Why Hewlett-Packard is hiring dancers
By Cheryl Strauss Einhorn @CNNMoney April 23, 2013: 5:51 AM ET
Thank you Cnn. From reetime news technology. |
(CNNMoney)
Most dance companies make money by selling tickets to their performances. Boise-based troupe Trey McIntyre Project has a more expansive business model: "We've decided that we have a real asset, which is the creative process itself. We're selling that," says John Michael Schert, the company's co-founder and executive director.
Companies are buying the pitch. Corporate giants such as Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) and Aetna (AET, Fortune 500) have signed on, and The University of Chicago Booth Business School recently hired Schert for advice on getting inspired.
"Artists live the whole process of inspiration. We decided to refine it as a tool," says Schert, a former dancer himself. "We want companies to understand what they are creating, whether it is a marketing strategy or a healthcare policy, and get them to think about where they get hung up, and how to find ways around those stopping points to come up with new ideas."
Lumbering tech giant Hewlett-Packard is a company that desperately needs new ideas. Von Hansen, the company's general manager of future technologies, has been working with TMP almost quarterly since 2008. He says working with the dancers "pulls our staff out of the same way we do things so that we can better design solutions and solve problems."
TMP's dancers show up at HP's headquarters -- sometimes unannounced -- and break into a performance right by employee cubicles. Afterward, the dancers lead employees through a discussion of the creative process and how a dance is created and refined.
"We teach them the dance after we've discussed it so that they can experience that translation of verbal cue to action," Schert says.
From there, a senior HP executive kicks off a broader discussion about a new product or problem facing the company. Together, TMP and the HP employees discuss how HP can hone its creative skills to solve the task at hand.
Hansen says it's hard to point to any one specific breakthrough the TMP sessions have inspired, but he believes the creative vibe pays off.
"They really create positive energy, and that translates into our engineers and scientists," he says. "It helps people open their minds."
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Hiring motivational speakers, performers and artists to inspire corporate cube-dwellers is a time-honored tradition at big companies. Tracking the ROI on such ventures is tricky, researchers admit. There's very little hard data out there, says Barry Jaruzelski, a senior partner at Booz & Co. who conducts the firm's annual Global Innovation study.
Still, he thinks the anecdotal evidence is strong: "Unconventional interactions can lower the barrier for people to posit novel things," he says.
Real estate developer Clay Carley recently hired the Trey McIntyre Project's dancers to help his team brainstorm plans for a new mixed-use property in Old Boise, a downtown commercial district.
"We've gotten some unusual ideas," he says. "They've helped us with how to imagine the space in non-traditional ways, such as circular rooms, and ideas for amenities."
At Aetna, the dance troupe's work is more hands-on -- literally. The health insurance company's philanthropic foundation recently hired the group to train thousands of the company's doctors and nurses on improving their patient interactions. "We're helping them read body language in an effort to reduce patient stress," Schert says.
TMP's rates for its "engagement" line of business start at around $20,000 for half-day presentation featuring four members of its dance company. Each presentation is tailored for the specific company and its problem, but most follow a similar process to what TMP does for HP.
The troupe's creativity about its own business model has certainly helped its bottom line: The group projects that its corporate business may soon account for a third of TMP's $2.25 million annual budget.
Schert is bullish about how the business-and-art synergy can pay off for both sides. "We're changing the role of the artist," he says. "We can help with how ideas are generated and harnessed. It helps companies, and it helps artists state their value."
Thank you Cnn. From reetime news technology.