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The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited is an eighteen chapter book published in 2012 by Basic Books and written by Richard Florida, of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and New York University. The author presents a revised and expanded version of his classic work, which pioneered the idea that our society is in the midst of a fundamental economic and cultural shift led by an emerging class of people, defined by their occupations as the Creative Class. He argues that human creativity has become the pivotal force at the heart of current societal change. Supporting his theory with substantial research and grounding his arguments in classic historical and economic thinking, Florida sheds new light on successful Creative Age comIn Chapter 3, The Creative Class (28 pages), the author explains why this class as a group with shared values and characteristics that holds a particular place in our economic structure. He posits that the class system is based on a person's economic function and that members of the Creative Class have occupations that focus on making new products, services, or ideas. The chapter updates the author's original research on the Creative Class, examines the growth of this group in the past decade, and compares this with data on the working and the service classes. New research expands on the relation between gender and race in the creative class. The author outlines the values of the creative class: individuality, meritocracy, diversity and openness.

The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited is an eighteen chapter book published in 2012 by Basic Books and written by Richard Florida, of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and New York University. The author presents a revised and expanded version of his classic work, which pioneered the idea that our society is in the midst of a fundamental economic and cultural shift led by an emerging class of people, defined by their occupations as the Creative Class. He argues that human creativity has become the pivotal force at the heart of current societal change. Supporting his theory with substantial research and grounding his arguments in classic historical and economic thinking, Florida sheds new light on successful Creative Age companies and cities. Chapter 2, The Creative Economy (20 pages), begins the first section of the book, which builds an understanding of the Creative Age. The author explores the creativity and the role it plays as the central theme of our time, focusing on three key aspects of creativity: how it is essential, multi-faceted, and in tension with organization. He presents an in-depth look at the basic concept of creativity by summarizing the most important writing and study involving the topic in the past few decades. This commentary includes a discussion of the relationship between creativity and organization, thoughts on why creativity is on the rise, and the development of his insight into creativity in the factory environment.

The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited is an eighteen chapter book published in 2012 by Basic Books and written by Richard Florida, of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and New York University. The author presents a revised and expanded version of his classic work, which pioneered the idea that our society is in the midst of a fundamental economic and cultural shift led by an emerging class of people, defined by their occupations as the Creative Class. He argues that human creativity has become the pivotal force at the heart of current societal change. Supporting his theory with substantial research and grounding his arguments in classic historical and economic thinking, Florida sheds new light on successful Creative Age companies and cities. In Chapter 1, The Transformation of Everyday Life (12 pages), the author explores the cultural changes of the 20th century and the forces behind them. He posits that, although the advances in technology during the latter half of the century have dramatically altered our daily lives, the most significant changes have been to our underlying value systems and cultural norms. He attributes these changes to the results of a shift in our society which not only values, but systemizes and cultivates, human creativity. He explains his theory of the Creative Class and why he believes we are on the verge of a new world order.

The world isn't just flat. Alongside the dispersing centrifugal forces of globalization there are equally powerful centripetal forces that trigger economic concentration in a few dozen megaregions--areas like the Boston-New York-Washington corridor and the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou triangle--which account for the bulk of the globe's economic activity and innovation.

Dr. Richard Florida wrote the book on creativity; in fact, he wrote two. In this interview he talks about why creative capital is drawn to certain places, the fate of 'second-tier' cities, and the dangers of our increasingly 'spikey' world, whereby a handful of cities are attracting a disproportionate number of what he has termed 'the creative class'. Florida describes how the creative class is looking for three things in life: a job that excites and challenges them; a place to live that is rich with cultural activities; and an ability to 'be themselves'. Organizations - and regions - who want to attract them, should take note.

