By Juman Sleiman, Senior Strategist for Imagination Middle East.
The landscape of businesses nowadays is ever-evolving and the need for businesses to draw on outside thinking to overcome challenges and capitalise on opportunities is only increasing. In the traditional sense, consultants are partners that offer insights and actionable strategies which support businesses in moving forward and growing within a changing competitive environment.
The Middle East has witnessed various transformations over the last few years. From KSA’s Vision 2030 which aims to create new opportunities for growth to the UAE’s Green Agenda, transformation across the region has been multifaceted, but with a clear vision to build a vibrant future for residents and citizens.
In the region, the consultancy market is highly competitive and dynamic. It ranges from large multinationals to niche players who are all in the pursuit of delivering excellence. As the region continues to develop, consultancies need to play a more integrated role and cultivate a culture of innovation, helping clients work towards the national vision. The challenge for businesses/clients is to find a strategic partner that is fit for the changing conditions in the region.
Creativity has always been a fundamental tool in driving success for marketing and design. However, creativity also plays a key role in problem-solving and innovation. Edward de Bono once said: “Creativity is the most important resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns”. Creative people don’t just think outside the box or design really cool concepts – they encourage clients to look beyond conventional solutions and connect the dots in a way that inspires new approaches. So what happens when you integrate creativity into consultancy? It becomes a powerful differentiator:
- Fresh and Unconventional Thinking: Allows consultants to approach projects in new ways by challenging assumptions, conventional methods and embracing ambiguity as an opportunity for discovery.
- Agility and Adaptability: The world is getting less predictable, and the business environment more dynamic. The days of traditional consulting projects that follow rigorous ‘copy and paste’ processes and deliverables are long gone. Consultants need to be comfortable navigating change. By harnessing creativity, consultants can adapt to market dynamics and shifting client needs, designing processes and deliverables that are relevant to the particular context, allowing them to stay ahead of the curve.
- Communicating Complex Ideas: The smartest strategies can fail if they are not understood by the people who must decide on them and implement them. Traditional strategy consultancies have defaulted to detailed diagrams and data charts, which can overwhelm the client or disengage them from the information, or even confuse them. Creativity can allow consultants to communicate complex ideas in engaging and appealing ways beyond the overwhelming 200-page document – inspiring the people who must embrace and implement the strategy for it to succeed.
- Tailored Client Solutions: Long gone are the days of one-size-fits-all approaches and repurposing strategy templates. Clients have specific objectives and expect consultancies to meet their needs, but approaches have always been too standard. Creativity can offer customised solutions that tailor to each client’s unique challenges and drive meaningful change.
At Imagination Middle East, integrating creativity in our consulting offer has proven successful across a variety of different projects where we have partnered with Giga projects, businesses and corporations to unlock the value of the Experience Economy.
We combine strategic smarts, creative inventiveness and commercial rigour and integrate a wide range of tools that allow us to deliver value added solutions and cater to the needs of our clients. Our methodology is driven by creativity at the core through tools such as the business model canvas and the value proposition canvas, combined with data tools such as behavioural science models and data visualisation.
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