According to the findings of new research from IBM, a majority of Australian organisations are not open to innovation and Australia is less innovative than other countries.

IBM today released survey findings which show that while Australian professionals agree that innovation is important for success, the organisations they work in are failing to act on this knowledge.

The research found that while the vast majority (96%) of respondents agreed with the statement ‘Innovation can aid in the success of my organisation’, 51% believed that their own organisation was not open to innovation.  The most common reason for this was the belief that their company was too conservative.  Additionally, close to half the respondents did not think that Australian companies are investing enough resources to innovate, and over a quarter felt there is not time to innovate any more.

The research was conducted on-line in early March with 300 professionals from companies of more than 50 employees participating.  The respondents came from a cross-section of industries including education, technology, government, banking and finance.

“What this research implies,” said Megan Dalla-Camina, IBM’s director of strategy and marketing for Australia and New Zealand, “is that while they undoubtedly recognise its critical importance, Australian business people see innovation as risky, expensive and time consuming. In my view, this reflects the fact that people still equate innovation with invention.

“IBM recognises that innovation is no longer confined to the R&D labs and that – in fact – for businesses and institutions everywhere, there has never been a better time to innovate.  In particular, the technologies available today – the enablers of innovation – are more powerful, affordable and accessible than ever before.

“The real value lies in combining these enablers in new ways: not only to innovate at a product level, but to extend innovation to services, to business processes, business models, and even to an organisation’s management and culture, or, if we consider Australia as a whole, to policy and society,” said Megan Dalla-Camina.

Other findings include the following:
 
. 61% of respondents believe that Australia is less innovative than other countries
. 79% agreed that smaller organisations are more innovative than larger organisations

In addition to the initial research, IBM says that is in the process of conducting more in-depth research to understand the state of innovation in Australia and its impact on economic health.