DELAWARE VALLEY INTERNATIONAL

CORPORATE CELEBRATION OF CULTURES

Johnny Aiello

Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, once observed that America was, "not a nation, so much as a world." In a world that has fast become a global this-and-that, can America realize its long-standing global-self? Put another way: When will multinational America catch up to its multinational corporations?

Powerful corporations have rallied to recognize the pivotal roles Cultures and Creativity play in unleashing our nation's potential. It's a far cry from their past Industrial Age, "Old Economy" position, when a corporate magnate like Henry "Model-T" Ford could openly warn his workers that "nationality differences are to be forgotten;" and when alarm bells sounded up and down staid corporate corridors that moment "creativity" was even whispered.

But that was the - the dustbin of corporate history. Today, Mr. Ford's melting pot bluster has been critically downsized the only sound prompted by "creativity" is that of jingling cash registers, as stock in Cultures and Creativity are experiencing a bull-market.

As part of a White Paper, published by U.S. Robotics, Hewlett-Packard, and a slew of other multinationals, "Cultures awareness is now a new tool for business effectiveness." While this bold endorsement of "cultures" may have concentrated on cultural realities overseas, can the emphasis on America's diverse cultures be far behind?

Proctor & Gamble isn't far behind. In a Fortune article, "Making Diversity Pay," we see the future in Proctor & Gamble's evolved position: "At the core of managing a more diverse work force is finding a way to make people of every type feel connected to the company." "Simply put," the P&G statement continues, " a company with a diverse work force will have easier time serving markets that themselves are becoming more multicultural."

This inspired corporate/cultures approach acknowledges that America has the right stuff, right here, from sea to shining sea. America is a great repository of global cultures - "not a nation, so much as a world" - and it would seem appropriate for the rest of society to take advantage of all the talent and resources that this offers.

While the concept of "cultures" was never supported in public, by the public - for fear of appearing un-American - this worry has had its sharp edge sanded down. More and more of us are secure enough, American enough, to see that identification with cultural-lineage is not grounds for the abrogation of citizenship; more, a benefit of it. Unfortunately, there's a bigger gap between creativity (innovation) and the public, than it in enlightened corporations.

According to that same White Paper, "Innovation is the engine of economic growth. Innovative companies often dominate markets, because they get there first and set the standards" - better known in the New Economy as "Standard Setting." From Kevin Kelly in WIRED: "Wealth flows directly from innovation."

Creative individuals have always been the premier risk-takers and as such, the harbingers of great changes to come. Will Rogers might have never met a man he didn't like, but society never met a change it did. Alvin Tofler even coined a phrase for this in 1970, to capture the human response to accelerate changes: Future Shock! The creative among us scare the hell out of us. Why? Above all, they're more willing to risk their very survival to pursue a dream. Scary, indeed!

And yet, to their everlasting credit, we've profited from their dreams and "risky" technique. Once an almost Freudian taboo, risk has become machismo. An AIG commercial taunts us on TV: "The greatest risk is not taking one." A more poetic jab from another corporation: "Achieving a balance between risk and reward."

The recent surge in the global importance of Cultures and Creativity is a corporate-happening. All too much of the rest of society remains stuck in the past, with cultures mis-expressed and creativity suppressed. George Soros, business guru, billionaire, and philanthropist, clearly warns us of the dangerous divisions between global marketplace and social commonplace: "The development of a global society has lagged behind the growth of a global economy. Unless this gap is closed, the global capitalist system will not survive."

The good news is that we don't have to stumble in the dark. We're not alone in this. There's a precedent to guide us: The Italian Renaissance! At no time before, or since, has a society so totally connected itself with its Creative talent, its Cultures diversity and Corporate advances - utilizing them to the highest levels of risk and innovation, and with such dazzling results - if you will, C3 to the maximus!

In tandem with this full development and deployment of Cultures & Creativity, Renaissance Italians in the Corporate sector weren't just sittin' around sippin' espresso. They were occupied with a few things that might have a familiar ring: Multinational corporate structuring; Global and branch-banking; Advance accounting procedures (double-entry bookkeeping, deficit spending, and the Science of Statistics); Insurance and patents (both of Venetian provenance); Modernizing global trade, and minting it own Florentine International tender (the gold florin), to stimulate that trade by making it more trustworthy; and developing media (modern book publishing) to better disseminate its C3 message around the world.

The Renaissance proved that when the components of C3 (Corporations, Cultures and Creativity) are purposefully connected not only does each flourish more than they would have, the combined impact exceeds the sum of its parts. Five hundred years later, here we are staring at the same C3 triad: on the cusp of perhaps realizing that what worked for renaissance Italians can for us. Pursuing the same conscious development and connection of Business, Cultures and the Arts, we can begin to construct an American Renaissance! Espresso, anyone?

Printed in SBN (Small Business Network) magazine, March 2001.

Written in 2000 as a complement piece to the 16-page prototype for

"Corporate Celebration of Cultures" - - - from the original notes

and designs of 1980.