According to the World Economic Forum, creative thinking has become one of the important skill in working life. In a world that is changing faster than ever, companies and public organisations need new ways to respond to uncertainty, technological disruptions and the challenges within sustainable development. Creativity offers a skillset to approach these challenges from new perspectives and create new ways of doing. Yet, creativity has rarely been systematically utilised and measuring and managing it has been considered difficult.
Concluding at the end of the year, the Creative Leap: Creativity as a Competitive Advantage in Business research project has brought together researchers from various disciplines at Aalto University alongside corporate and organisational partners including Fiskars, Kemira, Marimekko, Posti, Raisio, Yellow Method, Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the Finnish Tax Administration. Together, they have produced new insights into how creativity influences organizational culture, financial performance and employee well-being.
Finnish companies are full of creative potential but much of it remains underutilised. The bottleneck is not in people’s creativity, but in organisations’ ability and leadership capacity to support and harness it. “A lack of time and resources makes it nearly impossible to experiment with new ideas. Structural barriers, efficiency-driven cultures and a low tolerance for risk and uncertainty all inhibit creativity. As a result, creative ideas often remain half-realized, and it seems that leadership is the decisive factor”, researcher Susanna Rahkamo explains. Together with one of the world’s leading creativity scholar, cognitive psychologist and Visiting Professor at Aalto University, Mark Runco, they have studied how creativity can be measured on both individual and organisational levels and concluded that creativity is scientifically measurable in concrete terms and that it correlates directly with key business performance indicators.
Creativity often emerges during surprisingly mundane encounters like coffee breaks, lunches or between meetings. “It’s precisely in these informal interactions that the magic happens — the conditions wherecreativity thrives”, says researcher Ana Paula Lafaire, who, together with Professor Astrid Huopalainen and Doctoral Researcher Maria Uusitalo, have researched how creativity emerges in the everyday.
Although creative insights often arise by chance, organisations can create conditions for creativity by fostering psychologically safe atmospheres, encouraging experimentation and idea-sharing, nurturing diverse ideas and designing spaces and processes that genuinely support collaboration and flexibility. Employees feel encouraged to foster collective creativity when their opinions matter and schedules breathe. “Spontaneous encounters in hallways, humour and a shared understanding that uncertainty is part of the process and failure is acceptable — these are the small things that disrupt linearity and acceleration. That’s when creative ideas are most likely to surface and flourish”, Lafaire notes.
“The role of leadership is to strengthen a culture built on shared purpose and action, one that enables genuine encounters between employees and makes people feel seen and heard”, Huopalainen adds.
The most interesting question when measuring creativity is often whether the creativity of individuals and organisations correlates with companies’ financial success. This question was explored by a research team led by Professor Matti Rossi, including Professor Eeva Vilkkumaa, Senior Fellow Niina Mallat and Doctoral Researcher Maria Semenova.
The research shows that companies with above-average individual creativity and creativity-supporting organizational cultures are more likely to perform financially above their industry average, while those scoring lower in both tend to underperform. “The results show that the link between a creativity-supporting culture and financial success is stronger than between individual creativity and success”, says Vilkkumaa.
Leadership is a decisive factor in building an organisational culture that supports creativity, reducing the risk of underperformance. “Leadership is the most powerful factor in strengthening creativity. However, if leadership is strong but the atmosphere supporting creativity is weak, the company performs financially worse – good leadership alone is not enough”, Vilkkumaa summarises.
The findings of the Creative Leap research project provide valuable insights for organizations aiming to strengthen creative culture, invest in renewals and build sustainable competitive advantage. They also offer guidance for policymakers and educators on how creativity can be fostered more broadly in society. Creativity may well become a decisive factor in Finland’s success in global competition, not only within individual companies but across society’s capacity for innovation, resilience and well-being. “Creativity is no longer a soft skill or a nice-to-have — it’s a survival kit,” as one participating company put it.
The research results event of Creative Leap: Creativity as a Competitive Advantage in Business will be held on 12th November 2025 at 9:00-11:00 EEST. Participation is possible in person or remotely. The event will be recorded and posted on Aalto's YouTube channel.
In a world defined by change, creativity is needed more than ever to renew, to create new solutions and to innovate. New Aalto University research shows that creativity-promoting leadership is a crucial component for companies' financial success.
The co-research project researches creativity as a competitive advantage and explores if creative approaches correlate with financial success
Creativity is not just a personal skill, it’s a powerful driver of business competitiveness, a tool for tackling societal challenges, and a source of personal fulfillment. But just like any skill, it needs attention, practice, and support to flourish.
