Canadians name diversity as key ingredient for innovation success, according to survey

The majority of working Canadians believe that Canada's diversity leads to greater innovation and business success, according to a national survey conducted by the Xerox Research Centre of Canada and Leger Marketing. The survey revealed more than three-quarters of Canadian workers (77 percent) feel diversity in culture and background contributes to innovation and creates a stronger Canadian business landscape, and nearly four-fifths (79 percent) of respondents feel Canada's cultural diversity gives us a distinct advantage when it comes to fostering innovation.

Working Canadians feel individual talent and experience have the greatest impact on innovation (38 and 35 percent), which was nearly unanimously seen by respondents as a necessity for business success (96 percent). An individual's worldliness was seen by respondents as more important to their ability to innovate than in-depth job knowledge or even education.

Other survey highlights include:

· 68 percent say that working as a team contributes to their own creativity and innovative thinking.

· 52 percent of Canadian workers feel that brainstorming adds to their creativity and innovative thinking.

· Exposure to different cultures (50 percent) and working with people from different disciplinary backgrounds (46 percent) bolsters creativity and innovation.

· 96 percent of Canadians seek the advice of those with a different background when solving business problems.

· Opinions of those with different work experience (92 percent), age (82 percent), and "outlook on life" (82 percent) are most frequently sought.

Scott Cho, associate vice-president of Leger, says of the findings: "The state of our country's innovation is much discussed among Canada's industry leaders. While there's no silver bullet, our findings demonstrate that companies with diverse employee backgrounds tend to focus more on innovation, and those innovation efforts tend to be more successful."

Another key aspect that leads to innovation success in Canada is the freedom and autonomy to foster and grow new ideas. The vast majority of respondents felt their professional knowledge and perceptions were valued (84 percent). Those Canadians who saw themselves as being somewhat innovative more often felt their opinions and perceptions were valued (90 percent), than those who saw themselves as being not very or not at all innovative (76 percent).

The national survey was conducted for the Xerox Research Centre of Canada by Leger Marketing between July 17-31 with a representative sample of 1,000 working Canadians. The Xerox Research Centre of Canada employs researchers from more than 35 countries of origin. The centre is one of four research and technology center Xerox Corp. operates in the United States, Canada, and Europe that conduct work in color science, computing, digital imaging, work practices, electromechanical systems, novel materials, and other disciplines connected to Xerox's expertise in printing and document management.