Inadequate Research as a Barrier to Innovation for SMEs and Startups

Innovation is the key to sustainable growth. In the modern business ecosystem, no innovation means extinction, sooner or later. Thus, innovation should be integrated into the culture and daily operation of any enterprise. If companies stop innovation, otherwise, nothing remains but a name. Yahoo and Nokia are good examples of tech companies that stopped being innovative.  

However, innovation is always associated with risk, especially when it is about cutting-edge technologies and science. The best approach to minimize this risk is by carrying out adequate research before the development and marketing phases. For this purpose advanced big companies have research departments run by experienced scientists and engineers who have access to fully-equipped laboratories and plenty of resources.

However, the situation is different for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as start-ups. Here, due to limited resources, if there is any research department, it is a small one with a few staff members and limited equipment. Therefore, the innovation game played against the big companies is not a fair one for SMEs and startups.

However, there are ways of getting ahead of the game for SMEs and startups too. One solution is collaboration with universities and executing research together with universities. However, many universities prefer to work with big names instead of small and not very well-known companies. In addition, sometimes SMEs and startups do not know how to formulate their problems and how to approach research institutes! 

In the following article, I will discuss an alternative solution that empowers SMEs and startups in the innovation game by providing them with accessible and reliable research services.