Managed innovation is key to success

Nest week sees the return of the Managed Innovation Programme delivered by the Centre for Competitiveness in conjunction with Australian Allan Ryan.

The philosophy behind the programme – launched on September 2 – identifies innovation as the key to future success and is designed to provide participants with commonsense tools and techniques to help employees generate better ideas.

Centre for Competitiveness Chief Executive Bob Barbour is positive about the benefits of the Managed Innovation Programme.

"The top 10% companies replace 85% of their products every five years. To achieve this, they must manage their innovation process," he said.

"Centre for Competitiveness is providing Northern Ireland organisations with the invaluable opportunity to adopt practical, applicable innovation techniques that can be implemented at all levels and across all sectors."

Over an intensive seven-day period, Mr Ryan and the Centre for Competitiveness will run 'Introduction to Managed Innovation' and 'Creativity in the Workplace' training workshops. There will be a number of half-day, in-company, 'solve the problem workshops' and a Window on Innovation breakfast for senior managers.

Mr Ryan will also attend the Centre for Competitiveness Quality Network Meeting in the north west to demonstrate Zing – an electronic platform that it is claimed helps "create new knowledge, make better decisions and reach consensus faster".

Organisers say that the Managed Innovation Programme is another example of the continuing commitment by the Centre for Competitiveness to provide Northern Ireland organisations with access to world-class business improvement tools.

The Centre for Competitiveness was the first NI organisation to introduce the Six Sigma management process to its portfolio and is the NI National Partner Organisation (NPO) of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).

As the EFQM NPO the Centre for Competitiveness has official responsibility for the promotion and use of the EFQM Excellence Model and provision of licensed training in Northern Ireland.

The Centre for Competitiveness is a not for profit, private sector organisation that offers unique added value to public, private and voluntary sector organisations to enhance competitiveness and operating performance.

The organisation was launched in November 2001 following the merger of Northern Ireland Growth Challenge and the Northern Ireland Quality Centre.

(SP)