Larry Thompson is president of Ringling College of Art and Design

As president of Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, I am delighted to have this opportunity to write about issues integral to the continued success and quality of life of our great community. Creativity and design thinking is so important to our shared economic future. I believe this so strongly that in conjunction with the Sarasota County Economic Development Corporation, we created the Ringling College ‘Innovation by Creative Design’ award to honor local businesses that have used creativity and design to successfully solve a marketplace problem. Creativity and design offer the competitive advantage needed to differentiate offerings from our region to gain market share beyond Sarasota.

When you think of the most successful companies and brands on a global scale, what comes to mind? The lowest cost producers? Certainly not – the companies that capture our imaginations and dollars are those that have integrated design and creativity into their culture and offerings. From Apple to Zappos, these companies have continually excelled in the marketplace due to their commitment to creativity and design as a critical strategic asset integrated at the onset of the planning cycle and not as an ornamental afterthought.

Creativity is essential to our economic success. Indeed, it is the new natural resource—the new “oil”—propelling our region, our state, our nation and the world’s economic future.

Admittedly, as the president of one of the leading art and design schools in the world, I am a bit biased. But it’s not just me saying that—a survey of 1,500 worldwide CEOs by IBM in 2011 asked them what they considered the most important skills needed for business leadership in the 21st Century. The number one answer (drum roll, please)—CREATIVITY. Yes, creativity. Leaders of 1,500 of the most successful organizations in the world chose creativity as the most needed leadership skill over all others. Reinforcing those findings are the Conference Board’s 21st Century Workforce Study, which also placed creativity and innovation among the top critical skills needed to maintain U.S. competitiveness.

Society overall is ignoring this evidence, moving backward by “beating the creativity” out of our young people in schools, jobs and life.

Sarasota is unique in not following this trend—we embrace creativity as an important resource and nurture it. Look at the arts in this community. You do not need to be an artist to be creative, but the arts are the bellwether of the creative spirit. Thanks to great leadership and support from our community, the arts have been kept alive in Sarasota County schools. And thanks to generous donors and patrons, arts and culture flourish in this community, more than almost any other in the nation.

Creativity is an important part of this area’s enterprises as well. Look at BioLucid, Sun Hydraulics, Sarasota Memorial, Ringling College, New College, Mote Marine, Tervis Tumbler and the HuB, to name a few.

I support this so much that I advocate branding our region globally as  the 'Creative Epicenter,' 'Creative Coast' or 'Creative Hub.' We have the infrastructure and the assets to rightfully claim this moniker and establish our region’s leadership in creativity— the economic driver for this century.

And that is why we developed the Ringling College ‘Innovation by Creative Design’ Award, which will be presented at the EDC Annual Meeting on September 11. We will honor a local organization that has introduced a product or service in the past five years in which creative design has driven market and financial success generated revenue from outside our region.

We look forward to working with you to elevate, encourage and nurture the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of our community.

Larry Thompson is president of Ringling College of Art and Design