Your left brain is becoming obsolete

Sure, you can crunch numbers, calculate return on investment, complete a risk analysis or whip up a balance sheet with the best of them ... but these skills won't help you create what your customers and clients really want and need in the future.

That was the key message Dr. Larry Thompson, president of Sarasota's Ringling College of Art and Design, told CEOs at the Gulf Coast CEO Forum's Nov. 14 meeting.

Citing research from the book “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future,” by Daniel Pink, Thompson said the increasing trends of abundance, Asia and automation threaten America's traditional way of doing business. The companies who will survive in a global market are those who can enact creativity (right-brain thinking) to find new solutions and products to drive demand. “The M.F.A. is the new M.B.A.,” Thompson says.