On tech,India sharp,but US,China lead

According to the survey,mobile technologies will continue to build on the cloud platform,providing breakthroughs to transform businesses.

The ‘Global Innovation Survey’ by the consulting giant pointed out that India has also made significant progress in the path of innovation. KPMG surveyed executives from technology industry start-ups,mid-sized to large enterprises,venture capital firms and angel investors to identify disruptive technologies.

“India has made substantial and rapid strides on the path of innovation-based development and managed to adapt and implement a number of measures to support this development.”

The Indian government has also invested significantly in technology. Communication technology like 3G has already made a mark in the country and the introduction of 4G will be a key enabler for most of the businesses,the survey said.

“The cloud platform has been leveraged and several e-governance initiatives have been launched. While the government is one of the primary pillars to drive innovation and cutting-edge technology,involvement of the private sector is equally important for swift and effective enablement.”

The survey report noted that China will challenge the leadership of US in the field of technological innovation.

“There will be a potential challenge to Silicon Valley’s position as technology innovation centre.”

The survey listed Apple as the top innovator in the world followed by Google and Microsoft.

The highlights:

Potential challenge to Silicon Valley’s position as tech innovation center

Forty-four percent of global respondents said it was likely that what many consider the technology innovation center of the world would shift from Silicon Valley to another country in the next four years,while 23 percent of those surveyed said it is unlikely and 34 percent were undecided. Not surprisingly,only 28 percent of the US respondents think the shift is likely,while more than half in ASPAC,and more than 40 percent in EMEA see the move as likely. Of those globally who believe the center will shift,most (44 per cent) said it would move to China.

Apple viewed as top innovator

In considering innovation drivers,visionaries and leaders,more business executives globally identified Apple,now led by Tim Cook,and former CEO Steve Jobs as tops in these three areas. As the top company driving disruptive innovation,Apple was followed by Google and Microsoft,according to the survey. Respondents also viewed Jobs as the top global innovation visionary,followed by Bill Gates. In China specifically,executives said Gates was the top visionary and Jack Ma the innovation leader. In India,Infosys was identified as the innovation leader,and in Israel,it was IBM.

At the same time,about one-third globally pointed to Google,Facebook and Amazon as emerging leaders in mobile commerce.

Innovation development,challenges,barriers

The survey uncovered differences in who or what function is responsible for driving innovation in companies. About three in 10 globally said the CEO has the responsibility to drive innovation in their company,while 20 percent,including half the respondents in China,said the Chief Innovation Officer. Fifteen percent each cited the Chief Information Officer and research and development. Some 38 percent said that innovation is most often spotted and nurtured in the R&D department,followed by IT and strategic planning,while the majority of those surveyed use revenue growth as the metric to measure innovation value.

Asked whether their education system serves as an incubator for innovator thinkers,slightly more than half believed this was true. In China,close to 75 per cent thought this was true,while in the US,less than half thought so.

In regard to adopting future technologies,cost/pricing models was pointed to by survey respondents as the top challenge to adopting the next indispensable consumer technologies,while security/privacy governance is the number one challenge to adopting future business transforming technologies and also is the top barrier to commercializing disruptive innovation.

“The fact that security/privacy governance is a challenge is not news,yet it’s an ongoing reminder of their importance as the business models continue to evolve,” said Matuszak. “The companies that develop a way to balance data-driven innovation with the appropriate transparency,privacy and information security frameworks to satisfy customers and regulators will have a competitive edge.”