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Competing in the global economy: the innovation challenge

Rt. Hon. Tony Blair, Lord Sainsbury. Innovation Report.2003.12: 17-31，52-65.

Chapter 1 The innovation challenge
Summary
Global competition is increasing as a result of trade liberalization, technological change and reductions in transport and communication costs. UK based businesses will find it increasingly difficult to compete on low costs alone in labour intensive industries exposed to international competition. The challenge for businesses is to compete on the basis of unique value.
We have defined innovation as the successful exploitation of new ideas and it is central to meeting this challenge. It involves investments in new products, processes or services and in new ways of doing business. Measures to develop the skills and creativity of the workforce are often an essential prerequisite. The speed of technological change and market responses make the challenge to innovate urgent and continuous.
Overall UK innovation performance appears to be, at best, average compared to our major competitors. This is reflected in the large productivity gap that exists between the UK and its major competitors. Innovation performance accounts for a significant proportion of this gap. On the whole, UK firms face a challenge: how to raise their rate of innovation?
Innovation is a complex process so understanding why the UK has a relatively modest innovation performance is not straightforward. We drew on an extensive review of the international innovation literature and consulted with a group of leading experts in the field.
As a result we have identified seven critical success factors for innovation performance. They are:
Sources of new technological knowledge；
Capacity to absorb and exploit new knowledge；
Access to finance；
Competition and entrepreneurship；
Customers and suppliers；
The Regulatory environment；
Networks and collaboration.
They help us to identify current strengths and weaknesses of the UK innovation system. A highly abridged summary is provided in this chapter but the more detailed analysis is contained in an accompanying economic report.
Our vision is of the UK as a key knowledge hub in the global economy. A country that will have maintained its outstanding tradition in the advance of scientific and technological knowledge while developing a similar level of performance in turning knowledge into exciting and novel products and services.
The Report complements the Lambert Review of University-Business links as well as the cross-Government Skills Strategy. It makes proposals to strengthen UK performance against all the success factors building upon initiatives that have gone before.
What is innovation?
1.1. Innovation in this Report is defined as the successful exploitation of new ideas. Ideas may be entirely new to the market or involve the application of existing ideas that are new to the innovating organization or often a combination of both. Innovation involves the creation of new designs, concepts and ways of doing things, their commercial exploitation, and subsequent diffusion through the rest of the economy and society. It is this last–diffusion–phase from which the bulk of the economic benefits flow. Most innovations are incremental–a succession of individually modest improvements to products or services over their life cycle. But a few will be dramatic, creating entirely new industries or markets.
1.2. Innovation involves experimentation and risk taking. Some attempts to innovate will fail, but across the economy the successes outweigh the failures. And the failures themselves generate new knowledge, which if evaluated correctly, can improve the chances for future success. The risk of failure justifies the potentially high returns from successes, which provide the incentive to innovate in the first place. Successful innovation-led companies have a number of common characteristics (Box 1.1).
Characteristics of innovation-led companies:
A worldwide focus, often requiring early expansion overseas;
A balanced growth strategy, based on organic growth and targeted acquisitions to enter new markets or acquire critical expertise;
A balanced investment strategy;
Above average investment in market led research and development;
A focus on what really matters to the customer;
An innovation culture with corporate leadership that expects growth through development of new products and services.
Why is it important now?
1.3. Innovation is vital to most businesses operating in the UK if they are to survive and grow in the long term. But there are five reasons why innovation matters more for businesses and the people who work in them today.
Markets around the world are being liberalised. This brings opportunities from expanding trade. And firms can locate all or part of the production process or service wherever the economic advantage is greatest. But UK-based firms also face competition from firms in countries with relatively low labour costs and where education and skills levels are high. For example, hourly labour costs in South Korea are just over half UK levels, but the proportion of graduates in the working age population is almost identical.
Long-term reductions in the costs of transportation and communication have also opened up new markets and faster global communications mean that consumers learn about new fashions, ideas and products faster than ever before. The cost of sea freight has fallen by two-thirds since 1920, air transport by five-sixths since 1930. Transatlantic telephone calls are now almost free on the Internet.
Science and Technology are providing new opportunities for businesses to compete based on exploiting knowledge, skills and creativity to produce more valuable goods and services. Industries are being created, such as Biotechnology, and traditional ones are being transformed (e.g. growth of technical textiles). Because they rely on knowledge and skills, they provide areas where high wage, developed economies can maintain a competitive advantage over low wage, unskilled ones.
Services, accounting for over 70% of the economy, are becoming more technology intensive. Technology is being used to improve business processes and customer service in sectors such as retail, hotels and banking, and to develop new products combining creative strengths with the latest technology, such as computer games. Many high technology manufacturers now make more money from services than they do from manufacturing.
Increasing environmental concerns are acting as a stimulus to innovation. Demand for environmental improvements– for example, reducing CO2 emissions and volumes of waste – may require changes in the economy and to the way we live. To deliver these changes the market has to generate innovative uses of technology, new ways of doing business and new consumer attitudes.
1.4.The speed of changing technology and the extent to which new products and services can change market conditions mean that the challenge to innovate is urgent and continuous. UK-based businesses will find it increasingly difficult to compete on low costs alone in labour intensive industries exposed to international competition. The challenge for businesses is to compete on the basis of unique value.
1.5. The UK is not alone in facing this challenge. European leaders agreed at Lisbon in spring 2000 to make the EU “the most dynamic, knowledge-driven economy in the world by 2010”. Innovation is integral to achieving this vision.
How is the UK doing?
1.6.We have consulted a distinguished panel of leading academic experts in drawing up the analysis underpinning this Report. This analysis has been published separately. The main points concerning the UK’s innovation performance are set out below.
The latest international comparisons of data on business R&D show the UK well behind the US and roughly equal to the EU average. However, it is encouraging that after a steady period of decline from 1.5% of GDP in 1981 to 1.16% in 1997, we have seen a move in the right direction, to 1.24% in 2002.
Adjusting for size of economy, UK firms’ patenting activity at patent offices in Europe, Japan and the US lies well behind firms in Japan, Germany and the US and is just below the European average.
Although systematic data is lacking, it appears that the UK lags behind the US and major Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) economies in the take- up of best practice improvements such as lean manufacturing.
Data from surveys, which rely on broader measures of innovation, paint a similar picture with UK performance weaker than its international peers.
1.7.The analysis suggests that UK business faces a challenge: how to raise its rate of innovation?
How did we try to explain the causes of UK performance?
1.8. Innovation is a complex process so understanding why the UK has a relatively modest innovation performance is not straightforward. To help us do this we drew on an extensive review of the international innovation literature, aided by a panel of experts. We also drew heavily on analysis by the AIM Management Research Forum and the OECD.
As a result we have identified seven critical success factors for innovation performance. They help us to identify current strengths and weaknesses of the UK innovation system and to develop proposals to improve its performance.
Success factors for UK innovation performance
1.9.What follows is a highly abridged version of the supporting analysis, summarizing the UK’s performance against the seven factors:
Sources of new technological knowledge play an important role in shaping innovation systems. Science-based technologies are increasing in importance. New products and services tend to embody a wider range of technologies, increasing the complexity faced by individual firms. UK-based firms make extensive use of customers and suppliers as knowledge sources. The UK Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) base is highly productive and the UK has world-class design expertise.
The capacity to absorb and exploit knowledge defines a firm’s ability to turn knowledge into new products, processes or services. Fundamentally it is people who create knowledge, manage businesses and innovate. Poor skills amongst managers and the workforce more generally have hindered performance. The culture within UK-owned firms appears to place less emphasis on creativity.
All investments in innovation need access to finance. Relatively lower levels of innovation spend are probably more due to a lack of incentives and capacity than a shortage of funds, although some financing gaps exist.
Competition provides a stimulus to innovation and helps determine the intensity of competition and the ability of firms to spot opportunities and manage risks.
Customers and suppliers put pressure on firms to deliver better quality goods and services and provide opportunities for innovation. Many UK-based firms compete in global markets and the UK is an attractive market for innovative firms from abroad.
The regulatory environment affects the possibilities and incentive structures for innovation. OECD comparisons show the UK to be relatively lightly regulated, although there are continuing business concerns about the impact of new regulations.
And networks and collaboration are important means of accessing knowledge. Businesses are increasingly looking outside their sectors for opportunities to collaborate.
Figure 1.4
How Government policies influence innovation

