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Ready to explore your organisation’s innovation journey?
Open up the conversation for your organisation by taking part in Deloitte’s Innovation Maturity Quiz Take me to the quiz
Innovative organisations didn't get there by accident. They’ve developed the skills and capabilities required to deliver bold ideas. Exploring, experimenting with, and engineering an effective innovation portfolio – to bring their vision to life. But that’s not where it ends. Over 50% of the world’s most innovative companies1 plan to increase investments in innovation in 2024. Despite this, almost half of them say that they still lack the talent and resources required to continue to progress. So, where is your organisation on the journey? Our Innovation Maturity Quiz will help you to understand how well innovation is supported and enabled by your existing organisational structure - and start to align on what needs to be done to improve this. We look at seven interdependent factors that enable effective innovation.
The seven interdependent factors Fueled by a bold ambition, senior leaders actively promote and encourage new ideas and ways of working. Effective organisation and collaboration, within and across teams, drives initiatives forward. ​ A test and learn environment supported by clear reporting lines, transparent funding and robust metrics increases chance of success.​ With the right technology and systems, teams can make informed decisions backed by data to support innovation. Clear steps and decision-making processes help to generate, prioritise and execute innovation initiatives. The right blend of stakeholders and skillsets, trained in entrepreneurship and consistent ways of working. Creativity, ideation and new thinking are at the heart of the workplace.​
Four types of innovators In a fast moving and uncertain market, innovation has emerged as a business priority. But to drive innovation forward, organisations need to be set up to enable and empower these efforts. Our experience working with organisations at various stages of their innovation journey has revealed four types of innovators. No matter which stage you are at, there is always more to be done. The innovation journey is always evolving.
The Explorer A curious organisation in the early, exploratory stages of its innovation journey where innovation is still emerging as a business imperative.
The Experimenter An enthusiastic organisation with a culture of proactive experimentation and collaboration that may be held back by procedural and structural challenges.
The Engineer An efficient organisation that has the foundation to excel, with strong capabilities and standardised processes, but may not have a clear innovation strategy or organisation-wide culture.
The Visionary A high-performing organisation with a clear, proactive innovation strategy, highly aligned teams, agile processes, and a well-balanced innovation portfolio.
How does it work? The Innovation Maturity Quiz helps you to visualise and understand how well innovation is currently supported and enabled by your organisational structure. Through a series of questions, with answers ranging on a scale from 'Strongly disagree' to 'Strongly agree', your input will generate the innovation type that most closely aligns to your organisation. It's important to remember that these aren't rigid categories, and the characteristics of what drives successful innovation may vary depending on your role or where you sit within the business. It's also not uncommon for a type to change as the company matures or undergoes leadership changes. So, while you may generate one innovation type, your colleagues might take a different view. The best part? You can use the quiz to spark conversation and discover where there are opportunities for your organisation to progress on its innovation journey.
Take the quiz Ready to explore more? Take a few minutes to complete the quiz and assess your organisation’s innovation maturity to instantly generate your innovation type.
Please rate how strongly you agree with the following statements. About your organisation
The innovation type your organisation most closely aligns to is: The Explorer Curious | Sporadic | Developing A curious organisation in the early, exploratory stages of its innovation journey where innovation is still emerging as a business imperative.
Your results indicate that your organisation aligns most closely with The Explorer type. What you might hear in meetings: “I don’t have time to work on innovation, I have to do my day job!” “It’s a shame we had to park that idea just because it wasn’t making money yet… It had potential, you know?” “That’s such a good idea, but I don’t think we can deliver on it. Let’s pause it.” “Guess what I learned today? Another team is already working on a project just like mine.” “There’s just too much on my plate for me to worry about this now.” You might love:
  • Some leaders are curious about innovation and challenging the status quo.
  • Some systems and tools are being developed to support innovation.
  • Conversations about innovation are taking place, with some teams taking the lead.
    •  You might find frustrating:
  • There is a gap in innovation expertise at senior levels in the organisation.
  • There are invisible boundaries between teams and departments.
  • It can be difficult to get hold of the right data.
  • Ideas get buried under day-to-day tasks.
  • Funding for innovation is hard to come by.
  • Your competitors seem to be making bolder moves in the market - and you are worried about being left behind.
    •  What might help:
  • Establish forums and processes aimed at expediting the development of innovation ideas.
  • Overcome in-house capability gaps by collaborating externally with partners that provide diversity of thought and breakdown silos.
