This study, the largest and most comprehensive of its kind, gathers views from 1,700 board-level executives around the world. The research shows that the most innovative companies are predicting growth of 62.2% over the next five years. This equates to US$250bn more revenue for the leading innovators as compared with their least innovative peers.

Innovation – the engine for growth
Growth is a top priority for most (80%) of the companies interviewed. Executives are planning for 35.4% growth, on average, over the next five years, i.e. 6.2% per year. Over a quarter of them say that they are aiming for aggressive growth over the next five years. If these ambitions are to be achieved, companies recognise that they will need to look beyond the more traditional options for growth (e.g. mergers and acquisitions). The vast majority (93%) indicate that organic growth through innovation will drive the greater proportion of their revenue growth.

Laurent Probst, partner, Innovation, Research and Development Leader, PwC Luxembourg, said: “There are four main levers for revenue growth: innovation, digitisation, customer impact and globalisation. Five years ago, globalisation would have been the main lever for growth and every business would have been talking about China. But now, the growth lever that has the greatest impact is innovation.”

The report also found that leading innovators are taking a more sophisticated approach to innovation. This includes:

• developing well-defined innovation strategies;
• treating innovation just like any other business or management process;
• targeting a higher proportion of breakthrough and radical innovations, particularly around products, services, technology and business models;
• planning a wider range of innovation operating models; and
• collaborating with external partners to design new products or services.

“Business leaders need to realise that innovation pioneers already exist within their own industry and that if they are not among them, they need to step up to that competitive challenge, to avoid being marginalised, said Laurent Probst. To address this opportunity requires tough choices: where to invest, which talent to promote to leadership roles, and which operating models will drive the most growth.”

At its most powerful, innovation is a driver for rapid and profitable revenue growth. But it can also deliver improved competitive positioning, higher customer satisfaction, and decreased costs.

PwC Luxembourg has already paved the way to innovation in Europe with PwC’s Accelerator, which is dedicated to assisting fast growing companies with solid market traction to accelerate rapidly and become global leaders. The fourth Local to Global Expo will be held on 24 October in Luxembourg and will feature 20 international high-growth potential companies, the new business avenues in the ASEAN region, as well as value-added partners, including universities, government, investors and private companies.

You can download PwC’s report, Breakthrough innovation and growth under the following link www.pwcaccelerator.com/pwcsaccelerator/docs/pwc-breakthrough-innovation-and-growth.pdf.