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You Need to commit to Progressive Innovation Strategy

See on Scoop.it - Thoughts from +ADD Strategy

It’s the only way to make sound trade-off decisions and choose the right practices.

paul sutherland ’s insight:

An excellent article which highlights the challanges facing those developing and implementing innovation strategy in real world business environments.  Despite good intentions, many companies seeking to invest in innovation fail to maintain a clear long term view that effectively provides a mandate for progressive innovation delivery.  

The 2014 BIS SME survey evidences a actual decline in the proportion of SME’s innovating new products and services (from 43 to 38%).    Further only a third considered they had innovation processes in place.

Under commercial pressure, many continue to make resource allocation decisions based on short term plans, favouring eclectic propositions and current percieved needs.


Bottom line is while short termism provides quick results it focusses on existing movements and current opportunity. Only after senior management agree explicit targets for different types of innovation (near to, adjecent and disruptive), and allocate a specific percentage of resources to longer term more radical projects ,will real progress be made in developing new offerings that support long-term differentiation and sustainable competitive advantage.  


Needless to say appetite for longer term varies by sector, size of business, organisational risk avoidance culture, and leadership.*


*See:  barriers to innovation:  http://goo.gl/tHsZtI




See on hbr.org

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Overseas students in London add £2.3 billion to UK economy

See on Scoop.it - Thoughts from +ADD Strategy

International students in London contribute a net benefit of £2.3 billion to the UK economy every year, a study says

paul sutherland ’s insight:

A great article but no surprises here.  The big challange is of course making sure our universities make the most of the opportunity.  I also wonder if the FE community are fully aware of the broader potential offered in working to engage and support international students.


See on timeshighereducation.co.uk

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UK enterprise hothouses, incubator programmes and grant funds with deadlines looming!!!

See on Scoop.it - Thoughts from +ADD Strategy

Outbox Incubator is now accepting nominations for the 2015 cohort. The programme will inspire the next generation of female STEM* entrepreneurs during a 6 week intensive programme of events. Application Process closes at midnight on 28th May 2015.  http://outboxincubator.com/apply/ 

Wayra UK has a few spaces left on its incredible digital start-ups acceleration programme! (Deadlline 28th May) Over the last 3 years, they have supported over 100 new and emerging businesses, with $50M raised in third-party investment to date. http://wayra.co/ First

Steps Enterprise Fund is a £300,000 pilot fund offering loan-grant packages to charities and social enterprises working in communities in the North West and South West of England. From 13 April 2015, small community-led organisations can apply for up to £30,000 from to help them grow their services and become more sustainable.  Deadline for applications is noon 26 June 2015.   Read the guidance here

Hatch incubator - London space/ mentor/ A total of 20 workshops are delivered over the course of the 12-week programme. Conducted by industry experts, they cover a range of subjects essential to start-ups - Application Deadline on 20th May 2015/ http://www.hatch-incubator.org/programme

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UK enterprise hothouses, incubator programmes and grant funds with deadlines looming!!!

See on Scoop.it - Thoughts from +ADD Strategy


paul sutherland ’s insight:

Outbox Incubator is now accepting nominations for the 2015 cohort. The programme will inspire the next generation of female STEM* entrepreneurs during a 6 week intensive programme of events. Application Process closes at midnight on 28th May 2015.  http://outboxincubator.com/apply/ Wayra UK has a few spaces left on its incredible digital start-ups acceleration programme! (Deadlline 28th May) Over the last 3 years, they have supported over 100 new and emerging businesses, with $50M raised in third-party investment to date. http://wayra.co/ First Steps Enterprise Fund is a £300,000 pilot fund offering loan-grant packages to charities and social enterprises working in communities in the North West and South West of England. From 13 April 2015, small community-led organisations can apply for up to £30,000 from to help them grow their services and become more sustainable.  Deadline for applications is noon 26 June 2015.   Read the guidance here


Hatch incubator - London space/ mentor/ A total of 20 workshops are delivered over the course of the 12-week programme. Conducted by industry experts, they cover a range of subjects essential to start-ups - Application Deadline on 20th May 2015/ http://www.hatch-incubator.org/programme

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Was Tech City UK at risk post-election?

See on Scoop.it - Thoughts from +ADD Strategy

It’s unknown whether Labour will fund and support the quango that was established under the Tory-led coalition

paul sutherland ’s insight:

I wonder if Tech City UK and other such initiaitives which may appear to have closer alignment or affiliation with conservative agenda’s were really at risk?  

Surely both lead parties equally recognise the importance of Digital and STEM economic development and skills related investments.  

If there was a risk, which initiaitives are more exposed to political winds and which are less at risk?  What do you think?