  • Establish mechanisms that allow for regular contact with customers.
  • Launch innovation upskilling programmes.
  • Develop and roll-out an innovation strategy.
  • Share this quiz with colleagues in different areas of the business to compare results.
    •
    Download your results Share with colleagues
    The Experimenter Enthusiastic | Experimental | Ad hoc An enthusiastic organisation with a culture of proactive experimentation and collaboration that may be held back by procedural and structural challenges.
    Your results indicate that your organisation aligns most closely with The Experimenter type. What you might hear in meetings: “We need to think outside the box.” “The business analysis and user research team came up with a great potential solution, but we couldn't get any engineering effort to support development of an MVP." “Leadership are always chatting about innovation, but I can’t get anything funded.” “I missed the funding window and have to wait a whole year now to put my idea forward.” “We have some really radical, out-there ideas, but our legal team will definitely block them!” You might love:
  • Innovation and creativity are key to the leadership team.
  • Experimentation and collaboration are ingrained in the culture.
  • Diversity of thought and skillsets is valued.
  • Hiring and learning and development efforts are aimed towards driving innovation.
    •  You might find frustrating:
  • Great ideas seem to run into dead-ends.
  • Desire for innovation does not match funding.
  • Legacy technology and outdated data systems.
  • Lessons learned are rarely shared.
  • Customer insights are not often integrated.
    •  What might help:
  • Establish forums and processes aimed at expediating the development of innovation ideas.
  • Establish guidelines and processes that support year-round innovation funding.
  • Invest in technology to streamline processes and create space for strategic thinking.
  • Overcoming in-house capability gaps, by collaborating externally.
  • Share this quiz with colleagues in different areas of the business to compare results.
    •
    Download your results Share with colleagues
    The Engineer Efficient | Analytical | Reactive An efficient organisation that has the foundation to excel, with strong capabilities and standardised processes, but may not have a clear innovation strategy or organisation-wide culture.
    Your results indicate that your organisation aligns most closely with The Engineer type. What you might hear in meetings: “What do the numbers say?” “We're making great headway with testing this idea.” “I don't really want to push ahead with this initiative until we understand how it links to our strategy so we can get senior buy-in.” “Sometimes it feels like we’re not being as bold as other players.” “I’m just a little worried because we’ve never done something like this before.” You might love:
  • A consistency in launching and scaling innovations.
  • Ideas progress due to reliable and standardised processes.
  • Skilled teams that are empowered to make data-driven decisions.
    •  You might find frustrating:
  • The innovation strategy is unclear and some teams are not aligned towards it.
  • Teams sometimes work towards disjointed or competing goals.
  • Response to industry developments is reactive rather than proactive.
  • Leadership’s actions on innovation does not match what they say about innovation.
  • Risk-taking is discouraged.
    •  What might help:
  • Create platforms for organisational knowledge-sharing.
  • Create alterative KPIs that support learning from market experiments.
  • Continuously monitor industry development and integrate customer insights.
  • Develop and roll-out an innovation strategy.
  • Share this quiz with colleagues in different areas of the business to compare results.
    •
    Download your results Share with colleagues
    The Visionary Agile | Creative | Integrated A high-performing organisation with a clear, proactive innovation strategy, highly aligned teams, agile processes, and a well-balanced innovation portfolio.
    Your results indicate that your organisation aligns most closely with The Visionary type. What you might hear in meetings: “Congratulations on getting the funding for your pilot! What did leadership say?” “How can we be bolder in our thinking?” “What problem are we solving?” “So, I have this crazy idea… What if we…” “Let’s test this out in front of some users.” You might love:
  • The organisation has a clear, compelling, and forward-thinking innovation strategy.
  • An innovation portfolio balanced between core offerings and future opportunities.
  • Responsive, agile processes for prioritising and progressing innovation ideas.
  • An emphasis on data-driven and customer-focused decision making.
  • A tendency to collaborate with external organisations to fill capability gaps.
    • You might find frustrating:
  • Balancing adventurousness and experimentation with profitability.
  • Staying ahead of competitors without innovating for innovation’s sake.
    • What might help:
  • An outside-in innovation audit could challenge biases and interrogate strengths and development areas.
  • Continue to challenge assumptions and strive to avoid complacency.
  • Share this quiz with colleagues in different areas of the business to compare results.
    • Download your results Share with colleagues
    [1] Deloitte and Fast Company (2024), "Survey of Innovation Excellence".