Mareike Schumacher’s Post

Do you remember what you were doing 28-29 October 2015? For me, this was the first day of our first Advanced Services Partnership Roundtable, hosted by Air France KLM in Amsterdam. Today we are launching our 25th! The idea of the Partnership came out of conversations between myself and James Euchner. At that time, Jim was the Chief Innovation Officer at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in the USA, and we had been working with him to help his team develop their understanding of servitization and Advanced Services. Jim often shared with me his frustration; ‘servitization is a lonely place to be’, and I shared mine; ‘how are we going to accelerate the adoption of servitization within industrial firms?’ We needed to find others like ourselves, serious about servitization. We needed to work with executives who shared our belief and passion, yet willing to be rigorous and structured in their approach to servitization. We needed to find people, willing to recognise that great things happened when practitioners and researchers collaborate to bring about a firm’s transformation. And so, The Advanced Services Group set about creating the Advanced Services Partnership. For our industry partners, it is about accelerating their innovation of advanced services business models. A pathway to the research community; a forum for networking and benchmarking against firms going through a very similar journey. For us at ASG, it is our ‘engine room’! Our research informs the language, understanding and decisions, that firms take in adopting servitization. And the feedback we get from firms progressing is invaluable. A focal point for our EPSRC & ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council funded work to impact practice. Topics have been wide ranging; business model innovation through to storytelling, market segmentation through to value networks, and gamification through to AI. We’ve held roundtables with GE, Rolls-Royce, Goodyear, Thales Defence Domino Printing, BAXI, Tetra Pak, Omron Industrial Automation Europe, Alstom, and many more. And so, for our 25th meeting what have we learnt? The arguments are compelling, servitization is happening, and technology is continuing to unlock the opportunity. Yet, servitization can still appear complex and ultimately progress is constrained by the product-only culture that prevails in many industrial firms. Through the work of the partnership we now know how to make servitization happen. Jim and I have gone a long way to fulfilling our objective. And yet, what this has revealed to me is that there is so much more to learn. More and more we’re spending time with consumers of advanced services; the benefits, challenges, and transformation. And this helps to explain why we are here at Diageo, studying how providers of advanced services can help their customers to innovate their business models. A whole new chapter that we’re keen to explore. Watch this space.   #engaged Diageo Aston Business School Aston University

In this blog from our Chief Growth Officer Luke Damian, learn how strategic innovation can be your business's differentiator in a challenging economic landscape.

Innovation has been the key to success for businesses that have grown into well-known enterprises today. In order to set the stage for business innovation, companies must first create an environment that encourages creativity and experimentation. Some of the steps that businesses can take to foster innovation include embracing failure, investing in research and development, collaborating with partners, and cultivating a diverse workforce that brings a mix of perspectives and experiences to the table. Check out this informative article to learn more! #businesscoach #actionCOACH

#Innovation starts with a mindset open to change. In "How To Create Innovation," Stefan F. Dieffenbacher offers 5 steps to cultivate this mindset. Explore these steps below and learn how to transform your business into a powerhouse. Read more here:

Are you aware of the key elements that make a company truly innovative? Here are some steps you can take to foster innovation in your organization: ➡ Cultivate an environment where unique ideas are celebrated. ➡ Encourage collaboration across different teams and departments. ➡ Invest in continuous learning and development opportunities. ➡ Recognize and reward innovative thinking, not just successful outcomes. Remember, innovation is a journey, not a destination. What actions are you taking to drive innovation in your organization? Share your thoughts below! #Innovation #Culture #BusinessGrowth https://lnkd.in/ggcC_GsE

In this blog from our Chief Growth Officer Luke Damian, learn how strategic innovation can be your business's differentiator in a challenging economic landscape.

In this blog from our Chief Growth Officer Luke Damian, learn how strategic innovation can be your business's differentiator in a challenging economic landscape.

