Utility Week

Operations & Assets UTILITY WEEK | 14TH - 20TH SEPTEMBER 2018 | 23 Brought to you in association with Investment and leadership Support from company leaders is high, with almost half of respondents (48 per cent) agreeing "strongly" that their board and senior management team's support for inno- vation was tangible and recognisable in day- to-day business operations. Additionally, in many cases, partici- pants to the survey said their organisation's approach to innovation was "clearly linked to a strategic vision for the future". However, almost half of respondents felt the link could be made stronger and more consistent. The 6 per cent that said they didn't feel there was a clear link was made up of innovation managers at energy generators, energy networks and energy retailers. Looking at investment in innovation, more than 6 in 10 agreed that their organisa- tion had increased investment levels over the past five years. However, almost one-third said their lev- els of investment had stayed the same, and a small proportion even said investment had decreased. OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS, WOULD YOU SAY YOUR ORGANISATION HAS… WOULD YOU SAY YOUR ORGANISATION'S LEVEL OF INVESTMENT IN INNOVATION IS… Increased investment levels in innovation levels Reduced investment levels in innovation levels Maintained investment levels in innovation Mainly reliant on government/regulatory funds Reliant on an equal mix of internal resource and government/regulatory innovation funds Mainly reliant on internally set budgets/funds for innovation` 65% 29% 16% 16% 68% 6% Of those saying levels had reduced (who were happy to be identified): • Energy generator and energy network (head of innovation) • Water wholesaler and domestic supplier (innovation strategy manager) 5 AUGUST 2018 6 5 4 3 2 1 I N A S S O C I A T I O N W I T H I N U K U T I L I T I E S NNOVATION TECHNOLOGY STRATEGIES CONTEXT AND SCOPE 45% 32% The internet of things, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics were seen as the most transformative technologies available to organisations over the next decade Over half surveyed felt that their internal innovation culture was neither immature nor mature, with no respondents finding their organisation's innovation culture to be 'very mature' 58% 65% 39% Over 6 in 10 respondents to the survey agreed that their organisation had increased investment levels in innovation over the past five years viewed innovation within their organisation as critical to their business Over two- fifths felt that their organisation viewed innovation as important surveyed, almost half, felt that the incentive schemes used were effective in bringing forward innovation in their organisations Almost half (45%) considered themselves to be fast followers when it came to the adoption of transformative new technologies, with around one-third (32%) preferring to wait until technologies became established felt that their organisation's current approach to technology adoption was suitable for the level of change expected over the next five years, but this decreases over time, with just over one-quarter thinking this approach would be sufficient for the change expected over the next 10 – 15 years 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 45% 48% % 1

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