Recommendations for UK Firms Facing Innovation Competition

Recommendations of For UK Firms Facing Innovation Competition
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Recommendations of For UK Firms Facing Innovation Competition
Introduction
With the modern business world increasingly competitive, companies are turning to innovation as a critical competitive advantage. Competitive advantage refers to the conditions or circumstances that puts an organization in a superior and desirable business position against other players in the market. Through innovation, organizations want to make things faster, cheaper, and better than their competition. Central to innovation is organizational culture. According to Shayah and Zehou (2019), companies are only innovative if they have an organizational culture that encourages creativity. Organizations seeking to innovate to strengthen their competitive advantage must change their cultures to accommodate innovation demands (Trotter & Vaughan, 2012). Thus, organizational culture, innovation, and change management are three core business domains that work hand in hand to sustain a business in a competitive environment. In this view, the current paper seeks to discuss the relationship between culture and innovation and the role of change management in making this relationship productive.
State of Innovation Among UK Firms
In the UK, companies are increasingly investing in innovation to stay relevant. A recent survey involving 750 senior decision-makers established that 71% have resources and a budget for innovation (Basul, 2019). A further 56% have a department or team focusing on innovation. Among these, 75% have these teams meet at least monthly with discussions on innovation. In a different survey, Ismail (2017) established that 66% of UK business executives believe innovation is crucial to survival. If anything, these figures suggest that innovation is a priority for most UK businesses. However, Basul (2019) survey also revealed key barriers to innovation. For instance, more than 62% of executives interviewed complained of lengthy bureaucracy before new ideas are given the go-ahead. Furthermore, most executives report that businesses are too risk-averse to embrace innovative ideas, with a further 51% thinking that time constraints limit innovation (Strachan, 2021). According to van Ark and Venables (2020), these barriers to innovation have partially contributed to
Data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that if the pre-2007 productivity trend had continued, the current rate of productivity in the UK would be 16% higher. Accordingly, living standards and wages would be higher (ONS, 2015). Recovery from previous economic downtowns was marked by increased productivity. But in the case of the 2008 crisis, productivity has flattened out, marked by increased working hours. According to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), the UK struggles with the productivity puzzle because companies struggle with innovation (UKCES, 2016). These findings are supported by Basul (2019), who established that 37% of UK organizations had attempted and failed to implement new technology in the previous year.
Graphene, for instance, was invented in 2...