Wrong innovation strategies: Swiss companies miss out on up to 42 percent of sales

A study by Accenture examines how companies are realizing the full value of their technology investments by scaling innovation. It looked at both mature technologies and new ones such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and extended reality. It turns out that a lack of, or the wrong, innovation strategies for scaling technology innovations are not yielding the full benefits of these investments. This results in a gap between the potential and realized value of technology innovations.

Incorrect innovation strategies reduce sales growth

As a result, the sales growth of companies that are at the forefront of technology adoption in Switzerland is twice as high as the growth of companies that lag behind in technology. From 2015 to 2023, these companies will miss out on 42 percent revenue growth due to incorrect innovation strategies. It is not only companies that are in the process of transformation that are struggling. Many already fully digital companies are also struggling to get more out of their technologies and close the gap between the actual potential and the realized value of their technology investments. Although they have relied on technology from the outset, they fail to adapt their systems to the rapid pace of technological change.

Innovation requires strategic planning

"Innovation is not an end in itself. But the real value of a new technology is only released by those companies that think beyond sub-processes," comments Jürgen Pinkl, Head of Technology at Accenture DACH. "Innovation must permeate the entire enterprise. If it does that, if it really scales, then the return on investment is right." Competing in a data-driven and, to a large extent, already digitized economy requires companies to have a carefully coordinated technology adoption strategy, he said. The Accenture study shows: The gap arises because not all companies have adopted a specific approach that sets them apart from the competition.

Five methods to achieve innovation success

The authors of the study identified five methods that can be used to close the innovation success gap in the long term:

• Flexible companies through the use of technology: Companies that are making the most of their investments believe it is important to decouple their data from historically grown systems to provide greater flexibility and IT that reinvents itself faster and more frequently.
• Cloud ComputingThe cloud is a prerequisite for the successful deployment of new technologies - from artificial intelligence to analytics. 78 percent of Swiss pioneering companies have already introduced advanced cloud services - the global average is still 72 percent.
• Data as an asset: Companies with a successful technology strategy attach great importance to the quality of their data. Outdated or incorrectly collected data can lead to incorrect results and thus poorer decisions. Security measures help them to identify sources of error and other risks at an early stage. 95 percent of successful companies take measures to prevent algorithms from being influenced by bias in the first place.
• Technology investment management89 percent of companies that have successfully implemented their technology strategy have transparent visibility into their enterprise-wide investments. The leading companies are also working to bring IT departments and business units closer together in the spirit of business alignment. And generate a steady stream of new ideas in their innovation centers.
• Promotion of their employeesInvestment in employees is essential for the development of new technologies. Without further qualification measures, a large proportion of existing IT skills will become obsolete in the next three years. Successful companies in Switzerland offer three times more training opportunities (75 vs. 29 percent; globally: 73 vs. 24 percent) and focus on consistent talent development (79 vs. 47 percent; globally: 79 vs. 36 percent).

"Executives are establishing a culture of innovation and investing more and earlier in new technologies," summarizes Marc Zollinger, Accenture Technology Lead Switzerland. "They also manage to scale innovation across the enterprise by breaking down organizational barriers between departments and using modern technologies to make their IT architecture more flexible."

Source: Accenture