“Every profound innovation is based on an inward-bound journey, On-going to a deeper place where knowing comes to the surface” Brian Arthur (1989).

The Founding Director’s 2011 research revealed that although businesses are aware of the concept of Innovation, there is poor understanding on how to foster Innovation within their Organisations and this research illustrated that the concept of “Innovation” has been presented to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises and some larger businesses in an over-simplified fashion.

We advocate two distinct approaches when encouraging our clients to develop Innovation Strategies: the first is a market based view in which innovation is "the initial commercialisation of invention by producing and marketing a new good or service or by using a new method of production" (Grant 2008) and according to this market-based approach, market conditions and structure affect the extent to, and rate at which firms innovate (Porter 1980) and these firms do this by employing active entrepreneurial 'searches' into the market to identify innovation opportunities by creating, inventing or designing new and modified products and processes that significantly alter market position.

The second approach to understanding Innovation is the Resource-based view of the firm in which writers such as Meyers and Marquis (1969), states that "Innovation is not a single action but a total process of interrelated sub processes. It is not just the conception of a new idea, nor the invention of a new device, nor the development of a new market. The process is all these things acting in an integrated fashion".

This approach emphasises the importance of a firm's configuration, culture and capabilities combine with its own internal perspectives on innovation and use of agency(choices): this combination creates rare and valuable assets (Grant, 2008) that can be translated into products, processes and services that are difficult to imitate, thus providing competitive advantage (Garud, Karnøe and Kumaraswamy, 2010).

The Think Innovation programme has been designed to encourage Managers, Delegates or Business Clients to respond to the challenges of combining these two approaches as a single holistic set of strategies and thinking, responding to the challenges of the 21st Century’s Knowledge Economy and reject traditional 20th Century Business Models which ignore the dramatic influence of globalisation and the disruptive effects of new technologies and widespread changes in society, emphasising brains over brawn.

Think Innovation programme
This programme is designed to strengthen your creativity as an entrepreneur, leading to enhanced innovation practise where creativity is the ability or quality displayed when solving hitherto unsolved problems, when developing original and pioneering solutions to problems others have solved differently, or when developing original and imaginative products.

The programme will explore the different approaches to creative thinking commonly distinguished between left and right brain thinking. The Left performs rational, logical functions. It tends to be verbal and analytic, operating in a linked, linear sequence. Left brain thinkers tend to be rational, logical, analytical and sequential in their approach to problem solving

The right side operates intuitive and non-rational modes of thought. It is nonverbal, linking images together to get a holistic perspective. Right brain thinkers are more Value based, and nonlinear in their problem-solving approach.

We work with you to develop an idea generation process that has 4 distinct steps to encourage creative thinking:

In addition to fostering creativity, the programme will encourage you to translate your ideas into concrete action that can be measured and managed, in effect we will emphasise how you create a real product or service and how you can bring it into being.

The training material, workbooks and content is designed to encourage you to think differently in a reflective mode as you respond to new knowledge and formulate analysis modelling and design concepts.

There will be some consideration of how to commercialise your idea and stimulate adoption in the market place.

Individuals trading longer than 12 months with a written business plan and wishes to develop an innovative product or embed innovation in their business

The benefits of the programme

The Think Innovation Programme emphasises 4 elements that drive innovation and we will deliver 5 distinct benefits:

· To encourage and strengthen your creativity as an entrepreneur so that your ideas are refined and sharpened to produce a workable commercial idea.

· The Think Innovation Programme combines academic and theoretical models and strategies for growth with practical application, case studies and exercises, providing you with the opportunity to look at your own Innovation potential.

· Individuals who have a clear product or service and have been trading for more than 12 months

· Individuals Who wish to improve the idea generation processes to shape future growth paths 

· The Think Innovation Programme works with ONLY 20 businesses on each programme and so there is opportunity to network monthly with like-minded individuals over a 12-month period.

·The programme will be interactive and encourage you to present to the group your progress at key stages of development so that feedback is given by the group enhancing the learning experience and capitalising on the collective wisdom of all delegates. 

· We will take a holistic approach to developing a culture of innovation by combining the market-based view(external) and the resource-based view (internal) of the firm, to produce a systematic set of processes, strategies and insight.