Companies set to benefit from accelerating innovation

Ten local companies are predicting a boost to their bottom line after identifying aspects of their operations that could be improved by taking a more innovative approach.

The companies are drawing up action plans for increasing innovation in priority areas of their business after taking part in a new innovation programme - which aims to help companies strengthen their performance and increase profitability by generating and applying new ideas.

The Accelerating Innovation Pilot Programme, organised by Invest NI’s Business Improvement Services in collaboration with the Centre for Competitiveness, was supported by two world-leading experts on innovation.

Darryl Bubner of Wave Global and Allan Ryan of Managed Innovation International, both Australian based companies, partnered with Invest NI and the Centre of Competitiveness to help the participating companies to develop an innovative approach to running their businesses.

Each of the participating companies spent up to two days with the course leaders, during which time they collected data about innovation in the business, generated and assessed new ideas and developed a prioritised programme for implementing improvements.

Brian Baird of participating company, Meridio Ltd, said that he found the innovation programme to be very useful.

”Firstly it was invaluable in identifying what our innovation strengths and weakness were, and secondly, it provided a process and practical ideas for improvement," he said.

"We are now particularly focused on improving how we capture and assess ideas in line with company strategy."

Any businesses interested in finding out more about this programme or other forms of business improvement support should contact Niall Casey on 028 9054 4843 or e-mail niall.casey@investni.com.

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