Asian firms failing on innovation projects: Oracle

Fewer than 20 per cent of innovation-focused projects are coming to life, primarily because of lack of focus and leadership, poor processes and an ongoing resistance to change, an Oracle survey said on Tuesday.

Two thirds of those surveyed said 80 per cent of innovation projects never make it to market while over one third of companies are overwhelmed by too many innovation projects, the findings showed.

"While Asia has taken a lead globally in innovation, the research confirms the growing feeling that there is an impending innovation winter coming," said Andrew Sutherland, Senior Vice President, Technology and Systems, Oracle APAC and EMEA.

The survey of over 1,850 decision makers across the Asia Pacific region in the cloud solutions and software market also revealed that despite a clear link between growth and innovation, most of the companies interviewed have little plan to be proactive in innovation over the next three years.

"In today's highly competitive global economy, companies cannot afford to sit back. Those who do risk being outpaced with little hope of catching up. Instead, they need to look at the barriers and actively seek to address them," Sutherland added at the "Oracle OpenWorld Singapore" event.

While 28 per cent of respondents cited ongoing inertia and resistance to change, 26 per cent said lack of process is hampering their innovation efforts.

"Organisations are moving away from traditional critical success factors measuring success of employee productivity (52 per cent) and revenue (53 per cent) and increasingly looking towards areas like customer experience (57 per cent) and retention (52 per cent) as the key measures for Return on Investment (ROI)," the report added.

--IANS

na/mr