Executives Speak Up, in Real-time, on Innovation, Financial Risk, Hiring and Other Concerns

For business executives, knowledge is power and time is money. So when information arrives too late, it isn't worth much. Yet many insights about business behaviour come in one of two forms: minute-by-minute anecdotes from news outlets or social media, or long-term, in-depth analysis and studies from industry groups and academia that take years to complete.

A new type of 'quick-win' survey /research attempts to uncover insights that are both timely and deep. Through brief online surveys of a wide spectrum of industry executives, researchers have compiled data about what these executives are thinking today.

A survey on the risk of innovation found that while most companies understand that it is important to learn from failures, only a small number do the due diligence and the important legwork that best helps prevent further occurences.

Another survey, on corporate social responsibility, found that companies are partnering with more social causes because they don't want to be out-of-the-loop but they don't believe it will boost short-term sales or earnings.

A third survey, on the global financial crisis, hints that employers want to hire but feel unable to, and are worried that existing talent will leave as soon as the economy turns around.

Read more at the Knowledge@Wharton site