ABSTRACT
Global incumbents find themselves between the proverbial “rock and the hard place”: as they try to throw off the toxic effects of the global financial meltdown and the recession from which most are still struggling to emerge, innovation budgets inevitably remain tight. On the other hand many, including leading consultants such as McKinsey and the Boston Consulting Group argue that this is exactly the time to gain competitive advantage by investing in innovation that will pay off when the economy bounces back and short-sighted rivals find their pipeline of new offerings has dried up. 1 We all know that maintaining innovation spending is the right strategy for the long term, but it is a brave CEO who is willing to rapidly increase the budget for innovation while the after-effects of the recession persist and the every department from operations through to IT and marketing are arguing that “essential” investment to maintain today’s business cannot go on being postponed.
