Creativity? Know About Its Role in Business Success

Defining creativity and innovation
Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity is characterized by the capacity to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to establish connections between apparently unrelated phenomena and to generate solutions. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing.
"Creativity is a combinatorial force: it is our ability to take advantage of our 'internal' pool of resources: knowledge, vision, information, inspiration and all the fragments that populate our minds - which we have accumulated over the years just because they are present and alive and awaken the world and combine them in new and extraordinary ways. " - Maria Popova, Brainpickings
"Creativity is the process of bringing something new into existence. Creativity requires passion and commitment. It brings to our consciousness what was previously hidden and points to a new life. The experience is one of high consciousness: ecstasy. "- Rollo May, the Courage to Create.
Is this possible in business? I think so, but you have to be willing to take risks and progress through the discomfort to reach the goal.
What is innovation?
Innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product, service or process that creates value for companies, government or society.
Some people say that creativity has nothing to do with innovation, that innovation is a discipline, which implies that creativity is not. Well, I do not agree. Creativity is also a discipline and a crucial part of the innovation equation. There is no innovation without creativity. The key metric in both creativity and innovation is the creation of value.
Creativity and Economic Development:
We live in the age of creativity. Daniel Pink in his book, A Completely New Mind: Why Right Intellectuals Will Govern the Future (2006) defines economic development as:
1. Age of agriculture (farmers)
2. Industrial age (factory workers)
3. Age of information (knowledge workers)
4. Conceptual age (creators and empathizers).
Pink argues that the analytical, computerized thinking of the left brain is being replaced by the empathy, inventiveness and understanding of the right brain as more necessary skills for companies. In other words, creativity gives you a competitive advantage by adding value to your service or product and differentiating your business from the competition.
As Sam Palmisano said when he was CEO of IBM (2004), "Either you innovate or you are in the hell of basic products, if you do what others do, you have a low margin business, it's not where we want to be."
In 2012, IBM began to reinvent itself to become a design company, investing $ 100 million dollars to hire designers and educate 100,000 employees to become design thinkers. IBM helped expand design thinking in the organization for three years to penetrate a quarter of the entire portfolio, which allowed an increase of $ 18.6M in profits.
Creativity is the most crucial factor for future success
The Global CEO Study of IBM 2010 stated:
The effects of increasing complexity demand that CEOs and their teams lead with bold creativity, connect with clients imaginatively and design their operations with speed and flexibility to position their organizations for the success of the 21st century.
The creativity gap
An Adobe study on creativity in 2012 shows that 8 out of 10 people feel that unlocking creativity is fundamental to economic growth and almost two-thirds of respondents consider creativity to be valuable to society, but a notable minority: only 1 of every 4 people believes that it is up to their own creative potential.
Can you learn creativity?
The short answer is yes. A study by George Land reveals that we are naturally creative and as we grow we learn not to be creative. Creativity is a skill that can be developed and a process that can be managed.
Creativity starts with a knowledge base, learning a discipline and mastering a way of thinking. You can learn to be creative by experimenting, exploring, questioning assumptions, using the imagination and synthesizing information. Learning to be creative is like learning a sport. It takes practice to develop the right muscles and a supportive environment in which to thrive.
By: Preeti Narula
Content: https://www.creativityatwork.com/2014/02/17/what-is-creativity/