Creativity enables individuals to identify areas of exploitation, find creative solutions and drive the success of entrepreneurial action both in terms of starting new businesses, or improving competitiveness of established firms. The World Economic Forum includes creativity as one of 10 essential skills one will need for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. A creative workforce does not necessarily translate to an innovative one though. If this were so, departments or industries that heavily employ creative professionals would have no problem in keeping competitive and assuring ground-breaking or inventive practices. A person’s innate trait may not necessarily manifest in the context of innovation unless conditions in the working environment are conducive for it.
Organizations may employ strategies to raise their creative capital by understanding conditions that either hinder or foster creativity. Teresa Amabile, Edsel Bryant Ford professor of Business Administration and a director of research at Harvard Business School, is largely known for her work on creativity. She explains that there are three components of creativity present in every individual: expertise, creative-thinking skills, and motivation need to be influenced by managers through workplace practices and conditions.