1.1 The core technologies of the 4^th industrial revolution

The term “4^th industrial revolution” seems to have first appeared at the World Economic Forum (WEF), known as the Davos Forum and held in January 2016.¹⁾

The industrial revolutions of the past and present may be classified into four categories, based on the key technologies of the era. These are:

At the Davos forum, it was declared that the 4^th industrial revolution would move the whole economy towards destructive innovation by the linking of automated, intelligent machines. The very existence of a society or a country may be affected. In the 4^th industrial revolution, artificial intelligence, big data, the internet of things (IoT), 3D printing, robots, block chain (e.g., digital currency) and drones are identified as the core technologies which will cause unprecedented changes to economic systems and to the ways of living.

1.2 The impact of the 4^th industrial revolution & marketing myopia

Undoubtedly, these technologies will cause unprecedented change in economic systems and in the ways of living. However, their negative influences must also be examined. According to a White House report of 2016, approximately 83% of U.S. low wage jobs will be lost due to automation.⁴⁾ It was also predicted that 65% of children in primary school today will end up working in new job types that do not yet exist.¹⁾ This indicates that the current education system also requires a revolution, and not just reform. An education system that does not teach creativity will have difficulty surviving within the 4^th industrial revolution.^5,6)

Over the last few decades, the pulp and paper industry have continuously declined. Since the invention of the internet which has been widely considered to be one of the greatest inventions in human history, many companies have faced extreme challenges for survival, let alone sustainable growth. The pulp and paper industry has been one of those that has faced the most serious challenges: many bookstores have disappeared; printing materials such as newspapers and magazines have steadily declined by being replaced by digital (or internet); documents have been substituted by paperless instruments by digitalization in the printing industry; bookless libraries have increased and supplanted books; postal mail is being displaced by the internet. Unfortunately, these trends will continue in the 4^th industrial revolution and at a faster speed.

At this moment, it seems worthwhile to mention the classical article by Theodore Levitt on Marketing Myopia.⁷⁾

The above famous quote is from Theodore Levitt’s classical article of “Marketing Myopia” recently republished in 2008.⁸⁾ Marketing myopia may be defined as a short-sighted and inward-looking approach to marketing that focuses on the needs of the company instead of defining the company and its products in terms of the customer’s needs and wants. It results in the failure to see and adjust to the rapid changes in their markets. In the broadest sense, everything can belong to marketing from selling yourself, ideas, products, and services.

One of the earliest examples of marketing myopia seems to appear in the Christian Bible where Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for bread.⁹⁾ This seems to be a good example of trading a long-term potential gain for a short-term immediate gain. Some examples of marketing myopia are: Typewriters from Smith Corona, Digital photography from Eastman-Kodak, Office Automation from Wang, Video & DVD rentals from Blockbuster, Mainframe Computers from IBM. All these products were once the market leaders and at the time, sales seemed to grow endlessly. Theodore Levitt maintains that a failure of management could be responsible for the collapse of any industry. This may also imply that creativity should be the cornerstone of sustainable growth in a given industry. His view has been supported by Jared Diamond who has argued that the leaders of the country were blocking the people’s innovations in order to maintain power over the citizens. Brought our attention to the following:¹⁰⁾

At this moment, it is worthwhile to introduce the term, “creative destruction”, coined by Joseph Schumpeter. This phrase describes the process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, continually destroying the old while creating the new. This occurs when innovation deconstructs long-standing arrangements and frees resources to be deployed elsewhere.¹¹⁾

Charles G. Koch acknowledges that Koch Industries have tended to become complacent, self-protective and less innovative as they have become successful. To counter this tendency, he points out that it is essential to drive creative destruction internally, otherwise external creative destruction will drive them out of business.¹²⁾ It can be concluded that the 4^th industrial revolution requires a paradigm which is based on creativity to replace the present inadequate one for sustainable growth. To do so, Levitt’s marketing myopia discourse can be an excellent guide.

The pulp and paper industry with the oil industry belong to the representative seasoned growth (mature) industries. The future of these industries will face stiffer challenges in the 4^th industrial revolution. It is important, however, to realize that these challenges are not due to the market saturation or new technologies introduced in the 4^th industrial revolution. Rather, it is due to a failure of developing creative individuals by the visionary leaders.

1.3 Creativity development

According to the White House report, core competencies required during the 4^th industrial revolution will be:

It is obvious that without creativity, the other two competencies cannot be developed. Thus, it should be understood that creativity is the most critical core competency necessary in the 4^th industrial revolution.

The 4^th industrial revolution demands a new paradigm to replace the present one. The characteristics of the present paradigm are:

As a consequence, layoffs have been frequently resorted to when the economy has been challenged, in the name of restructuring.

In contrast, the 4^th industrial revolution paradigm should consider people to be one of the most important assets, rather than an expense. However, unlike other assets, such as buildings and machinery, creative people will not depreciate over time; rather their value will increase. What a wonderful asset a creative employee can be to a company and what creative people are to society!

