The Association de la recherche industrielle du Québec (ADRIQ) published an interesting newsletter in April on business innovation in Quebec in which it dispels certain myths such as which companies are really innovative and how they do it.
ADRIQ made a key distinction, namely that an invention or improvement only becomes an innovation when it leads to a marketable product or service. So if it has no impact on your products or sales, it can’t really be called an innovation.
In a context of economic recovery and a strong dollar, innovation becomes an absolute must for Quebec businesses. We should therefore be hearing a lot more about this topic in the months ahead. In fact, Minister Clément Gignac will be announcing the MDEIE’s new innovation and research strategy any day now. On Les Affaires.com, you’ll find an interesting interview the Minister gave on the subject during the BIO conference.
In its newsletter, ADRIQ points out that more than 90% of innovation takes place in well-established companies and less than 10% occurs in tech start-ups. As well, 90% of innovative businesses sell to other businesses (B2B) and not to consumers even though we hear much more about novel consumer products.
In the U.S., an estimated 80% of innovations involve product or process improvements in response to customer or market imperatives, while 20% stem from technology breakthroughs, inventions or scientific discoveries. According to ADRIQ, the ratio in Quebec is more like 85-15 or 90-10 because we have more SMEs, which don’t always have the means to turn a technological breakthrough into a marketable product.
Rather than present a definitive point of view or position on the topic, the ADRIQ newsletter offers an objective picture of innovation in Quebec. That said, I think their goal was to show that innovation is market-driven and that it is mostly the domain of successful companies rather than tech start-ups. But the truth is everyone can and must be innovative, even companies in the most conservative industries. It will be interesting to see if Minister Gignac takes the same approach in his upcoming research and innovation strategy.
Bruno Séguin
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