Our services and capabilities:

• Enabling diverse people from varied functions to master innovation

• Catalysing innovation within and between sectors, clusters, organisations, and teams

• Providing tools to enable collaborative working, both internally and with external partners
• Enabling co-creation of innovations which reflect emerging 'market pull' as much as existing 'technology push'
• Accelerating development of product concepts and developing Innovation Pathway Tools
• Developing toolkits and providing training to support innovation
• Developing and facilitating Clusters, Networks and Communities for innovation

Innovation - what is it?

A simple definition of 'innovation' is 'the useful exploitation of an idea'. Our analytical framework distinguishes seven types of innovation, as described and exemplified below:

• Technological Innovation - electric power and computing.
• Product Innovation - laptops and mobile phones.
• Process Innovation - reducing the time-to-market for products and services.
• Service Innovation - providing health care over the phone.
• Business Model Innovation - online rather than physical bookstores.
• Policy Innovation - using education and incentives as alternatives to regulation.
• Behavioural Innovation - 'self-service' shopping and vehicle refuelling .

Another classifier is the degree of change - an innovation can be 'incremental' or 'radical'. It can also be 'disruptive' if it will significantly change the 'rules of the game'. Understanding the varied dimensions of innovation is a valuable stimulus to creative thinking.

Innovation - recognised and promoted but still challenging

Why is innovation now held to be so important, and so widely promoted?

• For individual firms - innovation is critical to business sustainability. No firm can survive and prosper in the long term simply by selling existing offerings through traditional business models, or by improving productivity, or through acquisitions.

• For regional economies - regeneration and growth depend not only on innovation within firms but also on innovation between diverse companies, universities, and often other players too.

• For national economies - innovation is important in maintaining national economic competitiveness in the globalised economy.

• For environmental and economic sustainability - making the radical transition to a low-carbon economy will require innovation in technology (e.g. for energy), behaviours (e.g. reducing car use), business models (e.g. internalising the price of carbon), and policy.

Innovation has increasingly become a topic in its own right. Innovation processes, and their cultural aspects, are now much better understood. Innovation is seen as integral to entrepreneurship and has been popularised through television programmes like 'Dragon's Den'. As consumers we see the benefits of innovation every day, perhaps most clearly through rapid advances in electronic consumer goods.

In practice, successful innovation still faces some major challenges. In particular, those involved must master two critical areas: the relationship between innovation and current 'mainstream' activities within an organisation; and working with external collaborators beyond an organisation. We review these two areas in turn below, showing how to cross some critical 'chasms'.

Mastering innovation entails selecting appropriate tools and applying these skilfully while also developing an innovation culture; it is not simply about adopting a rigid 'blueprint' or 'management by numbers'.

Innovation conjures up images of science, technology and new products. These are all part of the picture, but

some of the most exciting opportunities arise by bringing together unrelated areas of knowledge. Making this happen is as much to do with how the different cultures work together as with technical considerations.

1. Innovation within an organisation - the relationship with 'mainstream' activities

By its nature, innovation involves change, discomfort and risk. Innovation is often 'disruptive'. Innovation creates winners - but often losers too. Specific challenges within an organisation - 'chasms' which must be crossed  - are those between 'innovators' and 'mainstream' people, and operations, and their corresponding formal business processes and performance measures.

How to cross the chasm between 'innovators' and 'mainstream' people?

There are often deeply-embedded differences in values and culture between people with different educational and professional backgrounds. This requires work to understand and recognise the differences and to apply approaches and tools which ensure effective communication and collaboration.

How to cross the chasm between 'innovation' and 'mainstream' operations?

Because innovation often requires highly-specialised skills and dedicated time, it has typically been separated from the mainstream business. Historically, in-house 'R&D' functions and venture teams often developed into enclaves with distinct cultures and processes. Meanwhile, the rest of the business often focused on short-term 'mainstream' issues. While these arrangements might have worked in the past, they are no longer appropriate. Indeed, rigid operational separation may block the kind of innovation needed today because it:

• Creates obstacles to external access to knowledge and technology ('not-invented-here').
• Reduces sensitivity to emerging market requirements.
• May produce a stream of inventions and patents but be much less successful in producing innovations to excite markets and propel the business forward.

Crossing this chasm requires changes to the organisational model to design in powerful linkages between the different parts so that they are properly aligned.

How to cross the chasm between 'innovation' and 'mainstream' processes and measures?

It is right to gear processes and measures to the different outcomes expected from functions such as manufacturing and research. The risk of creating 'silos', albeit unwittingly, can be avoided by ensuring coherence across organisational units when designing processes and measures. There can be surprising opportunities for learning between units (e.g. translating manufacturing 'change control' processes into early-stage R&D, or R&D brainstorming processes into manufacturing).

2. Innovation beyond an organisation - through collaborative working

Today, no one organisation can single-handedly conceive, develop and realise innovations. Competition is fierce, product life-times are shorter, and it is much more costly to develop new products. Patents remain important but they do not guarantee success. Innovation increasingly involves such a large number of specialist capabilities that most of these have to be sourced externally, rather than being built internally. Successful innovation requires collaboration between many organisations - large and small, near and far. Fortunately, at the same time, technology has vastly expanded the ability to access information remotely and to work collaboratively across large distances.

