While business strategy is driven largely by innovation, it seems that corporate responsibility for the innovation process is highly fragmented.

That's according to a survey of 601 senior executives in the US, UK, Germany and Canada by Accenture which found that innovation is cited as a top corporate priority, but found that more senior-level accountability, greater CEO involvement and improved speed-to-market execution is needed to help companies deliver on the promise of innovation and boost competitiveness.

The survey also found that companies that are successful with innovation are likely to have a chief innovation executive. Specifically, 40 percent of respondents who said their company's level of innovation is much stronger than that of their competitors also said that the person primarily in charge of innovation is a chief innovation executive. While nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of respondents said that their organisation’s business strategy is either totally or largely dependent on innovation, only 21 percent of respondents said their companies have a chief innovation executive and only 11 percent have a C-suite executive in charge of the process. Nearly half (48 percent) of respondents said that multiple executives are responsible for innovation in their companies.

As is so often the case, deeds are not matching up to words and good intentions. Only 15 percent of respondents said they are very satisfied with their company’s ability to convert ideas into service offerings, and only 13 percent said they can do it repeatedly. High on the list of innovation challenges cited by respondents are transforming ideas into marketable goods and services, cited by 29 percent of respondents, and creating a proper execution strategy, cited by 26 percent of respondents.

While 59 percent of executives said that the level of support their CEO gives to innovation is greater than the level of support of CEOs at their closest industry competitors, a majority (57 percent) of respondents admitted that their organisation’s speed of innovation was slower than that of industry peers while 55 percent said that their frequency of innovation was less than that of their industry peers.

“The role of the CEO in the innovation process has grown dramatically in its importance and needs to evolve from vision- and direction-setting to enabling and driving execution,” said Dan Chow, a senior executive in Accenture’s Strategy practice. “CEOs need to properly align resources and action with the innovation vision and performance goals. However, simply having a vision for innovation and naming an executive to head innovation is not enough to make it work. Senior management must look at innovation as a core process to be actively managed; avoid a quick-fix approach; and focus their energy on execution.”

There is a geographic difference in perception of innovation within organisations. While respondents regard North America as the most innovative region, they also considered Asia to be more innovative than Europe. Only 22 percent said that Western Europe is highly innovative. This view was shared by respondents in the UK where only 21 percent of respondents said that Western Europe was highly innovative, compared with 39 percent of UK respondents who said the same about the Asia Pacific region.

“The results of this survey validate Accenture’s research into a phenomenon we refer to as the multi-polar world, in which economic power once largely embedded in the United States, Japan and Western Europe is being dispersed much more broadly around the globe,” said Mark Spelman, global lead of Accenture’s Strategy practice. “Emerging-market multinationals are becoming increasingly adept at innovation, and their presence is being felt everywhere. In order to achieve high performance and remain competitive in this new environment, global companies must emphasize collaboration in innovation – with consumers, suppliers and within their own companies across borders.”