Management Matters: Business Practices More Important Than Public Policy In Driving Innovation

Press Release –

Ottawa, August 21, 2014 – Despite public policies aimed at encouraging businesses to innovate, Canada’s business innovation record remains mediocre. A new Conference Board of Canada report stresses that Canada’s innovation performance is unlikely to improve unless businesses change their approach to strategy, structures, and processes.

The report, Innovation Management for Established Businesses: Management Matters, highlights practical strategies to help companies strengthen their innovation performance.

“Innovation is more likely to come from changes in business practices than from public policies designed to persuade companies to innovate,” said Michael Grant, Research Director, Industry and Business Strategy. “That is why Canada needs business leaders who are ambitious and willing to take risks in order to improve its business innovation performance.”

Highlights

• Management practices are critical to Canada’s innovation performance.
• Canada needs business leaders who are ambitious, willing to take risks and incorporate innovation into business strategies in order to improve its business innovation performance.
• Innovation management starts with bold leadership. Leadership sets strategy that determines what and how the company will innovate.

Established businesses are more likely to be large and need an organized approach to innovation management to achieve their business objectives. The report recommends that established organizations aiming to grow their businesses through innovation focus on the following principles:

• Bold leadership is at the heart of innovative companies.
• Strategy determines what and how companies will innovate.
• Organizational structure influences the innovation effort.
• Successful companies give their innovation efforts adequate resources and stay the course.
• Innovation process management with appropriate metrics is important.
• It’s people who innovate, so people management is an important element of innovation success.

This research was funded by the Conference Board’s Centre for Business Innovation. Launched in 2012, the Centre for Business Innovation is a five-year initiative designed to help bring about major improvements in firm-level business innovation in Canada.

For more information contact

Corporate Communications
613-526-3280
corpcomm@conferenceboard.ca