CREATIVE MANAGEMENT AND INNOVATION: BUILDING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE CONTEMPORARY ERA

In the world of business and enterprise, competition is something that cannot be avoided. Especially in this contemporary era, business practices are experiencing very rapid changes due to advances in digital technology which requires business people to be ready to face competition. In an effort to face competition in business, an attitude of discipline, creativity and innovation is needed by business people or businesses. In an effort to maintain market share, an entrepreneur must be able to see an opportunity and have the courage to take a risk. It is through courage and opportunity that an entrepreneur becomes equipped to remain capable and even win market competition. This research aims to find out what kind of creativity and innovation are carried out by business actors in dealing with changes in market share in the current era. This research uses a qualitative research method using a case study approach. The results of this research are that the application of creative management and innovation carried out by the UMKM industry, Ms. Sumiatin's peanut brittle business and the restaurant industry, namely Lim's Cafe Kisaran and Bang Kendik Cafe Rantauparat, has had a positive impact and is able to create competitive advantages in the contemporary era.


INTRODUCTION
In today's contemporary era, business practices are changing due to the significant influence of digital technology on the modern global economy, growing company performance, and encouraging innovation in all business fields.Such as the concept of Industry 4.0 which is linked as a concept created due to digital transformation in manufacturing, such as big data, cloud technology, to be applied to the manufacturing process.Entrepreneurs can expand their business by using innovative technology and business models that can gain a competitive advantage (Rochmawati et al., 2023).Competitive advantage is the result of a method or strategy used through the method of affixing various kinds of resources owned by a company or organization (Utama et al., 2020).A company can be said to have a competitive advantage if it has privileges from its competitors to attract consumers and be able to protect itself from dynamic market pressures (Liliyani, 2015).The competitive advantage achieved by a company can be maintained by always fostering knowledge, creativity and innovation and human resources because successful companies in the future will form a place of knowledge, level, and expertise that is proprietary to them (Rihardi, 2021).
Achieving a goal requires one thing that is fundamental, namely strategy, in improving the concept of strategy requires an improvement review.Innovation is one of the methods and results done by organizing a creative thought or idea, developing technology, and research done on a niche market by providing differentiation from other products that have good value (Mugni et al., 2022).A competitive strategy is needed as a protective barrier in the face of business competition (Suhaeni, 2018).
In this age of information advancement, technological advancement is one of the most important variables in restraining human life.In human life, the use of technology has grown into many aspects.This is due to the will of humans themselves who strive to continue to always grow and grow.So that from this willingness that gave rise to a new idea or idea that was created.In the relationship of creating new ideas and ideas, a term known as creativity arises.Which is where creativity becomes the beginning of the emergence of a new idea that has meaning for humans known as innovation (Yulius, 2021).
Business is an entrepreneurial activity that faces a lot of resistance or challenges.Therefore, an attitude of discipline, creativity is needed by a business or business actor.In an effort to maintain market share, an entrepreneur must be able to see an opportunity and have the courage to take a risk.Through courage and opportunity, it is the provision of an entrepreneur to remain capable of market competition.Certain abilities must be possessed by an entrepreneur such as the knowledge of adapting a different method, and being able to create a creative and innovative product to compete in the market (Riany & Dahmiri, 2020).
According to Zimmerer & Scarborough in their journal Riany and Dahmiri (2020) creativity is the power to create new thoughts or ideas, by combining, and making changes to an existing thought or idea which is then processed to form a creative product or service.
Companies can be said to advance and develop requiring encouragement and creativity, companies also have the strength and courage to face market instability.Each company is required to implement creativity in the products sold.The creativity of a product has the power to grow and combine pre-existing thoughts or ideas obtained from customers who then create creative products and are able to have an impact on competition.Apart from that, innovation is also needed in the growth of a company which has a special function for entrepreneurs.Through innovation, entrepreneurs are able to make a product that has not existed before into existence (Riany & Dahmiri, 2020).
