Overcoming the barriers to business innovation
Following on from the CBI and Microsoft 'Tech Tracker' report, read some practical steps your business can take to overcome the common barriers to innovation.
The CBI and Microsoft report Tech Tracker 2020: the innovation imperative, highlighted how businesses have adopted new technologies and processes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges they have faced, and their underlying motivations to innovate.
As we emerge from the pandemic and the economy reopens, the boundaries of the new world of work are yet to be defined, but whatever the future looks like, technology and innovation will continue play a central role.
In the ‘Tech Tracker 2020’ report, three digital dilemmas were identified:
- The capacity and cash to keep going
- Turning data into decisions
- Prioritising people.
Read our practical advice below on the steps your business can take to meet and surpass these challenges.
Digital Dilemma #1: The capacity and cash to keep going
Many businesses want to build on the positive steps they have already taken but do not have the capacity or cash to do so.
Weak demand conditions due to the COVID-19 crisis have led to a collective tightening of firms’ belts across the UK. With ongoing uncertainty over how the long term impact of COVID will affect business operations, business leaders have many issues to consider that could have a significant impact on their future finances, and innovation can all too easily be deprioritised as it moves from being an urgent requirement.
Businesses that want to build on positive steps already taken should set a strategy, and seek support.
Set a strategy
COVID-19 has seen innovation strategies accelerated with companies adopting new technologies and processes to survive. From moving employees to remote working or using technology to make workplaces COVID compliant, businesses have had to react quickly. Now, more than ever, businesses need to ensure their future technology investment delivers what they need. This is a good moment to reflect on digital strategy, set new goals, and consider any required investments.
Seek support from suppliers
It is in the interests of both vendors and customers to understand the ultimate goal of investment. This way adoption of solutions can be targeted to meet particular needs from the start. Many suppliers offer free trials, providing the chance to test what is available and understand what solutions can addresses certain business goals.
Seek advice to maximise what you already have
Initial investment is not the end of the journey and what businesses often struggle with is how to embed technologies and processes. Organisations such as Be the Business and Made Smarter work with business leaders to find the practical solutions necessary to achieve their objectives.
Growth hubs linked to local Enterprise Partnerships, are another local resource. The Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) exists to help businesses make connections they need for positive change, providing opportunities to benefit from the expertise of academia, industry and government.
Digital Dilemma #2: turning data into decisions
Getting data is not the hard part: using it effectively is. The primary barrier to maximising use of data is skills. Skills can take many forms, but discussions with businesses highlight the importance of technical, managerial and leadership skills, in making the most of their data.
Another challenge with data is trust. In a period of disruption, trust is a precious commodity. As most businesses have innovated to survive, they have also created a wealth of new targets for cyber-criminals. Ensuring good cyber security practices are built and maintained is the most critical step to ensuring the trust of employees and customers.
Businesses can make the most out of their investments by focusing on skills and security.
Retrain and reskill your employees
Protecting viable jobs has been a national effort this year. And adoption of technology has been a critical enabler for many. By establishing measurable goals and timeframes for what you want your digital technologies to achieve, you can confidently assess how to invest in retraining and upskilling your staff to meet these objectives.
- For ‘data novice,’ this could be through supplementary training courses to help employees become more proficient with readily available technologies
- For ‘data natives’ this may be a longer-term commitment with roles being transformed.
Where company development can also be translated to personal development, with access to data and analytics skills spread widely across the organisation, there are long term savings to be made when compared to just hiring externally.
Manage your risk
Businesses have a responsibility to manage data risks. While the levels of investment needed will vary, like any innovation, cyber security will only be successful if both the technology and company behaviours are updated. Employees must be made into “security allies” and brought into a culture where everyone feels confident in their role preventing breaches. For data novices, investment in relatively simple applications such as two factor authentication can be a powerful tool once employees are communicated with, trained and able to buy into the change.
Digital Dilemma #3: prioritising people
As much as digital technologies and tools have helped businesses continue to operate and adapt during the COVID-crisis, business leaders are aware that their employees are facing new personal and professional challenges and feel that they have a responsibility to address these.
With a new normal yet to be established, businesses are learning as they go. It is important for businesses to understand that while technology adoption can start them on the journey to recovery, it is prioritising people that will keep them on the road.
Businesses are looking for novel ways to deploy innovation to create inclusive work environments, both digitally and physically. In this period of flux, business as usual will not foster a productive workforce were people feel valued. Taking steps to mitigate this, by providing staff with the training, clear channels of communication and ongoing support, can help firms to avoid ‘hollow growth’ and ultimately remain competitive.
Businesses that want innovation to deliver better outcomes for their people and their customers should prioritise staff engagement and inclusion.
Communicate change, listen to concerns and act
As with any change in a business it is important to keep lines of communication between senior leaders and employees open. Establishing forums built from a cross section of departments can help leaders to understand what staff find challenging and how they would like their future work-life to operate. Some businesses are already reconfiguring their workplaces to better facilitate hybrid in-person and remote working.
Focus on company culture
Businesses have often built strong working cultures and traditions over many years. Before the pandemic, great effort were made by firms to strengthen a feeling of collective identity. If employees are to stay engaged, a focus on people must be at the heart of your business. Firms can use their investment in videoconferencing and other technologies to bring colleagues together, both to collaborate on work and to interact socially.
Diversity and inclusion should go hand in hand with innovation
Employee diversity can take many forms including, protected characteristics such as sex, race, ethnicity, etc. But factors such as social background and life experience are also important and should be valued in any workplace. Building diverse teams not only has a strong social impact but is linked to positive outcomes for your strategic transformation goals.
Explore what financial support is already available
- UKRI has a number of grant opportunities available to help businesses to innovate. UKRI has launched a new website to help firms find funding more effectively and with clear advice and the preparations firms should make before an application
- Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) provide regionally focused support for business operations across 38 different areas. This location map shows the different programmes around the country and the funding initiatives open
- R&D tax credits provide another avenue through which businesses can access support to innovate. Government has made the criteria for R&D purposefully broad to encourage take up. Credit is calculated at 13% of a company’s qualifying R&D expenditure and can be a valuable source of cash for businesses to accelerate R&D, hire new staff and grow
- Help to Grow: the government’s new Help to Grow scheme also offers discounts on management training and digital solutions that can help firms to thrive as they navigate this next stage of recovery.
CBI Tech Tracker 2020 Microsoft