Companies Looking to Align Strategy and Innovation

 

Companies are increasingly looking to align their internal processes with innovation in order to drive greater investment in new products and services, according to new research from consulting firm Strategy&.

The company’s 10th annual survey into innovation reported that there is an increasing shift towards risky innovations as companies look to build a competitive advantage over other companies. Businesses are expecting future research and development (R&D) spending to shift considerably, away from incremental improvements and towards breakthrough innovations.

At the same time, there is a growing recognition among the companies that took part in this survey that strategic processes need to be more clearly aligned with efforts to develop new products and services. Among the respondents, 20 per cent felt that aligning business strategy with their innovation efforts was going to be the biggest challenge they face over the next few years.

Another 18 per cent reported that building their innovation capabilities was going to be the major challenge, while 14 per cent cited the need to align their business needs with company culture.

What’s more, 50 per cent of respondents feel they have not done enough to address the area of innovation they feel is the most important for their business.

As the need to align strategy with innovation becomes more pronounced in coming years, companies will need to ensure they have the right tools in place to handle this shift. One option is integrating technology like strategy management software into their business. This makes it easy to align an organization’s operations with its strategic goals – like boosting innovative processes.

With an increasing number of companies looking to position their innovative processes with broader company strategy, companies that can’t unite these processes are going to face an even more competitive environment in the future.