Technology leaders also expect biometrics as well as data and analytics (Big Data) technologies to develop as key breakthrough technologies.
KPMG surveyed 811 technology business leaders globally from technology industry startups, mid-sized to large enterprises, venture capital firms and angel investors to identify disruptive technologies, innovation trends, and the scope of change.
“Continuing developments in Cloud and Mobile, and the interplay of these technologies, is enabling new business models that take advantage of economies of scale, provide virtual access to supply chains and allow physical products to operate in the Cloud. The survey findings indicate that tech leaders are bullish on the power of these technologies to continue to fuel innovation in coming years and drive disruption in many industries,” says Gary Matuszak, global chair of KPMG’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications practice. “At the same time, the ongoing emergence of other technologies such as biometrics and artificial intelligence prompts innovation opportunities in the next three to four years that we cannot imagine today.”
“We are delighted to confirm once again that Romania is rapidly adopting the technologies that are emerging at global level and our customers are aware of the latest trends in IT. With a mature mobile market and cloud becoming a reality both in the business and governmental sectors Romanian executives have realized the power of the insights they can get from combining their internal data with the available external knowledge,“ says Ciprian Negura, Senior Manager in KPMG in Romania’s Advisory practice.
Survey respondents selected Mobile, Cloud, and biometrics (gesture/facial/voice) as the top three technologies that will enable the next generation of indispensable consumer devices over the next three years. Asked which technologies would drive business transformation for enterprises, technology leaders selected Cloud, Mobile and data and analytics as having the greatest impact.
Factors fostering innovation: Importance v. Accessibility
KPMG surveyed tech leaders on a number of topics, including which factors are most important to fostering innovation. More than three-quarters of them said that the availability of talent is the most important factor enabling technology innovation, followed by access to technology infrastructure (69 percent), ability to drive customer adoption (68 percent), and access to capital (66 percent). But not all countries cited talent as the top factor. Innovation incentives were among the top two most important factors in India (tied for first with infrastructure), Israel (tied for first with talent) and China (second most important). Yet, when asked how accessible innovation incentives are at the respondent’s company, 82 percent of those in large enterprise and mid-market companies in India said they were accessible, 64 percent said they were in Israel, and 60 percent said they were in China.
Countries to Lead Tech Innovation
In a change from last year’s survey, 37 percent of respondents said the United States shows the most promise for disruptive breakthroughs, while 24 percent cited China, and 10 percent predicted India, followed by Korea (7 percent), Japan (6 percent) and Israel (6 percent). The U.S. and China tied for the top spot in the 2012 survey.
This year, for the first time, the KPMG survey incorporates a confidence index gauging each country’s prospects for tech innovation. The index is based on tech leaders in each market rating their country on ten success factors including talent, infrastructure, incentives, and capital.
Of the 10 factors assessed globally in this technology innovation confidence index, the highest marks on average were given for talent supply and technology infrastructure. The lowest rating was for government incentives, judged weak by more than one-third (36 percent) globally.
Marissa Mayer Joins List of Visionaries
More survey respondents cited Bill Gates followed by Steve Jobs as the leading global innovation visionaries, even though these two visionaries founded their companies years ago and are no longer leaders in their respective companies. Larry Page and Elon Musk tied for third. Marissa Mayer joined the list as the only woman among the 19 visionaries identified worldwide. Google was identified as the top company driving disruptive innovation followed by Apple, Microsoft and Samsung, according to the survey.
About the KPMG 2013 Global Technology Innovation Survey
In the April – June 2013 survey of 811 business executives globally whose organizations were focused on the technology sector, 34 percent of respondents were in the Americas, 37 percent in Asia Pacific, and 30 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Twenty-five percent of respondents were from the United States, 12 percent from China and 9 percent from India.
