Innovation leaders are 2.2X more likely to accelerate their way through economic uncertainty

The Dell Technologies Innovation Index, a new study polling 6,600 employees across 45+ countries, reveals that businesses are confident in the strength of their innovation in the face of global challenges. Over three quarters (84%) say that they agree their business has a vibrant culture of innovation, but the research shows a clear 'innovation gap' between perception and realisation. 

Respondents were placed on an innovation maturity benchmark ranging from Innovation Leaders to Innovation Laggards to understand organisations' innovation maturity globally. This reveals an innovation perception gap, as the results show, despite the optimistic view of innovative business cultures, only 18% of organisations worldwide can be defined as Innovation Leaders and Adopters. In the UK, this figure is lower at only 5%.

This is important, as Innovation Leaders and Adopters are 2.2X more likely to accelerate their innovation during a recession than Innovation Followers and Laggards (who are more likely to decelerate). The good news is that the Innovation Index is a snapshot in time, and organisations can improve by priming their people, processes and technology for innovation.

People-primed innovation

Organisations need help to develop an innovation culture where all ideas can make a difference and learning through failure is encouraged. Businesses recognise this and are confident in their ability to deliver: in the UK, 56% believe that, in part, people join their company because they believe they'll be empowered to innovate. Globally, this figure is over three quarters (78%).

However, they need to ensure that they fix the innovation gap. In the UK, half (50%) of respondents believe people also leave their company because they haven't been able to innovate as much as they hoped. At a global level, this figure is 59%. And in the UK, many (63%) respondents say aspects of their company's culture hold them back from being as innovative as they want to / can be. Furthermore, of those respondents based in the UK, 68% believe that their leaders are more inclined to favour their own ideas, which can hinder the development of an innovation-based culture within an organisation.

The report also gives businesses a guide on how they can course-correct these issues, highlighting the opportunities to innovate more and the barriers that impact innovation. For example, over half (51%) of respondents in the UK feel recognition by senior leaders would incentivise them to innovate more.

Process-primed innovation

In addition to people-specific changes, businesses should also look at how they can improve their processes around innovation. For example, 74% of UK respondents say their leaders are more focused on the day-to-day running of the business than innovation, with 59% feeling that workload and a lack of time to innovate are hindering their teams' abilities. The prime barrier to innovation for respondents' teams is a lack of time to innovate, underscoring the importance of senior leaders modelling prioritisation. Without genuine, visible commitment at a leadership level, ambitious, skilled individuals can't achieve their full potential in innovation.

Providing more structure around innovation can also lead to better outcomes. While by its nature, innovation may be seen as an organic, ad-hoc pursuit, 63% of Innovation Leaders and Adopters say special, dedicated projects drive their innovation. Half (50%) of Innovation Leaders and Adopters in the UK agree. Equally, 89% of UK businesses classed as 'Innovation Laggards and Followers' agree that they could automate more to free up band-with and enable teams to innovate more. Similarly, a significant number of respondents in the UK called for improvements to their organisation's ideation stage of innovation (77%).

Technology-primed innovation

The study findings point to the power of technology to enable innovation and the consequences of falling behind. At a global level, most (86%) actively seek technologies to help them realise their innovation goal. Conversely, 57% globally believe their technology is not cutting-edge and fear they will fall behind their competitors. Looking at the UK specifically, for example, the study revealed that only 19% of ITDMs have an AI/ML platform connected to the data warehouse, enabling predictive analytics and forecasting.

The study also explores where organisations are making gains and facing obstacles across five technology catalysts for innovation: multicloud, edge, modern data infrastructure, anywhere-work and cybersecurity. In nearly all areas, complexity is the most significant stumbling block to unlocking that potential.

These struggles are evident in the top-cited global technology obstacles to innovation:

Growing cloud costs.

Difficulties integrating the overall business architecture with the IT infrastructure architecture.

Time and money spent migrating apps to new cloud environments.

Cybersecurity threats: can't innovate with data and insecure edge devices.

Lack of IT infrastructure to meet and process data at the edge.

"The Index shows that UK businesses classed as 'Innovation Leaders and 'Adopters' choose to accelerate their innovation when the going gets tough. Tellingly, they are also 1.5 times more likely to experience buoyant growth than Innovation Laggards and Followers. It should be no surprise, then, that with the UK economy seeing little to no growth this year, only 5% of organisations in the UK can be defined as Innovation Leaders, way behind the (still admittedly small) global figure of 18%."

"These results should serve as a wake-up call to the 56% of UK businesses that say economic uncertainty slows or prevents their ability to innovate. By prioritising innovation instead, they are more likely to secure a competitive advantage and, at scale, could help the UK economy see its way back to a place of prosperity."

"There's a powerful equation in business: an innovative idea plus technology equals impact. However, many organisations mistakenly equate innovation with the next big disruptive lightbulb moment. While innovation can be born from disruptive ideas, this doesn't always have to be the case. With the right people, processes and technology in place, even small, practical ideas can create a ripple effect, culminating in greater productivity, profitability and purpose."

"The Innovation Index illustrates that innovation is not a fun side project – it is one of the most defining attributes of a resilient, profitable business." Steve Young, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Dell Technologies UK.