The data drumbeat is constant: Everything is becoming increasingly quantifiable, accountable and automated. Algorithms run the world, your life and the future of business. Big Data to the rescue! Any future investment is about data and technology. Quants dominate now and will rule the world soon. Yes, it’s true: Harnessing data continues to be an amazing way to find and provide members with added value, while proving success to the C-Suite. However, as Albert Einstein said, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” We should never lose sight of the critical role that creativity plays in creating digital solutions and moving digital transformation forward. Creativity awakens the spirit. It motivates members to accomplish new things, inspires each employee at your credit union to consider new possibilities, and challenges us all to get more involved in our daily work lives. Creativity helps you to be different when every other financial institution feels the same – like a commodity. Creativity is a value creator  Creativity used to be the wheelhouse of the marketing department, or it was outsourced to agencies. In today’s competitive environment, creativity has moved beyond the realm of messaging, design and advertising to be part of the whole enterprise. Creativity is now expected in R&D, customer service, product experience and anywhere members engage with you. While creativity in marketing was fleeting and campaign-based, today creativity is not only more enduring but also more impactful as a contributor to growth and transformation at your credit union. There’s no special sauce for creativity. It’s a mindset to be deployed throughout the enterprise. Integrating creativity into your credit union  The holy grail here could be the infusion of creativity into the digital mindset, tools and platforms into your credit union, creating value for the member and your firm. Often inspired by pain points or recognized white space, this approach includes new ways of working together across the organization: tapping data to spark innovation, shifting offline processes to digital, efficiency plays, integrated channel use of web platforms, customer participation in R&D and even co-creation past purchase. Creativity has traditionally been a temporary burst of impact delivered through marketing, but in the digital age its contribution has even greater potential as it is harnessed throughout the enterprise. Rowan Gibson, one of our keynote speakers at THINK 17, will share insights into how to unleash the imagination, entrepreneurial spirit and "network power" of the organization to seize new growth opportunities, create new markets and even transform industries. Learn how to recalibrate the whole organizational system around the paradigm of transformation. Rowan Gibson is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost thought leaders on business innovation. He is the internationally bestselling author of three major books on business strategy and innovation – Rethinking The Future (1996), Innovation to the Core (2008), and The Four Lenses of Innovation (2015) – which have been published to date in 25 languages. In 2015 Rowan received the prestigious “Global Leader of Innovation” award for his significant contribution to the field of innovation strategy. Over the last two decades, he has taught some of the world’s largest and most successful organizations how to seize new growth opportunities, create new markets and even transform entire industries by recalibrating their whole organizational system around the paradigm of innovation.