Companies hold out for gov’t handouts before innovating

Canadian technology, entertainment and communications companies are struggling with innovation—enthusiasm is low, and businesses are not making it a priority when it comes to allocating funding or resources, finds the PwC Global Innovation Survey.

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While 88% of Canadian companies in this sector are aiming for at least moderate growth over the next five years, only 27% have an eager appetite for innovation. Although this figure sits slightly above the global average of 21%, competitors worldwide are still spending more: Canadian businesses are allocating just 7.8% of their revenue ($21 million) to innovation, compared to 10.38% ($111 million) in the UK and 9.64% ($200 million) globally. In fact, Canadian businesses are far more likely to rely on the government to fund the innovation programs they do initiate, with half of the respondents in these categories relying on federal and provincial incentives.

Read: Canada’s financial sector isn’t innovative

These industries also lack the structures necessary to effectively manage innovation. Even though Canadian companies are more likely than their global counterparts to think that having innovation structures is important, they are in fact less likely to actually have them in place.

Products rank at the top of Canadian businesses’ lists of innovation targets, with 35% indicating this as a high priority—well ahead of customer experience (8%) and business models (4%). They face a crowded field, as both the U.S. and the UK also list products among their top areas to innovate.

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Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.