Innovation: why is UK business shooting itself in the foot? getting it right is vital for survival - but what are companies doing about it?

摘要

One of the biggest pressures on business today is getting new products designed and to market faster..Increasingly, innovation is becoming key to competitive edge. Monitoring business pressures year on year, Bourton Group' has seen this pressure steadily rising. In 1992 it was way down, at ninth in a list of ten; today, it is exceeded only by the need to cut product costs and increase shareholder returns. In the public arena the need for action is widely recognised: for example, the DTI's Managing into the 90s and Manufacturing Foresight programmes highlight excellent innovative capacity as key to future success, and the Engineering Council agrees that "constant innovation is vital for companies to survive and thrive". What are UK companies doing to respond? 'Not enough' is the short answer (Figure 1). Most companies report that they are disappointed or unsuccessful in key aspects of their innovation projects, and 90% report no great success in meeting such profit-critical criteria as product cost targets, planned volumes and market plan. Even more disturbingly, a majority view this state of affairs as 'satisfactory' - a view not supported by the evidence, or by the rising pressure to perform better. "Few have mastered the management of this process" says the Engineering Council. This paper argues that addressing this issue can no longer be postponed or set aside as 'too difficult'. To avoid shooting itself in the foot, UK industry needs to raise its sights.