Although the 4^th industrial revolution has a substantial demand for creative people, a supply has been difficult to find. One of the main reasons is the current education system that was originally designed with the present paradigm in mind. The current education process may be characterized as a one-way learning system, i.e., a teacher passes on knowledge and a student picks it up without any critical thought. It has been pointed out that such an education has been detrimental to the development of creativity. Strangely, a person of a lesser education is often found to be more creative than a person of higher education. This raises the question, “Is it worthwhile to get a college degree?”¹³⁾

It is clear that creativity should be one of the core competencies required in a society for the 4^th industrial revolution. This is especially true for the pulp & paper segment where a sustainable growth strategy is desperately needed. It cannot be stressed enough that developing creativity is an imperative for this industry.

2.1 Multi-dimensional thinking

The first step in developing creativity is to have multi-dimensional thinking instead of one-dimensional thinking. The latter is based on the premise that only one solution should exist to a given problem. The solution to the problem, however, should depend on the circumstances. More than one solution might be feasible. A good solution to one situation can be a poor solution to another situation. Thus, flexible, multi-dimensional thinking is required. Like Benjamin Franklin’s saying, “If everyone thinks alike, then no one is thinking”, group thinking has been pointed out as one of the most detrimental factors in developing creativity.

2.2 Vertical and lateral thinking

Edward de Bono has claimed that creativity should be the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.”¹⁴⁾ He coined the term lateral thinking in 1967.¹⁵⁾ According to de Bono, there are two types of thinking: vertical and lateral. Vertical thinking is the type taught throughout the present education system and is closely related to one-dimensional thinking. It is exemplified by the answer given to the question “What’s two plus two?” Which is usually stated to be “Four”. There is however, an often-unrecognized assumption built into that question and that is that the units associated with each “two” are the same. Two apples and two oranges are certainly neither four apples nor four oranges. The acceptance of assumptions, either tacitly or recognized, can be a huge barrier to creativity.

Lateral thinking is closely related to multi-dimensional thinking. Lateral thinking aims to develop insight and avoids fixing in one direction. Lateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic.

Some characteristics of lateral thinking are:¹⁴⁾

Although the lateral thinking is so important to creativity development, it seems that most of the schools do not teach this important mode of thinking at present.^5,6)

2.3 Contrarian thinking

To develop creativity, it is necessary to challenge conventional wisdom. Contrarian thinking is necessary for developing the breakthrough technologies as brilliantly illustrated by Nayak and Ketteringham.¹⁶⁾ The breakthrough technologies such as 3M’s little yellow note, CAT-scanner, microwave oven, Sony Walkman, and even polypropylene were not accepted initially. The inventors had to overcome opposition and ridicule with indomitable courage and passion.

In the 4^th industrial revolution, intellectual properties (IP) are a powerful, competitive weapon for sustainable growth of industries. Patents, trademark, trade-secretes, and copyrights belong to IP. Creativity and innovation are prerequisite to obtain IPs. Non-obviousness is one of the primary requirements for patentability. Non-obviousness means that it would not be readily accepted by others like the breakthrough technologies as mentioned earlier. Thus, it is realized that contrarian thinking is closely related to non-obviousness.

2.4 Humor and creativity

Creativity and humor are very closely related to each other. In general, a person having a sense of humor is creative and vice versa. Both require contrarian thinking as well. According to David Ogilvy, the father of modern advertisement, the best ideas come as jokes, i.e., making your thinking as humorous as possible.

Humor is considered one of the desirable traits sought by an organization. In the U.S., a speech or a meeting frequently starts with the telling of a joke. Some companies even consider a sense of humor in the promotion of employees. Humor has been known very powerful for promoting open communications. It also serves as a tool for effective team building.

3.1 Visionary leadership

It is, however, important to realize that human creativity has been the main driving force behind every industrial revolution, even the 4^th one. Visionary leadership requires a proactive-approach. For instance, safety has been increasingly an important issue for all industries, especially for manufacturing industries like energy-, chemical- and pulp & paper- industry. These industries must take a proactive approach to safely by focusing on preventing any safety problems before occurring. It may be worthwhile to remember that preventing safety might be the best investment.

3.2 Ownership

Undoubtedly, an employee will perform best when he thinks he has the ownership of the company. A company, one of the largest consumer products company in the world, has introduced the concept of brand management where each brand runs as if it were an independent company.^18,19) By doing so, each brand can respond to market changes quickly. In the 4^th industrial revolution where timing is so critical in making a decision, this brand management concept deserves careful consideration as a route to the sustainable growth of an organization.

It cannot be stressed enough that time should be strategic weapon in the 4^th industrial revolution. The concept of the brand management is considered very powerful for time management.

3.3 Constructive destruction strategy

The constructive destruction strategy is required for a company to have a sustainable growth. To do so, a creation of a new paradigm is necessary. It may be hard to deny that the present paradigm of the pulp & paper industry is to focus on improving the profit by improving the efficiency, cost-saving of raw materials, and labor wages. The new paradigm; however, challenges this present paradigm. It demands that employees should not be treated as an avoidable expense, but as an invaluable, indispensable asset. It may be safe to say that a company cannot keep a sustainable growth without creative employees.

Now it is increasingly accepted that creativity is one of the skills which can be developed through training and practice. It is highly desirable for an employer to spend time on developing creativity skills of his employees. The saying, “education is the best investment” should be applied to any organization in the 4^th industrial revolution period. It could not fit any better than to the pulp and paper industry.