35 Stats About Product Innovation All CEOs Must Know

35 Stats About Product Innovation All CEOs Must Know

Welcome to another issue of The Future of Strategy.

Built specifically for C-Suite leaders, this newsletter cuts through the information overload, delivering strategy-packed insights, actionable trends, and practical tools in a concise format.

It's your roadmap to navigate the chaos, lead with purpose, and achieve ambitious goals.

Everyone seems to be talking about AI integration into business solutions, product innovation strategies, and a few other key buzzwords.

Reality, however, seems to be much more diluted, at least for businesses.

To help give you a more realistic view of product innovation and service development we've compiled key findings from several global surveys from research giants like:

35 Product-Innovation Statistics You Need to Know About

  1. 80% of senior executives rank innovation as a top-three priority for their companies,
  2. With 66% of executives plan to increase their innovation spending, 42% of which expect to boost investments by more than 10%
  3. However, 70% of companies working on product innovation prefer “incremental innovations”, as in minor and progressive improvements to existing products
  4. Only 9% of companies pursue disruptive innovations
  5. 36% of companies surveyed report working on entirely new products, with the majority heavily focusing on AI and Internet of Things (IoT)
  6. 19% of companies reported investments in augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) in the last 2 years for their product and service development
  7. Last year the three most innovative companies were: Apple, Tesla, and Amazon.
  8. However, Samsung broke a couple of significant ceilings the previous year. The company invested over $17 billion—9% of annual sales—on R&D, making it one of the world’s largest spenders on innovation. Samsung was granted 6,300 U.S. patents in 2022 alone.
  9. 55% believe the governments should encourage R&D by incentives; while 71% say educational upgrade is a key tool governments can help equip the private sector
  10. 33% of companies plan to invest in AI over the coming 2 years, while 30% plan to invest in big-data analytics; the remainder are divided among cloud computing, digital networks, automation, 3D printers, IoT, and others

Obstacles to Product Innovation

11. 38% said lack of funding and resources is their primary challenge

12. 25% of report Uncertain demand for new goods or services as an obstacle to innovation

12. 35% stated cultural resistance to new technology as a main concern

CEOs mentioned a list of other challenges also impacting their innovation potential:

13. 69% Organizational and operational limitations

14. 13% said legal hurdles and rigid regulations are key obstacles

15. 38% noted lack of time to develop and test new products

16. 33% attributed their lack of technical skills and know-how as an innovation inhibitor


Competitive Advantage

17. 49% of senior executives say sustainability is a key component in their innovation plans, and view it as a very progressive and necessary concept for the development of a robust competitive advantage

18. In general, 96% of surveyees agree about the impact of sustainability on competitive advantage; however, not all are actively pursuing it as a goal or an ingredient


Actions Taken by Companies to Enhance Innovation

19. 60% believe it's the role of senior management to encourage and enable innovation across the enterprise.

Key examples include encouraging experimentation; holding brainstorming sessions across juniors; and providing incentives for employees to take risks and innovate

20. 47% say the shortest route is to hire talent with the needed technological skills

21. 47% believe hiring consultants is a huge plus

22. However, only 45% believe upskilling existing staff will help in matters of product innovation


Companies Use M&A to Access Innovative Technologies and Expert Talent

When it comes to companies that are actively pursuing product and service innovation:

23. 36% say they actively consider acquiring companies with innovative technology or processes

24. 32% say that innovation experts are a core part of their M&A consideration


The Difference Between Companies that are Ready for Innovation and Businesses that Aren't

25. 72% of innovation-ready companies are committed to full data transparency, while only 35% of the remainder of companies are

26. 58% of innovative companies have clear portfolio targets, versus an average of 38% for the total


AI’s Impact on Business Innovation Varies Significantly by Industry

The following is an aggregate impact of AI on:

  • Portfolio prioritization decisions
  • Discovering market trends
  • Identifying players with external innovation potential
  • Identifying new innovation themes and directions
  • Idea-creation process
  • Informed innovation investment decisions

27. MedTech ranks the highest with a 51% average impact of AI adoption on its innovation and operation

28. Pharma comes in at 39%

29. Transportation, Finance, and Telecom each have an average AI impact of 34% on product innovation and overall operations

30. Automotive and Tech hardware each have an average of 33%

31. Tech, Energy, and Manufacturing follow closely with 31%

32. Retail comes in last with an average impact of 17%, the majority of which is related to discovering market trends

Don't miss the full list in BGC report

Some Other Interesting Stats

33. 54% of successful companies consider the ability to kill a project a core strength

34. Maintaining innovation-capable talent is a key concern for 38% of businesses

35. 50% of middle managers surveyed do not believe their leaders fully display the vision and passion needed to make innovation happen

Want to know more? Check our Features on the Topic:



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