The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Less than half of all Bahamian companies are introducing innovations into their businesses, an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report finding that in 15 per cent of firms this was because “staff are resistant to change”.

The ‘Analysis of the Bahamas’ 2012 Wage and Productivity’ report, which Tribune Business has obtained, revealed that government programmes financed just 1 per cent of all innovations introduced by Bahamian companies.

“Less than 50 per cent of firms introduced an innovation in 2010-2011,” the IDB report found, finding that the information and communications sector was the most innovative in the Bahamian economy, with 73 per cent of companies introducing something.

“The main source of financing for innovations was the firm’s own resources (52 per cent),” the IDB report said. “Government programmes financed only 1 per cent.

“When asked about obstacles to innovation, the most frequently mentioned were high costs/financing difficulties by 34 per cent, followed by staff being resistant to change (15 per cent).

Indicating that the Bahamas has much work to do in fostering a climate of increased productivity and innovation in the private sector, the IDB report noted that “less than 5 per cent” of firms had a research and development (R&D) department.

“While 42 per cent of firms indicated they have quality control processes, only 18 per cent have - or are in the process of obtaining - a QC certification,” the study found.

Just 15 per cent of Bahamian companies were found to be using the Internet to sell goods and services, although 53 per cent admitted to using it for purchases.

When it came to employee training, the IDB report found that while 89 per cent of large companies had engaged in such activities, the corresponding figure for small companies was just 34 per cent.

“In some industries, training was more prevalent than in others (94 per cent of financial and insurance firms compared to only 22 per cent of real estate firms),” the survey found.

“For the 277 establishments who trained employees, the mean number of staff trained was 22, and the mean number of employees trained, as a percentage of current firm size, was 64 per cent.”

It noted, though, that of those Bahamian companies that did not provide training for their staff, some 17 per cent of these did not do so because it was “cost prohibitive”.

Some 46 per cent of companies also measured the impact that staff training had on employee productivity.