April 19, 2024 | Blog

Creativity breeds innovation, as innovation powers up technology and entrepreneurship, which gives humanity innovative products and unique services to better our lives, working closely together and helping each other simultaneously. With one brilliant idea to solve a problem, the opportunity to create new businesses rises, and new technologies emerge; that’s how important creativity and innovation are. 

• In the Philippines, innovation plays an essential role in economic growth. Last year, the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2023 ranked the country 56th out of 132 world economies, three times higher than last year. This shows that the Philippines “has been an outperformer, surpassing expectations on innovation relative to its economic development”. In other ASEAN countries, Indonesia is continuously and consciously investing in its technologies as a long-term strategy for boosting its economy.
• According to Indonesia’s  Ministry of Finance and Asian Development Bank, Indonesia’s technology adoption for innovation “could add up to $2.8 trillion to the Indonesian economy by 2040, projecting a gross domestic product (GDP) by an additional 0.55 percentage points annually over the next two decades”.
• Meanwhile, OpenGov shared that Malaysia is diversifying its innovation through incorporating digital transformation in every sector, with RM 1.7 billion in Belanjawan 2024 toward the “diverse digital economy initiative. This initiative is fostering growth for MSMEs in sectors like e-commerce, Digital Health, and Digital Content and accelerating local startups.” Singapore, by contrast, is the region’s technology hub.
• In Singapore’s Research, Innovation, and Enterprise (RIE) 2025 plan, the country is projecting another $25 billion to support the development of a knowledge-based and innovation-driven economy and society, a conscious initiative to ensure the country will be “the leading choice for related events in areas like robotics, space and ICT” as innovation and technology are the key drivers of the Singapore economy.

Today, as we celebrate World Creativity and Innovation Day, IT Group, Inc. (ITG), along with its technological leaders and partners, is here to share why creativity and innovation are two of the most essential things in business and tech, knowingly that both sectors thrive in the highly-competitive ground, where best ideas win. 

Creativity and Innovation Require Listening

On the 25th anniversary of Oracle NetSuite, Evan Goldberg, the founder and EVP of Oracle NetSuite, looked back to their suite journey and reminiscent the importance of having a 360-degree view not only as their business selling point as #1 Cloud ERP but especially a view where you can understand your businesses. Goldenberg believes that creativity and innovation thrive when we learn to listen and give our employees a safe space to grow. 

Also read: Start Your DX Journey with ITG, The Experts in NetSuite ERP Implementation 

“If you’re a leader, you undoubtedly have worked hard over the years to put yourself in that position. You have developed incredible skills in certain areas. And yet, running a successful company requires myriad skills that no one individual can have. In the areas where you have less experience and/or natural talent, surround yourself with experts and give them the freedom to utilize what they’ve learned over their careers. You don’t always have to be the smartest person in the room on every topic – in fact if you are, you’ve probably shortchanged yourself and your organization,” he said. “Even if you find the best people, if you don’t give them an environment in which they can thrive they – and you – won’t experience success. When you listen to your employees, one thing you will almost certainly learn is that people want to make a difference. You can help them do that even more effectively, and, in the process, benefit your own mission.” 

Note: ITG offers Oracle NetSuite in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore

Creativity and Innovation Involve Asking the Right Questions

For Rajesh Ganesan, ManageEngine’s president, creativity and innovation occur when we ask ourselves pivotal questions to find solutions to critical problems and use them to adapt and change for the better. ManageEngine has been one of ITG’s longest technology partners over the years, offering IT Management Solutions and promoting digital transformation with us. Since it started in 2002, Ganesan has witnessed how ManageEngine started from its humble beginnings to a globally recognized enterprise with hundreds of clients. Ganesan explained that during that time, the challenge was how to make it on the playing field in the tech industry, as it was in the early days of the era of digital transformation, where the future of tech is yet to unfold. 

Also read: Equicom Amplifies Value for Investment of Digital Tools by Shifting to ManageEngine and ITG

“When we started, we did not have any grand plans. So, 20 years down the line, we have a suite of hundred products. None of that would have been thought, right? When we started, we wanted to keep it very simple, very small, [and] one step at a time.” he said. “It was never about building 90 products. It was finding the right problem to solve for the market, [and] for the customers. It’s [about] asking the right questions like, ‘Do we invent a new business model?’ We have the talent. We have the ability already. How do we modify, and how do we pivot? That’s how you start thinking. [You] start thinking about what you can do best, and that’s exactly what we did in ManageEngine.” 

Note: ITG offers ManageEngine in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore

Creativity and Innovation Ensure Long-term Success

In terms of creativity and innovation, Ed Boyajian, EDB’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, believes it’s all about being open—open to new opportunities, open to taking new risks, and open to working together and collaborating for innovative solutions, like EnterpriseDB itself, ITG’s enterprise management platform that supports business’ database usage for core processes and transactions. In Parveen Panwar’s interview, Boyajian shared his leadership story and experience, talking about his career and leading EDB to its success today. “ It was an incredibly powerful lesson about the fragility of early-stage companies and how much you have to think about what needs to be in place to endure difficult times. If you look at the landscape of early-stage open source companies, specifically early-stage open source database companies, it’s littered with roadkill,” he said.  “Thirteen years later, I can remember those periods where EDB hit other difficult moments, much like that first one. Still, my early experience taught me a  powerful lesson about the importance of building a company that can endure over the long term.”

