Integrating Concepts of Creativity and Innovation - a key to Business Excellence

Awareness, becoming more pronounced in the last decade, of the need for innovation has translated into higher performance management requirements. The current economy situation compels companies to adapt, seeking new avenues of performance and the use of creativity can cause significant changes by finding more efficient ways to develop and execute their work. The advantage of the organizations in a globalized economy is innovation, and the base for innovation is creativity so we can say that the existence of a performance organization lies in its creativity. Creativity is the engine of innovation and the key factor for personal, occupational, entrepreneurial and social development and the welfare of all individuals in society. Creativity is seen as the process of generating ideas that will lead to innovation in order to obtain performance. This paper deals with integrating, in a specific framework, the concepts of innovation and creativity, based on a mix between innovation management and creativity management, in predicting the organizational performance. This study aims to improve the understanding of the relationship between innovation and creativity and to achieve two major objectives. The first one is related to analysis of the link between innovation management and creativity management, thus creating a bridge between creativity and innovation, which are often approached separately. The second objective of this study is to analyze the impact of integrating innovation management and creativity management, which have been considered as primary sources of competitive advantage. This paper contributes to the development of theoretical and practical knowledge of management of an organization in order to systematically improve the level of innovation and creativity.