According to Porter in his journal Riany and Dahmiri (2020), competitive advantage is that a company is able to reach margins that exceed its competitors.Based on a study conducted by Proter, there are several methods to be able to excel in competition, including offering a product or service at a low price (cost leadership), offering products with their differences (differentiation), and focusing on just one segment to maximize (focus).The way to survive in today's contemporary era is to have the ability or excellence in business competition so that the business being run can be sustainable or sustainable (Riany & Dahmiri, 2020).
In the world of business and business, competition is something that cannot be avoided.It is not only large business groups that experience competition but industries within the scope of MSMEs also face competition (Maesaroh, 2020).Competition in the MSME industry requires entrepreneurs to strive to make improvements in all matters, for example, changes are made in this case a business actor needs a new idea (Priharti et al., 2021).The most important way to face competition is how a company or MSME business player wins a competition by prioritizing an expertise to realize advantages in competing (Maesaroh, 2020).Each company or organization has its own way to gain an advantage in competition.According to Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong in his seminar proceedings Cholik (2020) said that a company can also offer a fairly minimal value or price or also bring more profit at a high price as well to gain an advantage in competing.A leader or company leader must be able to motivate and help his managers to be more creative, without creativity a company does not gain a competitive advantage and has no power and effort to compete with its competitors (Cholik, 2020).
Based on this, the author wants to conduct research on creative management and innovation in building competitive advantage in the contemporary era, which aims to find out what kind of creativity and innovation is carried out by business actors in facing changes in market share and technological advances that are so fast in this day and age.

RESEARCH METHOD
The research method used is qualitative method is a way of research that produces elaboration or descriptive data in the form of recorded or oral words through observations of individuals or behavior, through a case study approach, according to Yin in his seminar proceedings Cholik (2020) case studies are useful for examining problems in interrelated research between phenomena and a context in which these phenomena exist.According to Yin, there are also 4 crucial things in data analysis with qualitative research methods, namely matching patterns, forming explanations, finding logic models, and doing analysis (Cholik, 2020).
If the researcher uses several cases in his research, then to find repetition in the case, requires additional techniques and unification which the final result is a narrative that tells about the case, so that readers are expected to understand the case that has occurred (Cholik, 2020).Case study research also allows the researcher to protect the nature or characteristics as well as the meaning or significance of unique real events (Putri, 2021).Data collection methods are carried out through literature studies and documentation sourced from documents, books, journals, articles / other online media (Sidiq, Umar & Choiri, 2019)

RESULT AND DISCUSSION Definition of Creativity and Innovation
Experts differ in defining innovation, in a broad sense the word innovation is not only about the problem of a product but also about a thought or idea, method or an object that has been prepared to form something that has not been created before.An innovation is often associated with a change that is passed as something new by those who experience it.However, an innovation in the context of marketing and buyer behavior, can be connected through a new product or service.The word "new" here refers to a product that has not been made or has never existed or created before in the market and something new in the sense of existing in this case is something different that is an improvement on previous products that customers have encountered in the market (Yulius, 2021).Meanwhile, according to Suryana in his journal Carlina and Ekowati (2022) innovation is stated as the ability to implement creativity to form something that can be used and bring added value to the resources it has (Carlina & Ekowati, 2022).Meanwhile, according to Schumpeter in his journal Verbyani ( 2021) who was the first to research the importance of an innovation in the "entrepreneurial procedure" and "Innovation" is like doing new things or doing things that have been created before using new methods.Innovation is defined as a company's inclination to support and encourage creativity and experimentation in introducing new ideas (Verbyani & Handoyo, 2021).
