Innovation Climate Survey

InnovationTools.com has released its latest Innovation Climate Survey. The findings might be surprising at first, but not if you think about it for a moment:

Nearly half of the survey respondents (49.0%) reported that the climate for innovation has improved in their organizations. Of this total, just over 20% said it has improved significantly, while another 27% said it has improved slightly. Another one-fourth of innovation practitioners (25.7%) said there has been no change in the climate for innovation in their companies.

Clearly companies see the downturn as an opportunity for innovation. On the other hand, only 28% said they have increased their spending on innovation. Of course, this could be seen as a major positive - given that companies are seeking to cut spending across the board. The survey also shows the top priorities are incremental improvements and enhanced collaboration.

The importance companies placed on collaboration was somewhat a surprise to me. In hard times, it is easy to see how firms would draw back. In fact, one comment on the survey illustrates that point, "We are applying in house resources in innovation in manufacturing equipment at half the cost we would expend with an outside supplier."

However, the survey results and other comments show the opposite reaction. This comment is an example:

We are forging new partnerships with folks we formerly viewed as competitors. They may have a skill set which combined with ours sells not only our product but theirs as well, resulting in clients seeing that we go the extra mile to meet their needs.

This too makes perfect sense upon reflection. In downturns, internal resources are less available - or are allocated in a much more strict manner. When internal resources are scarcer, it makes sense to look outside. In some cases, this outward look may be a completely different behavior for the company. Thus, downturns maybe the time when companies can more easily break the "not-invented-here" syndrome.

This new embrace of collaboration will change the way business operates. Once adopted, it is likely to be a permanent rather than transitory -- once the culture of collaboration takes hold. And, as we noted in our report Virtual Worlds and the Transformation of Business, the tools for collaboration are rapidly evolving. The development of these new tools will help streamline and shorten design and testing of new products, improve training and learning, and provide important new ways to involve consumers in product design, performance, and after-sales support (see earlier posting). The result will be a stronger, more productive economy.

Maybe we should add a C - for collaboration - to the I-Cubed Economy.