Creativity is the ability to visualize and do things in a new way and the ability to create new ideas. The idea as a result of creativity must have economic value to be considered as innovation.

Going on the origin, word ‘Idea’ is Greek word meaning the image that exists or was formed in the mind. In classical Greece it has the meaning of visual aspect.

Creativity as the result has ideas, which may, but need not to be innovations. How to be creative? People are creative by nature, but companies often aren’t and they stifle the creativity of their employees. So, the challenge is to enable innovation, which can be possible with defining the obstacles that prevented it, and creating conditions in which creativity can come alive. In organizations, the first phase is raising the innovation climate, that will allow creativity and then define the innovation process which supports creating innovations.

We can say that innovations depend on creativity, but creativity is only the beginning of the road that innovation must pass in order to become a product.  You can either have, or do not have creativity in your business, but innovation will only appear if you have a defined innovation process.

Colleagues who are most creative will ask lots of questions about the idea during the innovation process, they will make many changes and additions to the first idea, this should shape and direct the future of innovation.

Everyone is born creative, but later we forgot this and maybe not all of us need to be creative on the workplace. Still, we are creative at home or in the backyard, but often we don’t see it.
To remember that everyone can be future innovator, here are twelve characteristics that successful innovator should have:

1. Innovators have the need to fulfill their inner drives,
2. Initiate new projects – they are intrapreneuers (entrepreneurs inside their organization) or entrepreneurs,
3. Disrupt the current status quo in the organization or on the market,
4. Open up new opportunities,
5. Innovators are imaginative,
6. Open to change of any kind,
7. Want to turn their visions into reality,
8. Must be prepared for failure,
9. Must be prepared on critics,
10. Seek for new paths,
11. Should build on the original idea,
12. Very often innovators are dreamers.