New results published by management consulting company Accenture (News - Alert) show that the majority of companies that count innovation as a high priority are dissatisfied with the competitive advantage that an increased investment has yielded. The study, when compared to a similar 2009 study by the same company, shows that satisfaction with the results of performance innovation has declined.

So what’s going on? Technology is more accessible than ever before and is constantly being embraced by consumer and service provider alike, so it should follow that innovation should not only be easier to implement but also provide positive results. The study points to companies playing things a little too safe, renovating instead of innovating. A breakthrough idea, though higher risk, is going to always have a bigger impact than product or service expansions. Between 2009 and this year, the number of companies surveyed that counted the introduction of a new product category as the primary goal of innovation dropped from 42 percent to 27 percent.

The organizations that are actually making the best, most satisfactory strides in innovation have a linear, top down management structure as opposed to a more holistic one. A formal structure serves to streamline the process, allowing for more efficient and therefore effective implementation.

Though it can hardly be called a risk, Accenture says that the key to developing a good working end-to-end system starts with embracing all of the new ways that companies can leverage the voice of the customer and newly available massive amounts of data. Analytics have already been said to be able to benefit insurance, now that M2M has given rise to oceans of information, even giving rise to new staff positions that can manage it all and forecast trends more accurately.

Yet the thing keeping companies away from this kind of hands-on engagement with connecting technologies seems to be fear. In the financial sector social networking seems to hold the key to success with younger clients and being able to serve a wider customer base, yet only a few are interacting with technology on that level.

The big message here is that the principles of innovation haven’t changed, attitudes have. By instating a traditional end-to-end management system and applying modern analytics technology and front line customer service companies can better understand and manage risk inherent in the chancy world of innovating. Don’t be afraid, technology can make innovation as safe as it ever was.