Following an introduction from Katherine Megson, Innovation Manager at Bruntwood SciTech, Julian Wells, Director at Whitecap Consulting, chaired the event an kicked off with a round of introductions from the attendees, who included Azzuu, DAC Beachcroft, FinTech North, Katchr, Leeds City Council, MasterCard, Monzo, Other Things, rradar, Seeai, and The Data City.
“Innovation is vital for companies’ sustained competitive advantage and growth and is an important topic to our many customers in Leeds. It was fascinating to host and hear diverse perspectives from a variety of sectors on how innovation manifests, whether developing breakthrough technologies, reimagining business models or implementing novel solutions to problems.” – Katherine Megson, Innovation Manager, Bruntwood SciTech.
To help provide some stimulus for the discussion, Julian shared some insights on innovation, which is a much used but rarely clearly defined concept.
Fundamentally, innovation is about change and doing things differently, and it generally relates to things that will not come about in the course of ‘business as usual’ activity and plans. Often, innovation focuses on future challenges and opportunities, and where there is a degree of uncertainty about how to address them. It is also frequently intertwined with regulation, which can be both a blocker and an enabler of innovation and change.
Julian framed some examples through three different lenses through which Whitecap sees innovation via its client work as a regionally focused strategy consultancy:
- Company level – where organisations seek to find new ways to become faster, cheaper, or different, in order to create and sustain competitive advantage
- Sector level – where there is often focus on the role of startups and challengers, as well changes in technology, customer behaviour, regulation, and skills
- Regional level – where there is a desire to support entrepreneurs, scaleups, develop ecosystems across stakeholders including universities, investors and incumbents, and address the supply of funding and talent
Attendees reflected on their own experiences and perspectives in relation to innovation.
To support the main discussion, six questions were posed to the group, which are listed below along with a summary of the group discussion:
What does innovation mean in your organisation?
The starting point for innovation is to ask great questions about these challenges and problems, and to then try to creatively solve them in a new and different way.
We heard that innovation can mean different things in different organisations, but that for innovation to become part of the culture it needs to be something people think about every day, and that unless people are given ownership and made to feel they belong, they won’t try to innovate. Innovation is clearly more about what you do, rather than what you call it.
There also needs to be a shared understanding of what innovation means in the organisation, and an acceptance that it is “not just for clever people”, and that “sometimes you have to let the crew fix the ship.”
The topic of risk-taking was prominent, and it was noted that it is hard to operate freely with innovative thinking, without an appetite for risk, which in turn can open up opportunities to create value.
What role do customers play in innovation in your organisation?
Having an innovation culture helps customers, and there were several examples from the group such as “we build with our customers” and “we listen to the problems our customers tell us, and then we solve them”
Providing an example, Katchr, a LegalTech firm, explained that it hosts an annual client specific user conference each year, has a product advisory board for customers, and operates a continual improved customer success programme which has led to product changes. The firm has an 83% NPS score and 98% customer retention.
Attendees emphasised that while customer feedback is vital, organisations must also anticipate and lead changes customers may not initially request.
What is the balance of efficiency (doing things faster) and disruption (doing things differently)?
Finding equilibrium between doing things faster (efficiency) and doing things differently (disruption) is vital. Attendees noted that startups thrive when diverse mindsets coexist, and organisations must continually question their practices to avoid merely following the crowd. The point was made that successful startups couldn’t exist if everyone in the firm had the same mindset, hence it’s critical to have a mix.
How is AI impacting your business? How do you expect it to in future?
The discussion on AI drew a range of views, and this remains a really hot topic across all sectors. The point was made that the efficiencies AI can provide can be highly beneficial, but the speed of change can be scary for business leaders. With this in mind, control is important. Additionally, businesses still need people to still be able to think and do their jobs with skill and judgement, and there is a concern that AI could diminish these things.
AI is enabling things to move faster, and to save a lot of time, but there’s also clearly a lot of hesitancy and resistance to AI. The group agreed that AI can massively help productivity, and an example from the creative sector highlighted that AI is currently at risk of homogenising writing and imagery, but will get better eventually and an appropriately balanced approach will emerge.
Are you part of a cluster or ecosystem that plays role in the success of your business?
A balanced and supportive ecosystem needs to be stable in the key places for innovation to thrive, but attendees were critical of some of the national landscape, and suggested that recent government changes are making it harder to be an innovator or entrepreneur. Comments included “It doesn’t feel like we’ve got the right balance at the moment” and “Building a business is hugely rewarding but we’re putting people off”.
Many of the group spoke proudly about the regional digital ecosystem, although there was also a view that we should be more vocal about the innovation activity across the region. We find this to be a common theme at regional events in particular, and the ‘shout it loud’ ethos associated with US businesses is often cited as a more front foot approach.
Are there any examples of innovation in your organisation that don’t involve technology?
It’s not always about technology, and people, culture and process are key enablers of innovation too. Examples were given from the health and sport sectors.
We also spoke about some of the non-tech blockers to innovation, such as investment dynamics and the need for young talent. The investment cycle of 3-5 years is inadvertently reducing the need for / benefits of longer term strategic thinking. On talent, it was stated that the UK needs to get better as a nation at encouraging innovation in young people – “We need to wire them more into innovation”.
Summary points
Innovation is an emotive and wide ranging topic, which applies to all organisations and sectors in different ways, but with common themes.
The key takeaways from the event were:
- Innovation is fundamentally about problem solving
- It is important to create the right conditions within your organisation and ensure people are immersed and feel accountable, because culture can drive innovation
- Risk taking is a difficult but critical feature of engaging in innovation
- Innovation is not just about technology, and can often relate to the role that people play
- The customer voice should be embedded in innovation-focused activity
Whitecap and Bruntwood SciTech are co-hosting further events over the coming months, including an upcoming CEO Strategy Forum on 21st January, taking place in Manchester.