cover image The Creative Priority: Driving Innovative Business in the Real World

The Creative Priority: Driving Innovative Business in the Real World

Jerry Hirshberg. HarperBusiness, $25 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-88730-830-7

The deliberate hiring of two people with opposing ideas, while blurring the boundaries of job responsibility--and drawing creative solutions from the resulting abrasion--was the modus operandi of SOP at Nissan Design International, the San Diego think-and-show shop set up in 1979 by Japan's Nissan automaker and led by the author of this enlightening story of international business collaboration. A manifesto against hidebound design methods he encountered earlier at General Motors and a call for creativity as ""the principal role of business,"" Hirshberg's book is replete with creative and cultural anecdotes: a secretary turns a project around by saying the model ""looks fat, dumb and ugly""; the boss takes everyone to a movie on a day when all creative urges seem dead; executives from Japan--who'd rather be ""best"" than ""first""--politely reject an early Infiniti J30 design because the grille's ""mouth is frowning"" and its eyes (headlights) are ""squinty."" Hirshberg's case for open and even contentious creativity strains credulity at times (collaborative ""cheating"" is encouraged) but in the main is convincing. Apparently with corporate Nissan's agreement, NDI has taken on outside commissions, designing everything from children's furniture to a yacht. Photos. (Feb.)