The trend is for external sourcing not to be the exception but the rule. The term ‘Open Innovation’ describes an advanced form of this model. Interestingly, as the possibilities for sourcing external capabilities increase, in-house excellence in managing relationships and networks becomes ever more critical (see our services for Networking). The business of innovation must also be adopted fully by key business functions rather than being viewed as 'just for R&D'. Our article Innovation by Networking develops this theme.

Looking beyond an organisation, specific challenges - further 'chasms' - are those for sharing ideas and capabilities for business advantage: between an organisation and individual external collaborators; and between an organisation and a network of external collaborators.

How to share ideas and capabilities with individual external collaborators?

Sometimes, companies seek to access the capabilities of smaller firms by the acquisitions route. However, they commonly fail to integrate those capabilities into their existing organisations and underestimate the huge cultural challenges which arise in merging different groups of people. 

Accessing the capabilities through collaboration rather than acquisition has major attractions, but also brings its own challenges. Chasms can still exist between the people, structures, processes and measures of the collaborating parties. The chasms may be widened by differences in the size, scope and culture of the organisations. For example, a global company with tens of thousands of employees may be working with a recently-established small firm which is providing new technology or highly-specialist services. The key to success here is developing the skills and tools for effective collaboration.

How to share ideas and capabilities with a network of external organisations?

Building a network of organisations for innovation is an extremely attractive concept but represents an even greater challenge. Many companies engage with networks and some UK development agencies are building innovation clusters to fuel economic regeneration and growth. Organisations and individuals alike need to develop the necessary mindset, skills, and tools, if Networking is to be effective.

Our services for catalysing innovation within and beyond organisations - crossing the chasms

The chasms described here seriously constrain creativity and productivity. Crossing them requires new ways of thinking about, supporting and promoting innovation. This means recognising that:

• While innovation remains important in developing new products, it is equally important in improving

  processes and finding radically new ways of doing business.

• Investments in innovation need to be managed as specific ventures rather than via arbitrary flows of money to the R&D function.

• The capability for innovation needs to be embedded throughout the organisation rather than being the preserve of the R&D function.

• The key to strong and sustained innovation is an understanding of the frameworks, processes and behaviours associated with innovation and the mainstream business alike.

Our 'innovation toolkit' enables diverse people from varied functions to master innovation through collaboration. This applies within and between sectors, clusters, organisations and teams. The toolkit covers frameworks, processes and behaviours. It supports collaborative working between disciplines internally, and with stakeholders externally, including funders, universities and businesses.

Our support extends well beyond the provision of ‘general innovation management tools’. The key challenge in commercialising innovation is to distil clear opportunities for innovation projects from market and customer needs. Our approach brings relevant stakeholders together in a Brain-Pool Workshop to consider these requirements and co-create solutions which reflect emerging ‘market pull’ as much as existing ‘technology push’. The output is a clear and unequivocal brief for use by those seeking to commercialise innovation.

We support individual organisations and networks in managing innovation through the specific services listed below. These are equally relevant to any of the seven types of innovation listed above - for technology, products, processes, business models and so on. Our support often combines several of the following:

• Brain-Pool Workshops: These are an integral part of many of the services listed below. Our Workshops are themselves highly innovative, contrasting sharply with the traditional mix of 'talking heads, flip charts and post-it notes'. Our use of special technology enables collaborative interaction and building of ideas 'on screen'. Everyone gets a fair and equal opportunity to contribute their views - anonymously. The Workshops deliver a vast improvement in productivity and knowledge capture. Our distillation and assessment techniques enable participants to obtain clear outcomes for later refinement. Our service covers design, pre-work to engage the participants, facilitation, analysis and reporting.

• Accelerating development of product concepts: Our workshop-centred service covers all the steps from generating ideas through to specifying, assessing and prioritising product concepts. The tools we use promote both intense creativity and systematic analysis, usually across a very large number of ideas. We do much more than 'brainstorm'. Contributions from experts in marketing, technology and production ensure that ideas are shaped and tested from many perspectives. The workshop outputs are ready to go forward for selection for commercial product development.

• Roadmapping Workshops: These provide a powerful springboard for strategy development, whether for an individual organisation, or a network. Our workshop-based service ensures that diverse perspectives, both internal and external, are engaged in co-creating a roadmap. This establishes new connections and networks of collaborators ready to take the roadmap forward. Our three-stage process involves engaging participants beforehand in developing draft frameworks and detailed proposals, a deliberative 1-2-day Workshop, and detailed analysis and synthesis of the outputs afterwards. This service applies equally to similar types of initiative (e.g. 'Horizon Scanning', 'Foresight', 'Future Planning', and 'Visioning').

• Developing Strategies for Innovation: We cover future external perspectives (e.g. scenario planning, market assessment and competitor analysis), internal capability assessment, strategic options analysis and 'conversion to action'. We also take full account of uncertainty and complexity. Our approach can be applied to individual innovations or to portfolios of opportunities. Our tools ensure that innovations are fully articulated and specified, not just left in the form of ‘great ideas’.

