The United Nations General Assembly named April 21 as the International Day of Innovation and Creativity. In order to increase awareness of the role of creativity and innovation in solving problems.
In order to increase awareness of the role of creativity and innovation in solving problems, economic, social development, and sustainable development. The International Day for Creativity and Innovation was celebrated for the first time on April 21, 2002 and then this occasion, became a global week in 2006, to be celebrated from April 12 to 21 for everyone to explore the diversity of opinions. The International Day for Creativity and Innovation serves as an occasion through which examples of best practices can be promoted and the use of creative thinking can be highlighted while employing technology. So why celebrate innovation and creativity?
The answer is simple: innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship can all provide new inputs to economic growth, creating opportunities for everyone, including women and youth, and finding urgent solutions such as lessening poverty as well as hunger. In order for us to benefit the most from these two, we ought to first re-think about our prior concepts of innovation and creativity.
Defining creativity and innovation.
Creativity is the ability of a person to use mental skills to find new out of the ordinary ideas. It is the ability to create and find new and innovative ideas. Undoubtedly, creativity is not a hereditary behavior, but rather a behavior that can be learned and developed by individuals. It is basically the skill of finding ideas and solutions to problems those of which are rare and unique. Innovation is defined as the individual's ability to create new ideas, methods, or concepts, and implement them in a new way that is not familiar to other individuals, to suit a specific situation, and express the individual's ability to use existing ideas, information and tools, in an innovative and unique way.
The Importance of Creativity
The human need for creativity is great in various economic, scientific and literary aspects, as the need for it lies in providing a scope for competitive advantage, efficiency, high effectiveness, and other many important issues. For starters, creativity can be considered as one of the most powerful features in bringing the successful position of an organization or company, whether in terms of production or marketing. It also supports the competitive advantage between local and international institutions and markets while helping in the economic development of society. In addition, it contributes in finding the most appropriate production methods that create a product that is cheaper and more effective than the old product. It also assists in increasing the sense of pride and self-confidence of the creative personality.
The Obstacles to Creativity
Nonetheless, creativity has its share of obstacles recognized by individuals as well as organizations. The absence of a supportive party for the creative person is first. The person thus feels frustrated and thus he doubts himself. Another one is exploiting the creative effort too much, which leads to aversion. Moreover, some companies tend to underestimate creativity both financially and morally.
The Role of Innovation and Invention in Developing Society
In our present time, it has become clear that countries that want to become more advanced must discover talent, nurture it, and develop it in order to pour innovations that lead to economic and social growth. Innovation based on talent is a vast and inexhaustible wealth, and in light of a new economy that depends on knowledge, the importance of talent and creativity increases. This allows the transformation of society from commodity economies to those of ideas with innovation and creativity as its trailblazers.
It was Albert Einstein who once said "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination”. Innovation and creativity are today’s commodities. It is up to us to advocate for creativity. After all, it is through the latter our humanity can truly manifest itself.
