Skip to main content

Business Innovation, more Like an Oxymoron


There seems to be an endless thirst for insights into innovation, to the point where the word has joined the ranks of a cliche. But behavioral contradictions among executives hamstring this apparent strategic thrust, according to an assessment by Forrester.

Fact: top executives say one thing and do another. Executives know they want more innovation. The term seems so well understood that surveys don't bother to define it. In McKinsey's 2007 "Global Survey on Innovation," 70 percent of corporate leaders named innovation among their top three priorities for driving growth.

Yet, only one-third of top managers named it as part of their leadership team's regular agenda. And, where do they focus? In IBM's 2006 CEO study, CEOs ranked business model innovation -- a new way to interact with customers or partners -- higher than product or service innovation because it can boost profits without extensive time and physical plant costs.

Unfortunately, firms don't emphasize business model innovation -- The 2007 McKinsey responders focus primarily on product and service development within their business units.

Fact: top executives say they want their people to help but look elsewhere for ideas. Unfortunately, CxOs don't rely on internal staff for ideas -- In McKinsey's study, 75 percent of top managers picked external discussion with peers, partners, or suppliers as the primary source for new ideas.

And, perhaps they are right not to look internally -- the McKinsey study also noted that 32 percent of middle managers believe that their firm's culture inhibited innovation initiatives.

Fact: CIOs see technology as critical to innovation, but IT's focus is clearly on efficiency. IBM's 2007 survey of 170 CIOs shows that they believe "that technology is significantly or profoundly transforming their industries and enabling competitive advantage, yet only 16 percent felt their companies were taking full advantage."

And, they see technology as core to the firm's products and services but primarily deploy IT for efficiency. What's wrong with this picture?

Popular posts from this blog

Digital Talent Demand Exceeds Supply in Asia-Pac

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul

Mobile Device Market Still Awaiting Recovery

The mobile devices market has experienced three years of unpredictable demand. The global pandemic, geopolitical pressures, supply chain issues, and macroeconomic headwinds have hindered the sector's consistent growth potential. This extremely challenging environment has dramatically affected both demand and supply chains. It has led to subsequent inflationary pressures, leading to a worsening global cost of living crisis suppressing growth and confidence in the sector. In tandem, mobile device industry stakeholders have become more cautious triggering market uncertainties. Mobile Device Market Development Operating under such a backdrop, the development of mobile device ecosystems and vendor landscapes have been impacted severely. Many of these market pressures persisted throughout 2022 and now into 2023, borne chiefly by the smartphone market. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, worldwide smartphone shipments in 2022 declined 9.6 percent Year-over-Year

Open Banking Usage to Grow by 470 Percent

The Open Banking business model has been advantageous for Third-Party Providers (TPPs), helping them to extend their offerings into other areas of financial services with new capabilities. Open Banking is also advantageous for traditional banking institutions, despite the perceived loss of custodianship over their data, by providing greater accessibility to more bank services. Furthermore, Open Banking can help serve Mobile Internet providers that are able to leverage it to create tailored services according to customers’ preferences and/or economic limitations. Open Banking Market Development Since traditional banking services are made more convenient by TPPs via greater data access, customers can proactively manage their finances and shape the development of new financial offerings. This is particularly noticeable in the realm of Digital Payments, where retail merchants and customers transact through eCommerce, which has the greatest number of use cases for Open Banking. These includ