High Growth Knowledge Company (HGKC), in collaboration with Royds Withy King and Milsted Langdon, recently hosted a roundtable on innovation at the Bath Priory Hotel.
Joined by CEOs and MDs of eleven successful South West SMEs, Peter Quintana and Kim Jones of HGKC facilitated an in-depth discussion that explored the collective understanding of idea generation and innovation; the challenges of making time in a busy client-driven schedule to ‘play’ and come up with new ideas; the difference between innovation for a commodity business such as telecoms providers Gradwell, where the systems are expected to work all the time, and potentially life-changing businesses such as DNA Worldwide that have developed the UK’s most advanced DNA testing platform; how to draw from the world of ideas and translate them into genuine client needs; how to evaluate ideas and to measure the potential return on investment in one idea over another; and how to balance the demands of challenging customers that force innovative businesses like TasteTech and Lifecycle Technology to be reactive.
Kim said: “Innovation is the lifeblood of the economy, it’s what makes us different. It is the most sustainable way to grow a business. It’s about things you can control – about delivering value to the customer – because that’s the only reason we are all in business.”
Jessica Bent, head of the Technology and Media team at co-sponsor Royds Withy King added: “As specialist lawyers in intellectual property and technology, we see the results of innovation when it’s successful and are on hand to help businesses protect their assets at the early stages or even when innovation hasn’t gone to plan. So it was fascinating for us to see how businesses in the South West are leading the way in this area; looking at how they can revolutionise their sector, incentivising their teams to think creatively, and really putting customer experience at the heart of what they do.”
Ian Lloyd, partner at co-sponsor Milsted Langdon, said: “Innovation continues to play a large part in the success of our firm and it is something that we encourage amongst all the clients that we work with. It was very interesting to be able to share our knowledge with others and learn more about how they are successfully incorporating innovations into their own businesses, encouraging their team to come up with new ideas and delivering improved services as a result.”
Peter Quintana thanked attendees for their contributions and the extensive ground that had been covered during the discussion and explained that a further research survey would be conducted over the next few weeks, at the end of which HGKC would be publishing a new white paper on the Challenges of Innovation within High Growth Businesses.
Pictured above from front left, clockwise: Graham Ford, Excalibur; Charlotte Ebbutt, Royds With King; Matthew Tipping, Double Retail; Kim Jones, HGKC (standing); Les Ashton-Smith, Heber; Nick Thompson, Gradwell out of view); David Nicholson, DNA Worldwide; Anita Jaynes, The Business Exchange; Ian Lloyd, Milsted Langdon; Jason Matthews, Lifecycle Technology; Edward Nash, The Nash Partnership; John Wyatt, WH Kemp (out of view); Peter Quintana, HGKC; Janis Sinton, TasteTech; Jessica Bent, Royds Withy King; Martyn Bennett, Artis; Bob Mytton, Mytton Williams