• Developing toolkits and providing training to support innovation: We design and develop toolkits to support innovation within businesses, between businesses and potential collaborators in universities, and among innovation 'clusters' and networks. We also provide training to equip people with the necessary mindsets, skills and toolkits. This is tailored to the context: staff in a company, members of clusters or networks, or teams of innovation advisers in Development Agencies.

• Developing Innovation Pathway Tools: We design and develop tools which guide researchers and businesses in realising and commercialising innovations. The tools cover all the stages from research, discovery, market testing and manufacture to selecting business models, commercial delivery, and continuous improvement. The tools also cover regulatory requirements at each stage. 

• Aligning Innovation to Strategic Goals: Our workshop-based service enables individual organisations and networks to develop authoritative programmes for research and innovation. We bring relevant players together to identify and articulate proposals, check their alignment with wider strategies, determine priorities, and develop practical action plans for implementation. 

• Developing and Facilitating Clusters, Networks and Communities: Our service kick-starts, develops and maintains 'clusters', 'networks' or 'communities' for innovation. We avoid some of the notorious pitfalls by using specialist tools, including stakeholder mapping, community design, and Brain-Pool Workshops.

• Knowledge Transfer Networks (KTNs) and Knowledge Exchange: Our services for mastering innovation are highly relevant to the work of the UK KTNs, and we have worked with several. They encourage investment in science, engineering and technology with active involvement from business and industry, and support from the Technology Strategy Board. We also support professionals engaged in Knowledge Exchange through our toolkit and training.

Case studies

Here we list a selection of assignments which have contained strong elements of innovation. Our support for mastering innovation has ranged across new strategies, innovative processes, products and services, internal and external collaboration, and training and personal capability development.

Case study - Developing a Roadmap for the Regenerative Medicine Industry
We supported the Scottish Stem Cell Network in developing an industry-led collaborative Roadmap for the Regenerative Medicine Industry in Scotland. Our Brain-Pool Workshop brought 20 senior figures together to co-create a strategic Roadmap. The Workshop also developed a Technology Pathway Tool to assist in creating viable business models for manufacturing, scale-up and marketing of innovative products.

Case-study - Developing strategic roadmaps for 'Lean Manufacturing'
We supported our sponsor, a global biosciences company, in developing a Roadmap to secure productivity improvements through 'Lean Manufacturing'. We brought staff together from across the business in a Brain-Pool Workshop to share good practice and, armed with new insights into the theory and practice of Lean Manufacturing, to translate this into formal roadmaps for production sites in Europe and America.

Innovation in the Consumer Products sector
We provided two Brain-Pool Workshops for a global Consumer products company, focusing on how new technologies could be applied to household products. The Workshops explored a range of consumer environments (e.g. kitchen vs. garage) and requirements (e.g. convenience vs. perfection). We looked beyond expressed needs to discover underlying latent needs. Successive rounds of brainstorming, deliberation and assessment led to fully-articulated product concepts. The Workshops demonstrated how our deliberative approach is just as effective in delivering tangible answers as it is in investigating values and views.

Case-study - Developing a Toolkit for an Innovation Advisory Service
We supported the Yorkshire Forward Regional Development Agency in developing an 'Innovation Toolkit' for its 'Innovation Specialists' Service'. We defined a comprehensive inventory of tools for use by the Specialists themselves, and/or to be transferred to client companies. The Toolkit specified 47 tools. These covered making the Service effective as a unit and the first phases of services with clients: surveying/targeting; initial engagement; and broad analysis and creation of the first 'innovation strategy'. The Toolkit offered tools relevant to all stages in developing an 'innovation', from concepts through to practical realisation.

Case study - Developing Innovation Programmes for the Agri-Food sector
We supported the Food Strategy Implementation Partnership in developing discrete 'Visions for 2020' and accompanying 'Innovation Programmes' for the Agri-Food sector in Northern Ireland. Through facilitated discussions, we helped the Partnership's Leadership Group develop detailed proposals. We then brought 50 senior stakeholders together in a Brain-Pool Workshop to review these and assess them against diverse criteria. The Workshop fostered a remarkable level of consensus and momentum for action. The Leadership Group's subsequent report, 'Vision Twenty:Twenty', has been commended as 'comprehensive and farsighted'.

Case study - Structured Networks and Training to build Networking Capability
We have helped several companies develop national and global networks, through a mix of consultancy and training. The functions covered have included R&D, Manufacturing and IT. A key challenge has been helping different functional groups to work more effectively together. Our Networking case study focuses on building networking capability and structured networks for a global biosciences company.

Case study - 'Lessons Learned' from product development projects
We used a Brain-Pool Workshop to help a global biosciences company to articulate and tackle diverse problems which had affected several projects spread across several continents. The output was a set of 'Good Practices' to tackle carefully-defined problems, together with Action Plans to implement the 'Lessons Learned'. This work led directly to our support for a major programme of work for Mastering Risk.