2007 Boston Consulting
Group
Innovation Survey

Innovation Continues to Confound Even the Most Business Savvy Leaders (Consultant News - January 2007)

Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation by Boston Consulting Group Senior Vice Presidents James Andrew and Hal Sirkin addresses the innovation disconnect and shows companies how to manage innovation for profit and use the cash curve as payback reality check.  This article highlights several pieces of the book and gives examples of how to address the innovation issue.


BCG's Harold Sirkin on How Firms can Reap the Rewards of Innovation (Knowledge@Wharton - January 2007)

Hal Sirkin, co-author of Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation, was recently interveiwed for a podcast at Wharton on a wide range of topics related to innovation.  Sirkin addresses issues ranging from why many companies have difficulty profiting from innovation, to who the best innovators are, and how to avoid cash traps. 

IPhone May Boost Revenue for Carriers (LA Times - January 2007)
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Cellphone carriers have long sought the next big thing to produce the sort of revenue they now collect from customers who use their handsets simply for talking.   But ring tones, Internet browsing, streaming video, e-mail and a host of other services have failed to take off as expected. All data offerings accounted for less than 11% of the industry's total service revenue in the first half of last year.  This article examines how the introduction of the Apple IPhone may boost revenue for mobile carriers.  James Andrew of The Boston Consulting Group discusses the success of the IPhone and the cellphone industry.

Let There Be Light (Wirtschafts-Woche - October 2006)

After a long period of cutback in innovation spending, many of the world's biggest companies restart to focus on creativity. Innovation becomes essential to survive in times of increasing international competition and new challengers moving up the value chain in emerging markets in Asia and Eastern Europe. In its cover story, the German weekly journal "Wirtschafts Woche" covers the BCG Innovation Survey 2006 and the R & D strategies of some of the most creative companies in the world.

Redefining Innovation (Infoworld - October 2006)

For most companies, coming up with new creative ideas for a product or service is not a problem.  But when it comes to turning those ideas into bottom-line profit for the company, there is where the situation get tricky.  This Infoworld article discusses how the Innovation-to-Cash (ITC) process relates to IT, and gets The Boston Consulting Group Global Innovation Leader, Jim Andrew’s, point of view on how IT can channel creativity to get ahead in the world of innovation.

Research and Development: Smarter Spending  (Industry Week - September 2006)

With limited R&D resources but an abundance of new product concepts, manufacturers are learning to focus on affordable product strategies. Although research and development is an important component of many manufacturers' business strategies, determining how much to spend and on which projects is no easy feat, says The Boston Consulting Group's Senior Vice President, James Andrew. R&D spending can be a large investment with an inherent amount of risk, but many companies are starting to see the necessity of that investment to future sustainability. This article discusses where to begin in terms of investing in R&D.

Bank of New York Makes CIO Innovation Chief (CIO.com - September 2006)

The Bank of New York created a new Office of Innovation, to be led by the chief information officer (CIO), Kurt Woetzel. The mandate for this new position was to accelerate top-line growth by creating a stream of new product ideas.  Although the Bank of New York is not alone in creating a department that is focused purely on innovation, their choice to appoint the CIO to lead this group is unique, says James Andrew, Global Innovation Leader at the Boston Consulting Group. 

Front-Seat Innovators (Insight Magazine - August 2006)

Innovation is quickly becoming a necessity rather than a luxury for many companies.  And although innovation requires some risk-taking and investment, the ultimate reward is a forward-thinking organization that survives and thrives in today’s evolving and evermore competitive business climate. But what makes some companies better at driving innovation than others? This article examines the elements that go into making innovation successful and the major obstacles that prevent success for others, and pulls on findings from The Boston Consulting Group/BusinessWeek 2006 innovation survey.

Return on Innovation Spend Not Being Measured (Business Day/S. Africa - August 2006)

Nearly 72% of companies plan to increase their spending on innovation, according to The Boston Consulting Group publication, Innovation 2006. The survey polled 1,070 executives from 63 different countries. Yet nearly half of the executives planning to spend more also reported being disappointed with the returns on their current spending on innovation.  Because the majority of these companies likely do not measure the returns of innovation efforts accurately, it may well be the case that the additional spending will be wasted.

The World's Most Innovative Companies (BusinessWeek - April 2006)

BusinessWeek joined The Boston Consulting Group to produce the second annual ranking of the 25 most innovative companies.  This article discusses not only the Who’s Who of the innovation world, but also goes on to discuss the obstacles that most companies face in their innovation efforts.

Creativity Pays:  Here's How Much (BusinessWeek - April 2006)

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More than half of the Top 25 Most Innovative Companies that have histories as public companies scored big, commanding better profit margins and higher stock prices over the past decade. In BusinessWeek, the author of this article details just how big the payoff truly is and examines the financials of some of the world’s most innovative companies.

Well, the Most Innovative Company is... Guess Who (The Economic Times - March 2006)

The Boston Consulting Group and Knowledge@Wharton teamed up to host the Ben Franklin Forum on Innovation at Wharton. The event was attended by representatives from many of the companies that senior executives voted as the most innovative in the world, according to The Boston Consulting Group survey, Innovation 2006.  The goals of the forum were to examine innovation from every angle. In this Economic Times article, the author highlights the thoughts emerging from the forum as well as their implications for companies worldwide.

