When it comes to business success, there’s one factor that stands head and shoulders above the rest – the ability to innovate.
Whether it’s new ideas, tweaking existing concepts or devising new ways of working, there’s no doubting the impact that creating an innovative culture can have.
And De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is working with Leicester Business Festival to champion innovation with a host of themed events aimed to help start-ups and small businesses to discover ways of driving change that don’t cost the Earth.
DMU has a track record of supporting successful new businesses. It has one of the highest numbers of graduate start-ups of any UK university and is home to The Crucible Project which has launched 70 new businesses in just over three years.
Josh Dale is manager of DMU’s Innovation Centre, a space for businesses to develop ideas, new products and services and engage with the university. Businesses can base themselves at the centre in an office, take part in the online programme of events or work with the university to help them to innovate.
He said: “Covid-19 has brought innovation into the spotlight. Whether it’s Brewdog creating a line of hand sanitiser from its distilleries or Mercedes developing the ventilator replacement CPAP devices, innovation has been proven that it’s essential. At the Innovation Centre we help businesses to innovate successfully.”
Professor Rachel Granger is hosting two events to inspire innovation. She will be interviewing Stuart Hetherington of Holovis, recently named one of the region’s leading innovators in digital media. The following day, she will be leading a session looking at how businesses can learn new ways of thinking and working as we adapt to life in a pandemic.
She said: “Companies are having to innovate their way out of this current crisis and despite the frequent misconception, innovation goes much further than a shiny new gadget, new technologies, and intellectual property. Introducing companies to innovation mindsets, and to improvements to processes, new clients, new markets, new ways of applying ideas and skills all equate to innovation in practice.
“In this set of LBF events, it's more important than ever to find practical ways for Leicestershire companies to innovate and for De Montfort University to help them through this difficult time.
Leicester Business Festival – which is being run entirely online this year – will showcase seven innovation-themed events which are all free:
• Demo at De Montfort
Demos are the ideal way for businesses to showcase new products or services. The first of a new series from DMU’s Innovation Centre will bring together demonstrators who have built products and services to help businesses innovate
• Head to Head with Innovation
Discover how Holovis transformed into a leading international player in digital media, the organisational structures that enable day-to-day innovation, and the innovation mindsets of employees working at the business and be inspired!
• Innovation in Practice
Following on from Innohouse's first Head-to-Head session with an innovation leader, in this second session we explore how to enact innovation in a day-to-day setting. We examine the results of a cross-sector survey of business habits during the covid lockdown, and the prioritisation of innovation as we come out of lockdown.
• Innovation in the Supply Chain
How can the supply chain in Leicester and Leicestershire be improved using new technology? What does digital mean for different industries? Find out in this free session.
• Arts and Culture post Covid
DMU’s Associate Director of Public Engagement, Mark Charlton, joins an online panel to debate the role and importance that arts, culture and festivals can play in the post-Covid 19 recovery of Leicester & Leicestershire.
Posted on Tuesday 20 October 2020