GE Innovation Barometer report finds Australian businesses struggle to convert ideas into action

AUGUST 21, 2014
NEWS.COM.AU

Innovation and invention propels everything forward. Source: News Limited
INNOVATION is just a buzzword right? One which people wheel out when they want to sound impressive and ‘forward thinking’ (another buzzword).
But innovation is more than just a buzzword; it’s the wheel that keeps industry, business and pretty much everything turning. Without it, we would be stagnant, still riding around bareback on a horse.
So yeah, it’s important.
Unfortunately, Australia remains at risk of lagging behind the rest of the world in the innovation stakes, according to the global Innovation Barometer study from GE, which interviewed executives from around the world, including Australia.
“We are at risk of innovation inertia,” GE Australia and New Zealand Suzana Ristevski told news.com.au. “Australian executives are aware that global collaboration is important to innovation but Australians are slightly below the global average when it comes to execution.
“There is no shortage of great ideas from Australians. Eighty per cent of survey respondents indicated coming up with disruptive ideas but activating them was difficult. They found it difficult to define a new business model to support the idea.

The first man to have a light bulb moment — light bulb inventor and one of the founders of GE, Thomas Edison. Source:News Limited
“Businesses are chasing revenue with the least effort — the low hanging fruit — but they’re not focusing on the long term benefit.”
One of the reasons why Australia may be lagging in innovation is because we are coming off the prosperous years of the mining boom when money was flowing freely. Innovation often comes from having to be lean and thinking differently because you had to.
Ms Ristevski said it was hard to plan and budget for innovation but one way to think about how an innovation fund could work is if companies say it’s fine to invest this money, test something and allow it to fail. There are always learnings in what went wrong.
According to the GE Innovation Barometer, the top five innovation killers are:
— One in five survey respondents faced internal support from company leaders.
— Difficulty in activation despite great ideas.
— Not having the capacity to scale successful innovations.
— Difficulty in coming up with a business model that could make a new innovation profitable.
— Not being nimble enough to convert ideas into actions.