BQF Innovation

Implementing Ideas Quickly

There were 22 delegates at this meeting of the BQF innovation unit. We had an excellent talk from Ian Clarke of Siemens Medical on how they drive innovation. Over 70% of their product portfolio is under 3 years old. One of the metrics they monitor closely is the time to market for new products – for example a new design of mobile phone went from initial concept to market in just 6 months.

There was then a workshop session in which several key topics were discussed and ideas were shared. The main topics reviewed were:

• What is impeding speedy implementation of innovations?
• What is our typical innovation cycle time and how could we improve it?
• What is our approval process for innovation initiatives and is it fit for purpose?

On the first topic, the main impediments to speedy implementation included:

• Leadership and top level commitment to the innovation process
• Strategy – a lack of innovation objectives
• Lack of vision, mission and values for innovation
• Lack of a well-defined and understood approval process
• Death by committee
• Fear of breaking what is already working
• Lack of space to experiment
• Fear of Failure
• Lack of reward or recognition
• Innovation is not a business priority
• The ‘department of no’ – it is easier to reject than approve something new
Overall the feedback from the session was very positive with a large majority of delegates agreeing that it had met their expectations and that they had taken away useful ideas and actions.

Possible topics for the next meeting include:

• Suggestion Schemes
• Engaging customers in the innovation process
• Developing a climate for innovation
• Achieving a culture change to embrace innovation
• Leadership approaches to innovation

Paul Sloane

Many CEOs now see collaboration as key to their success with innovation. They know they cannot do it all using internal resources. So they look outside for other organisations to partner with. A good example was previously quoted as a weird combination – Mercedes and Swatch who collaborated to produce the Smart car. Each brought dissimilar skills and experiences to the team.

Costa Coffee is a chain of coffee shops which is in fierce competition with Starbucks and Cafe Nero in the UK coffee bar market. It has had considerable success by collaborating. Costa develops concessions with key partners. Current concession partners include coffee stores in Abbey National banks, WHSmiths and Ottakars book stores and Homebase DIY stores. The concession stores are managed by the Costa team who provide high quality coffee and service experience to businesses who want to provide their customers with that little something extra. Customers in Concession stores can relax with a cup of coffee and food offering as they take a break from retail therapy, consider that purchase or await an appointment.