Creativity and Innovation are two very inter related concepts, however have subtle differences. Creativity can be understood as the ability to act or think in new or novel ways, while innovation and invention are two types of creativity. Innovation is the ability to implement creativity in something that already exists, while invention is the usage of creativity to make something new. Experts often Creativity and Innovation are two very inter related concepts consider creativity as a sort of ‘muse’ for the team or individual, or a source from which concepts or ideas emerge, possibly in an unpredictable or haphazard way. Creativity is often associated with three aspects, namely: problem solving, imagination and struggle. Imagination can involve aspects such as spontaneity, unconventionality, giftedness or intuition, while problem solving can involve intellect, organization and skills, and struggle implies that creativity can be a difficult process of extracting ideas through struggle. Creativity is almost synonymous with divergence in thinking, which allows identification of new strategies to solve problems. It is different from a convergent form of thinking which is utilized to get answers. Thus creativity is a process that leads to the formation of new or more effective ideas or solutions, where new refers to the ideas being original or pure. The effectiveness of the ideas refers to the degree to which it is related to the objectives or goals of the organization and forms the basis of organizational value. Creativity can also be understood as the ability to create new solutions which can utilize existing information to be implemented in a new direction. Overall, creativity can refer to the process where mental ability is used to make a new concept of thought and thereby develop exquisite or imaginary ideas on different situations. Moreover, creativity can be a personal attribute.
Innovation on the other hand is defined as the ability to implement ideas that are a product of a creative though process. This essentially makes creativity a precursor to innovation and thereby forms a linear relation between these two concepts. In the context of an organization, personal creativity can be integrated into an impersonal organizational structure in such a way that shows innovative organization to employ creative individuals. Innovation is the process, any kind of new or useful ideas or concepts are collected in order to find solutions to problems. This involves the formation, adoption as well as implementations of the new concepts or ideas on its services, products or the business processes. In the context of the market, innovation is the ability to provide new and useful concepts and transfer that quickly to the market and also implement them in the business process of the organization to enable better streamlining of the products or services towards the problem (like providing products that are cheaper, better quality and provides more value for money). Joseph Schumpeter’s research on innovation outlines for steps for implementing innovation within an organization as 1) Introducing a new product or changing an existing one 2) creating a new niche in the market 3) Identifying a new source of materials and other supplies as the input for the new product 4) Modifying the organizational structure.
Organizations that are successful know the importance of innovation in their business. They are usually able to understand how improvement and development of the organization can happen through effective innovations, and can ensure quality of the products as well as provide scope for business scaling up. The following strategies are effective in the implementation of innovation and creativity within the workforce, and help to increase operational systems and enhance the products or services given to the end users:
- Ensuring that Innovation as an integral part of the business plan and philosophy – Innovative organizations should be able to realize that innovation is a part of a continuous process that is important for the growth of the organization. Including innovation as an integral part of the business plan and philosophy can help to foster an environment of creativity.
- Leadership in innovation – This entails the ability to take a lead in the implementation of innovative ideas, and therefore lead the trend. Most of the biggest successful organizations were the first to come up with innovative ideas. Companies like Tesla started operating their Factories on solar powers, setting up extensive solar fields to harness the abundant energy of the sun. Even market leaders like Facebook uses innovation in the designing of their web pages, providing an ever improving experience of using their site, at the same time addressing the constant need for security for the users.
- Developing technology for collaboration – For an organization to be successful, an effective IT infrastructure is required that ensures an uninterrupted and uncompromised flow of data between the different departments and segments of the organization. This ensures that ideas are successfully shared between everyone in the organization, thereby enhancing their chance of being implemented. Companies like Hewlett Packard has internal communication network that spans globally across all their business units, connecting all their employees. Additionally, they have a platform where every employee can share creative ideas or designs for programs, products or services, which the organization can analyze, and consider for implementation if found suitable. Furthermore, employees are also rewarded and given recognition for the development of good innovative ideas.
- Developing an innovation friendly environment – This allows organizations to ensure quality and creativity at every step of the process. This ensures that every department of the organization shares the same focus towards innovation and creativity.
- Measuring innovation – It is also essential to have metric for the assessment of creative and developmental processes. Success of the organizations is dependent on the expense of implementing the innovation at the organizational level. To measure the success of an innovative idea can be analyzed through the time that was spent in sessions on creativity, expense of training employees on skills of innovation, the amount of organizational restructuring that occurred to support the innovative process.
- Not being afraid to try new ideas – This involves a certain degree of risk taking and experimentation, which allows the development of new products or services in the market. For example, the marketing strategy used by Dominos Pizza that promised their customer free pizza, if their ordered arrived after 30 minutes.
- Funding programs of creative training – Recognizing the importance of a creative team, it is important to ensure proper funding to train them on creativity, due to which several companies like Amazon, Tesla, Nokia, and Dominoes have implemented special employee training programs on creativity.
- Rewarding creativity among employees – Through rewards and recognitions, organizations can also foster an environment of creativity, where the employees are not afraid to come up with new ideas. Hewlett Packard has implemented such concepts within the organization and thus fosters a creative work environment.
To conclude, creativity and innovation are an inter-related phenomenon. Through creativity in the though process at a personal level, innovation in an organizational level can be achieved. This can foster individuals to find newer solutions to existing problems and ensure maintenance of the quality of the products or services offered by the organization. Creativity therefore can act as a precursor to innovation, and in the context of an organization, an environment of innovation and creativity can be implemented by integrating these values at the core of the organizational design and philosophy, enabling leadership in innovation, allowing better collaboration and more efficient transfer of innovative and creative ideas within the organization, ensuring rewards, developing methods to measure creativity and innovation within the organization and recognition of employees who shows creativity and innovative ideas. Additionally, reducing the fear of the employees to try new ideas as well as enhancing their skills through training programs to facilitate the use of creativity in the organization can be very useful. Many organizations have reached the summits of success through the implementation of creative and innovative ideas.