Business Week Magazine’s August 1st Issue will feature some of the most creative companies in the world in an article titled ‘Get Creative!’

In a press release issued yesterday, Apple, 3M, Microsoft, GE, and Sony top the list [not a surprise to most of us here]. The article argues that the once ‘Knowledge Economy’ is being eclipsed by the ‘Creativity Economy’.

“What was once central to corporations-price, quality, and much of the left-brain, digitized analytical work associated with knowledge-is fast being shipped off to lower-paid employees in countries oversees. Increasingly, the new core competence for executives is creativity-the right-brain stuff that smart companies are now harnessing to generate top-line revenue growth.”

In his book titled "The Rise of the Creative Class," author Richard Florida argued that the biggest economic change of the past half-century has been the rise of human creativity. In the United States, scientists, entertainers, architects, lawyers, financiers and others who make their livelihood "creatively" now outnumber traditional blue-collar workers.

Though the creative class makes up just 30 percent of the U.S. work force, it earns nearly half of the nation's wages.

Has the game has changed? Is it about creativity, imagination, and, above all, innovation? It seems as though the U.S. has already tapped into the understanding of consumer culture- and the ability to determine what people want even before they can articulate it. The web has helped us do that. Technology has enabled us to do it for ourselves and made it easier. And our growing thirst for culture, politics and entertainment has helped drive our knowledge as well. And as a result we are seeing companies like Google, Nokia and Amazon’s core growth drivers focus on new products and innovative technology.

The real question is, if the innovation revolution really has begun, are we entering into a culture and society that awards and highly values creative thinking? How will we, as creative thinkers be rewarded? And are these things now our economic drivers? Most importantly, who are the analytical left-brainers who will figured all this out?