Visitors to the inaugural Glimpses of Art exhibition last week in Shoreditch, London, saw an eclectic combination of works by world-renowned artists using different mediums to look at the question of "identity". However, behind the scenes, Glimpses of Art presented its own identity with a business model that may serve as a blueprint for those working in creative industries.

Featuring 30 international artists, 90% of whom identify as female and non-binary, the Glimpses of Art exhibition looked for a non-normative perspective to its theme. But this desire to go beyond established standards extends past its art. Glimpses' distinctive business model aims to produce and distribute stakeholder value in a more equitable way.

The new approach was prompted by frustration with the large social media networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. These companies have a business model that uses the creativity of millions of content creators to make tens of billions for dollars for their shareholders, while the creators go largely unrewarded. This inherent unfairness serves to erode creativity and innovation, and stifle growth. It is why Glimpses is doing things differently.

The Glimpses business model divides its ownership into three equal parts, with each part fulfilling a specific function. The parts can be loosely called A, B and C.  Of these, A stands for angel and other investors who help to scale up the business; B is for builders, the people working in the organisation in the traditional corporate functions, such as accounts, marketing, human resources and sales; and C is for creators, the artists represented by the agency who produce the content - the art.

Artists can therefore benefit from having a stake in the business and being rewarded in an equitable way as the business grows. It is likewise for the other stakeholders - the investors and the builders. As well, the model is completely scalable, so be it builders or creators, it can accommodate ten, a hundred or a thousand of them. More investors are welcome too.

A triangle of forces

It's a triangle of forces that gives the business model strength. By linking financial, intellectual and creative elements in such a way, it is a new business concept that presents a vision of the future, particularly given the post-Covid flexible hybrid working patterns and the growth of the gig economy. Many of the creators will have more than one gig - as will the investors and builders.

Clear rules and the democratisation of capital - be it financial, intellectual or creative - enable the creation and building of a company to be converted into financial gain for all involved. It is a business model that aims to balance power and capital.

Glimpses' new structure means that the creators to get a fair slice of the pie, stepping away from the model that has skewed wealth towards the initial founders and financiers. It's an approach that's not socialistic, but social. Glimpses is a privately held commercial business, but it incorporates social capitalism too, meaning that it thinks of others in society. This is what gets stakeholder buy-in and has them all pulling in the same direction - and that's obviously good for success. Hopefully the pie will grow enabling everyone to get a larger slice.

The Glimpses approach is not perfect - what is? - but it is a genuine attempt to build and improve on what's gone before. It will hopefully encourage some fresh thinking on the way companies operate, combine people and capital, and prompt other creative businesses to follow suite or evolve the process further.