  Companies that are more innovative are much more successful in their use of technology, a major global study by Accenture Policy & Corporate Affairs finds. Underpinning the companies' success are radically different attitudes toward a number of management issues, especially those that involve information technology.
"The Innovator's Advantage: Using Innovation and Technology to Improve Business Performance" draws on interviews with 581 senior executives across industries in 18 countries, as well as Accenture's experience in helping companies to deliver innovation. For more on these executives' views, see CEO and CIO views.
The study demonstrates how innovative companies have shown themselves to be genuinely open-minded, unafraid of new ideas; ready even to change their most fundamental strategies if that is needed. The study found that the approach of innovators is essentially collaborative, seeking to work with others inside and outside the business. They make better use of information technology (IT)—not necessarily spending more, but understanding what it can do for them, and taking advantage of its capabilities. For more on these findings see Role of Information Technology.
Our experience at Accenture has been that innovative businesses perform better than their competitors. The "more innovative" companies identified in our survey report more than twice as much success in using IT to address their key business priorities. They are also more likely to have translated their key priorities into significant changes to their business.
See the Client Successes drawn from experience at Avaya, Telenor, and BP, among others, which demonstrate these points.
Among the study's results: - Sixty-four percent of systems installed by innovators had been successful in meeting their objectives versus 28 percent of systems installed by less innovative companies.
- Seventy-seven percent of innovators "widely consider IT" when developing new business strategies (versus just over 40 percent of non-innovators).
- More than twice as many innovators see IT as a source of competitive advantage than non-innovators (63 percent versus 27 percent).
- Innovators are significantly more likely to have installed customer relationship management, sales, supply chain management, business intelligence and manufacturing or design systems in the last two years.
See our other pages for more information on the different aspects of the study as follows: - More on the relevance to particular Industries
- More on differences in different Regions and Countries across the world
- More on aspects relating to:
Download the full study "The Innovator's Advantage." [PDF 1.4MB]
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See also "Innovating for the Upturn."
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