When we invited six of NZ’s leading innovators to Tauranga to judge the Young Innovator Awards, opportunity knocked. What a great chance to get them to share their stories with the business community. We set up the Innovation Forum – When Business and Innovation Collide. An inspiring morning it was, with personal stories, inspiring ideas, and tales of lessons learned and problems solved.

The common themes I picked up from the presentations include the importance of growing the right team of people around you and developing a collaborative and creative culture, creating a clear vision for the project, and developing deep customer understanding and empathy. The importance of a good development process was seen as key as well as having the all-important cash!

Rob Heebink, R&D Executive at Gallagher, kicked the morning off. One of NZ’s iconic companies, Gallagher is celebrating 75 years in business this year. Rob's vision: "Innovation is not an R&D activity, it is a business activity”; all parts of the business need to work together to identify new possibilities, contribute to the generation of new ideas, and take responsibility for their respective roles in the realisation of new products and solutions. I really liked Rob’s definition of innovation – “fresh thinking that creates value”. Another good one liner from him was: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. Superb.

Rob’s takeaway points:

• Develop deep customer empathy
• Grow capabilities to turn customer insights into great designs
• Product development is a collaborative learning process
• Innovation is 10% and successful commercialisation is 90% of the work
• It is the people and the culture that drive your innovation

Next up was local businessman Steve Saunders. Steve is the owner of the Plus Group of Companies who provide specialised integrated horticultural solutions both domestically and internationally. Steve is also an active angel investor and co-founder of Newnham Park Horticulture Innovation Centre. Although he’s a well-known figure around town, Steve says he’s not a fan of public speaking. I’m not sure why – he was superb, recounting real life tales of trips to the US and the importance of building relationships in export markets.

Steve’s takeaway points:

• Embrace and nurture the wellspring of your creativity and passion. These are the pillars which support your gift of innovation and give it voice. Feed your passion to grow your innovative creativity.
• Avoid or discard those who seek to diminish or hijack your passion. Seek out those who embrace and recognise its potential and worth.
• Challenge the status quo and reject complacency.
• Honour and respect your supporters and sponsors
• It is my responsibility to create a platform to encourage enquiry, stimulate young innovators in my business to question, and allow them the freedom to explore, create, fail, learn, and succeed.
• Innovative thinkers are integral for the success of my business. They are the future of my and New Zealand business. They are New Zealand’s future.

Our very own Blythe Rees-Jones had a hard act to follow but he stepped up to the plate with ease. Blythe’s our Creative Director and is very experienced at directing research and product development targeted at delivering new creative insights and market opportunities through the effective application of design. Blythe talked about the concept of “Prealisation,” commercialising early, almost from day one of your project. It’s based on going early to market and using the market to drive R&D activities.

Blythe’s takeaway points:

• Great insights lead to great ideas. To gather such insights put yourself in the shoes of real people, live like they do, dial in your intuition, and listen with your eyes. Then envision what you have learnt and reframe the big idea.
• A good process is instrumental. Invest in your development process, it's your biggest asset and a key instrument to help you navigate your way from insight to market. But remember, at times, it will lead you and you will lead it, so always trust your instinct.
• Work at the intersection of innovation. Be cross-functional by combining science with art, engineering, design, and human factors. The normal approach is to place a project manager at this junction, but here where innovation collides, you need art direction.
• Execution is everything. To win on innovation you first need to win on communication, so make it look awesome.
• Read more about Prealisation in Blythe's blog: Innovating on Instinct.

After much animated discussion among the guests over a coffee break Tony Hadfield was first up. Tony is a self-employed consultant working in research and development and commercialisation of R&D. Tony talked about his experience and how the best outcomes are achieved by taking a structured approach and involving the right people. I loved his statement “If you don't like change, you'll like irrelevance less.”

Tony’s takeaway points:

• Innovation should always be about REALISING VALUE. The best outcomes are achieved by taking a structured approach and involving the right people.
• Innovation strategy is company/sector specific, but must always have company-wide buy-in.
• Metrics! At all stages, from idea to value realisation, you need to be able to monitor progress against objectives. This is the essential driver for review/readjustment through the process.
• Keep your eye on the “market”. This is what ultimately determines returns from innovation.
• Take the risk to enjoy the rewards.

Next on the podium was Ed Burak, User Experience Design Manager at Tourism Holdings Limited (THL). THL is the largest provider of recreational vehicles across Australia, New Zealand, and the USA. A talented industrial designer and marketer, Ed has built a reputation for innovative work driven by customer insights. Ed talked us through the development of THL’s Mighty Jackpot Campervan. This project used insights uncovered through research into how people “campervan” to inform the design of a campervan which makes campervanning a lot more convenient and enjoyable. Not a bad summer-time project. Ed’s secret to good research: “We're looking for opportunities not answers.”

Ed’s takeaway points:

• Learn how to extract the gold from users. There is an art to interviewing for insights.
• Check your world-view at the door before going out into the field.
• Go out into the field!
• Cross functional contribution to the design process transforms into ownership (when it counts, at commercialisation)
• Pre-prototype your ideas really early, at low resolution, and don’t be precious with them. Not only is it fun, it’s incredibly valuable.
• That place you call work, where people gather together, is really just a framework for social interaction. Leverage this to build a culture of innovation.

To finish a brilliant morning, David Darling took the stage. David is an ‘entrepreneur extraordinaire’ in the field of science and technology. He is CEO of Pacific Edge Limited, an NZ-based cancer diagnostic company specialising in the discovery and commercialisation of diagnostic and prognostic technology for the early detection and monitoring of cancer. David emphasised the importance of having a BHAG: a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. He also introduced us to a new acronym, ‘CIMITYM’ or ‘Cash is more important than your mother’.

David’s takeway points:

• Innovation in NZ is alive, well, and returning cash to investors.
• To start to build a successful entrepreneurial business you need to have a clear vision that must be translated into your ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’. You have to sell that BHAG to investors.
• Your innovative idea needs to be translated into a business opportunity with a business plan and contingency plans are a must.
• Investors will invest in people; recruit, and surround yourself with the best that you can.
• You need plenty of energy and an outward representation of enthusiasm. Resilience is a prerequisite.
• You need CASH and plenty of it. Get as much as you can as often as you can. Remember ‘Cash Is More Important Than Your Mother’.
• Listen carefully to your customers (“Your baby is ugly”).
• You can do this. Go hard, have fun, and take your investors with you.

This event certainly provided the audience with some inspiration and food for thought. Each speaker contributed their unique experience and views on how they've fostered innovation in their business and the resulting positive effect. Not surprisingly, although we heard their different perspectives, the success factors are all pretty similar and very much in line with our experience here at Locus. Knowing these success factors is one thing, the magic art of innovation lies in delivering on them. Easier said than done. My takeaway: I agree with Rob, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, but add to this “Strategy puts breakfast on the table”.

From left to right: Blythe Rees-Jones, Rob Heebink, Steve Saunders, Tony Hadfield, Ed Burak, David Darling.

A big thanks to all our partners for putting this event on, it was very much a joint effort and a project of passion. We raised money for YIA, inspired 100 people, and had fun in the process. Roll on next year – we already have some ideas for the next forum.

This event was part of the Young Innovator Awards, and was made possible by Priority One, Locus Research, Woods Creative, and ExportNZ BOP, with the support of Enterprise Angels and Callaghan Innovation.