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Nesta survey suggests ‘creative companies are hindered by lack of business and financial planning acumen’

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

September 4, 2012 | 3 min read

Charity organisation Nesta aims to help organisations with creative ideas by providing investments and grants and mobilising research, networks and skills. Recently it released the results of a survey, undertaken by Opinion Matters, which suggested that ambitious creative companies could be hindered by lack of business and planning acumen.

100 creative industry executives were interviewed from advertising, digital, film, gaming and TV. 59 per cent of these executives felt that their business excels in generating ideas but only 20 per cent claimed the equivalent expertise in business and financial forecasting.

The results also suggested that creativity and client servicing take priority over business operations – 58 per cent said they excel in client servicing. The impression of ‘creativity over bottom-line’ was strengthened by just 28 per cent of respondents saying they excel in new business development.

The survey came ahead of the deadline for Nesta’s Creative Business Mentor Network programme, a scheme designed to match 30 creative businesses with mentors across the creative industry.

Regarding mentors, the results showed that two thirds (66 per cent) of the creative industry’s leaders recognise mentoring as a way of helping them deal with the business challenges they face; 42 per cent said they would like to work with a mentor and 25 per cent said they have worked with a mentor before – over half of which would like to again.

Despite financial and business planning finishing at the bottom of the areas creative business leaders excel in, just 10 per cent would make their first mentor question ‘how can I improve financial planning’. Instead, leadership and team development top the list of first questions they would ask a mentor.

The Creative Business Mentor Network mentor panel has included: Patrick McKenna, CEO at Ingenious Media; Tim Bevan, CEO, Working Title Films; Louise Pedersen, Managing Director, All3Media International and Andy Payne, CEO, Appynation.

Jon Kingsbury, director of Creative Economy Programmes at Nesta said: “The UK is a hotbed of creativity and it’s great to see so many businesses leaders who are happy to state they feel ideas generation and client management are areas where they excel. Part of our aim for the Creative Business Mentoring Network programme is to help these talented businesses realise their full potential by bringing in the experience and skills of a seasoned mentor to balance creativity with business and financial imperatives.”

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