Innovation; lessons from the private sector

The NAO Report ‘Supporting Innovation: Managing risk in government departments’ (NAO, 2000, p.4) noted that good risk management is desirable for a number of reasons and one reason was that it promotes innovation. It also noted that Departments ‘are more risk averse than risk taking’ (p. 6) and that Departments themselves reported that they more often identified financial, project and compliance risks rather than the risk of missing an opportunity. In a current study developing some of the themes of ‘Supporting Innovation’, the NAO explores the extent to which the Invest to Save Budget has achieved its objective of promoting successful innovation. In support of this study, this paper examines private sector experiences of innovation. In doing so it asks two key questions:
• What are the circumstances associated with successful innovation?
• What lessons can be learned relevant to the UK public sector?