Don’t do down the innovators in our society

“Britain rock bottom of world innovation league” was the headline from the business pages of The Independent this week, covering the Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators survey. Not an entirely helpful story at a time when the economy is creaking and we’re all doing our level best to keep creating wealth and jobs.

So I’m here to take issue with the findings. The survey has been put together based on patents: volume, global reach, how frequently a company has a patent granted and the so-called influence of those patents.

But patents shouldn’t be the only barometer of innovation in our society. Innovation is endemic in many UK companies, from the smallest to the largest. Simply registering hundreds of patents does not make a company successful; they have to be insightful and relevant patents – and a few good ones will always be more useful than a truck load of bad ones.

Few would argue that Google is one of the world’s great innovative companies; perhaps even a model for a 21st century brand. But Google is the perfect example of how innovation doesn’t always lead to success. Just think of Google Buzz, Google Page Creator, Google Audio Ads and Google Wave, to name but a few ideas that have failed to make a dent. The jury is still out on Google Plus.

Here in the UK, there are plenty of small and medium-sized business innovating within their own sectors, but at a time when multi-nationals dominate western economies and are making in-roads into developing markets too, it can be difficult for these smaller brands to bring their innovations to market. Some older, bigger brands meanwhile are ‘renovating’ to keep alive what they already have; this may mean replicating the innovations of smaller companies but with added reach and budget. True innovation is always going to be more ground-breaking than renovation but it doesn’t mean it will be more successful.

And innovation isn’t necessarily about making new things – innovation is a state of mind, a culture. In this sense, I think many of our businesses are ahead of the curve.