Middle Eastern companies registered a significant surge in their innovation strategy

Middle Eastern companies registered a significant surge in their innovation strategy

Accenture Middle East Innovation Maturity Index 2021 has found that Middle Eastern companies registered a significant surge in their innovation strategy scores as businesses reviewed their strategies due to COVID-19. However, despite the pandemic opening doors to embrace new ways of working and doing business, there was only a marginal uptake in companies reimagining themselves, reflected by a 1 percent increase in the overall index score. This signifies the regional dichotomy between a culture that sets companies up to innovate new ways of working enabled by technology and traditional ways of doing business, which often requires a physical presence.The report surveyed C-level executives from 200 large companies in the UAE and Saudi Arabia between August and October 2020 to understand the extent of the region's innovation maturity at present. The report found that 67 percent of Middle East executives indicate that they have taken measures to modernize their existing technology infrastructure – moving from data servers to cloud storage – in the past five years. In the next five years, this figure is poised to increase to 86 percent.Xavier Anglada, Accenture's Strategy and Consulting and Innovation lead in the Middle East added: “This year, we found that 14 percent of