Opportunities
Public procurement
Regulations

Enablers
Intellectual property framework
Measurement system
Standards
Bu
Advice and support for business
Best practice programmers
Support for developing new technology
Help accessing finance
R&D tax credits
Support for inward investment
Access to global knowledge base

Building blocks of innovation: a supportive climate
Macroeconomic stability Education and training policy Trade policy
Competition policy Physical and IT infrastructure Science policy

Business Innovation
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Areas of Government influence
1.10.Ultimately innovation depends on the knowledge, skills and creativity of those working in businesses. But Government has an important role in creating the right environment for innovation. Figure 1.4 sets out the main mechanisms and channels through which Government – at various levels – influences business innovation.
1.11.The Government has already laid the foundations of an innovation-driven economy in areas such as macro-economic policy, fiscal policy, competition policy, trade policy and education and skills.
1.12. Since 1997 we have produced three White Papers, “Our competitive future–Building a knowledge driven economy”(1998), “Excellence and Opportunity–a Science and Innovation Policy for the 21st Century” (2000) and “Opportunity for All in a World of Change–Enterprise, Skills and Innovation” (2001). In these we set in motion a series of micro-economic measures to stimulate innovation, such as increased investment in the science base, incentives to encourage research institutions and universities to commercialize their research, and measures to encourage more small businesses to start up and innovate.
1.13. Policies and programmers affecting innovation are determined at a variety of levels. In some cases, the role of the UK Government is to influence developments on a European or global scale.
Chapter 3 Technology innovation
Summary
Developed countries around the world have recognized that success in the future will come from businesses increasing the added value from their products, processes and services. Government action to encourage businesses to develop and implement new products and services has become a high priority. Given this, the UK Government needs to harness its resources more effectively in promoting technological innovation.
The need to improve the take-up of new technologies
3.1.The end of the 20th century witnessed a wave of scientific discovery and technology innovation in a range of areas that have only just begun to change the way we work and interact with our physical, natural and social environments. For example, the developments of the Internet and mobile communications have transformed people’s access to information.
3.2.The pace of change is often quicker than anticipated and the impacts are fundamental. The growth of completely new industries such as biotechnology, software and the digital content industry in the UK, as well as the decline of more traditional sectors, bear very real testimony to this. For example during the 10 year period 1992-2002 the number of biotechnology businesses in the UK has increased from some 165 to 425, and turnover has increased by over six fold (from ￡0.5 billion to