Here’s a paradox. Companies have never placed a higher priority on innovation—yet they have never been as unready to deliver on their innovation aspirations. It’s a recipe for disappointment. BCG’s 2024 Most Innovative Companies report examines the readiness gap and offers perspectives on how companies can get back on track.
We first discussed the readiness gap in our 2021 Most Innovative Companies report. At the time, 20% of companies scored as “ready” based on BCG’s proprietary Innovation-to-Impact benchmark—despite 75% ranking innovation a top-three priority. Today, our 2024 research finds 83% of companies seeing innovation as a top-three priority, but only 3% ready to translate their priorities to results.
On readiness, 2024’s top-quartile innovator underperforms 2022’s median innovator. It’s a call for urgent action. Download the report or read the chapter for more.
Read Chapter 1: Innovation in 2024
Readiness has declined most sharply in those aspects of the innovation system that link business strategy to innovation strategy. And executives feel it: just 12% say their company has a strong link between the two. However, innovation activity—the number of projects going through the funnel—has remained steady, evoking a troubling image: "zombie" innovation systems just going through the motions.
A strong link to business strategy focuses innovation investment—and it also delivers better innovation output. Strategy-led innovators achieve a share of revenue from new products 74% higher than companies with just a weak link between strategy and innovation. It’s time for innovators to recommit to strategy. Download the report or read the chapter for more.
Read Chapter 2: To Close the Innovation Readiness Gap, Start with Strategy
While 86% percent of innovators in our research are experimenting with GenAI to at least some degree, ready innovators are moving out ahead. They’re applying GenAI more frequently in a single use case and are five times more likely to have applied it at scale.
And GenAI can be a powerful tool in helping organizations reshape their innovation systems for greater readiness. We spotlight ten use cases that span the three phases of the innovation cycle: strategize, create, and scale. Download the report or read the chapter for more.
Read Chapter 3: Accelerating Innovation with GenAI
Innovators, it’s time to get ready.
Explore 18 years of the most innovative companies report.
Generative AI can bring a host of ideas—and a critical “outside the box” perspective—to teams working through the innovation cycle.
People who cross borders create vast global networks that generate enormous opportunities, in terms of both economic value and human values. It’s time to explore this immense potential.
Identifying high-value inventions or market opportunities and using them to launch new offerings can boost near-term performance and lay the groundwork for long-term success.
Big tech companies have long deployed their innovations internally first. Others should follow suit to seize on GenAI’s potential.
