Creativity isn’t a word associated with most businesses, unless you are talking about companies in fashion, film or music. But creativity has a place in every business, according to Mickey Drexler, CEO of J.Crew. His lessons for creative success can guide communications too.
Drexler recently was interviewed for a short feature in Fast Company, in which he offered 10 rules for creative success. His points are right at home in a discussion about risk communication, because creativity is all about taking risks.
Risk communication is our term for what you say (and how you say it) when you need to make a big leap in business performance. It’s the communication strategy – and the content – for going beyond business-as-usual to reach a major goal. It focuses on how you communicate when taking a conscious risk (like turning around a puny retail apparel brand) in order to improve your odds of success.
Drexler painted a pretty bleak picture about the ways companies often inhibit creativity. His observations can be applied equally well to communications:
1. Most companies are locked in last century’s organizational model. Drexler speaks about layers of bureaucracy and a kingdom mentality at most companies. Such structures impede good communication, too. Rigid divisions still exist between those responsible for speaking to customers, investors, the news media, advocacy groups and regulators. It’s no wonder these companies have fuzzy or even contradictory messages that confuse audiences and leave great strategies stalled at the gate.
2. Candor is very hard to find. It is amazing how many organizations don’t want to tell it like it is. They posture, spin and decorate the facts, but in today’s networked world, reality has a way of breaking through even the best defenses. And everyone is able to measure it against the company’s words every day.
3. Committees kill good communication. Committees are meant to find compromises, not breakthroughs. That’s why they seldom produce good products, and they rarely produce effective communication. Anyone who has read a corporate annual report – usually the product of a fairly big committee of lawyers, accountants and, yes, writers has seen this effect first hand.
J.Crew is a place where risk-taking is an everyday occurrence and a key to the company’s remarkable success since Drexler joined as CEO a decade ago. The Fast Company article speaks about the strong risk-taking partnership Drexler has with Jenna Lyons, the company’s president and chief designer:
“Their partnership would mark the end of the days when J.Crew’s product design was dictated by corporate strategy. Together they would make and sell only what they loved. The love would not be unconditional; they would adjust their product line always, trying new ideas, assessing, and quickly getting rid of anything that didn’t work. Under Drexler and Lyons, J.Crew would become a company of constant and freewheeling experimentation, iteration, adaptation.”
Good risk-communication practices show up in several ways at J.Crew. Lyons is known for her direct, personal touch with her team, and gives them permission to take risk. Lyons and Drexler have also paid close attention to the brand, and its distinctive look and feel now reaches everywhere – “from the employee handbook to the layout of the nursing room” – so that everything works together.
That strong environment has also opened the way for J.Crew to carry products from external designers, a once-radical notion that is giving customers more reasons to visit the stores and the website – and fueling the company’s revenue growth.
Those are good lessons for a company in any industry.