Investing in innovation has become a key determinant of business success. As such, innovation must be embedded into broader business strategies.
This is according to the BCX Digital Innovation Index Report for 2024, which was released at an event in Cape Town yesterday.
Now in its second year, the report, which was developed in partnership with EY-Parthenon, includes insights from over 60 organisations and provides an overview of the current state of digital innovation across South Africa.
The report divides some of the country’s most prominent brands into four distinct categories – excellent, maturing, emerging and nascent – with each category exhibiting different approaches to innovation.
Unpacking the index findings, Georgina De Felsoeori Nagy, an associate partner at EY-Parthenon, explains that the 2024 report unpacks the five building blocks of innovation excellence: strategy, investment, operating model and process, skills and capabilities, and culture and commitment.
“The report findings show us that pursuing innovation in large corporates is hard,” she says. But it isn’t impossible.
According to the index, participants are investing more in innovation than last year, indicating a proactive approach to keeping ahead of the competition. Acknowledging that innovation is a key driver of growth, the research participants are doing so by tapping into their internal strengths, while also leveraging external insights, she adds.
This is because the ongoing skills shortage and the limited local talent pool are a significant hurdle for those looking to realise the full potential of innovation within their organisations.
In response to this, a considerable number of respondents are partnering with experts to bolster their internal capacity and execute innovation projects more successfully.
When things don’t go according to plan, the index shows that local organisations are becoming more accepting of the risks associated with innovation and of the uncertainty that comes with doing something that goes against the status quo.
The 2024 BCX Index is broken down into different industries, including financial services; consumer products; healthcare; energy and natural resources; telecoms and technology; agriculture; transport and logistics; industrial and manufacturing; property and the public sector.
According to the index, evolving consumption patterns, which cause organisations to change what they serve customers and how they serve customers, is one of the primary drivers of innovation across most industries.
While the report offers an overview of innovation across South Africa, the intention is for it to serve as a call to action, says De Felsoeori Nagy.
It’s about giving organisations information about what their peers are doing so that they can also harness the power of digital technologies to overcome challenges, harness innovation accelerators and drive meaningful change in a rapidly-evolving landscape, she concludes.
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