Smart Moves:  Building A Winning Strategy to Achieve Growth (Mondaq Business Breifing - Febuary 2006)

Spending on projects and initiatives at many organizations is still heavily weighted towards cost reduction and more efficient SGA and manufacturing spend.  While these areas represent big opportunities to release funds for investment in growth, many companies may be missing the big value-creating plays.  This article uses information from The Boston Consulting Group/BusinessWeek 2004 innovation survey and other sources in order to develop the “Six Seriously Smart Moves” companies need to incorporate as elements of their overall growth agenda.

Wanna Grow Biz?  Innovation's the Key (The Economic Times - December 2005)

Providing low-cost goods and services will no longer suffice for Indian corporations seeking to remain competitive and sustain themselves in the future. The realization has focused many Indian corporations on innovation as a key lever for future growth. This article discusses the findings and implications of a survey conducted by The Boston Consulting Group and the Confederation of Indian Industry. The survey explored innovation and the key obstacles impeding success in this area by Indian companies.

Growth by Design (Canadian Business - October 2005)

According to Innovation 2005, the innovation survey published by The Boston Consulting Group, although 72% of companies plan to increase their spending on innovation, nearly half of these companies are dissatisfied with the returns that they have received from current innovation efforts. The missing link, the author of this article argues, is effective use of design.

Through the Years (Chicago Tribune - August 2005)

In the early 1990s, Motorola’s goal was, according to Motorola Senior Vice President Jonathan Meyer, “to get as many patents as we could get.” But in 2000, the company revamped it’s patent strategy to cut costs.

In this article, the author explores the evolution of R&D at Motorola over the past decade. As Motorola’s markets have become more global, so have its research efforts.  It also warns of the outsourcing research and gets The Boston Consulting Group Senior Vice Presisdent, James Andrew to comment on the viability of this oprtion.

Outsourcing Innovation (Business Week - March 2005)

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After spending years cutting costs on the factory floor, back office, and warehouse, CEOs are now asking tough questions about their once-cloistered R&D operations.  In an effort to increase the number of products making it out of the lab and into the market, companies are looking to increase their R&D productivity.  The result:  most leading Western companies are turning toward a new model of innovation, one that employs global networks of partners and can make a dramatic leap in the speed and efficiency of product development.

Innovate, but Show me the Money (Business Day/S. Africa - March 2005)

The impact of globalization is beginning to have a major impact on large businesses. The survey conducted by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Innovation 2005, shows that while 90 percent of executives across every major industry say that creating growth through innovation is essential for success, only half are satisfied with the returns on investment made in innovation to date. This article discusses some of the high-level results of the BCG survey and the greatest issues that these companies face in moving from ideas to cash.

Sourcing the Planet for Brainiacs (BusinessWeek - October 2004)

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Today, now that advancements such as the Internet help technology cross borders faster, companies have started to realize that the benefits of offshoring extend beyond just typical manufacturing. Innovation has become an increasingly global game, with companies beginning to offshore R&D facilities to rapidly developing countries such as China, Japan, and India. 

In this article, the author discusses the phenomenon of developing a global network of suppliers and managing that network to increase economic productivity.  The Boston Consulting Group's James Andrew also gives his opinion on the phenomenon.

Innovator's (Other) Dilemma (CFO.com - March 2004)

A majority of C-level executives at large global companies are unhappy with their companies’ ability to turn ideas into cash. This CFO.com article discusses the necessity of involving the CFO with what The Boston Consulting Group calls the innovation-to-cash process, a term that describes the steps by which ideas become revenue. Because CFOs are the “guardians of shareholder value” and must ensure the efficient use of monetary resources, tracking the creation and measurement of innovation is an area where CFOs could be highly effective.

Innovation Top Priority for 90% of Companies (CIO Update - January 2004)

Global companies in 2004 will be looking beyond cost-cutting and productivity gains in order to drive bottom-line results. Top management will look toward innovation, according to The Boston Consulting Group’s innovation survey from 2004, Raising the Return on Innovation. The survey found that 64 percent of companies planned to spend more on innovation in 2004.  In this article, the author explores the role that IT will play as innovation becomes a larger part of companies’ overall strategies.

If He's So Smart...Steve Jobs, Apple, and the Limitations of Innovation (FastCompany.com - January 2004)
Given the many examples of innovation gone wrong—such as Apple, Polaroid, and Enron, to name just a few—a number of skeptics are beginning to ask whether our heedless reverence for innovation is blinding us to its limits, misuse, and risks. Too many companies presume that they can boost profits by merely fostering creativity, argues James Andrew, Senior Vice President of The Boston Consulting Group.  However,  when a creative idea fails to generate enough cash to cover its cost and make a profit, the organization that embraces it is not operating as a truly innovative company.

Three Approaches to Turn Innovation into a Profitable Exercise (Business Day - January 2007)