See on techworld.com

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Recall - impact of Conservative win on the learning and skills agenda

See on Scoop.it - innovation in vocational education


paul sutherland ’s insight:

Apprenticeships !!!  3 million more apprenticeships over the next 5 years.  But how are we supporting learning and skills needs beyond 25?  


Business and industry demand for a better skilled workforce, changing skills needs (Reskilling), an ageing population (3rd careers), longer working lives, and of course globalisation all suggest we need great education and training for adults .


In March College leaders warned the latest 24% funding axe to further education will cost 190,000 adult course places….food for thought!



See on hrmagazine.co.uk

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UK - Digital skills gaps holding back half of UK firms

See on Scoop.it - NortheRN Research Network: A market research community in the north

Economic growth is being put at risk due to skills gaps in the tech workforce, according to a survey of 1,600 employers by the Tech Partnership.

Employer Insights revealed that 72% of large companies and 49% of smaller companies were suffering from gaps between the skills held and the skills needed by their tech specialists. Certain sectors feel this problem more acutely than others: 61% of financial services companies, 59% of tech firms and 55% of public sector organisations.

See on staffingindustry.com

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Paul Joins FE Associates community

See on Scoop.it - NortheRN Research Network: A market research community in the north

FE Associates is recognised as a leading performance improvement consultancy in the post-16 sector working with colleges and training providers to help deliver their strategies and operational plans.

They provide a range of services including interim management, recruitment, strategic consultancy, quality improvement, financial efficiency analysis and business development.

Paul joined the register in May.

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London Event will share insights from the CIM's largest ever SME marketing study

See on Scoop.it - NortheRN Research Network: A market research community in the north

Paul Sutherland of +ADD Strategy is talking at the CIM's Think Big Act Small event in London on the 18th May alongside Emma Jones from Enterprise Nation, and Adam Rowse, Managing Director at Barclays Bank. They will share key findings from the CIM’s national SME marketing survey and provide best practice marketing insight and ideas.  

The CIM is focussed on improving understanding, and enhance marketing practice in the small medium sized businesses.  To ensure best support for SME community, the organisation recently conducted thier most in-depth piece of research in this sector to date. 


The event, hosted by the CEO of the CIM Anne Goddfrey, will provide insight through case studies and expert panel discussion on how to drive your business marketing forward, and how the CIM intends to help.

Book here:  https://www.cim.co.uk/eventbooking/?crid=69857

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CIM Future Focus - Newcastle

See on Scoop.it - innovation in vocational education

6pm Copthorne Hotel, Newcastle Quayside, Wednesday 26/11/2014


Paul Sutherland FCIM’s insight:

An interesting event - the CIM are seeking to discover your views on the future of marketing. The speaker panel includes 


Darren Richardson MCSD, Founder Director at Gardiner Richardson, Dr Joanna Berry, Newcastle University Business School, Charlie Nettle, Head of Marketing at the North East Chamber of Commerce…and me.


Hope to see you there


See on cim.co.uk

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Using big data to map the UK video games industry | Nesta

See on Scoop.it - Thoughts from +ADD Strategy

The creativity of the video games industry has a digital footprint in fan sites, product directories and review sites. We have scraped these big and messy data sources to measure and map the UK video games industry, and these are some of the findings.

Paul Sutherland FCIM’s insight:

needless to say very disappointed not to see any of our fair cities making it onto Nesta’s Map.   


See on nesta.org.uk

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School children as young as 11 to get cyber security lessons - Press releases - GOV.UK

See on Scoop.it - Thoughts from +ADD Strategy

The Cyber Security Skills: Business Perspectives and Government’s Next Steps report is published today (13 March 2014).

Special learning materials for 11 to 14 year-olds and plans for a new higher-level and advanced apprenticeships are among new government plans to increase the cyber security skills of our nation.

The Cyber Security Skills: Business Perspectives and Government’s Next Steps report, published today (13 March 2014), includes plans to provide training for teachers to enable them to teach pupils about cyber security.

Support will also be available for universities that come up with innovative proposals to improve cyber security teaching.

And a new internship scheme will help provide students with the work experience employers are looking for.


See on gov.uk

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Education & Technology in an Age of Pandemics (revisited)

