By Misha Waheed

Understanding the Need for Innovation Resources
The world’s most successful companies have one thing in common: they spend a great deal of resources on innovation.

Big giants, such as Google, Apple and Microsoft manage to make money because they are constantly offering exciting new products and services to their customers. Google, for example, made $29.3 billion in operating revenue last year. How did they do this? By making sure that they were providing enough resources for R&D.

Funding for R&D
Organisations that underestimate the need for resource allocation towards R&D often find themselves in a
tough spot. Although innovation through R&D is expensive, it has the ability to boost sales and help a company grow. Google made a 12.6% investment in R&D last year, which translates to $3.7 billion spent on R&D . Their efforts at supporting innovation has allowed them to become one of the most successful companies in the world.

Support for Risk-taking
Along with funding for R&D, innovation resources also come in the form of people and risk taking support. Employees need to be able to express creative ideas where failure is an acceptable outcome. Companies that support their employees’ risk taking activities and ultimate quest for innovative solutions encourage a culture of entrepreneurship.

Innovation is a powerful tool and needs to be fully supported by companies through resource allocation. By providing R&D resources in the form of people, risk taking support and funding, organisations can promote a culture of innovation and continue to satisfy their customers.

Statistics Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/google-sacrifices-google-labs-product-focus-661

Misha is a fourth year undergraduate student majoring in Communication, Culture & Information Technology and Psychology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. She is currently interning at the RIC centre as an Assistant Communication Officer and is responsible for developing content for the RIC website.

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