Three Steps Businesses Can Take to Innovate Beyond Boundaries

Lenovo announced Beyond Boundaries, a new report on the state of business innovation today. The study examines how businesses are innovating their way into the post-COVID future, not just to satisfy pent-up demand and unlock growth, but also to improve their social and environmental performance. The pandemic has acted as a catalyst for innovation. While the scientific community were producing a vaccine at unheard-of speed, commerce was quicker still in largely transforming to a work-from-anywhere model.

Report shows that businesses recognize that diversity is directly related to successful innovation, but there is more work to do before individuals can be their authentic selves at work. Disrupting a stifling, hierarchical culture, also related to effective innovation, is far from easy. The study finds some leaders are struggling to embrace a bottom-up working environment. Business agility has led to improved innovation. However, there are fears that these gains will be lost as firms transition back into the office, or adopt a hybrid model that balances on-site and remote working.

For all the positive talk about risk-taking and innovation, many businesses remain wary of leaping into the unknown. Six out of every ten companies (59%) say senior leadership often requests that an innovation is discontinued for being too risky or experimental. This rises to 70% in North America.

It seems that the bigger the company, the more likely it is to be using innovation to improve environmental sustainability. Encouragingly, almost half (49%) of larger businesses say a key driver of innovation is to improve their overall performance in environmental sustainability. Meanwhile 60% of larger businesses say the crisis catalyzed their efforts to use innovation to improve their social and environmental performance, compared with 54% of all those surveyed.

“Over the past year, COVID challenged everyone and changed everything, so we responded to the challenge with what we know best: innovation,“ said Yuanqing Yang, Lenovo Chairman and CEO. “Now, on the threshold of the next reality, innovation remains key to unlocking our full potential. As we transform from a leading device maker to a global technology powerhouse, capable of solving the most challenging problems faced by our customers and the wider world, this commitment to innovation is more crucial than ever.“