Critical thinking and imagination to fuel business growth

Businesses looking to drive serious and substantive change over the next decade need to embrace critical thinking and imagination, according to a new report.

WPP has launched a significant new report

Critical thinking, deductive reasoning, judgment and imagination could become the most powerful skills for the business leaders of the future, according to a groundbreaking new research study.

The Australia 2035 and Beyond report explores the challenges and opportunities Australian businesses and governments must consider if they wish to drive serious and substantive change within the next decade.

With a wide-ranging remit across technology, healthcare and education, the research unlocks the current views of Australians alongside a host of recommendations in a bid to prompt public and private sectors to start discussions about what the future for Australia will look like.

Commissioned by creative transformation company WPP and undertaken by YouGov, The Australia 2035 and Beyond report is a response to demand from Australian businesses for insights and visions about the future in order to drive organisational growth.

WPP chief strategic officer Katie Rigg-Smith told The Growth Agenda one of the most significant findings in the research was an overwhelming desire for change.

“People are asking for radical change across categories, across industry,” she said. “We want change, but change requires big thinking and it requires creativity to make the world better.”

Katie Rigg-Smith is the chief strategy officer for WPP Australia and New Zealand

However, while the report unearthed a desire for change, it also revealed obstacles, including the finding that 74 per cent of Australians do not believe people can debate key topics with respects for others opinions.

More than half (53 per cent) are too afraid to speak their mind publicly, which the report suggests is a significant barrier to the diverse opinions and creative thinking that is crucial to a broader public discussion about change.

“There’s a really big opportunity for the creative sector to unleash creativity of thought across all disciplines, to say how do we help rally that, how do we help present ideas that are going to get people thinking that we can then help make a reality?” Ms Rigg-Smith said.

“So if you were doing intergenerational living, if that became something we could create, what does that mean for a bank brand? How do insurance brands need to get involved with that? What kind of new products and services are needed if we have aged-care living in on the first floor of an apartment complex, how could you create a technology enabled pack that people could subscribe to,? There’s so many ways into the ideas, but we first need to have the conversations.”

The report identifies the crucial importance of critical thinking, deductive reasoning and judgment as under-utilised and under-trained skills that will be imperative for navigating a future filled with AI technology, misinformation and fake content.

The report, which launches on Monday at SXSW Sydney, aims to serve as a clarion call to governments and businesses to work together to try to create solutions to help propel the country over the next 10 years, according to WPP Australia and New Zealand president Rose Herceg.

“On a daily basis, our private sector clients talk about the kind of thinking that will move their businesses forward from a serious and substantive financial point of view – from revenue streams, business units, EBITDA and all of the financial metrics that allow for them to fund a marketing budget,” she said. “This research matters because the only way that you are going to find new revenue streams, new audiences, and to be quite frank, the money, is to unleash imagination and creative thinking.”

The report launches during the Australia 2035: Are you ready for what’s coming session at SXSW Sydney on Monday 14 October.

Rose Herceg is the president of WPP Australia and New Zealand

Ms Herceg said the businesses who take the lead in this sort of forward-planning will have a strong competitive advantage.

“There are businesses that are leading the charge but I would say for the companies that aren’t already investing in this, they should have an internal think tank where all they do is scenario plan,” she said. “We should be paying good money to the smartest and most imaginative people. This is about imagination. It’s a distinct intersection of data and imagination and you need both.

“I love data, but what I’ve also got a healthy dose of is wild imagination, and we need companies to fund people with imagination who understand science, technology and data. We’ve got to say, what if? That’s every bank, every telco, every developer, every retailer should have a group of people, whose whole job is to scenario plan.

“There’s a tonne of innovation work that needs to be done by almost every sector in this country. The question is, who’s going to have the guts to just do it?

“We can talk a lot about it or we can just look at it and say, you know what we have within our means, the opportunity to do a lot of this, what are we going to just double down on or what are we going to take away and make real?

“In my experience the true trail blazers just start and they pilot something in a very small way.”

Ms Rigg-Smith added: “The future is really bright. But it’s going to take imagination and new ways of thinking and provocation. How we build a better future for tomorrow is going to be through really creative transformation. I like the fact that we work in an industry that is perfectly placed to help drive that.”