The U.S. markets have been stormy to say the least, as financial firms drop like flies. And the ups and downs of our market have had a resulting effect on markets worldwide. Even though President Bush signed the $700 billion bailout plan into law Friday afternoon, there’s still a great deal of uncertainty about the future of the economy.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that companies still remain focused on innovation and growth, according to the latest Economist Intelligence Unit Report, “The Innovators: How Successful Companies Drive Business Transformation.” !@!
The survey is based on the responses of 261 executives worldwide. The findings included:
1. Customer-facing business processes are the main targets for innovation.
2. Generating good innovative ideas is hard, and adopting those ideas is even harder.
3. A culture of innovation is critical, but there’s no consensus as to what a culture of innovation is.
4. Technology investments are being directed toward tools that will increase information sharing and boost productivity.
5. There’s an inability to prove return on investment prevents wider deployment of innovation tools.
6. Companies are looking to increase collaboration with research bodies and universities while scaling back on their consulting expenditures.
While this is a lot of information, I want to focus on a few key points. First of all, respondents based in Asia named risk as an important element of a culture that promotes innovation, while those in Europe and North America emphasized learning and cross-functional collaboration. What does a culture of innovation mean to you? Is learning intimately involved in creating this culture at your organization?
