Innovation is a marathon, not a sprint

After the meteorite impact on the Earth 65M years ago, nearly all dinosaur species died off quickly, unfit to survive the conditions following. Only dinosaurs that had already evolved into birds survived.

Faced with disruptive changes to the economic environment, such as COVID-19, only those businesses that are flexible and responsive can survive and prosper. Those not responding quickly enough will die off like the dinosaurs, but it’s getting harder to react fast enough – now you need to pre-empt change.

Businesses need to invest continuously in exploiting advances in technology to survive and prosper, like the birds.

We work with clients to embed the forward-looking and innovation-seeking mindset needed to keep their businesses competitive.

We have proven a blend of consultancy, coaching and mentoring and training to change the culture and mindset of organisations from reactive to proactive, powering their innovation from the top down.

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Case Study: Balancing innovation with investment

Borregaard, a Norwegian bio-refiner, won over €25M is European funding to build a production-scale plant to manufacture a novel bio-sourced ingredient, Exilva. Exilva is a micro-fibrillated cellulose made from wood pulp and is fully sustainable and biodegradable. It has many interesting properties, one of which is as a thickening agent, as well as light-weighting packaging. Exploiting these characteristics was the other key goal of the project.

Unilever was a partner in the project and we led its work in exploring how Exilva could replace oil-based ingredients in a diverse range of products and packaging, as part of its green strategy. This involved coordinating diverse teams working in Brazil, the US, the UK, France, Norway, Sweden and Greece, so was heavily dependent on virtual team-working long before the COVID-19 crisis.

Outcome

The technical results were exciting - Exilva offered Unilever the prospect of higher-performing products with lower carbon footprint. The commercial conditions for the plant investments needed for switching to this novel ingredient were modelled and the

Customer comments

“Highly skilled in strategy and project leadership, with a unique skill to structure projects and create clear, measurable goals to quickly obtain control and structure in complex projects. We were so happy with their work we engaged them directly after their EU-funded work was complete”

Case Study: boosting innovation capability

We are working with this well-established software supplier to transform its ability to grow and innovate, while designing and developing a new product with much wider potential market than their current product range. We’re collaborating with Sellafield Ltd to make sure the new product will scale to cover the greatest demands while also ensuring it will be very easy for small businesses to use.

Customer comments

During months of lockdown, coinciding with probably the busiest period in Cloudis's 25+ year history, Andrew has provided us with a valuable focus on business aspects which might otherwise have been put to one side. He has used his considerable experience to help us formulate a strategy for the company and our products.