Firms express confidence in culture of innovation within organisation

Irish businesses are confident about the culture of innovation in their company even amid ongoing global challenges , a new survey has found.

But the Dell Technologies Innovation Index found more than two-thirds of businesses felt some aspects of their company culture hampered their innovation ambitions, and some said they had lost staff as a result.

Almost 78 per cent of Irish businesses said they had a “vibrant culture” of innovation, below the global level of 84 per cent, and 68 per cent believe that empowering employees to innovate is partly responsible for attracting staff to work at the company. Three-quarters said their business is insulated from economic volatility.

Innovation laggards

But when companies were ranked on a maturity benchmark, with “innovation leaders” at one end of the scale and “innovation laggards” at the other, it found only 6 per cent of Irish organisations could be considered innovation leaders and adopters, compared to 18 per cent worldwide. That indicated a gap between the perception of innovation that is important to close.

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Those classed as leaders and adopters are more than twice as likely to speed up innovation when a recession hits compared to innovation followers and laggards.

The Dell Technologies Innovation Index surveyed 6,600 respondents across more than 45 countries, including 100 from Ireland. It highlighted a need for businesses to look at how they could improve their innovation processes, with a lack of time to innovate considered a major barrier. More than half of Irish respondents said leaders were less focused on innovation and more on the day-to-day running of the business, and the report said more structure could lead to better outcomes. Some 69 per cent of organisations said they had lost staff because their hopes of innovation hadn’t been realised.

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Technology is also a major driver, with 80 per cent of Irish respondents seeking technologies to support innovation, compared to 86 per cent worldwide. But 61 per cent of Irish respondents said a lack of cutting-edge technology was a concern, potentially causing them to fall behind competitors.

Among the obstacles to innovation are growing costs for cloud technologies, difficulty integrating business and IT architecture, cybersecurity threats and the cost of migrating apps to the cloud.

‘Ripple effect’

“In the context of non-stop change and uncertainty, it’s never been more important for Irish businesses to innovate. Resilient organisations with a culture of innovation are best placed to drive growth and compete internationally,” said Jason Ward, vice-president and managing director of Dell Technologies Ireland.

“The new Dell Technologies Innovation Index showcases that businesses across Ireland can innovate at speed once they have the right people, processes and technology. It’s clear from the research that small, small, practical ideas can create a ripple effect that leads to greater productivity, profitability and purpose. By embracing breakthrough technologies, building a culture where learning through failure is encouraged and embedding data-driven processes at every level, Irish businesses can become global innovation leaders.”

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