Recently I gave a talk at TEDxTraverseCity where I described why innovation services firms are important to our economic competitiveness, as well as how they create a more satisfying employment option for individuals. Creative consultancies, as I call them, offer innovation as an outsourced service.

In my talk I referenced Dan Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. The book cites the three motivational factors of mastery, autonomy, and purpose, to explain why creative consultancies have the potential to be excellent places to work. In a recent blog post, Pink reports on research showing how people are more creative when working on behalf of others than they are when working on their own problems. This finding seems to very nicely support my assertion that the clients of innovation services firms, mostly startups and large companies, are well served by outsourcing their innovation. In fact, Pink points out one specific implication of the research which addresses the structure of these firms:

Perhaps loose alliances of distantly connected people – think Wikipedia or a Hollywood film – can produce more creative products and services than fixed rosters of employees in traditional arrangements. And maybe those consultancies, which all of us love to malign, are offering a valuable service after all by providing distance for hire.

You can read Dan’s post here.