There may be promised ‘green shoots’ on the horizon, but as Britain continues to struggle with the effects of economic downturn, embracing innovation is now even more important to business survival than before. This week I have invited Paul Radage, commercial manager of the leading innovation management and technology development company, C-Tech Innovation, to comment on these issues. He looks at three regional innovation support schemes, in which his company is involved, that enable small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to benefit from innovation support, enabling them to improve their product, process and business offerings.
The importance of innovation to the UK economy is growing by the day. It is now more critical than ever that UK companies – both manufacturers and service providers alike – continue to research and develop new methods and look for new ways of improving their production processes and business practices in order to compete in the global economy.
Over half of the UK workforce is now employed by SMEs. The challenge of incorporating innovation into business strategies is often felt most by small organisations – just the same as they feel barriers such as time and resource constraints more than others. Yet these companies are pivotal to the growth of our economy, and while most SMEs realise how important innovation is, change often fails to be implemented for a variety of reasons.
The problem is so acute that the UK continues to fall behind Europe, the US and the Far East. In terms of spend on R&D, for example, before the economic recession hit, R&D expenditure in the UK by major firms stood at just 2% of sales, behind many of our competitors. In France the spending rate was over 25% higher than this and in Germany, USA and Japan spending stood between 4% and 5% - over twice the rate in the UK. In China, spend on R&D was also growing by 10% annually. Despite this apparent resistance to invest in R&D, a multitude of innovation assistance packages is available in the UK, at both national and local level. The problem is often that SMEs are simply not aware of the available support.
My company has been providing innovation advice and guidance to SMEs nationally and regionally for many years. Indeed, it is currently involved in three strategically important, complementary and yet very different innovation support schemes supported by regional development agency funding.
One of these, an ‘Innovation Vouchers’ scheme, was launched in 2008. The scheme is designed to help businesses – owners, entrepreneurs and social enterprises – to engage in new collaborations with a region’s knowledge base by purchasing a knowledge provider’s expertise to help the business develop through innovation, eventually improving the bottom line. C-Tech, as a regional knowledge provider, has engaged with regional businesses on a range of issues.
Justin Wrench, head of the company’s Knowledge and Management Services division, is enthusiastic about the support offered. “The scheme has really caught the imagination of SMEs,” he comments. “We have been involved with many diverse aspects of innovation, ranging from idea generation and capture, new product development and business planning, through to more deep rooted cultural challenges that entrepreneurs often struggle with.”
To date, the scheme has provided vouchers of £3,000. Soon to come will be £7,000 vouchers, which will allow more extensive support to take place.
Support provided through a ‘knowledge to innovate’ scheme has, since 2007, been helping more than 400 businesses that recognise the importance of innovation but who also require practical assistance to take their knowledge and experience successfully to the next level.
Under this scheme, C-Tech works with companies on a one-to-one basis over a period of time. The benefit of this longer-term approach is that specific innovation requirements across the business can be addressed, with solutions tailored to specific needs. Innovation capacity is also built up within the businesses themselves and that bestows a lasting benefit on these enterprises.
Innovation needs to encompass more than the good old product or service innovation that immediately springs to mind. Firms need to go beyond this and consider how they can bring innovation to their business processes, supply chain and markets. Even complex cultural issues need to be examined and a decision made as to whether these are preventing businesses from moving forward as they should and if so, how they need to be addressed. C-Tech has developed a range of thought-provoking and interactive training resources that do just this, geared to managing the complex, multifaceted innovation process more effectively.
A more recent eco-innovation programme being delivered by C-Tech along with Lancaster University, tackles environmental issues as well, and will assist organisations to harness their creativity to generate improvements in products, processes or systems which also have a positive impact on the environment.
Participating SMEs are assigned an advisor who conducts an initial eco-innovation review. This helps to identify areas of current strengths and opportunities for the business. A bespoke proposal is then created in collaboration with the business, including specific output targets that the company wishes to achieve. The advisor then works with the business in implementing these proposals, followed by a focus on embedding the innovation process within the company. This includes the actual setting up of new R&D programmes, development of a new design or manufacturing process, or the setting up of new ventures and the incubation of new companies.
Again, a key attribute of the scheme is the presence of one-to-one working to identify specific challenges and implement bespoke opportunities for this eco-innovation within each company. Participation also allows companies to draw upon a suite of additional services delivered by Lancaster University’s business support programmes including the Graduate Consultancy Scheme.
My thanks to Paul Radage for offering this insight into his company’s activities. If you would like more information about the company or the topics and schemes discussed, including the knowledge to innovate, innovation vouchers or eco-innovation schemes, please contact Paul directly on 0151 347 2900 or email him: paul.radage@ctechinnovation.com
Les Hunt, Editor
PS My article last week on cloud computing drew this comment from Rod Dalitz:
You doubt that we might want key data on someone else's server, but my wife is delighted with Apple's Mobile.me service, which syncs her address book, calendar and much else between her iPhone, home Macbook, and work. As well as ensuring that this is available anywhere in the world, it ensures secure backup, whereas I have to do my own backup onto external hard disk, and send a copy of critical files to my googlemail account.
I guess it depends who you trust, and the value of your data. A business storing IP should trust their design software provider, since if they were untrustworthy they would probably have a backdoor in their software anyway. A firm big enough is likely to have in-house IT; a small outfit like me can exercise discretion but mostly rely on being lost in the noise.
I have a choice. For normal items, I am happy to use my own computer; for special cases, I do not want to invest in tools I may never use again, just as I may hire an expert to do a specialised job - and then trust him not to reveal my secrets.
Perhaps this is part of the broader picture that computers are expected to cross over and exceed human capability by 2040?
Rod Dalitz