Innovation – Taking a balanced view on the opportunity

To compete and operate successfully in today’s global economy, innovation is vital. From Apple to Ferrari, Dyson to Siemens, there are many examples of iconic innovations and technology developments that have found their way into our day-to-day lives. But what role has innovation got to play in major projects; possibly more fundamental to this, what do we mean by innovation in the context of major projects?

‘Innovation in the Management of Major Projects’, (the topic of an event in 2010, Seminar Report 153 is available on the website) concluded that organisations must have a willingness to learn and that their people must be allowed to participate in a passionate but structured and timely way to ensure that opportunity is maximized. This seminar will build effectively on that outcome and push back the barriers from a number of different but complementary angles. Also in 2010, the Prime Minister, David Cameron said, ‘We will invest over £200million in technology and innovation centres over the next four years. These centres will be great for research, great for business – and they’re going to put Britain back at the top table for innovation.’

Through the UK’s national innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, a network of innovation centers are being established that will create the framework for the long-term investment and joint-working between UK businesses and research base – but their primary focus will be on creating opportunities to accelerate and reduce the risk of product service development. Is this relevant for the challenge of major projects? A number of academic institutions have and continue to participate with industry and the major projects environment to find ways of capturing the lessons and knowledge for transfer to future projects – arguably the Learning Legacy established by the Olympic Delivery Authority has been an innovation in capturing the lessons from this very successful major construction programme.

Throughout the seminar we will develop the role of innovation in the context of the major projects environment, from the academic perspective, where Imperial College have a number of examples of how they’ve seen this operate; from a major systems organisation, BAE, which without innovation would not survive competitively in the major projects in which they become involved; and Crossrail, Europe’s largest infrastructure programme. Everyone is considering how best to tackle the ‘innovation’ question, what is its role and how do they not compromise out turn performance, but implement the necessary learning and step-change required to deliver the efficiencies for this and future investment.