The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Firms urged to embrace new ideas
One of America’s top innovation experts has said business leaders need to give staff the “tools for change” as he unveiled statistics which show that 80% of UK employees think innovation is important.
Doug Hall, a former master marketing inventor at Proctor and Gamble, unveiled research results at a conference in Dundee which showed employees from the UK and USA suggest 11.4 ideas for working smarter each year.
However, in the States, 10.1 of the suggestions become “real”, against 7.6 in the UK.
Mr Hall was addressing the Enterprise Conversation, hosted by Women’s Business Station, and argued that more should be done to close the gap between the UK and the USA workforces, saying the old system of thinking “doesn’t work in today’s faster paced economy”.
Mr Hall also introduced delegates to innovation engineering, described as a framework which enables people to work smarter, faster and with increased creativity to accelerate the development of more profitable products, services and internal work systems.
Mr Hall said: “These statistics are really encouraging and I’m surprised in a positive way.
“There is a difference between being pro-active and reactive.
“When you are reactive, you become a victim and the way out of that is by education – there is no better way of getting out of a situation than education.
“The truth is that leadership in both countries could learn from each other – employees in USA and UK companies have a different perception of who should innovate and what they should innovate on.”
Angie De Vos, chief executive of Women’s Business Station, which supports women on their business journeys, said: “Innovation engineering is a system that can tell if a proposed project has legs.
“I’m delighted that people have the opportunity to be inspired by an innovative speaker like Doug Hall.”
The Enterprise Conversation’s sponsors include Al-maktoum College of Higher Education, St Andrews University and Smartworks.