The article contains new approach to creating future of cities and urban regions based on the concept of creative cities. The core of this approach is to treat the genetic code of development as a tool for creating future of the territorial units. The combination and synergy of development genes that were considered as creativity, innovativeness and entrepreneurship allows the use of the fundamental elements of strategic analysis. On one hand, these elements are future challenges of cities and urban regions that they face in the perspective of global trends; on the other hand, they are strategic capabilities of sectors inseparably linked with creativity – sectors of culture, science and business, the integration of which is based on cultural heritage of cities and urban regions. The next issue of the article is the description of the way genes of urban development are manifested in the four sectors. It allows to present the genetic code of development function as a generator of strategic capabilities of creative sectors in cities and urban regions. Finally, the ideas of cross-sectoral undertakings for Polish big cities and urban agglomerations that enable facing intellectual and strategic global challenges were presented. This takes place through the use of strategic capabilities based on the genes of creativity, innovativeness and entrepreneurship; in this way, the genetic code of the development of large cities and urban agglomerations served as the new prospective approach to creating their future.