Capgemini's Digital Transformation Institute has shed light on the development of innovation centers and examined their value for companies. It shows that although companies invest in innovation centers to keep pace with market changes, this does not make them more innovative overall.
According to the study, which surveyed 1,700 employees in 340 organizations, it shows that while companies are investing in innovation centers to keep pace with market changes, they are not becoming more innovative overall. Above all, there is a lack of an innovation-friendly culture in companies, robust internal processes and managers who promote this type of success internally.
It was also determined where innovation centers are currently most likely to be found. While the USA is still the market leader, the number of innovation centers is growing rapidly in India and Singapore.
Lack of innovation effectiveness
Current innovation processes are not completed and do not automatically result in more innovative organizations. Since October 2016, the number of innovation centers has grown by 27 percent, but innovation does not automatically spread to the associated organizations.
While 87 percent of respondents have an innovation center, no company has achieved a so-called "optimized" maturity - that is, a consistent track record showing that innovations are pursued from initial idea to significant commercial or operational implementations.
Half of executives believe their organization is unable to keep pace with market changes and less than a fifth believe they have a company-wide culture of innovation.
76 percent of companies are still in the phase of building up their innovation efforts, with projects being carried out exclusively at departmental level and without central management.
Berlin among the top 10
With four new innovation centers opened in the first quarter of 2017, Berlin remains one of the top 10 cities after Silicon Valley, Singapore, London, Bangalore, Paris and Atlanta, putting it ahead of Boston and Shanghai. In Germany, the number of company-owned innovation centers grew by a total of 24% to 78 centers.
Bangalore instead of Palo Alto
Silicon Valley is no longer the first choice for companies looking to open an innovation center. Only 13% of innovation centers worldwide are located in the area, compared to 18% in 2015.
The shift to Asia is most pronounced: 29% of innovation centers opened in 2017 were in Asian countries. In Europe, 25 percent were in Europe.
Singapore attracted the highest number of innovation centers this year, pushing London into third place in the ranking of newly opened hubs. Bangalore is also an increasingly attractive location: the city became the fourth most popular destination for innovation centers.
India ranked fourth overall among newly opened innovation centers in 2017. Olivier Hervé, Principal at Capgemini Consulting, summarizes the results:
"Organizations need to accept that they cannot simply open innovation hubs and expect a change in their creative output overnight. To bring about real change in their creative output, companies need to establish a culture where all employees are encouraged to experiment and bring ideas to market through financial and non-financial incentives.
Innovation departments can play a big role in this process by working with individual teams to develop riskier ideas and connect with the ecosystem of partners and suppliers."
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