LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

Innovation Insight: Making the UK a Hub for Global Innovation

James Askew
James Askew
Board Director & CTO | Fri 05 Dec
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Innovation Insight: Making the UK a Hub for Global Innovation

Chair of the Big Innovation Centre and Principal of Hertford College (Oxford), Will Hutton, opened a discussion about how the public and private sectors can work together to make the UK "a Hub for Global Innovation".

Members from the public and private sector debated how organisational hierarchies and boundaries are barriers that stifle the kinds of “boundary spanning” conversations that can lead to co-creation and innovation.

A key issue for consideration on both sides is the need to develop a shared understanding of what public value is, and the creation of metrics that can help us measure public value. There are lessons that can be taken from European counterparts, such as Denmark who have made the reporting of “public purpose” part of company reporting within the private sector.

In order to see the UK become a hub for global innovation, these three principal challenges need to be overcome:

  1. short-termism arising from both performance reporting in the private sector and the electoral cycle in the public sector
  2. the adversarial relationships between public and private sectors, overcome by finding common ground and building understand and trust
  3. the fear of failure often arising from distorted perceptions of risk

Participants joined the debate from both the public and private sector, including Balfour Beatty, Interserve, the Environment Agency and Liverpool CCG.

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