Companies lack innovation focus: survey

04 April 2008

Business strategy is driven largely by innovation, but corporate responsibility for the innovation process is highly fragmented, according to findings of a survey published today by Accenture . 

While nearly two-thirds (62 per cent) of respondents said that their organization's business strategy is either totally or largely dependent on innovation, only 21 per cent of respondents said their companies have a chief innovation executive, and even fewer - 11 per cent - said there is a C-suite executive in charge of the process.  Nearly half (48 per cent) of respondents said that multiple executives are responsible for innovation in their companies. 

The survey also found that companies that are successful with innovation are likely to have a chief innovation executive.  Specifically, 40 per cent of respondents who said their company's level of innovation is much stronger than that of their competitors also said that the person primarily in charge of innovation is a chief innovation executive.

The findings indicate that the challenge of innovation for organizations is not commitment and intent but rather execution against the innovation vision.  While 59 per cent of executives said that the level of support their CEO gives to innovation is greater than the level of support of CEOs at their closest industry competitors, a majority (57 per cent) of respondents also said that their organisation's speed of innovation was slower than that of industry peers, and about the same number (55 per cent) said that their frequency of innovation was less than that of their industry peers.

''The role of the CEO in the innovation process has grown dramatically in its importance and needs to evolve from vision- and direction-setting to enabling and driving execution,'' said Dan Chow, a senior executive in Accenture's Strategy practice.  ''CEOs need to properly align resources and action with the innovation vision and performance goals.  However, simply having a vision for innovation and naming an executive to head innovation is not enough to make it work.  Senior management must look at innovation as a core process to be actively managed; avoid a quick-fix approach; and focus their energy on execution.''

Respondents are concerned not only about their ability to generate new ideas, but also with their ability to consistently transform innovation into action.  Only 15 per cent of respondents said they are very satisfied with their company's ability to convert ideas into service offerings, and only 13 per cent said they can do it repeatedly. High on the list of innovation challenges cited by respondents are transforming ideas into marketable goods and services, cited by 29 per cent of respondents, and creating a proper execution strategy, cited by 26 percent of respondents.