Innovation hubs emerge in India, Singapore: Capgemini report

Organisations globally are heavily investing in innovation centres and while the US remains the market leader, innovation centres are rapidly coming up in India and Singapore, says a Capgemini report.
According to Capgemini's Digital Transformation Institute's report released today, Silicon Valley is no longer the default option for firms seeking to open an innovation centre. Globally, it now accounts for only 13 per cent of innovation centres compared to 18 per cent in 2015.
"Newer hubs such as Singapore and India will continue to attract investment, given their governments' push towards a digital economy and abundance of digital talent," the report noted.

In terms of newly opened innovation centres(between November 2016 October 2017), the US topped the chart, followed by Singapore and Germany in the second and third place respectively.
Others in the top 10 include India at the fourth place, UK (5th), Israel (6th), France (7th), China (8th), Canada (9th)and Saudi Arabia (10th), the report said.
The report further noted that in August 2017, PayPal announced plans to launch two innovation centres in India, one each in Bangalore and Chennai on the lines of the ones they have in the US and Singapore.

Similarly, energy giant Shell recently launched a Technology Centre in Bangalore as they consider India to be "a heartland-of-talent, proficient at generating best-in-class ideas, insights and business models", it added.

The report further said though firms globally are heavily investing in innovation centres in an attempt to keep up with market changes, they are failing to become more innovative.
The report noted that while the number of global innovation centres continues to grow, only 17 per cent of companies have adopted a company-wide culture of innovation.
"Organisations need to accept that they cannot just open innovation centres and expect an overnight transformation in their creative output.
"To achieve and sustain real change, firms need to create a culture in which all employees are encouraged, through financial and non-financial incentives, to experiment and push ideas to market," said Lanny Cohen, Global Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of Capgemini.

Capgemini's Digital Transformation Institute surveyed 1,700 respondents from 340 organisations from March to April 2017. This included eight countries: the US, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Spain.
The survey covered five sectors: automotive, banking/insurance, consumer products, retail, and telecommunications.