The Need for Creativity and Innovation

New ways of thinking are required in today’s fast changing world, and developments in technology, communications, data manipulation and analytics, biotechnology, etc, are ever-increasing the pace of change. Almost every day, a new product or service appears, and many of these pose a threat to existing companies and industries, if not to their products or services directly, then to the very way these products or services are produced – the processes involved.

Added to this, globalisation and deregulation have increased competition in almost every sector of the economy, and the internet has removed many barriers to entry into all kinds of markets. Increasingly, the internet is producing new kinds of businesses and new ways of doing business that are a threat to existing businesses. Organisations, whether public or private companies or government agencies or not-for-profits, are overwhelmed with all of this change and ever-increasing competition.

To merely survive in this ever-changing world, companies and organisations have to become increasingly more responsive and flexible. They need to be able to either adapt their products and services quickly to meet new demands, or speedily develop new products or services to do so. If they don’t, a competitor surely will – and competition now comes from the most unexpected quarters.

Furthermore, there are huge pressures on all kinds of organisations to cut costs, especially in high wage economies. Competitive advantage can now come from developing new ways of producing products or delivering a service, and this has placed the focus on ‘process’ – on how organisations do their business.

All of these factors have shed the light on the need for greater creativity and continuous innovation, not just for businesses, but for all kinds of organisations. Managers in the 21st century therefore require the essential skill-set of firstly being able to manage creativity and innovation – i.e. to manage the organisational environment so as to facilitate and not hinder creativity and innovation; and secondly of ensuring that they and their teams have the necessary creativity and innovation techniques to develop new ideas and implement them quickly.

Anew Innovation provides consultancy and training to help organisations develop their creativity and innovation competency. An explanation of our workshops can be had by clicking on the menu tab “Training Workshops”.