A large majority (65percent) of regional businessmen and women believe Dubai, by a large margin, is the most innovative place, within the GCC These are findings from a YouGov study on attitudes towards innovation in the region. Nearly 2,000 business professionals across the region took part in the research, in June 2009. 65percent of those surveyed believe Dubai is the most innovative place in the GCC, compared to 9percent who feel Abu Dhabi is the most innovative and 6percent who feel the same is true of Saudi Arabia. “Despite the widespread international media drubbing of Dubai, it is still considered by far the most innovative place within the GCC. There are a great many innovative business and government concepts in action in other cities within the GCC, but Dubai still holds the reputation as the leader in this area” said Joanna Longworth, chief marketing officer, YouGov. The research overall was designed to investigate how innovation is viewed by business, if innovative ideas are able to come alive within the region?s businesses and whether a framework is there to support innovation. The finding formed part of a private innovation seminar held by YouGov, with Mangrove Consulting, Innovation specialists from London. Looking across the globe regional business executives are unlikely to consider the Middle East as place, which fosters innovation, with only 2percent believing it to be the most innovative region, compared to 33percent who feel Japan is the most innovative country, 25percent feel it is China and 16percent believe it is the USA. In a different survey of UAE respondents, consumers believe most innovations from the past 5 years came from Japan, China and North America, but they believe that most future innovations will come from Asia only (China, Japan & India). Significantly North America drops out of the top three innovating countries, when consumers think about the future. Among the business community 69percent feel innovation is very important to a company's success (93percent somewhat or very important). While only 20percent rate their company's innovation performance as excellent (54percent excellent or good). 62percent believe talent/skill, then funding (51percent) are the main drivers of innovation. However the real drivers, according to the findings, are leadership and organizational structure. “Innovation is without doubt the life-blood of any organization. We also know that the more serious a company is about innovation, the more profitable they are. Many organizations, however fall short. Very often this is because they do all their research and development internally without asking the consumers opinion, which can be dangerous,” he said. __
