A happy threesome: Innovation, Creativity and Business Support

Businesses, whether for-profit and nonprofit, are facing change like never before. Numerous driving forces to this change include a rapidly expanding marketplace (globalization), and increasing competition, diversity among consumers, and availability to new forms of technology. In today's marketplace organisations' emphasis is changing from visible assets (such as equipment or technology) to invisible assets (like creativity and capability), Gupta and Singhal [1] already stated so by saying that successful organisations create competitive advantage through innovation and creativity. Thus, competitive advantage depends heavily on their ability to capitalise on employees' ideas and unleash creativity within their working environments. An organisations success is often measured by the annual profits, level of sales and/or position adjacent to competitors. Without a product to market an organisations position becomes untenable. Products stem from innovation, which in turn stems from creativity. People drive creativity and creativity drives innovation. Therefore enhancing the creative output of individuals involved in an innovative working environment will increase the level of innovation. The proficiency within an organisation to effectively encourage creativity within innovation does not diminish over time, but instead grows in importance for organisational success.peer-reviewe