Here’s why
Happen, a leading innovation consultancy, has revealed that over half of CEOs (59%) claim that in the next 10 years hiring staff with the right skills will be the largest challenge for their business to continue innovating.
When asked what the most important skills required for future innovation success are, business leaders ranked the need for a greater understanding of technology (64 per cent) as the skill most essential to drive innovation, followed by an understanding of artificial intelligence (61 per cent), better commercial understanding (54 per cent) and digital marketing skills (53 per cent). Less than half (42 per cent) of the CEOs surveyed revealed they think that understanding changing consumers and consumer psychology is a skill that will become more important in the future for new hires.
According to Happen’s latest study, only one in five CEOs (20 per cent) admitted that future innovators will need skills and an understanding of production, and getting the most out of a company’s production asset (31 per cent) ranked as the least challenging problems they expect to face over the next ten years.
Costas Papaikonomou, Co-Founder of Happen said: “There is a need to define what innovation is, what skills are needed to face the current challenging climate and future uncertainties.
“Technology advances are inevitable and businesses are already starting to experiment with new tools and programmes in the work place, and our study proves it’s a highly desired skill for employees to understand.
“However, over the last ten years there are undeniable proof points that understanding market needs and production facilities are key drivers for launching successful innovations to market, and that’s where we’ve spotted gaps, and believe there needs to be a greater businesses understanding.
“It’s about time businesses took more responsibility for their assets and don’t throw money at the latest machinery, without considering their own.”
As a result of companies not considering their own production capabilities, manufacturing is one of the biggest causes of innovations failing, yet it appears business leaders do not consider it an area of interest to consider in the future.
Supporting the thought that perfectly good machines lie idle because businesses don’t have the capability to produce the company’s latest innovation, 81% of business leaders stated they would spend more money on new production facilities going forward including machinery, technology and manufacturing. Happen also uncovered that majority of C-suite leaders (86 per cent) believe production capabilities are often not considered when it comes to new product development and innovation for them.
To discover more about how businesses can get to market faster, with lower capex and better odds of success, download Happen’s whitepaper The Innovation Factory here.
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