The Creative Economy: How People Make Money From Ideas [Paperback]

John Howkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2002

Britain makes more money from music than from its car industry. In the United States, the core copyright industries achieved foreign sales and exports of $60.18 billion-a figure that surpasses, for the first time, every other export sector, including automobiles, agriculture, and aircraft. Howkins sets out to explore how we can harness creativity and the industry it sustains to our common interests. The Creative Economy is not about information and the information society. It is about more basic matters, what we humans want and what we are good at.

Managing creative people will be fundamental to business success in the next century, and this book is the first to address the whole business of the creative economy-its importance, and how to manage it. A landmark in business books.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A valuable introduction to its brave new world'

--The Sunday Times, London

'The first really practical guide for people working in the creative industries'
--The Director

'As a freelance writer I was hypnotised by this book's subtitle, How People Make Money from Ideas'.

--The Guardian

'John Howkins is a renowned British economist and father of the creative industry.'

--CCTV, Beijing

'Mr Howkins is the guru of the creative economy'. --Chamber of Commerce, Seoul

About the Author

John Howkins worked in TV, film and digital media for many years, including 10 years with Time Warner, and five years as Executive Director of the International Institute of Communications, before turning to creativity and innovation. His book, The Creative Economy, was the first to map this new path of personal development and new way of working. 'The Creative Economy' (2001), and his second book, 'Creative Ecologies' (2009) delve deep into the reasons why we want to think for ourselves, and do things differently, and how we can turn this to personal benefit and business growth. He is Chairman of BOP Consulting and a board director of HandMade plc and HotBed Media, as well as Chairman of the John Howkins Research Centre on the Creative Economy in Shanghai, China. In 2009 he also co-authored an illustrated children's book with 14-year-old Zhao Li, currently available only in Chinese.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Global (June 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140287949
• ISBN-13: 978-0140287943
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #486,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Howkins worked in TV, film and digital media for many years, including 10 years with Time Warner, and five years as Executive Director of the International Institute of Communications, before turning to creativity and innovation. His book, The Creative Economy, was the first to map this new path of personal development and new way of working. 'The Creative Economy' (2001), and his second book, 'Creative Ecologies' (2009) delve deep into the reasons why we want to think for ourselves, and do things differently, and how we can turn this to personal benefit and business growth. He is Chairman of BOP Consulting and a board director of HandMade plc and HotBed Media, as well as Chairman of the John Howkins Research Centre on the Creative Economy in Shanghai, China. In 2009 he also co-authored an illustrated children's book with 14-year-old Zhao Li, currently available only in Chinese.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Howkins measures the creative economy, January 1, 2010

By 

RODNEY J. JENSEN (AUSTRALIA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Creative Economy: How People Make Money From Ideas (Paperback)

Overall, I see this book as a documentary treatment, aimed at a general readership. If there is any criticism of this approach, it is that in the attempt to deal inclusively with all creative/IP-related industries, the material frequently traverses already well trodden paths. Some of that material could perhaps have been jettisoned in favour of a more selective and microscopic focus on fewer industries.

Conversely, Howkin's great strength is his journalistic clarity and ability to sustain interest throughout the book without the usual impediment of overt citation disease plaguing other more pretentious and scholarly treatments. This book is ideal reading material for politicians, schoolteachers and captains of industry alike, in helping us to see the industrial world in a different way. In doing this, Howkins must stand equal to other leading popular theorists like Richard Florida, and Charles Landry.

For anyone who is involved in commercial and artistic processes which require IP protection (and obviously this becomes an obligation for those hoping to make a living from such activities) this book provides an essential wake-up call. As Howkins sums it all up on his final page: "a society that stifles or misuses its creative resources, and signs up to the wrong property contract, cannot prosper. But if we understand and manage this new creative economy, individuals will profit and society will be rewarded."

It is hard to disagree with this simple but powerful conclusion.
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