In 2019, I helped run the largest study ever done on the relationship between design and business performance. We found that the vast majority of companies were stuck, full of creative potential that they couldn't convert into results. This month, Accenture Song published a brand-new study of 1,725 executives across 14 countries, and they found the same exact gap, almost to the percentage point.
This episode puts both studies side by side. Not to say "I told you so," but because two firms, working seven years apart with completely different methods, landing on the same wall, isn't a coincidence. It's proof that this was never a technology problem. I also break down why "applied creativity" is on track to become the next "design thinking," a term everyone adopts and nobody actually builds, unless leaders treat it differently this time. And I close with a three-question audit you can run on your own team before the episode's even over.
This one's for anyone who's tired of hearing that AI will finally make creativity matter. It already mattered. The infrastructure to act on it just never got built.
In this episode:
Why Accenture's 2026 "applied creativity" data lines up almost exactly with the InVision design maturity study from 2019
The three pillars both studies independently found: commitment, structure, expertise
Why only 9% of board members at major companies have creative backgrounds, and why that's the actual story
Why design thinking died, and the exact pattern that could kill "applied creativity" the same way
The harder truth: AI didn't create this gap, it just removed the excuse
A three-question audit to find out which pillar your team is actually missing
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