Mark Cuban and Conceptual Change

 

        Whether it is investing in the future, owning a NBA team, or entertaining us on ABC, Mark Cuban has had a significant impact on our society. Yet, many do not truly know who exactly is Mark Cuban and why he is considered a modern day Creative.  

        Born in 1958, Mark Cuban grew up in Pittsburgh with his family. Characterized as a natural business man, Cuban began to sell garbage bags around his neighborhood at the age of 12. In high school, he attended evening classes at the University of Pittsburgh to graduate sooner and begin working towards his business degree.  As he grew older, Cuban's success followed him throughout his career when he founded several companies like MicroSolutions, Broadcast.com, and HDNet to name a few. Once his companies were successful, he began to sell them to major corporations and as such establishing himself financially. Selling companies allowed Cuban build a fortune that helped him to pursue more ventures such as being an active stock trader and becoming the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. All of these successes have led to the current day Cuban's estimated net worth being about 6.2 billion US dollars. 

        Commonly known for his involvement in Shark Tank since 2011, Cuban has invested in several companies, allowing them to creatively tackle various issues and meet consumer needs. Arguably, his most creative and helpful product was a company he founded in 2022, CostPlus Drug Company. It stands out from other companies he has invested in because CostPlus is structured in way that presents Cuban's Creative Process. He utilizes this company to tackle one of the massive issues our country faces on a daily basis, the increasing cost of drugs. 

(In case the video doesn't work here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp0zIQzRXjA&t=44s)

        The video above is a Katie Couric Media video of Cuban discussing the history of CostPlus Drug Company and its goals all while connecting to his creative process in this company. The mission of his company is to produce low cost drugs that they can legally sell to people in need. Cuban mentions that he is able to achieve cost savings by working outside of the current pharmaceutical system in place. Then, he proceeds to bring attention to the role of pharmacy benefit managers and how their communication between manufacturers and patients is what results in the increasing price of drugs. To resolve this issue, Cuban's company directly negotiates with the manufacturers on a reasonable price and then increasing the price by 15% to ensure the company can still be in business. The company prides itself with being transparent with the consumer so much so that on the company website itself it shows the negotiated price and what the customer ends up paying. 

        This semester the focus book I am reading is Rick Rubin's The Creative Act: A Way of Being. In his writing, Rubin describes what fuels creativity and its foundation through short excerpts. Early on in the book Rubin discusses awareness and how it plays a role into our perspective in life and how it factors into creativity.  To quote Rubin, "The gift of awareness allows us to notice what's going on around and inside ourselves in the present moment" (Rubin 19). Mark took the time to research the field of pharmaceuticals and recognized that the current system in place was not conducive to the wellbeing of others. Because of his attention to detail, Cuban was able to implement his realizations into an effective and never before seen product that addressed the issue. In a palindromic sense, Cuban's awareness of the situation supported his creativity and his creativity fueled his awareness. Additionally, Rubin mentions how science is not as rigid as we make it out to be and is subject to change much like how art does. Cuban shares this sentiment by expressing the necessary for change in order to improve the lives of people and how they rely on medicines. 

    Mark's creative product, CostPlus, is a modern day example of Conceptual Change in the Creative Process. In this instance, the Pharmaceutical system is considered the Domain that has a defined system. Our lecture mentioned there are 2 challenges when dealing with Conceptual Change: the existing rules of the Domain and the People's acceptance towards the change.  Cuban mentions the Pharmaceutical field is defined through the pharmacy benefit managers and how they operate situations pertaining to patients. This would be Cuban's challenge in terms of producing a creative solution to help the patients in need. This system also does not cultivate an environment healthcare workers create new solutions for patients.   A challenge that Cuban does not experience is the people's acceptance. CostPlus is used by over 2 million users, the people who benefit from this creative product support. Cuban's solution even changes the field of Pharmaceuticals by having competitors accept this new change. According to CNN,  places like CVS are starting to follow along with this change because of Cuban's creative process.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/06/business/cvs-mark-cuban-nightcap/index.html

 

    Ultimately, Mark Cuban is a creative who utilized the flexibility in the field of science and his own awareness to change the Domain of Pharmacy through his creative product. In doing so, Cuban's Conceptual Change provided a path to affordable drugs in America for patients.