Also read: Supercharging Digital Transformation with IT Group, Inc.’s partnership with EnterpriseDB

Boyajian also shared, in a separate interview with Matt Asay in InfoWorld, that open source technology, especially PostgreSQL, is “easier to experience and to consume,” which helps ​​new users understand the Postgres ecosystem easily and with the EDB and ITG whether you are a small, medium or an enterprise, we can help deploy Postgres responsibly and help you master data management at scale.

Note: ITG offers EnterpriseDB in the Philippines and Indonesia

Creativity and Innovation Needs Accurate Data

For Aneel Bhusri, the Co-Founder and Executive Chair, creativity and innovation emerge when an opportunity arises. During the COVID-19 global pandemic, Bhusri reflected on how businesses could survive and thrive simultaneously. In a Workday published story by Ellen Murphy based on Bhusri’s sit-down interview with Soledad O’Brien for our Workday Innovation Outlook session, Murphy described Bhusri’s idea that the pandemic was an opportunity to flex their creativity muscles and address unique challenges, enabling business growth. “We’ve been through one of the most uncertain times in business, and we’re all finding new, creative paths to growth,” he said. “We’re emerging stronger and ready to harness the opportunity. We need to move from a world where you are working for your data to one where your data works for you.” 

We all believe in creativity and innovation backed up with accurate data to support each business’s creative vision. ITG is a proud partner of Workday and is committed to creativity, innovation, and digital transformation.

Note: ITG offers Workday in Malaysia and Singapore

Creativity and Innovation Open for Collaboration

To be creative and innovative, you must be open to new ideas and experience collaborative work to gain fresh perspectives, insights, and even constructive feedback to improve your solution. Take it from  Matt Hicks, Red Hat’s CEO.  With open source principles, he shared how these principles help them to “unlock the world’s potential”. “​​Open source development has always resulted in better innovation faster because it brings together people with diverse experiences to work together to solve a common challenge and spark new ideas. This is Red Hat,” he said. 

Also read:  ITG Wins Red Hat’s CY20 Commercial Partner of the Year

As a true partner in the industry, ITG has been venturing together with Red Hat for over a decade “to be a catalyst in open source communities, helping build flexible, powerful IT infrastructure solutions” for businesses. “If I had followed my initial path, not raised my hand for certain projects, or shied away from contributing ideas and asking questions, I might not be here. That is what I love about Red Hat and it’s something that differentiates us from other companies: nothing is predetermined; we’re only limited by our passion and drive to contribute and make an impact. That’s true not just for us as individuals but also for us as a company.”

Note: ITG offers Red Hat in the Philippines and Indonesia

Creativity and Innovation in Venturing Together

Lastly, the man behind the success of IT Group, Inc. and bringing technological partners across the ASEAN region is Cris P. Gamboa, the president and CEO of ITG. His creative vision to bring innovative technology to people and bridge the gap gave birth to a regional company that promotes digital transformation in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, helping 200+ clients, and has a solid portfolio of 250+ successful projects for over 20 years in the industry. Gamboa shared during ITG’s 20th-anniversary celebration that as much as creativity and innovation drive success, it is equally important to ensure discipline in one’s work and value the people one works with. 

“The secret behind any success is discipline. We kept progressing to our present-day business scope and size because we were committed and disciplined in our approach to making decisions and choosing our growth opportunities. Strategy is not just about selecting what to do, but also what not to do,” he said. “Technologies will change, and industries will evolve, but I’ve learned one of the greatest lessons in this business. Finding the right partner is the best [decision and] investment you could ever make. With the right people and partners, you can withstand many trials, and that’s why we are here today.”

Let’s Celebrate World Creativity and Innovation Day Together 

As we celebrate World Creativity and Innovation Day together, the United Nations reminds us that there is no universal understanding of creativity, which brings us all the possibilities to dream, create, and innovate where our imagination is only the limit. “The world is invited to embrace the idea that innovation is essential for harnessing the economic potential of nations. Innovation, creativity, and mass entrepreneurship can provide new momentum towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It can harness economic growth and job creation while expanding opportunities for everyone,” they said. Let’s be creative and innovative in making our world a better place where individuals and businesses can thrive. 

IT Group, Inc. (ITG) has been the leading IT Solution Partner in the Philippines and the ASEAN region. We’re an ISO 9001:2015 Certified company with four regional offices in the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. We help 200+ clients across the ASEAN region promote innovation through a digital transformation journey, and we have a solid portfolio of 250+ successful projects. We offer Business Consulting, Support and managed Services, Subscription and licenses, Service Delivery, and Certification and training. 

For over 20 years of expertise, ITG has been your leading technology partner for system-wide innovative solutions to accelerate your business plans and goals, delivering seamless integrations and processes, from Business Management Solutions, IT Management, Integration & Automation, and Enterprise Data Management to IT Infrastructure. We help clients across the region experience digital transformation in their business, co-creating and co-owning solutions tailored to their business needs. 

ITG takes pride in helping businesses from various sectors and industries. Whether you are a small, medium, or large company, we can help you with your digital transformation journey.