Corporate Support for the Arts

We often hear corporate support for the arts couched as good citizenship and community involvement and can envision corporate leaders standing tall and proudly announcing that their company is a "good" company that cares.

But supporting the arts is much more basic. Following from my previous article about blue meme management, we can surmise that in the new globalized economy corporations live and die by advances in their thinking. And I'm talking about thinking not only at the top but through the organization, for no management initiative, however advanced, can succeed without the people in the organization incorporating it into their practice. The whole organization has to operate at a high level of consciousness if it is to survive global competition.

In this light, the arts can be viewed as a primary means for competitive success. If the community in which the corporation operates can be moved to a higher level of consciousness, then it follows that the corporation will be able to attract talent operating at a higher level of consciousness. We are not simply talking about recruiting from the local community, but also attracting talent that chooses to live where the corporation operates.

So money donated to arts should not really be seen as a give away, but an investment that creates the conditions for corporations to attract superior talent, and thus achieve competitive advantage on a world stage.