Many organizational leaders in the United States, Europe, and Japan are recognizing
a need for greater innovation to keep pace with technological and societal
advances and compete with the growing power of companies in China and other
developing countries. Rather than focusing on ways to improve effi ciency and cut
costs, today’s leaders are rewiring their organizations for creativity and innovation.
Some observers of business trends suggest that the knowledge economy of the late
1990s and early 2000s is rapidly being transformed into the creativity economy.
As more high-level knowledge work is outsourced to less-developed countries,
companies in the United States, Europe, and Japan are evolving to the next level—
generating economic value from creativity, imagination, and innovation.24