Canadian companies lag global peers in innovation - The Globe and Mail

Canadian companies lag global peers in innovation - The Globe and Mail: "ms in which Canada aspires to be"

A global ranking, to be published by the Boston
Consulting Group Tuesday, shows Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Samsung Electronics
Co. Ltd. at the top of its measure of the 50 most innovative companies.
American firms dominate the ranking (though their presence is diminishing),
with companies in China, Japan, South Korea, Germany and the Netherlands also in
the top 50.

Canadian executives seem to be
putting a lower priority on innovation. The consulting group’s survey shows
just 22 per cent rate innovation as their top corporate priority this year,
down from 30 per cent last year. A dwindling portion – 65 per cent – are
placing innovation in their top three priorities, down from 78 per cent a year
earlier, the single largest decline of any country in the study.

A full
85 per cent of respondents rank their innovation skills as average or worse,
while just 4 per cent of respondents rank themselves as strong or disruptive
innovators. And though most executives plan to spend more on innovation this
year, in Canada, spending intentions ebbed to 59 per cent from 60 per cent.