March 26, 2019 5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

It’s more important than ever that organizations harness the power of creativity. This isn’t solely about artistry. Creativity spans every profession and job from a data scientist to a marketer to the CEO. According to LinkedIn, organizations need people who can innovate, problem-solve and develop new solutions — all of which makes creativity the number one skill in the world.

Visionary innovation and invention require the right tools to create content that inspires creativity.

Ironically, creativity is more dependent than ever on the right tools, data and systems. Adventures in creativity also depend upon a relaxed mindset that cannot occur within a toolless environment. Most creatives, designers and producers are familiar with Adobe’s Creative Cloud. It’s the undisputed standard when it comes to helping companies design, deliver and manage great customer experiences.

As content continually becomes a marriage between data and the creative presentation of it — the company is making an aggressive play toward owning more of the marketing space.

Adobe is also creating an atmosphere that allows greater scope and freedom to attain satisfying work. Old Navy illustrates this brand opportunity quite well in a recent blog post. “Our creative team lives in Adobe Creative Cloud and doesn’t want to switch around between tools because continual shifts require too many clicks and a diversion of pure thought and attention. Course deviations take-up too much time,” wrote Jason Wynne, manager of Global Digital Assets at Old Navy.

“By bringing Adobe Asset Link into the picture, each team member can seamlessly manage the content workflow between Creative Cloud and Adobe Experience Manager from the tools they’re familiar with. The efficiencies in Adobe Asset Link can save our creative team a lot of time.”

Countless decisions must ultimately come down to time. As an entrepreneur, there are two important concepts to recognize within this decision paradigm shift.

Related: 9 Ways to Rewire Your Brain for Creativity

Make sure you find the right solution(s) that can easily transfer data freely.

Microsoft, SAP and Adobe all have a data sharing agreement called the Open Data Initiative which allows you to share data across with platforms with no barriers. Which, funny enough, until late last year was a major problem in creating content. Even the average small business has multiple platforms for creative CRM and analytics.

“We wanted to create a single source of truth. Our goal was to create a one-stop shop where you can find any asset you need,” says Ben Snyder, IT Product Owner at Under Armour. In an article about creating faster content, Snyder says “Automatic tagging through Adobe Experience Manager Assets saves a lot of time for creative teams as they upload files. It surfaces many assets that might have gotten lost previously.”

Salesforce has started to invest in content management as well. They have built a legacy on CRM and it will be interesting to see how they navigate their shift away from CRM. Much like a Blackberry, CRM has had its era.

Related: 5 Science-Backed Ways to Boost Your Creativity

Actionable intelligence

Actionable intelligence and effective automation in real time are becoming the standard. Less relevant is remembering to call someone.

What you need to able to do is manage the end-to-end content lifecycle from creation and collaboration to delivery and optimization. This content supports a personalized and connected customer experience across any screen, wherever people are — from the web and mobile sites to online communities and physical signage.

Salesforce has partnered with Sitecore and is working toward getting away from manual management where they are now. With Sitecore, Salesforce is continuing to be is closer to Adobe’s model of what makes content tick. Without data, content is merely pretty. Without content, data are mere numbers.

Related: Balancing Creativity and SEO in Content Writing

Figure out how to capitalize on the industry shift.

Anytime there is a major shift in how brands create content, how they advertise, how they target, how they reach consumers — it creates opportunities. You won’t be able to create a full enterprise solution overnight that has taken these large tech companies decades of fine-tuning.

However, just like when SEO emerged 25 years ago, there will be an opportunity to optimize the experiences that get created. As we move away from advertising and jump head first into more personalized content — this shift will require ways to make that system better.

The real opportunity won’t be swimming upstream against the competition like Adobe or Salesforce but in finding ways to make solutions work better for your company.

Similarly, creating valuable equivalent solutions on a smaller-scale for startups will provide favorable circumstances. The biggest thing to keep in mind right now is studying how content has shifted and where it’s going.

If you can predict contents next maneuver and step up your game ahead of the action you will be garnering a large piece of the content pie. Any activity ahead of the actions of large companies and you’ll be staking a claim ahead of your competition.