According to Zimmer, et al in his journal Yulius (2021) creativity is defined as an expertise to develop new ideas and find new methods when looking at problems and opportunities.Innovation can also be interpreted as a "method", or also the "result" of growth or utilization, understanding of skills and expertise to form or also change products to be even better and have valuable value.The word innovation comes from the Latin Innovationem, which is a noun as an innovation action which means to update or change.According to Vontana in his journal Yulius (2021) defines innovation as economic and social success by introducing a new method or also a new mixture of modified old methods.There are several differences between creativity and innovation, including the following:

Concepts of Creativity and Innovation
According to Tjiptono in his journal Carlina and Ekowati (2022), giving a statement that the creativity of a product is a collection through thoughts or ideas in the form of ideas that provide differentiation from competitors' products so that consumers will feel satisfied with the products offered.According to Hadiyati in her journal Carlina and Ekowati (2022) that creativity is a thought about a product that has benefits, is appropriate and valuable about a job that has a heuristic character or which means "to find" or also an imperfect guide that teaches us to understand or get something that has not been created before (new) (Carlina & Ekowati, 2022).There are several parameters of product creativity, namely as follows a. Authenticity at the level of product innovation seems to be realized, that is, when working on product innovation, it must still protect its authenticity.b.The level of modification of a product is that the product or item that is realized has a level in working on an innovation or change.c.The appropriateness of the product which involves the point of view of quality and the idea of the product being realized must observe the appropriateness of the product (Harini et al., 2022) Creativity means an ability that is possessed from within a person's individual.The creativity that a person has is to appear simultaneously with the birth of that person.According to Utami Mundar in his journal Yulius (2021) creativity is defined as the fruit through interaction between a person and the surrounding environment, being able to create new combinations, based on previously known data, information, namely all the experience and knowledge that a person has processed during his lifetime.In its concept, a creativity is based on 3P, namely: a. Process It is a process that produces something that has not existed before or is new, in the growth of creativity, the creative process is an important factor.It can be interpreted as an active creative role that expresses proficiency and legitimate thinking and behavior.b.Product Product-based creativity is defined as a creative endeavor that concentrates on products or goods created by a person either new or an innovative combination.A manifestation can be said to be creative if the new manifestation has a function from an individual to society.c.Personal Creativity reflects an individual's distinctiveness in their thoughts and statements.
Creativity is created through one's skill to create something that has not been created before.An independent nature must be possessed by a creative person.He or she is also not bound by common values and norms that are active in the society (Yulius, 2021).
Innovation means publicizing a new idea, new product, or new methods that have beneficial value, which is the concept of innovation.
a. Product innovation This product innovation includes new perceptions, new services that are visibly improved.As well as an increase in usability characteristics, technician capabilities, and the reversal is not difficult.For example: Smartphones, computers, etc. b.Public service innovation Public services could only be done directly before.However, along with the rapid development of technology, public services can now be done online or online with a variety of methods, such as using call centers, automatic chat, or video calls.c.Technological innovation Currently humans can communicate with anyone and anytime, this is due to the rapid innovation in the field of technology today.This is validated by the existence of digital media platforms such as social media, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram which are able to reach all users in the world (Yulius, 2021).Innovation management can be defined as the blending through a process of innovation and change management.It refers to the growth of products, business methods, and organizations that innovate.Innovation management is needed as the recognition of new ideas must continue as an effort to prevent the rapid, diverse, and dynamic growth of the world.The purpose of creativity and innovation management itself is to create ideas that have not existed before which are useful for changing things for the better, gaining profits or profits, as well as increasing efficiency, improving product quality, products being able to reach a wide market, and creating new markets (Yulius, 2021).Creativity and innovation in a company or organization are two crucial things connected through human skills that are both connected between the two and cannot be separated (Mulyana, 2014).The creative ideas that a person has will be able to realize an innovation or change and be able to take opportunities for growth and increase to benefit life (Cholik, 2020).

