Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work

work in an industry that doesn’t compete on innovation, per-

haps one in which you enjoy some natural advantage (say, low

labor costs), you may not be safe from the need for artful mak-

ing.

This competitive dynamic generates a prediction that

follows from our artful making framework: As enabling tech-

nologies continue to lower the

cost of iteration, industries

will increasingly compete on

innovation, on their artful

capabilities. Sleepy industries

will wake up. Fundamental production processes will be

restructured to emphasize rapid reconfiguration, that is, itera-

tion. This is already happening in knowledge industries.

Others, we believe, will follow ...