For this conversation, I spoke to Antony Beckett, the Undergraduate Programme Director and Dave Jarman, Postgraduate Programme Co-Director for University of Bristol’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Both are Teaching Fellows and responsible in part for designing the pioneering innovation degree programmes now being offered at the University. Talking to Antony and Dave was memorable for a number of reasons:… Read more →
A few years ago, I bought a water machine. It’s plumbed into the mains water and dispenses 98 degree hot water and chilled filtered water at the touch of a button, and I love it. When you work at home, constantly filling the kettle and waiting for it to boil is tedious and annoying, and given that the machine was… Read more →
Cecilia is one of those rare finds that brings expertise injected with enthusiasm and an uncompromising ability to deliver. When it comes to innovation management she is passionate about the subject, sage like in her counsel and is always actively talking to interesting people and pioneers in the field to network and link up opportunities between different parties. She is an absolute pleasure to work with and brings a wealth of value to any team or project.
Phil Atherton, Co-Founder, Solverboard
I knew Cecilia by reputation long before we got the chance to work together, so being able to work together on the launch and ongoing promotion of Solverboard has been brilliant. By coupling her strategic content creation ability with a genuine love of – and expertise in – the innovation process Cecilia has become an integral part of Solverboard’s success. The annoying thing is that she makes it look so easy!
Charlie Widdows, Co-Founder, Solverboard
I’ve been thinking about stories a lot lately, particularly stories of failure. Telling stories of failure is hugely important for many reasons – not least because it resonates with audiences that have all, let’s face it, screwed up in some way or another in the past. Told in organisations, failure stories build innovation culture by telling employees that it’s ok… Read more →
I’m suffering from information overload right now, having spent most of last week at the Front End of Innovation conference having interesting conversations with inspiring people. As ever, there were some key recurring themes around innovation (discussed in previous posts), but I picked up some interesting additional dimensions, met some great people, and learned some completely new things. Culture remains a huge… Read more →
Talking to Nicola was a pleasure as it brought up a topic I hadn’t thought about for a while — system change and system design. I wrote about systems, particularly human systems, a while ago and have always been fascinated by how they grow and develop. Nicola’s thoughts on the subject were a really interesting insight. It was also a joy to… Read more →
I made a film with Solverboard recently – drawing on my role as Head of Innovation Practice, I talk about some of the factors that can help make innovation programmes a success. If you like it, why not watch Solverboard’s other films? Read more →
Talking to Julie was inspiring — not just because Parkinson’s UK is a great example of an organisation working with CAST to bring about a huge change in the way it helps people with the condition, but also because of her work on The New Reality, her research project on how digital technology can have significant social impact through the non-profit sector.… Read more →
Sometimes, you go to a conference and it turns out that almost all the speakers there are saying the same thing, in slightly different ways. That sounds like a bad thing (or a very boring conference), but in this case, it wasn’t. The conference in question was the Chief Innovation Officer Summit last week in London, and I was there… Read more →
This was a great conversation — I met Michelle by chance at an event hosted by the lovely people at Boundless (ask them about their Discovery sessions, they’re brilliant), and got talking about innovation straight away. I love the story of how Michelle came to her current role with Virgin Care, and her interest in happiness as something worth measuring and striving… Read more →
If there’s one organisation whose name is a byword for innovation right now, it’s probably Team Sky. In just six years, this professional cycling team has achieved what many initially thought was an impossible ambition: the first British Tour de France winner in history (Bradley Wiggins in 2012), a feat repeated just a year later when Chris Froome took the… Read more →
