August 2017

Creator of a stolen idea?

Part 4 of a 5 part monthly series on business: market entry routes for a new entrant to market in a competitive field.

No sooner does summer come to a blissful end and the design world is already on their feet and running from city to city looking at new collections, newly completed projects and new ideas for interior space. This year, like no other has been a year of fear and anticipation from the many showcased events as the internet begins to bite deeper into the way business is conducted. Trade shows are promoting mixed messages and designers tell us that they will support one national specialist world class show and one or two boutique shows of artisan skills and services.

As a creator I get paid for my ideas as do all creative industries. I have had my ideas copied by some and sometimes I have been unable to identify who the thief was. Nonetheless my design has sat on display in a department store by a designer who duplicated my work without my consent for many years and there seemed nothing I could do even though it was an exact duplication of my work still in use. I gained no fee or notoriety from it, although fame is not my driver. I work as a creator because I have been able to bring a solution to a problem, inspire a situation or person or simply generate an emotion or aesthetic to increase sales, create a feeling of safety and comfort, or improve the workplace etc.

As all creators do, we do it naturally. I am often asked what I am better at; ideas or business. It’s a very interesting question as I feel that I am both equally, I like order and clarity. I cannot bear disorganization or mismanagement. I cannot bear an injustice either and nothing will make me speak up and fight more than an injustice. I simply won’t leave it. I have helped many people who were victims of crime across many areas of theft. I am getting older and so I have a few challenges left that really irritate me and I am not leaving without shutting them down. An abuse of position and trust does not sit well with me and watching a criminal abuse their position is no different from the thugs we all step away from in the street. They just wear designer clothes and smart suits.

Corporate fraud, fraud in many areas …well whichever way you look at it fraud is still fraud. Deception and crime, all of these ugly words surround the creative industries and always have done. The difference in creators is that they live in a precious world where everything is sparkles, rainbows and butterflies… it’s the world in which they create. To address an area of corruption and deception takes a different mindset and most creative victims prefer to walk away from the world of litigation or criminal investigation and simply redevelop a new idea. But this leaves the criminal with the benefit. That is an injustice.

I do understand but I don’t accept that the outcome allows a criminal – a person who steals and diverts the law while gaining financially from their actions – should gain from their corruption and deception. I am not going to leave it like that. I structured SBID to cover the areas that were incorrect as I saw it. I have made my own money from hard work, I didn’t take it from anyone else, I have paid my taxes on my earnings and faced the usual back chat of most creative industries from those less successful who are what my grandmother would have called – empty vessels. I don’t owe anyone anything – therein I have a few scores to settle! I’m dealing with it with the assistance from various destinations whom regardless of my tenacity –

I simply would not succeed alone. I haven’t addressed punishment and retribution. Until now.

Getting from A to Z successfully means you have to sit quietly and gather evidence. Criminals are often cocky, they believe that your inactivity is stupidity and therein is how they are always caught. (I didn’t watch all those detective who-done-it in the 1970s without learning anything!) but with the help of real hard-nosed criminal law enforcement investigators we will succeed. We do it with the best, and now we will be coming after copy-cat competitors through our members long held back log-in directory. Think it’s a good idea to copy… don’t even think about it!

Passive has left the building.