Not only is the thinking polarized, so are the timelines. The engineer and economist archetypes are much more focused on the near term, often with a sense of urgency. The artist is more focused on the future, often with no sense of urgency, or at least a sense of timelessness.
A terrific discussion of this is a book created by Marty Neumeier called 'The Brand Gap (How to bridge the distance between business strategy and design.)"  It's also a fun read both for the copy and the design. 
My take on this is that great and effective creative is sorta' like a wormhole, it redefines the brands' (company and/or product/service) place in our personal universe in a way that inserts it into our mind so it can be easily recovered. Easy to say, hard to do. Not only that, but the creative is only part of the process - the media in terms of reach and repitition is critical to the success of the creative message in being successfully inserted and  accomplishing its mission.