SCHMITTblog

Strategy 3: Traveling for Creativity

The last few weeks were hectic for me, jetting from the U.S. to South America and then to Asia. But it won’t be anything compared to what’s coming up during the next 6 weeks: Europe, Singapore, Japan, India, Korea again, Taiwan, Singapore again, Istanbul. So, I am trying to make the best of it. Preparing a new course on creativity and innovation, it occurs to me how lucky I am. Travel provides constant stimulation. Although I am an office animal rather than a “home gardener” (that is, I arrive at the office at 8 at the latest and stay till 7), the “occasional” trip really stimulates my creative juices. The creativity gurus seem to agree; in fact, Jordan Ayan (author of the book “Aha!”) lists “get out of your box through travel” as “Strategy 3” for creativity.

But, when you do it, you may as well do it right: Get out of your hotel, too!

A Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience

What’s a man supposed to do with a bottle of 1999 Vintage Dom Perignon at 8:40am in the morning in a Tokyo hotel when he has to fly out at noon? That’s the question I pondered, having received the gift after giving a talk to LVMH. I recalled a similar situation from a few years ago, when I had been given a case and decided to take a champagne bath. Today, just one bottle wasn’t quite enough for that; so I decided on a chapmpagne shower instead of a bath. I uncorked it, had a little sip and proceeded to the shower … Ah, what a pleasure!!! As I stepped out of the shower, still stark naked, I suddenly felt slightly tipsy – or so I thought – until I realized that the building was shaking and the window-filled walls moving. Yes, it was the 7.2 (richter scale) quake on Saturday morning that you have been reading about. The Japanese infrastructure for earthquakes is amazing, though. So it was a kind of scary fun to swing back and forth after the champagne shower on the 37^th floor of the Royal Park Shiodome hotel.

A once-in-a-lifetime experience, I hope.

On Beef and Passion

I am in Korea for the launch of the Korean edition of my book “Big Think Strategy,” giving speeches and doing press interviews, in the midst of the largest demonstrations the country has seen in many years. People are protesting the Korean government’s decision to lift the ban on U.S. beef imports which had been imposed in 2003 over fears of mad cow disease. The government is now being criticized for increasing health risks while appeasing the U.S. government. And since my book is full of beef and cow metaphors (“A great strategy is like a great steak,” “Kill the Sacred Cows,” etc), journalists ask me to comment on this hot political issue. “Korean people are passionate people,” I say hesitantly. “Just a few months ago, President Lee Myung-Bak was elected in a landslide, and now his approval ratings are about 20 per cent. It took President Bush seven years and a very unpopular war to get down to 30 per cent.” In fact, the demonstrations, which are heavily attended by teenagers and people in their twenties, are more like rave parties than the demonstrations I am used to from the seventies. Rather than being staged for a political agenda, these new demonstrations seem to be an expression of the boredom that sets in when people are fully satisfied and try to recapture, perhaps, a sense of lost passion.