Innovation a growth tool
INNOVATION continues to be a defining feature of regional business, according to the latest CommBank Regional Business Insight report.
In preparing the report, CommBank surveyed 470 regional businesses, considering areas such as opportunities, challenges and innovative approaches.
CommBank executive general manager for regional and agribusiness banking Grant Cairns said that not only had regional business rated more highly on the report’s innovation index than metropolitan business, a highlight in their findings last year, but that there had been growth on that index for regional business.
“What was encouraging this time around was that we saw an increase in the innovation index from 25.5 to 32.2, and one of the key drivers of that growth was how regional businesses are empowering their people to be creative and innovative, and how also 62 per cent of businesses indicated that they are incorporating those skills into their employee appraisal processes,” Mr Cairns said.
“So certainly innovation seems to be getting more traction. We’ve run 17 Innovation Design Jams around regional Australia over the last 12 months, and there is a lot of interest from regional businesses in stepping back and looking at opportunities, and actually working through a structured design process to think about where innovation and opportunities might exist in their markets.
“Across the board, most businesses are having to think, particularly with many businesses under pressure with costs and labour supply, they are having to think quite creatively and innovatively to find the opportunities to meet growing demand.”
The innovation index tests 15 core drivers of innovation in business practice around process, people, philosophy, and around entrepreneurial behaviours. Rank is scaled between -100 (innovation restrictive) to +100, where level of innovation is very high.
While the report did not look specifically at rural producers, Mr Cairns said innovation remained strong in those industries.
“The agricultural sector has been innovative throughout the course of history, and we see that agribusinesses and farmers are really looking to embrace all forms of new innovation.”
The encouraging innovation index ratings run in tandem with 49 per cent of regional business seeing growth opportunities across a range of areas. an interesting counterpoint to that was 11 per cent seeing no growth opportunities, and nine per cent unsure of what opportunities existed.
Mr Cairns said an overwhelming feature of regional businesses, that demonstrated a significant difference from urban-based businesses, was a strong sense of the importance of connection to community, as employers and contributors.