A company's most important asset isn't raw materials, transportation systems, or political influence. It's creative capital--simply put, an arsenal of creative thinkers whose ideas can be turned into valuable products and services. Creative employees pioneer new technologies, birth new industries, and power economic growth. If you want your company to succeed, these are the people you entrust it to. But how do you accommodate the complex and chaotic nature of the creative process while increasing efficiency, improving quality, and raising productivity? Most businesses haven't figured this out. A notable exception is SAS Institute, the world's largest privately held software company. SAS makes Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list every year. The company has enjoyed low employee turnover, high customer satisfaction, and 28 straight years of revenue growth. What's the secret to all this success? The authors, an academic and a CEO, approach this question differently, but they've come to the same conclusion: SAS has learned how to harness the creative energies of all its stakeholders, including its customers, software developers, managers, and support staff. Its framework for managing creativity rests on three guiding principles. First, help employees do their best work by keeping them intellectually engaged and by removing distractions. Second, make managers responsible for sparking creativity and eliminate arbitrary distinctions between "suits" and "creatives." And third, engage customers as creative partners so you can deliver superior products. Underlying all three principles is a mandate to foster interaction--not just to collect individuals' ideas. By nurturing relationships among developers, salespeople, and customers, SAS is investing in its future creative capital.

The strength of the American economy does not rest on its manufacturing prowess, its natural resources, or the size of its market. It turns on one factor--the country's openness to new ideas, which has allowed it to attract the brightest minds from around the world and harness their creative energies. But the United States is on the verge of losing that competitive edge. As the nation tightens its borders to students and scientists and subjects federal research funding to ideological and religious litmus tests, many other countries are stepping in to lure that creative capital away. Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, and others are spending more on research and development and shoring up their universities in an effort to attract the world's best--including Americans. If even a few of these nations draw away just a small percentage of the creative workers from the United States, the effect on its economy will be enormous. In this article, the author introduces a quantitative measure of the migration of creative capital called the Global Creative-Class Index. It shows that, far from leading the world, the United States doesn't even rank in the Top 10 in the percentage of its workforce engaged in creative occupations. What's more, the baby boomers will soon retire. And data showing large drops in foreign-student applications to U.S. universities and in the number of visas issued to knowledge workers, along with concomitant increases in immigration in other countries, suggest that the erosion of talent from the United States will only intensify. To defend the U.S. economy, the business community must take the lead in ensuring that global talent can move efficiently across borders, that education and research are funded at radically higher levels, and that we tap into the creative potential of more and more workers. Because wherever creativity goes, economic growth is sure to follow.

HBR's editors searched for the best new ideas related to the practice of management and came up with a collection that is as diverse as it is provocative. The 2004 HBR List includes emergent concepts from biology, network science, management theory, and more. A few highlights: Richard Florida wonders why U.S. society doesn't seem to be thinking about the flow of people as the key to America's advantage in the "creative age." Diane L. Coutu describes how the revolution in neurosciences will have a major impact on business. Clayton M. Christensen explains the law of conservation of attractive profits: When attractive profits disappear at one stage in the value chain because a product becomes commoditized, the opportunity to earn attractive profits with proprietary products usually emerges at an adjacent stage. Daniel H. Pink explains why the master of fine arts is the new MBA. Herminia Ibarra describes how companies can get the most out of managers returning from leadership-development programs. Iqbal Quadir suggests a radical fix for the third world's trade problems: Get the World Bank to lend to rich countries so that there are resources for retraining workers in dying industries.

Regions where social ties are tight are the worst places to put your innovation operations. Look instead for communities that promote tolerance, diversity, and creativity.

Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) are relatively new and rather innovative management practices that provide firms with additional sources of information and leverage over their environmental and business processes and performance. This article reports the results of a survey of manufacturing plants that have adopted EMSs. It finds that EMSs are associated with factories that are larger, more committed to total quality management, and more innovative in general. EMSs are also a useful tool for managing community relationships and dealing with key stakeholder groups with respect to potentially controversial environmental issues. Furthermore, EMS plants appear to pose less environmental risk for communities and report that their adoption and use of an EMS is an important factor in achieving this result. In the end, EMSs are an effective tool for managing environmental costs and risks inside and outside the factory in ways that add to, rather than detract from, the bottom-line.

Presents the results of a national survey of environmental manufacturing practices. Efforts by firms to improve manufacturing processes and increase productivity create substantial opportunities for environmental improvement. The adoption of advanced manufacturing process innovations provides incentives for the adoption of environmentally conscious manufacturing strategies. Close relationships across the production chain, between end-users and suppliers in particular, facilitate the adoption of this related bundle of environmental and industrial innovations. Firms and plants that are R&D-intensive and manufacturing innovators possess the capacity to both improve productivity and reduce environmental costs and risks.