Creativity is an intangible characteristic that most every company aims to cultivate. So much of what makes a company succeed—the ability to foster innovation, exceptional talent and leadership, and a high degree of brand recognition—is influenced by its creative perspective, practices, and culture. But does creativity also impact the bottom line, and do companies experience more business success because they foster creativity?

In May 2014, Adobe commissioned Forrester Consulting to investigate how creativity influences business outcomes. The study surveyed senior managers from corporations across a diverse set of industries to quantify and qualify how creativity impacts business results. We wanted to see if companies that cultivate creativity experience, what is termed in this study, a “creative dividend.”

This study found that companies that embrace creativity outperform peers and competitors on key business performance indicators, including revenue growth, market share, and talent acquisition. They enjoy a high-performance working environment, driven by progressive leaders and managers who provide processes, methods, and funding to back creative initiatives.

KEY FINDINGS

• Despite the perceived benefits of creativity, 61% of companies do not see their companies as creative. In our survey of business decision-makers who influence creative software purchases, only 11% said their practices were perfectly aligned with firms readily recognized as creative. The majority (51%) said they were neutral or not aligned with creative firms, and 10% felt their practices were, in fact, the opposite of what creative companies do.
• More companies that foster creativity achieve exceptional revenue growth than peers. Fifty-eight percent of survey respondents that said their firms foster creativity had 2013 revenues exceeding their 2012 revenues by 10% or more. In contrast, only 20% of less creative companies performed similarly. 
• More creative companies enjoy greater market share and competitive leadership. Our survey showed that creative companies are also more likely to report a commanding market leadership position with a higher market share than their competitors. Of those reporting market share leadership, creative companies outnumber their less creative counterparts by a factor of 1.5.
• More creative companies win recognition as a best place to work. A positive employee work environment is a fertile breeding ground for creativity. Our survey showed that 69% of creative firms also reported winning awards and national recognition for being a “best place to work.” Just 27% of less creative companies achieved similar accolades. Creative companies in our survey create a high-performance work environment, since 83 creative firms reported winning national attention while only 26 less creative firms did the same: a difference of 3 to 1.
• Companies put creativity on the business agenda.When we asked respondents to identify how they pursue creativity, the majority said they set goals around creative outcomes (58%) and collaborate with customers to achieve them (58%), with their executives prioritizing (55%) and funding new ideas (48%) that come out of creative brainstorming and ideation.
• Creativity thrives with leadership support. Regard less of type of business or industry, survey results found that executives and business leaders should nurture, fund, and promote programs to increase creative capability, including early technology adoption, and encourage the creation of novel customer experiences that build bonds and increase brand loyalty. [Executive Summary]