Globalization and technological revolution of the last decades have enabled the transition from traditional economy to "knowledge economy", fully transforming the market structure and rhythm and creating new business conditions for global competition. New business landscapes represent a constant challenge for businesses, as they oblige them to constantly redefine and redesign the existing and already-established business processes, all to keep pace in a dynamic market game. New types of business environments include a new employee qualification structure and require a new organizational management philosophy. Employee knowledge and their ability to adapt to changing and unstable environments has become key drivers of competitiveness and factors of economic growth patterns reorganization. While once businesses considered possessing "hard" knowledge as key success factor, today, due to the ever-changing and more frequent changes in the market, higher specializations and ever-increasing amounts of knowledge and information, employees are expected to possess "soft skills" or emotional competencies. Management becomes an emotional process, and emotions, once perceived as a contrast to rationality and thus to successful leadership, become a platform for developing competencies crucial to a creative and innovative work environment. Emotional intelligence, as a support and complement to cognitive intelligence, opens the way for a new management philosophy, which fosters a culture of trust and a climate of excellence to organizations, providing competitive advantage and sustainable development. This paper will explain the impact of changed business conditions on the approach to management and human capital, the importance of knowledge as company's strategic resource for achieving competitive advantage and the importance of emotional intelligence as the foundation of a creative and innovative organizational climate.