Contact: Jane Kneebone
Deloitte
Media and communications
0416 148 845

Contact: John Downes
Deloitte
Deloitte Growth Solutions
+ 61 (3) 9208 6413

Innovation is on the radar for medium sized businesses. However converting innovative ideas into successful initiatives requires additional skills, according to a survey of medium-sized businesses conducted by Deloitte’s Growth Solutions team.

The survey of more than 20 medium-sized companies was conducted in June 2006 at a Careers in Innovation seminar hosted by the School of Enterprise at the University of Melbourne.

All of the survey respondents believe that innovation is on their radar, and 80% have mechanisms to capture innovative ideas. The issue is, however, that innovative ideas are often not commercialised due to the lack of skills to do this.

Mr John Downes, Director Deloitte Growth Solutions said: "It is the same old story. Businesses today are successful at developing innovative ideas however they struggle when it comes to converting these ideas into commercial success stories."

"Growing companies need to be smart about identifying and tracking the winners and then injecting the energy and resources to making innovative ideas commercially viable. The ability to develop this talent will depend on Australia’s middle market seriously embracing the plethora of ideas and seeking the resources to develop them."

Other key highlights of the results include:

• 20% of respondents said the single economic factor impacting growth plans was government regulation
• new product development (47%) and vertical integration (20%) are the most popular growth strategies
• the key growth strategy for the next 12 months for 47% of respondents is new product development
• the ability to recruit and retain good people (33%) remains as a barrier for increased growth and profitability
• pursuing and managing an alliance (33%) was the most popular response when asked for one area in which businesses require the most assistance.