What do Australian execs see as the key to business innovation?
Australian executives, in line with their global counterparts, believe the only way to successfully innovate is to merge and combine talents, ideas, insights, and resources across the world. And it’s not just talk, with 63 percent of executives reporting increased revenue from collaborative innovation activities in 2014, up from only 55 percent in 2013.
“Executives in Australia are very aware of the need to be ahead of the innovation curve and the best ways to attract skilled employees and build their global networks,” says Suzana Ristevski, Head of Strategy and Growth, GE Australia and New Zealand.
Interestingly, Australian executives are ready to embrace a new world of working, particularly with big data and global collaboration, but they don’t quite know how to activate programs to do so yet.
Although the vast majority of respondents recognised the importance of innovation, they also flagged a series of impediments, with 20 percent citing a lack of support from leadership, and an inability to scale local innovation to international markets. Bridging the gap between innovation and implementation was cited as a significant hurdle for 80 percent of respondents, while one in five described finding new business models to support new ideas as difficult. One in five participating executives said there was significant inertia surrounding converting ideas into action, while 40 percent said local government support was below the international average.
In the face of these challenges, the importance of innovation was underlined by the fact that two thirds of executives surveyed was allocating a dedicated innovation budget. Two thirds of respondents were also prioritising the adaptation and implementation of new technologies, while three quarters were of the view that talented staff was the key to successful innovation.
There was also a clear indication that long-term innovation goals were being prioritised over short term profits by 60 percent of respondents, while a full 84 percent described deeper customer and market insight as a clear priority.
Most importantly of all the executives who responded to the survey expressed a profound belief in the value of innovation with 86 percent agreeing that Australians live better today than 10 years ago because of the impact of innovation.
And although this outlook is healthy, Ristevski suggests, Australian businesses would benefit from adopting more disruptive behaviour when it comes to innovation, as out appetite for risk is well below out international counterparts.