Much like many industries, the manufacturing sector has been completely upended by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, unlike many sectors, manufacturing was already in the midst of a consistent cycle of up and downs by the time the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

From sourcing challenges to fighting off more agile insurgents such as Amazon, the need for traditional manufacturing businesses to find innovation success has never been more important. Moreover, given how dire the need for innovation is, manufacturing has emerged as one of the most interesting spaces to watch in the world of business today.

With all that said, as part of our 2021 Innovation R&D and Innovation Agenda study, which polled 300 senior innovation decision makers at companies with annual revenues of at least $1 billion, including 60 within the manufacturing and durable goods categories, we were able to uncover several key findings and trends that are shaping the world of innovation in these categories.

Here are some of the most intriguing results.

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