Organisational innovation being stymied by lack of senior support

A lack of senior stakeholder support is the greatest inhibitor of change, new research suggests as despite considerable enthusiasm to innovate, organisations are being thwarted by tight resources and strong internal resistance. The data commissioned by KCOM found that organisations are also limiting themselves by turning away the specialist skills and experience that could help them advance, through overly predictive procurement processes. They are however, eager to be more competitive, which is why organisations are making big investments in innovation projects. Almost half (43 percent) consider driving digital transformation to improve competitive advantage to be their top priority in the next year. A further 32 percent are allocating at least 20 percent of their IT budget to new projects. Both public and private sector organisations are also taking an increasingly people-centric approach to digital transformation. In the next year, 80 percent said they would incentivise staff retention through training, accreditation and career development to deliver on their innovation strategy. This is compared to 71 percent who said they would do so by investing in new technologies.

When it comes to innovation, organisations are overwhelmingly looking to the cloud. Almost three quarters of businesses plan to invest in cloud migration (70 percent) and the implementation of cloud native applications (68 percent) in the next twelve months. This is followed by efforts to increase data security, with 65 percent intending to invest in improving identity management services.

 However, the survey also found that organisations are constrained in what they can achieve. A range of organisational factors are preventing them from identifying the problems they face as well as the solutions they need.

For instance, companies have to contend with the high chance of failure when innovating. Willingness to fail is essential to the success of new projects. Fortunately, the majority either embrace failure if it is recognised early enough to limit costs (46 percent) or see it as a natural part of innovation (10 percent).

However, the definition of ‘failure’ depends on the industry. Over two in five (44 percent) of those in health and social care view late delivery as failure, whereas only a fifth (20 percent) of those in financial services feel the same way. More than 72 percent of the total respondents define a project that comes in over budget as a failure. This is compared to nearly half (45 percent) who define it as a failure to achieve the original designated outcome.

While the definition of failure may differ across industries, it’s comforting to see that whatever the failure, companies are willing to embrace it. Only 28 percent regard failure as frowned upon or career-limiting and, for these organisations, this attitude is highly likely to stifle innovation. Yet for the majority, failure is embraced as step towards innovation.

Stephen Long, MD at KCOM Enterprise, said: “It is positive to see that organisations are embracing cloud technology as the path to innovation, and they recognise some of the challenges holding them back. However, too many are stopped from giving their all to innovation projects by fear of failure.”

To read the full report, Clearing the path for innovation, click here.