See on Scoop.it - Thoughts from +ADD Strategy

consider this picture MOOCs – massively open online courses of the sort that can simultaneously enroll thousands, even tens of thousands, of learners simultaneously – have been a hot topic of discussion for a few years now in both the worlds of education and ‘international development’ (and, for what it’s worth, the subject of numerous related posts here on the World Bank’s EduTech blog). Recent news that edX, one of the prominent MOOC platforms, is to start offering courses aimed at high school students suggests that the potential usefulness and impact of things like MOOCs may soon extend beyond the realm of higher education, out of which MOOCs originally emerged and where most related activity has occurred to date. There is much (potentially) to be excited about here. Few would argue against having greater access to more learning opportunities, especially when those opportunities are offered for 'free’, where there is latent unmet demand, and where the opportunities themselves are well constructed and offer real value for learners. As with MOOCs at the level of higher education, however, we perhaps shouldn’t be too surprised if these new opportunities at the high school level are first seized upon *not* by some of the groups with the greatest learning needs – for example, students in overcrowded, poorly resourced secondary schools in developing countries, or even students who would like a secondary education, but for a variety of reasons aren’t able to receive one – but rather by those best placed to take advantage of them. This has been largely been the case for initial adopters of MOOCs. (One of the first studies of this aspect of the 'MOOC Phenomenon’, which looked at MOOCs from the University of Pennsylvania, found that students tended to be “young, well educated, and employed, with a majority from developed countries.”) As a practical matter, some of the first types of beneficiaries may, for example (and I am just speculating here), be homeschooling families in North America (while not necessarily comparatively 'rich’ by local standards, such families need to be affluent enough to be able to afford to have one parent stay at home with the kids, and generally have pretty good Internet connectivity); international schools around the world (which can offer a broader range of courses to students interested in an 'American’ education); and the families of 'foreign’ students looking to apply to college in the United States (the edX course “COL101x: The Road to Selective College Admissions” looks, at least to my eyes, tailor made for certain segments of the population of learners in places like China, Korea, Hong Kong, etc.). In other words, at least in the near term, a Matthew Effect in Educational Technology may be apparent, where those who are best placed to benefit from the introduction of a new technology tool or innovation are the ones who indeed benefit from it the most. Longer term, though, it is possible to view this news about movement of a major MOOC platform into the area of secondary education as one further indication that we are getting further along from the 'front end of the e-learning wave’ (of which MOOCs are but one part) to something that will eventually have a greater mass impact beyond what is happening now in the 'rich’ countries of North America and the OECD. Learning with new technologies has of course been around for many decades but, broadly speaking, has not (yet) had the 'transformational’ impact that has long been promised. “Gradually, then suddenly” is how one of Ernest Hemingway’s characters famously describes how he went bankrupt. Might this be how the large scale adoption of educational technologies will eventually happen as well in much of the world? I black swan f so, one credible potential tipping point may be a 'black swan’ event that could push all of this stuff into the mainstream, especially in places where it to date has been largely peripheral: some sort of major health-related scare. (For those unfamiliar with the term, which was popularized by Nicholas Taleb, a 'black swan’ is a rare event that people don’t anticipate but which has profound consequences). One of the first ever posts on the EduTech blog, Education & Technology in an Age of Pandemics, looked at some of what had been learned about how teachers and learners use new technologies to adapt when schools were closed in response to outbreaks involving the H1N1 influenza virus: the 'swine flu’ that afflicted many in Mexico about six years ago; and an earlier outbreak of 'bird flu’ in China. I have recently been fielding many calls as a result of the current outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa asking essentially, 'Can we do anything with technology to help our students while our schools are closed?’, and so I thought it might be useful to revisit, and update, that earlier post, in case doing so might be a useful contribution to a number of related discussions are occurring. —

See on blogs.worldbank.org

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HMRC Digital Recruitment Drive - Newcastle Open Day

See on Scoop.it - Thoughts from +ADD Strategy

Not many organisations can really offer the chance to be part of something new. Fewer still where there will be an impact on the whole of the UK. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is looking for digital specialists to help us transform the way we deliver services for 50 million customers.
 
We’re seeking Solutions Architects, Product Managers, Designers, Developers, a Web Ops Engineer and a Digital Performance Analyst, who will join our vibrant, modern Digital Delivery Centre in Newcastle. You will be right at the forefront of building revolutionary new digital services that will change forever how individuals, businesses and their agents manage their tax affairs.
 
If you’d like to know more we’re holding an “Open Evening” on Wednesday 24th September 2014, from 6pm to 9pm (last entry is 8pm). Come and visit our Digital Delivery Centre and chat to our teams about what’s on offer and the work you’d be doing.
 
Places are limited so if you’re interested, please register no later than 12pm on Tuesday 23rd September. We’re looking forward to seeing you there.
Directions:

Please use the HMRC Main Entrance on Benton Park Road. The address: HMRC Benton Park View (97 Benton Park Road), Longbenton, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE7 7NA.

Public Transport: We are a five minute walk from Longbenton Metro Station, and there are bus links to both Four Lane Ends and Benton Park Road. See here for walking directions from Longbenton Metro: http://bit.ly/1wbqWLZ

By car: On-site parking will not be available. The multi-storey car park at Four Lane Ends is free of change after 5pm, and a 15-20 minute walk from the main gate.

On your arrival a security officer will escort you to the reception office, where you will be issued with a visitor pass and a member of DDC staff will escort you with other attendees to the DDC.

See on eventbrite.com

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