The innovation activities of 84 per cent of UK firms have been
affected by the economic slowdown, threatening long-term prospects
for competitiveness.
That is one of the key findings of the latest innovation survey
carried out by the CBI in partnership with 3M and the Design
Council.
The survey of over 400 companies also highlights potential
weaknesses in the abilities of UK companies to innovate.
John Mitchell, managing director of Allvoice, a developer and
reseller of voice recognition software applications, was not
surprised by the survey results.
He claimed many UK firms, including IT resellers, were "limited in
where they have opportunities to innovate because of the monopolies
in place by certain large vendors".
Allvoice has been involved in a long-running dispute with IBM over
software features it provided for one of the vendor's products and
never received recognition for.
"The problem is that smaller companies are frightened to innovate
in certain sectors because of the larger companies treading on or
taking over their ideas," said Mitchell.