DHAHRAN – Saudi Arabian businesses regard innovation as a strategic priority to help drive business growth, with 81 percent of respondents calling for localized innovation to serve specific market needs, the third annual GE Global Innovation Barometer survey revealed Monday. Saudi Arabia was one of only two countries in the region where the study was conducted, highlighting GE's commitment to the Kingdom, which envisages a national innovation system as a strategic pillar to achieve its development goals. In all 3,000 executives from 25 countries were surveyed, with 81 percent of the respondents in Saudi Arabia observing that innovation is their strategic priority. Announcing the findings at a press briefing, Eng. Hisham Al Bahkali, GE's President & Chief Executive Officer for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, said: “The GE Global Innovation Barometer surveys, in the past two years, highlighted the increasing focus that businesses in the Kingdom place on innovation.” “However, what is particularly striking this year is their heightened emphasis on localized innovation to meet country-specific requirements, and the importance they place on partnerships. This is in line with GE's development approach in the Kingdom, led by our commitment to the Saudi Vision 2020, to focus on building our long-term partnerships, driving local R&D projects, promoting human capital development and accelerating technology transfer.” An overwhelming 87 percent of Saudi respondents said they would be more successful at innovation through partnerships than by going about it alone – in line with global average. They said that such partnerships are important for entering new markets (80 percent), accessing new technology (78 percent) and improving an existing product or service (77 percent) Over 83 percent said SMEs and individuals can be as innovative as large corporations – over 10 points jump from last year's results. In line with global business executive outlook, 80 percent of the Saudi Arabian respondents said understanding customer and anticipating market evolutions is the most important factor to innovate successfully. Respondents said investing in long-term innovative projects (65 percent), retaining innovative people (70 percent), developing new technology (62 percent), collaborating with best business partners (62 percent) and managing and taking risks (53 percent) are important for successful innovation. Fifty four percent said creating an environment and culture conducive to innovation is an aspect companies must focus on Sixty seven percent said development or improvement of products customized to local needs has been a key innovation that contributed to their profits. Reiterating the growing emphasis that Saudi businesses place on innovation, the survey identified that 57 percent of the executives in the Kingdom believe creating new business models is important to boost performance. Seventy three percent Saudi executives – 19 points higher than global average – said they would seek collaborations to invent a new business model Seventy percent believe that attracting and retaining innovative people is a key success factor for companies to innovate. Forty four percent called for better aligning academic curricula with the needs of business as a top priority. Forty nine percent of the Saudi respondents said encouraging a stronger entrepreneurial culture in the education system through stronger linkages between students and business-savvy individuals is a high priority Although, Saudi Arabian executives largely perceive innovation as a positive force and key economic driver, 35 percent of the respondents believe that with innovative practices creating more competition among businesses and making some products and services obsolete, it could have a negative impact on the economy. The emerging “Innovation Vertigo” – an uneasiness with the changing dynamics of today's business landscape and uncertainty over the best path forward – is challenging leaders to think differently about how they will achieve growth. Many executives, however, seem to be embracing this complexity by exploring new and sometimes unexpected opportunities to innovate. “Innovators must be resilient or risk being left behind,” said Beth Comstock, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of GE. “Change has become constant and we see leaders responding by betting big on more unconventional approaches to innovation to unlock growth. At GE, we are exploring different markets, partnerships structures and business models – all in the pursuit of uncovering new ways to better serve our customers and meet the world's biggest challenges head on.” — SG
