More than three in four of the world’s future business leaders believe innovation is essential for growth but only 26 per cent feel they are doing enough to encourage practices that foster innovation as the economic crisis enters its sixth year, a Deloitte study has found.

In its second Millennial Survey, Deloitte sought the views of 5,000 degree-educated, full-time professionals born January 1982 or after from 18 countries. The sample was taken across 16 markets around the world.

Gauging the perception among future leaders about innovation and its impact on society, 84 per cent say business innovations have a positive impact on society, and 65 per cent feel their own company’s activities benefit society in some way.

The business community is seen to play a lead role in developing innovations that will benefit society. Almost half of the respondents (45 per cent) believe business drives the innovations that most positively impact society, compared to government (18 per cent) and academic bodies (17 per cent).

Innovation is also an important component of talent recruitment and retention. Two-thirds of the millennials surveyed say innovation is a key factor in making an organisation an employer of choice. This is particularly relevant to many companies, attracting the ever-growing number of millennials, who are forecasted to make up 75 per cent of the world’s workforce by 2025.

“Innovation at the institutional level is needed to sufficiently shift an organisation’s mindset to allow new ideas to truly emerge and thrive,” Deloitte Global chief executive Barry Salzberg said. “While our current business leaders can debate how and where to innovate, it’s clear how much importance our future leaders place on innovation – not just as a driver of business growth but as a catalyst for solving society’s most pressing problems.”

Discrepancies surfaced when millennials were asked about the requirements for innovation: 39 per cent believed encouragement and rewards for idea generation and creativity is a requirement for innovation to occur, whereas only 20 per cent say their current organisation operates in this way.

While 34 per cent said providing employees with free time to dedicate to learning and creativity was key to an innovative environment, 17 per cent characterised their workplace that way.

“A generational shift is taking place in business as baby boomers, many of whom may have been wedded to the ‘old way’ of doing business, begin to step down from their leadership roles to retire,” Salzberg added.