We have just completed a study to uncover the tendencies and practices when it comes to innovation, and to learn what the current crisis means for the subject among the 200 largest companies in Denmark.

The main points are:

1) 38% already feel that their innovation budgets are affected by the financial crisis.

2) 23% respond that they have seen a decrease in the budget for innovation. On the other hand, 35% of the respondents point out that there has been an increase in the innovation budget compared to last year.

3) 38% point out, that the financial crisis already has had a negative impact on the company’s innovation focus.

From a historical point of view, previous recessions have brought along decreased activity and a minimization in the staking on new technologies, products and markets. But it’s also worth taking note of how some of the most successful businesses have gained an advantage from proactivity in recessions.

The question then is whether the large Danish companies are poised to play a winning or a losing role in the present crisis? A part of the answer is to be found in the way in which innovation is used strategically and in practice.

Nosco asked the companies to indicate where their innovational focus had the most emphasis:

•    The ability to develop existing products and services
•    Or the ability to develop new products and services.

76% of the respondents emphasize the importance of the development of existing products and services to be most crucial. But when the demands on the economic market changes, due to the economic crisis, the product and service portfolio of the company should similarly be changed to meet the new demands of the market. In this context innovation plays an important role in the development of new products and services. Innovation can have influence on internal optimization, within process optimization and product development.

With that said, the results indicate that a significant share of the Danish companies act contrarily of what innovation experts prescribe. The effects of crisis can present companies with great and largely unpredictable opportunities. If the Danish companies do not actively seek to identify these opportunities, the number of workplaces and the growth of the Danish companies could be threatened not only by the crisis but also by the success of others, after the crisis.

Read the complete survey here.