Application of Creativity and Innovation Management
a. Creative management and innovation in MSMEs "Usaha Rempeyek Ibu Sumiatin" Rempeyek is one type of snack that has a savory taste.This snack is also often used as a complementary food, therefore peyek itself has the same function as crackers.Rempeyek is included in the fried food group with the basic ingredients of starch mixed with water and stirred until the peyek dough thickens and then spices and peanuts as a typical filling for this snack.MSMEs themselves are one of the business fields that are widely run by the people of Indonesia.Actors in the MSME business itself are not only played by groups of mothers but also students and students with various products they sell.In Indonesia itself, MSME business actors have always experienced a substantive increase (Satriadi et al., 2023).This is because small and medium enterprises are one of the priorities in economic growth in Indonesia, small and medium business activities are one of the businesses that can maintain economic improvement in Indonesia (Siti Fitria Fahmila, 2018).One of them is Buk Sumiatin's rempeyek MSME business in Perum Griya Senggrang Permai, Tanjungpinang (Satriadi et al., 2023).
In Tanjungpinang, the strength or potential of rempeyek micro, small and medium enterprises has increased accompanied by an increase in productivity.Thus the high productivity rate of rempeyek must be accompanied by a healthy and alluring marketing turnover as well.The process of making rempeyek is not a difficult thing to do, so this rempeyek business has many other competitors engaged in the same field and product, more specifically in the Tanjungpinang area.Therefore, high productivity and a good understanding of marketing both offline and online are needed so that Mrs. Sumiatin's peyek business can be sustainable for a long period of time.After observations in the journal Satriadi et al (2023) that the method of selling Mrs. Sumiatin's rempeyek products is still traditional, namely by leaving her selling products to traders or stalls around her residence with ordinary plastic packaging used without any labels or logos printed on the peyek packaging (Satriadi et al., 2023).
In Tanjungpinang, the strength or potential of rempeyek micro, small and medium enterprises has increased accompanied by an increase in productivity.Thus the high productivity rate of rempeyek must be accompanied by a healthy and alluring marketing turnover as well.The process of making rempeyek is not a difficult thing to do, so this rempeyek business has many other competitors engaged in the same field and product, more specifically in the Tanjungpinang area.Therefore, high productivity and a good understanding of marketing both offline and online are needed so that Mrs. Sumiatin's peyek business can be sustainable for a long period of time.After observations in the journal Satriadi et al ( 2023) that the method of selling Mrs. Sumiatin's rempeyek products is still traditional, namely by leaving her selling products to traders or stalls around her residence with ordinary plastic packaging used without any labels or logos printed on the peyek packaging (Satriadi et al., 2023).
Based on the results of research and business assistance conducted by Satriadi et al (2023), the authors conclude that Mrs. Sumiatin's rempeyek business has applied creativity and innovation management, with product innovation, namely making improvements to the packaging of her business products that prioritize packaging or packaging and have implemented a differentiation strategy as evidenced by the use of technological innovation in increasing the level of sales by utilizing Facebook social media as an online media marketing, by applying creativity management and business innovation Mrs. Sumiatin's peyek business has obtained substantial results compared to before innovation was made (Satriadi et al., 2023).This indicates that creative management and innovation have an impact in building competitive advantage in contemporary times with advances in information technology as it is today.
The result of the influence of rapid technological development is product innovation or change itself.The increase in competition and rapid technological development requires each company to always relentlessly innovate products which are expected to foster competitive advantage in an organization or company (Kurniasari & Utama, 2018).
Although MSME businesses have always experienced an increase over time, they are still faced with various problems (Sunarsih, 2017).One of them is the problem of change and the use of digital technology, in the era of digitalization it does have an impact and change and makes it even more productive because all things can be done in a fairly short period of time (Sabrina, 2021).However, in an effort to deal with technological developments for MSME business actors, it is not an easy thing based on data obtained from Delloitte Access Economics in his journal Rofaida stated that there are only around 32% of MSME business actors in their business processes using digital technology, according to the results of the research this is because each business actor does not have the ability to use digital technology (Rofaida & Ciptagustia, 2020).
b. Creative management and innovation at "Lim's Cafe Kisaran" Cafe is a type of restaurant that emphasizes a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere, comfort in the cafe can be seen from comfortable seating with music.So that the cafe becomes a suitable place for a relaxing fun place with friends, relatives, or even family.The food provided is also a simple and easy-to-make food menu and is not difficult to make.So that the cafe business is quite competitive, with the development of sophisticated technology, thus leading every cafe business actor to include every customer in obtaining a value or value (Haloho et al., 2020).
