Over the summer, we did some research to find out more about how organisations viewed and dealt with innovation and how this might change in the future. We used telephone interviews and on-line surveys with 24 companies in 12 sectors and 7 countries.

Out of this research, we identified 10 key things that will be of interest to anyone who would like to know more about how to make sure innovation happens successfully in their business.

Innovation is vital for future success

In order to future proof organisations, they were acutely aware that innovation was a crucial element of their success. Whilst 42% of companies see it as important now, this rose to 90% who saw it as crucial in 5 years’ time.

Companies do not support ideas with sufficent resource

This was the number one skills gap. Of all the skills we asked companies to rate themselves on, they rated themselves lowest on this one. 54% of companies said they were not effective at putting enough resource (time, people, money) to support the development of new ideas. It’s one thing to generate good ideas, but clearly a real challenge for companies to then action those ideas.

Knowing lots about your business is double-edged

Of course, it’s normal to value your staff’s knowledge – of the organisation, the sector, their role, the people. But there’s a downside, and that’s that if you’ve been in an organisation a long time it can lead to making assumptions. This means that you might be less likely to notice and respond to market changes and see the need for innovation and change within your organisation.

To see a summary of all 10 insights, we have created an infographic.