Get innovating within your organisation by attending the Innovation Course starting June 2018!

Asking yourself ‘why?’ Well, quite simply because innovation links to success!

That’s because successful businesses not only respond to their current customer or organisational needs, but also anticipate future trends to develop ideas, products, services or tools to meet future demand rapidly and effectively.

In other words, successful innovation involves a level of prediction and must be part of your business strategy. Our innovation course unpicks this concept so you can practically apply it for commercial gain. So mark it in your diary now!

Firms that incorporate innovation into their strategies consistently outperform their non-innovative peers

According to the Business Week magazine, the top 25 in the list of its most innovative firms have an average profit margin of 3.4% while the others average around 0.4%. Unless an organisation is able to adopt innovation, it risks being left behind as others take the lead in changing their offerings, their operational processes or the underlying models that drive their businesses.

 

The story of steel highlights the revolutionary impact of innovation on industry development

The ”invention of steel enabled an industrial revolution to take place and the invention of stainless steel made yet another leap forward,” says Kirsten Edgar, National Technology Network Manager for Advanced Materials at Callaghan Innovation. She goes on to recognise that “the pursuit of advanced materials has enabled improvement in steel performance – either incremental or exponential. Where such developments have advanced the prospects of industries reliant on steel.”

A further point made in this article is that a key barrier to innovating in advanced materials is a lack of understanding about what is an advanced material.

At HERA we believe raising awareness on this can improve the potential to innovate through creation of a better innovation ecosystem.

Applied to the broader context of innovation in general, learning about innovation concepts can give a better understanding and appreciation of how to innovate within your own organisation.

We’ve touched on this idea in a previous article ‘How are you innovating your business?’ Here we acknowledged the range of innovative ability in our members with some being very innovative and others, not so much. It’s our hope to ensure the innovative members continue their journey supported with additional tools, networks and resources to catalyse these efforts. But also to introduce the concept of innovation to those in the ‘not so much’ category.

We want this to be part of ALL of our member’s strategies and operations for the long term benefit of our New Zealand metal-based industry.

 

HERA’s solution

To facilitate this positive shift towards ‘advancement’ in operations we’re hosting an innovation course for our members starting this June. It’ll equip you with a solid understanding on how to take an idea from concept to implementation for a product, process or service innovation.

Our program is being developed in collaboration with a range of high quality third-party innovation experts and will incorporate some key activities via the University of Auckland’s Business School. It’s underlying methodology will be based on the principles of lean philosophy and how these can be built into your organisation to maximise benefits.

The program will be delivered under three core modules: READY-SET-GO.

 

Innovation READY

Giving you  the innovation management theory to take an idea forward. It’ll present ideas based on lean start-up principles from design thinking to validated learning, customer discovery, leap of faith assumptions, evaluating ideas and more.  Participants will come out with a stage gated process by preparing an innovation strategy for their firm. They’ll also have a clear understanding of the requirements to develop an innovation process from idea generation to commercialisation.

 

Innovation SET

Armed with the knowledge gained in Innovation READY, you’ll  be introduced to a set of innovation tools to help guide your company’s innovation process through a LEAN innovation pipeline. Participants will be introduced to how to identify potential disruptors for their business, innovation business models & accounting, funding sources, market validation and pivoting tools. They’ll also developing a business strategy and roadmap for at least one product innovation in their company. This stage-gating process requires participants to attend one-day SET session every two months over a year. Giving them exposure to experts in innovation and one-on-one ‘onsite’ coaching visits to expand their own knowledge base and support networks.

 

Innovation GO

Having advanced through Innovation READY & SET you’ll be provided tailored assistance for growth, integrated and suitable feedback loops, funding and marketing support. You’ll also become part of an ongoing series of networking events, speaker series and professional development opportunities. It’s the last step to innovation success – and the most important, as participants will now be trained Innovation Managers, who with the supported commitment of their company will be empowered to implement their project plans to commercially realise a new product(s) and lead these projects as a lean start-up.

Attendees will also learn about the essence of entrepreneurship, the management principles of lean innovation, getting comfortable with the concept of iteration on the run (build-measure-learn) and measuring success through the metrics of learning and validation in an environment of innovation.

 

Attending our course could be the best decision you make – so express interest by registering today!

An insight into the world of advanced materials shows the revolutionising impact of material innovations and the need to stay abreast of developments by integrating innovation into your own organisation.

Our lean start-up innovation course is an excellent pathway to achieve this, by fostering the development of one of your team to be armed with the tools and understanding to take an idea from concept through to implementation for your company. So – if you have a requirement for a trained innovation manager and an optimised innovation process within your business, this is your chance to get support tailored to our industry.

The course will require participants to attend one day per month for a total of six months, and dates will be released shortly. Indicative cost for the entire course is in the vicinity of 3k per attendee, with significant cost subsidisation by HERA. We’ll also be offering a select number of ‘standout’ participants to then continue through the program, and gain one on one assistance to take an actual idea to commercialisation for their business.

This is a high-quality training program for current and future innovation managers. If you want to invest in developing a high potential candidate to assist your business to become more innovative, or want to fast track your company into innovation, then register today by sending your company name and individual/s you’d like to attend our General Manager Industry Development Dr Boaz Habib.

Who knows you could be contributing to the next industrial revolution!

Update shared by our General Manager Industry Development Dr Boaz Habib