One of the most popular cafes in the Kisaran area is Lim's Cafe.The cafe is visited by various groups ranging from young people to adults.This cafe was established in 2013, this cafe is also equipped with free wifi facilities and music that is served so that customers enjoy and enjoy their food and drinks comfortably and relaxed.The service system at the cafe is also good and friendly to its customers, criticism and suggestions from buyers are also well received.Lim's Cafe also offers a variety of menus such as heavy meals or just snacks.The menu they make is also often innovated by Lim's Cafe.Various kinds of flavors or new types of food are made so that they can hook customers (Haloho et al., 2020).
Lim's Cafe also has social media accounts such as Facebook and Instagram.However, their social media activities are less active, and do not often upload photos of food or beverage products on their social media.However, customers who come to Lim's Cafe always post either their photos or videos when they are visiting Lim's Cafe, which unexpectedly helps the owner of Lim's Cafe.It can be proven by the number of customers who come to the cafe even though there are many other competitor cafes that are not much better than Lim's Cafe.Based on the results of research conducted by Haloho et al (2020) in his journal that product innovation sold and marketing through social media is also able to have a positive and substantive impact on Competitive Advantage at Lim's Cafe Kisaran (Haloho et al., 2020).A competition arises because as a line of business increases, there will be many similar businesses that will emerge (Noviani, 2020).
The results of the research conducted by Haloho et al ( 2020) are also the same as the results of research conducted by Hasibuan et al (2021) at Bang Kendik Cafe Rantauparat which shows that creativity and innovation have a positive impact on customer purchasing power attraction at Bang Kendik Cafe Rantauparat (Hasibuan et al., 2021).This indicates that the creativity and innovation carried out by Bang Kendik Cafe Rantauparat are able to form a competitive advantage in the cafe business.This is in line with the opinion in his journal Fatahillah (2023) that product innovation is also one of the supporting factors for competitive advantage.Products are the central component of a buying and selling or marketing activity, this is because the product is the fruit of the company's activities or business that can be offered which is useful as an effort to fulfill the needs and desires of customers.Innovating products is one way of competing between business people offered to customers (Fatahillah, 2023).Meanwhile, according to Tjiptono in his journal Carlina and Ekowati (2022) states that innovation is one of the important factors in sustaining the success of a company or business that is run.Innovation ends with the introduction of a new product (Carlina & Ekowati, 2022).

CONCLUSION
Based on the results of the research above, it can be concluded that creative management and innovation are able to build competitive advantages in the current era as is the case in the micro, small and medium enterprise industry or MSMEs, Mrs. Sumiatin's rempeyek business located in Tanjungpinang, which has applied creative management and innovation through business assistance provided by improving the quality of packaging and creating a logo for her business products and also utilizing digital innovation as a medium for online marketing using Facebook.The business run by Mrs. Sumiatin after going through assistance and applying creative management and innovation has an impact on the results obtained quite substantially different from before.Also in the restaurant business, Lim's Cafe Kisaran, which has implemented innovation management in its food and beverage menu so that it gets positive feedback or reciprocity from its customers, Lim's Cafe Kisaran also utilizes digital innovation by creating business accounts on social media such as Facebook and Instagram, although in the process the business actors are less active in using social media, but the positive impact of social media is still felt because visitors who come to the cafe deliberately upload their leisure activities in that place so that indirectly Lim's Cafe Kisaran has excelled in competing in the contemporary era like today.The positive impact of creative management and innovation is also felt by Bang Kendik Cafe Rantauparat business actors.

Table 1
The Difference Between Creativity and Innovation