So we’re excited to share The business of imagination, a deep dive into the role it plays in making businesses thrive, based on our original research.

Imagination is integral to what we offer – from brand strategy to business reinvention – but also to how we operate as an agency. How we work together as a team and with clients, how we think creatively about the future, how we solve problems and, crucially, how we come up with bold new ideas.

The power of imagination feels real to us. But we wanted to investigate its impact further: to break down how – and why – it makes businesses successful, and how leaders can inject it into their organisations. We commissioned a survey of 500 senior B2B decision-makers across the UK and US at companies with more than 500 employees.

Why now?

The subject of imagination feels particularly pressing at the moment. The last few years have been turbulent, with one technological, geopolitical, environmental or economic storm after another. It is next-to impossible for business leaders to predict what’s next – and how they should prepare. Uncertainty is the dish of the day.

This point was emphasised in PwC’s CEO survey, which showed confidence about longer-term prospects has steadily diminished since the pandemic. Over the past four years of the survey, CEOs’ confidence in their three-year outlook on revenue growth has dropped from 71% to 64% to 61% to a dismal 57% for 2025.

PwC emphasised: “There is a need to commit to a bolder long-term vision [...] but given the accelerating challenges CEOs face today, the path must be shaped with agility in mind, and the ability to anticipate and adapt for multiple scenarios.”

Meanwhile, businesses are increasingly placing their bets on AI as a means to generate value and stay competitive. They use it to analyse data with growing levels of sophistication, searching for clues as to where they should go next, then as a creative tool to get them there.

AI can be amazing, as we continue to discover through our own work. But its reliance on past data means it can’t produce anything new. If we want to envision and engage with different future possibilities, and decide where a business should play and how to win, we need to double down on human ingenuity, empathy and co-creation. In short, we need imagination.

We believe organisations need to reignite imagination and keep the flame alive. Without it, they won’t survive, let alone thrive in this weird and wonderful future.

Understanding imagination

When setting the parameters for our survey, our first task was to define what “imagination” actually means. We held workshops with people across The Frameworks to discuss what it looks like in business, and what behaviours characterise it.

We landed on four key elements that we believe constitute imagination in an organisation: collaboration; failing fast and looking to the future; letting ideas come from anywhere; and investing in creativity.

We designed a survey around these four themes to understand how businesses prioritise them, how they’re implemented, and the challenges they face. We also asked about the success of these companies in terms of growth, performance in comparison to peers, resilience and future preparedness.

We sent the survey to 500 senior decision-makers in B2B companies across the UK and US, and gathered rich and intriguing data on the link between imagination and business success. We dug deeper into personal perspectives and experiences through interviews with six leaders from top companies across insurance, professional services, marketing and technology.

What we found

We knew imagination was important – but the results surprised even us.

Companies that truly commit to embedding imagination into their businesses are leaps and bounds ahead in terms of performance and future readiness – while those that are the least imaginative are languishing behind.

And while leaders are starting to wake up to the role imagination plays in business success, there’s a huge gap between recognition and reality. Few businesses actually prioritise imagination, and are therefore missing out on the benefits. There’s a real opportunity to create competitive advantage through imagination.

Our research has proven beyond doubt the importance of imagination. Don’t just take my word for it: dive into our full report. It will show what imagination can do for you and give you simple, straightforward advice on how to harness its power to make your business thrive.

Download the report