02 December 2005

Sir George Cox sets out his response to the challenge of exploiting the UK's world-class creative capabilities more fully

Sir George Cox has today published his review of creativity and design in UK business. The Cox Review of Creativity in Business: building on the UK’s strengths was concerned with ensuring that UK businesses – SMEs and modern manufacturers in particular - apply creativity and design to improve their productivity and performance. The intelligent application of creativity and design allows businesses of all sizes to access new, global markets by increasing the distinctiveness of products and services and competing on the basis of the added value of their unique appeal to consumers. The review focused on two broad areas: building a stronger relationship between businesses and creative professionals, and strengthening the links across university departments and with industry.

The Cox review makes a range of recommendations to central and regional Government, businesses, broadcasters and educational institutions. It identifies steps that can be taken to raise awareness and the profile of creativity; target support and incentive schemes; build capacity in higher education, and utilise the power of public procurement to encourage innovation.

The review concludes that a lack of awareness and understanding of the role that greater creativity can play in business is a key barrier to SMEs making greater use of creative skills. It recommends a number of measures to tackle this:

raise the profile of the UK’s creative capabilities through a national network of creativity and innovation centres;
engage SMEs and demonstrate the practical benefits of applying creativity through the availability in each region of the Design for Business programme of support;
increase the understanding of creativity and innovation in the boardroom by recruiting people with creative experience onto company boards;
educate senior business people by including creativity on the syllabus of the Institute of Directors’ Chartered Director programme; and
use the broadcast media to encourage creativity and innovation.

The review makes a number of specific recommendations to develop better linkages between creativity and other disciplines:

build cross-disciplinary capabilities in business, engineering, technology and creativity through new educational centres of excellence;
establish closer links between universities and SMEs; and
ensure that higher education courses better prepare students to work with, and understand, creative specialists.

Sir George Cox said:

"What is impressive about the emerging economies is not where they stand today, but how they are positioning themselves for the future. Alongside the enterprise and vigour that characterise their economic growth, they are building up new technology-based industries and impressive capabilities in scientific research, and investing massively in education, technical skills and creative capabilities.

In many ways, the UK is one of the best placed nations to respond to this challenge. It has an outstanding record of innovation and its creative industries - in areas like fashion, design, architecture, advertising and games software - are world leaders. The problem is that these capabilities are all too often underexploited by the other parts of British business.

The concern of my review is the untapped potential of the large number of solidly-managed but low-growth UK businesses that could be transformed with a skilful injection of creativity. One of the challenges is to get business people, engineers, technologists and designers to understand one another better and to speak the same language. This applies to both experienced practitioners and those we are training for tomorrow. That's why both areas are tackled within the recommendations."

Speaking today about the publication of the Cox review following a creativity summit at No 11 Downing Street, designer, Sir Terence Conran, said:

"The Creativity Summit I had recently with Gordon Brown, George Cox and many leading designers and business figures was a significant moment for our creative industries. After nearly fifty years of frustration, we realised - in the heart of Downing Street - that the message on design and creativity and its importance to the quality of life and the economy in our country, had been well understood by the Government."

Notes for editors

1. In Budget 2005, the Chancellor asked Sir George Cox to conduct a review focusing on how best to ensure that SMEs are able to apply creativity and innovation to improve their performance and productivity. The report of the Cox review can be accessed through HM Treasury’s website:

Cox Review of Creativity in Business

2. The review consulted extensively with key stakeholders in producing its findings, including the creative industries, businesses in a range of others sectors, educational institutions and regional and devolved bodies, as well as international contacts.

3. In parallel with the Cox review, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has published Economics Paper No. 15, Creativity, Design and Business Performance, an economic study of the role of creativity and design in contributing to business performance. It provides evidence of the positive impact creativity can have in improving firms’ competitiveness. The study can be accessed through the DTI’s website.

4. The full terms of reference for the Cox review were:

George Cox, Chairman of the Design Council, will report, by the 2005 Pre-Budget Report, on how best to enhance UK business productivity by drawing on our world-leading creative capabilities.

The review will address two specific issues:

Firstly, it will identify how best to strengthen the relationship between businesses - particularly SMEs - and creative professionals drawn from a range of design, arts and related disciplines. These will include the potential impact on business performance of, among other things, digital media, product and industrial design, the arts and culture, graphics, branding and advertising, publishing, packaging, as well as interior and retail design. Within this, the review will have a particular focus on the role of creativity in modern manufacturing.
Secondly, the review will look at strengthening the links across university departments and with industry. This will include new forms of courses, services and alliances involving, among others, art, design and creative courses, business schools and engineering and technology courses.
The review will propose specific action in both of these areas, for Government, businesses and other institutions, with the objective of raising UK productivity.

5. Media enquiries should be addressed to Will Straw at Treasury press office on 020 7270 4420.

6. Non-media enquiries should be addressed to the Treasury Correspondence and Enquiry Unit on 020 7270 4558 or by e-mail to public.enquiries@hm-treasury.gov.uk.

7. This press release and other Treasury publications and information area available on the Treasury website at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/. If you would like Treasury press releases to be sent to you automatically by e-mail you can subscribe to this service from the press release site on the website.