CBI @10am: How can businesses embrace innovation to recover and rebuild?

Speakers:

• Matthew Fell, Chief UK Policy Director, CBI
• Felicity Burch, Director, Innovation, CBI
• Juliet Eccleston, Chair, Sharing Economy UK and Founder, AnyGood?
• Brian Palmer, Chief Executive, Tharsus
• Liz Moseley, Editor and Partner, Tortoise Media (Chair)

Overview:

• Matthew Fell kicked us off with a COVID-19 update, highlighting the concerning situation in India with a real desperate need for oxygen and ventilators – the CBI are urging members to contact the CBI’s coronavirus inbox if you’re able to help
• Also half way through the roadmap in England – looking positively towards the next steps next month. But some outstanding issues we’re seeking further clarity on from Government including the Social distancing review which covers office space, working from home, role of vaccines and covid secure certification. Asking whether government are able to show information and data so we can get a sense of what the guidelines might look like. Expecting something on this before 21 June
• In addition, everyone is looking at hybrid working as well as testing including which schemes employers should use (community versus employer) – steer so far from NHS Test and Trace team has been do what ever is best for your business
• Also continuing to push on heavily impacted sectors like aviation, and getting students back into universities
• On innovation, Matthew said the last year has really shown what’s possible on innovation regarding adapting products and services, and agile behaviour. Growth and investment paradox – we know companies who invest tend to have higher levels of performance and profitability but finding money for this is challenging, overriding part of ‘building back better’ including shared growth, inclusion, green developments
• Felicity Burch – On the definition of ‘innovation’ Felicity highlighted that she typically characterised innovation in two ways – first, something new including trying something you haven’t tried before, and second, something which adds value – either to bottom line, to customers, to wider community
• When talking about the response of businesses and CBI members to the pandemic, Felicity characterised the response in two ways: first, ‘Helping out’ (Coronavirus ventilators, PPE production, gin manufacturers producing hand sanitizers) and ‘figuring it out’ something every single businesses has had to do. For example, 1 in 5 businesses have introduced a new service since the start of the pandemic and many cafes selling through open windows and starting delivery services or developing a website. In addition, Airbnb created online experiences and lots of businesses have accelerated digitisation within their own companies and stepped up their digital capabilities
• Government launched scheme for SMEs called 'Help to Grow' - CRM, ecommerce and Accounting technologies but might be widened out and management scheme
• Brian Palmer – Tharsus designs and manufacturers advanced machines and robots which helps with purpose and strategic purposes among organisations and help customers and clients to innovate better
• Since the start of the pandemic – impact of having a clear purpose when it comes to innovation. Social distancing device called ‘bump’ – took to market in under 3 months and working with a team in New Zealand and big impact from pandemic which we need to take forward, got to start with purpose not just an idea
• Big opportunity coming from climate change – going to require huge amount of change – exciting time to be in business if you’re prepared to innovate and change your business model to meet future challenges
• Juliet Eccleston started by talking about the sharing economy and opportunities around utilising underused resources and in the last year we’ve seen businesses and people innovating more. Nailing personal productivity via Zipcar, Airbnb and clothes sharing apps, but business productivity could be shared about better via the sharing economy
• In terms of where innovations ‘sits’ within organisations, Juliet suggested finance teams are – can be asking themselves where are the significant costs and where can we save? E.g. office space and logistics/empty journeys.