*** Scale-Up Roundtable Series ***  Hosted at The University of Manchester Industry experts and fast-growing companies in the Northwest come together with North West Business Insider to discuss their strategies for growth and innovation. The Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange – The University of Manchester team is sponsoring a series of scale-up roundtable workshops in partnership with Northwest Business Insider on the theme of Scaling Up. The series will bring together a range of industry experts and business leaders of fast-growing companies of different sizes to discuss their strategies for growth and innovation and the role of research and development in scaling up. Held in the university’s flagship Engineering Building A, this week’s theme was ‘Innovation’ where businesses came together to share successes and challenges that they have experienced throughout the scale-up journey. Innovation in scale-up companies is often bolstered through working with universities, industry bodies and business support intermediaries, who can support scale-up companies to commercialise innovations and find solutions to business challenges. The roundtable provided a great opportunity to gain insight into some of the high growth companies within the region, and how they are continually innovating in order to distinguish themselves from their competitors, seizing opportunities to expand and attract new customers, as well as how investing in sustainability can create impact beyond their business. Throughout the series, we will hear from business leaders in a range of sectors and how they are staying ahead of the curve. We will discuss themes such as: Diversifying into new areas; R&D and innovation; Minimising risks/ maximising wins; Sustainable growth; Talent & skills and Collaboration and partnerships. Thanks to all those who attended today’s workshop, special thanks to Robyn, Adrian, and Remi from Business Insider for making today happen! We look forward to the next one! “We’re pleased to be working with Insider Media on this Scale Up Series and to host the first round-table on Innovation and Product Development. SMEs in all sectors face increasingly competitive conditions and remaining at the forefront of change and business success often requires collaboration. Partnering with The University of Manchester can assist those businesses on an innovation and scale-up journey, providing access to a wealth of knowledge, expertise and funding opportunities. Having the opportunity to gain insight from some of the region’s successful business leaders through these round tables, is highly valued.” Caroline Stanton Head of SME Partnerships at The University of Manchester Robyn Hewson | Remy Greasley | Adrian Simcox | Insider Media Karl Dooner | Phininder Balaghan PhD MBCS BSc | David Stanley Rupert Gatty | Yvonne Grady | Rachel Kenyon | Gemma Morecock #innovation #management #technology #futurism #marketing 

Dual Innovation (see https://lnkd.in/e2Av7BeJ) builds on a dedicated function/unit 🎯 that is in charge of looking beyond the present core business 🔭 and operating complementarily to BUs. ☯ This 'Exploration Unit' (ideally) exhibits the following key features: 👉 Operating on eye-level with BUs and reporting accordingly to C-suite. 👉 Operating upon a tailored environment, geared towards dealing with high uncertainty, disruptive potential and incompatibility with core business. 👉 Being aligned with the corporate strategy and paying into it. 👉 Owning and accomodating a fully-fledged exploratory innovation capability, including 'Discovery', 'Validation' and 'Scaling-Up' competences. 👉 Encompassing internal and external exploratory innovation activities under one roof, e.g. internal business building and engagement with external startups. 👉 Receiving support from core business competences for new-business growth. 👉 Leveraging internal assets or capabilities and external partner ecosystems to endow corporate startups with an 'Incumbent's Advantage'. Bottom line: Exploratory innovation, supposed to reach beyond the present core business scope, presents a specific corporate capability that needs to be built up and organizationally assigned - such as Legal, HR, SCM, Marketing and the like. ☝ Please keep in mind: While corporate innovation in general is everybody's business, exploratory innovation is not! ❌ Thoughts? Do you want to discuss Dual Innovation or setting up an Exploration Unit for your company? Please drop me a message! 👍 #innovation #corporateinnovation #corporateventuring #orgdesign #strategy #ambidexterity #DualInnovation

The Dual Innovation framework really connects with the issues I’ve come across in my own corporate innovation journey. It gives me a solid way to think about setting up and supporting a successful Exploration Unit for exploring new business opportunities within the company.