about risk from day one.
“I've learned to really enjoy that risk and use that risk as a kind of inspiration. But also when you are laying your flat on the line, you've got to be focused about what you're trying to do and so it does help to be clear, it helps you to really develop a sound creative process with a really well-protected business framework.
“We're going to make mistakes and we're going to get things wrong, but we hope the level of us getting it wrong is not so bad.”
Being realistic with arts budgets
"Culture grants have been cut, people are pulling out of shows. We were supposed to go to America next year and there's a real paralysis in terms of taking risks there.
“What that means for us, is that we just have to say 'Let's shave 15 percent off everything we're dreaming about', if that makes any sense. But we're very lucky in that we've got a very wide web of connections across the globe in terms of markets. So we are working markets like the Middle East, like Asia, which have not been so badly affected like the European and American market."
Making your art global for more revenue
"It just creates more opportunities for yourself. If we're going to struggle to get funders for our project, let's say in Europe or in England, I can go to places like Abu Dhabi now, which are really kind of behind us, and say to them 'We want to develop a new project, will you invest in it?' So it gives us more opportunities, more options, which is always good.
"I'm always trying to balance this thing between commerciality and the arts, and actually, they're exactly the same thing. Business is about exchanging things with other people, and there's no difference whether you're selling sweets at the end of the street or you're selling dance to Abu Dhabi."
Being inspired to succeed
"I'm inspired by the great entrepreneurs of the world, the people who start with a very simple idea and convert it into something magnificent.
“I hear stories of Chinese ladies who've now become the richest women in the world by virtue of recycling the waste paper of America by having it sent back in the empty containers that the Chinese send to America.
“And people who've come from nowhere, because that's what I've done. I had a pretty tough upbringing and I learned how to survive. Now some of those skills I've transferred to my professional life. Secondly, on top of that, having been a professional dancer, one of the great skills I've acquired is discipline."
Top tips for creatives
"Be confident, be determined. Don't be frightened, because actually in the arts there's a tendency to be very protective and defend what you've already acquired.
“I think that kind of mindset can really hold you back. It's like moving forward with the brakes on. Take the brakes off occasionally, don't be frightened to fall down and make mistakes.
“There are some fantastically talented people within the arts and outside of the arts - steal from them, learn from them, copy them. I never really set out to think 'I want to get to the top' and I don't feel I'm at the top, really, I don't feel there's any place I'm trying to be, I'm just trying to be who I am. If you do that, I just think things happen for you.
“Trust your luck. Luck is something which we don't use much but I think it's a wonderful term because there's a lot of luck, but for me luck is when opportunity meets preparation."
The museum director
Alice Black is deputy director of the Design Museum
Response to the recession
"The Design Museum, and I'm pretty sure most other museums in London and in the UK, are suffering and are going to suffer. The very first reactions that we've seen, our corporate clients, corporate sponsors, corporate members, take a very different attitude to business, and they're just waiting to see what is going to happen to them, so they're not committing to big expenditure.
“We've also seen in the last quarter a slight reduction in visitor numbers. It's nice expenditure but it's not one that is critical. We're monitoring the situation on almost a day-to-day business, really, to reign in expenditure. I mean, you can't really control your income, but you can certainly control your cost and that's what we're busy doing right now.
"We mainly do temporary exhibitions, which are quite expensive to undertake. When you're not seeing the income materialise, then you're really trying to reduce your cost base, and the exhibition is one of the biggest ones.
“There is a real dilemma, though, because if you spend less and do less ambitious shows, then you're going to have less people. We've just recently opened an exhibition on Husain Chaliyan, an impressive fashion designer, and people are coming in droves.
“So even if it's a recession, if you're putting on a good show, people will come. So you do have to take out this risk, to go out and spend and do great exhibitions without putting the health of the overall museum at risk."
Vital leadership qualities
“In a period of change or a period of challenges, then probably even more listening and a lot of sensitivity to other people is required. Because everybody is challenged, everybody's facing personal difficulty, and there is this deep uncertainty to where are we going. Is the business of the museum safe?
“So you do have to make sure your team gets this confidence from the leader. This ability to have a vision, but also to innovate and think about different business models. Because what worked in a period of plenty will certainly not work in a period where there is less money around. Really the leader has to be the one that accompanies that movement and encourages people to do things differently."
Advice to other leaders in the arts
"Look outside the cultural sector. I believe often people think that the cultural sector, or the charitable sector, obey completely different rules from the business sector, and I just don't believe this is true.
“Although we're not here to make money, we also have to obey some basic financial principles. I think it's very important to draw on the business sector to see how these businesses are run, understand the power of brands, because brands are becoming very important for a museum.
“To understand also the content sector, which has completely exploded on the internet. We in the cultural sector, we peddle content. I think this is one of our key competitive advantages. We need to use the business skills from the business sector to get this advantage and to maximise it for ourselves."
The independent artist
Fabiane Perrella is an independent artist who runs ‘Flour’, her own art and design studio.
Being affected by the financial climate
"I would say that the production of the work that I do, the motivation for the work I do, hasn't changed. But interestingly, I find that how the work I do is perceived by the private sector has changed.
“Suddenly the developing companies are diminishing the amount of buildings they produce for the domestic market and focusing on regeneration and public areas where there is more funding available. Doing the type of work I do, which has always focused on people on communities, it's receiving in this situation a more prominent position Because we're not focused on creating the new, but how we live well and enhance the life of what already exists."
Recession impacts everyone in the arts
"Both big and small organisations suffer, and have opportunities. Like in any situation, certain markets close and some open.
“I think big companies suffer a lot when they have to close certain avenues, the impact is on a bigger amount of people. I think percentage-wise, both types of industry are suffering. With an acceptance that society is an organic body, and things will always be cyclical and society will not be static, if both types of organisations can have that type of understanding, they will just fluctuate with it. If that understanding doesn't exist, sooner or later they will succumb."
Leadership skills for hard times
"This might be stating the obvious, but I think leaders need to focus on what is important. When things always are positive, and the economy is growing, you can afford to have what you don't need.
“But right now I think they should concentrate on what is important, what is necessary and what can be done in cost-effective ways to make people happy. I think frequently limitations and restrictions, and financial is as good as any, can lead people to be more creative.
"My top tips to become a leader in the creative sector are to be able to take criticism, to be able to juggle many skills, to be prepared to stick to your decisions for a long time, and do it with love."
©2008 Creative & Cultural Skills, all rights reserved