Talkback: The creative economy and all that Jazz

New Zealand is too slow to recognise the new reality: commercial creativity rules.

I spent many happy teenage hours in the fertile apple orchards of Hawkes Bay. So it was with a pang of nostalgia that I heard about orchardists ripping out their trees in response to catastrophically low world apple prices. Maybe New Zealand can't compete at making cars or computers. But apples from Hawkes Bay?

In fact, not everyone is ripping out their trees - and there's an important lesson in why not. When Turners & Growers bought ENZA it inherited a new variety of apple called Jazz. Like Braeburn, Gala and Pacific Rose before it, Jazz was developed by scientists at HortResearch to be crispy, long-lasting and deliciously sweet. But that's where the similarity ends. Braeburn and Gala sell for an uneconomic $15 a box. Jazz sells for a very attractive $30. Why?

Well, we're not comparing apples with apples. Along with Jazz came a plant variety right, much like a patent, that guarantees T&G exclusivity. A "controlled scarcity" policy has meant T&G has much greater control over the quality and volume of Jazz and, as a consequence, the price.

Jazz is an example of the most important change in New Zealand's economy since refrigeration. The difference between Jazz and the rest is not rainfall, rich soils and good horticulture, it's intellectual property. Kiwifruit or lamb, furniture or film, music or milk powder, the key to economic success is turning ideas into IP and IP into commerce.

New Zealand has been dangerously late to recognise this change. On all formal measures of IP creation, we rank poorly, whether it's the number of patents registered each year, R&D spend by private companies or the low level of income generated from copyright activities.

There's another performance indicator, harder to measure, but the most important of all. It's the number of "commercial creatives". First identified by US economist Richard Florida, the presence of commercial creatives in a city is one of the best indicators of future economic growth.

Commercial creatives fall into three groups: technologists, artists and entrepreneurs. They are the new wealth creators because they operate at the centre of IP creation.

Nurturing this group is, in the view of Florida and many economic development experts, the most important intervention a government could make.

Writing about the new dynamic, Dan Pink sums it up: "Lawyers. Accountants. Radiologists. That's what our parents encouraged us to become. But they were wrong. The era of 'left brain' dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are giving way to a new world in which right-brain qualities - inventiveness, empathy, meaning - predominate."

There is hope. Florida is a frequent visitor to New Zealand and a great fan. He points to the obvious success of Peter Jackson at attracting Hollywood talent and money to Wellington. But this isn't a job just for film-makers.

The creative economy needs to reach into agriculture, education, retailing, manufacturing or any sector. It will make the difference between New Zealand flourishing or being uprooted like a delicious but uneconomic Braeburn apple.

* Vincent Heeringa is a founder of new business magazine Idealog, launched this week.