International Journal of Business, Management and Commerce (IJBMC)

Research shows that the corporations frequent fail to innovate in an effective, consistent manner. This paper reports on a study involving 150 respondents who serve as senior managers at five Fortune 500 companies to identify root causes. Respondents indicated that their companies did not have a good working definition of innovation leading to innovation proposal confusion; lacked an effective innovation process to support non-incremental innovation; and had organizational cultures that penalized rather than foster individual risk-taking by innovators. The data also showed that few companies provided training to employees on innovation methods nor was sufficient slack time provided to pursue innovative concepts. On the other hand, respondents indicated that their companies did have good working knowledge of customers/markets and most firms were working with what respondents considered to be innovative technologies. A number or firms were also experimenting with new business models and were expressly committed to innovation as part of the corporate growth strategy. Unfortunately, most respondents felt the barriers to innovation overwhelmed these positive aspects and that a gap persists between stated corporate commitments to innovation and the readiness of staff and the organization itself to take effective action. We term this a lack of innovation readiness.