Developing the talent component of the innovation equation

It is often said that organisations don’t innovate, people do. Talent is an indispensable element of the innovation formula. “It goes without saying that we all know talent is critical for business innovation,” says Mark Jordan, chief strategy officer with Skillnet Ireland, the business support agency responsible for advancing the competitiveness, productivity and innovation of Irish businesses through enterprise-led workforce development.

“We consult with CEOs and business leaders to understand their objectives in relation to innovation and digital transformation, and assess if they have the talent to match up against those objectives,” he adds.

“We look at how can we help them at all levels. The people component is key for businesses seeking to become more innovative or undertaking any transformation initiative. Organisations that are inclusive in their transformation activity tend to be the most successful. A business’s most important asset is its people. It is vitally important that organisations embarking on transformation initiatives understand that the starting point is to bring their people along with them. People need to understand that they are part of the transformation and not just find that change is happening, and they have to adapt to it. Transformation can be a big challenge, but good organisations know how to bring their staff with them in meeting it.”

Skillnet Ireland has numerous programmes to aimed at business leaders and staff at all levels to help them develop and implement transformation and digital strategies. “We are helping leaders understand that time needs to be spent on the people part of the equation if the transformation is to be successful. All organisations can benefit from that kind of mindset. Leadership development is a key area for us, and we are seeing the full range of business leaders from owner managers of SMEs to the CEOs of multinational organisations taking part in our courses.”

Of course, when it comes to innovation not every organisation, regardless of how large, has the people required to come up with the solutions to meet the needs of the business. That’s where a new initiative known as the Innovation Exchange comes in, says Jordan.

“We are using this programme to match-make large companies which require innovative solutions with start-ups and SMEs capable of providing them. It’s almost like a marketplace for innovative solutions.”

The concept is relatively simple. Established businesses have an appetite to work with innovative SMEs to solve digital challenges but can find it time consuming and complex to find the right providers and the right solutions. The Innovation Exchange marketplace gives these established businesses access to Ireland’s most talented and innovative SMEs and to a framework that accelerates digital transformation ambition.

For their part, innovative SMEs get access to a customer pipeline and to a framework that develops their capability to navigate sales and procurement, accelerate expansion and achieve commercial success. They get the opportunity to build sales by pitching directly to large businesses looking for digital transformation solutions.

At its core the Innovation Exchange offers a framework to facilitate collaboration between corporates and SMEs. It enables participants to develop understanding and capability around corporate innovation, from ideation and talent development to procurement and adoption.

“It works really well,” says Jordan. “Organisations tend to look internally to develop solutions but it may often be better to look outside for partners to do it instead. The concept of an exchange has been around for hundreds of years in the financial and other markets. But the way businesses find each other in the innovation market is very unstructured at the moment and they can struggle to find the right partner. The Innovation Exchange makes that a lot easier.”

The process begins by presenting challenges to a number of SMEs who may be able to provide solutions to them. “Typically many smaller SMEs with niche solutions and products wouldn’t have access to big organisations. They are capable of developing smart, strong commercial offerings but don’t have the background, credibility or experience to access the larger companies who need them. The Innovation Exchange overcomes those issues and matches the companies up.”

But there is more to it than that. Match-making is one thing, preparing smaller organisations to pitch their solutions to larger companies is quite another.

“Talent development is key to that,” says Jordon. “We are also preparing large organisations to present their challenges in a way that SMEs can understand. That is also very important. It’s a bit of a different way to look at talent development and we will see a lot more of it as more companies get involved in the Innovation Exchange.”

One of the outcomes of participation in the exchange is that both sets of organisations gain insights into their talent gaps. “Skillnet Ireland steps into the relationship to help organisations with those talent development needs,” says Jordan.

“The programme has been running since last year, but was officially launched earlier this year. A significant number of successful relationships have already been fostered through it. We see this area of our activity growing exponentially in the coming years.”