In just a few weeks, the winners of Accenture Innovation Awards 2010 will be known. The concepts that will compete for the prestigious “Blue Tulip“ have been selected and will be presented during live events on November 2th and 4th 2010 in Amsterdam (more on the Innovation Awards).

Since 2007 the Innovation Awards are organized to create an overview of high performing innovative concepts in the Media, Communication, Entertainment and High Tech sectors. Due to the success of previous editions, Accenture introduced the Innovation Awards to the Financial Services sector.

To accompany this introduction, Accenture has written an article for the Dutch magazine Banking Review. The article explains why this is the moment for financial institutions to get serious about innovation.

In these times of unprecedented technological possibilities, transforming business models, intensified competition, new entrants (both start-ups as non-financial companies), and in the aftermath of the economic downturn, the case for innovation in Financial Services is currently more than compelling.

It is our firm belief that a company with more mature innovation capabilities creates more shareholder value. Innovation is no goal upon itself. In this highly competitive industry, it is the only way to gain the preference of your customers and open-up new revenue streams. Continuous innovation is paramount for growth, and innovation is the only infinitive source of organic growth. This means innovation shouldn’t be left to chance alone. You just cannot gamble the future profitability of your business on serendipity, just waiting for that one silver bullet.

Our claim is that Financial Institutions should manage their future business as they manage their current business: with the same rigor, discipline and focus. In order to repeatedly out-innovate their competition, to ensure sustainable innovation performance, companies need to continuously excel in all key areas of the innovation value stream: during Discovery, Execution and Commercialization.

Because a brilliant concept that is poorly executed and fails to generate commercial value is by definition no innovation, but merely an invention. This will even apply to this year’s winner of the Blue Tulip.

Access the article at the Banking Review site (in Dutch).