Founders and leaders in new organisations and start-ups are inherently open to the creative challenge and the risks that come with innovation. However, larger businesses, family owned enterprises and the service sector need help to shift attitudes and build innovation that eventually permeates an organisation at all levels.

Consider some of UK's biggest challenges; public health, organised & youth crime, utility infrastructure, immigration, food security. A breakdown in social cohesion and lack of shared purpose. Attempts have been made to bridge academic - industrial - professional services divide but in spite of best intentions investment is rapidly misplaced and diluted by cultural cliques and lack of strategic oversight.

A chasm also exists between design & manufacture and the retail sector which is influenced by sales targets and marketing led growth.

To be commercially successful technology needs to be applied creatively. A shift is required from a consumerist market perspective towards forensic problem definition and a quest for elegant evolutionary solutions. Technology and finance are mere enablers; innovation applies to products, processes, methods, contracts, policy. Possible priority areas include:

The problem-solution interface is almost magical, where the melding of individual world views allow unforeseen and unknown concepts to take shape. From a position of 'unknowing' new solutions emerge with concepts that can eventually be protected via patents and exploited through licensing or joint ventures. Breakthrough start-ups established on well protected patent portfolios reduce market entry risks and competitor threats.

Managing people through change and growth is crucial for success. Tackling hurdles to innovation comes with experience of working with uncertainty and risk. It requires people to step out of routine expectations and trust in their abilities to imagine, challenge, and create. Innovating can be an unsettling and seemingly unproductive pursuit in the short term but iterative experimentation and learning can, and does, yield surprising results.

Being continually thwarted in attempts to innovate within organisations I look for niche market opportunities and product concepts. VITA PILLs draws on professional experience in healthcare, biotech as well as interests in writing, media and design. I made the connection to a viable opportunity while pursuing unrelated self-study in social psychology and psychosomatic affects, participation in competitive sport and development coaching.

VITA PILLs is effectively a white label product that can be adapted, targeted and marketed in a multitude of ways. With the necessary approval, healthcare policy and training VITA PILLs could be revolutionary at very low cost.

Problem definition is critical to effective resource targeting, product and process development. I stumbled upon a 2006 report by G.Hales on Gun Crime. Data showed a shift from airgun use to lethal hand weapons but the incidence of fatalities did not track the rise in lethal weapon ownership. Without in-depth analysis I wondered if opportunistic users of more powerful weaponry were yet to realise the need for improved eyesight, reaction time and practice. Could the key to preventing a rise in gun fatalities lie with linking optician records to gun owner databases and sporting or other pursuits that require good hand / eye co-ordination?

At a national strategy level we must define what the UK's role in global, often highly classified, scientific development is going to be and channel investment and resources accordingly. I believe the UK excels at the academic, proof of concept and design stages but lacks in commercial protection and cross discipline board level understanding to achieve full realisation of investment. at a national and global level. Key stakeholders include the The Treasury, Research Councils, IoD, MoD as well as government departments with significant scientific (not just IT) related budgets such as NHS, transport and national security. A problem (not technology) led, approach to framing department priorities is essential.

A focus on people led progress and what is required for human / social improvement, and the quality of life would be a good alternative to kowtowing to external technology fads. Resources, technology and structures already exist. It is necessary to facilitate a process that overcomes primarily political and legal hurdles in order to reach successful science and technology outcomes. Within the commercial and business domain education, training and leadership support around systems change is key. Evolving culture and business models through protection of ideas, reward structures and realising revenue potential derived from on shored manufacturing, strategic licensing and spin offs.

Audit and accountability of investment as well as RoI and growth metrics need to be coupled with measures of innovation process understanding and skills development within organisations of all sizes.

The magic of innovation needs end to end thinking and oversight that isn't entangled in bureaucracy and political point scoring. Ideas that truly address a need or solve entrenched problems should be nurtured and allowed to reach fruition.

Innovation is not the business of making lots of noise just to make profits.

November 2024 revised March 2025