Next-generation leaders say organizations need to encourage innovation, report says

More than two-thirds of the world’s future business leaders say innovation is essential for business growth – but only a quarter of them say businesses are actually encouraging practices that foster innovation.

According to the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) Millennial Survey, 78 per cent of Millenial respondents said innovation is essential for business growth, but as the economic crisis enters its sixth year, just 26 per cent said that business leaders are doing enough to encourage practices that foster innovation.

“Innovation at the institutional level is needed to sufficiently shift an organization’s mindset to allow new ideas to truly emerge and thrive,” said Deloitte Global CEO Barry Salzberg in a statement. “While our current business leaders can debate how and where to innovate, it’s clear how much importance our future leaders place on innovation—not just as a driver of business growth but also as a catalyst for solving society’s most pressing problems.”

DTTL surveyed close to 5,000 Millennials from 18 countries. When gauging the perception among future leaders about innovation and its impact on society, 84 per cent say business innovations have a positive impact on society, and 65 percent feel their own company’s activities benefit society in some way.

Innovation is also an important component of talent recruitment and retention. Two-thirds of the Millennials surveyed say innovation is a key factor in making an organization an employer of choice. This is particularly relevant to many companies, attracting the ever-growing number of Millennials, who are forecasted to make up 75 per cent of the world’s workforce by 2025.

“A generational shift is taking place in business as baby boomers, many of whom may have been wedded to the ‘old way’ of doing business, begin to step down from their leadership roles to retire,” said Salzberg. “Real opportunity exists for organizations to step up and create the conditions and commitment needed to encourage and foster innovation in their work environments. And there’s a tremendous upside if we get this right: we can better retain talent, remain more competitive into the future, and more positively impact society.”

For more information and to view the survey results, visit: www.deloitte.com/millennialsurvey