Ema Talam, PhD Student, Staffordshire Business School

The importance of innovation cannot be overemphasised. Innovation (introduction of new products/services, processes or methods) has been shown to positively affect economic growth, standards of living and our well-being. During the past few months, we have all relied on different innovative products and services to keep our lives as close to normal as possible (think about, for example, all those Zoom quizzes with family and friends or YouTube workout videos). Additionally, innovation will be, as Roper and Turner (2020, p. 504) note, “a critical element of the recovery post-COVID-19”.

The past few months have been very challenging times for firms. As a response to the challenges, were the firms more or less innovative? Equally, as a consequence of the crisis, will they be more or less innovative in the future?

Evidences suggest that large number of firms embraced innovation during the lockdown to keep them in business. However, at the same time, firms have reduced more long-term oriented innovation activities. Riom and Valero (2020) did a survey of 375 UK-based firms and show that: (i) approximately 60% of the surveyed firms introduced new innovations in the form of digital technologies (e.g. remote working technologies) and management practices (e.g. new human resources practices), (ii) almost 40% of firms innovated in the form of digital capabilities (e.g. e-commerce), and (iii) 45% of firms introduced new product innovation. Roper and Vorley (2020) did a survey of 334 firms that received Innovate UK award. Their survey shows that, in the period from April to June 2020, more than 75% of firms have either stopped their research and development (R&D) activities, stopped all non-critical R&D activities, or reduced and reprioritised their R&D activities. However, going forward – what can we expect about firm-level innovation? Firm-level innovation in the United Kingdom decreased during the Global Financial Crisis and its recovery to the pre-crisis levels was slow and unbalanced across different sectors and UK regions (Roper and Turner, 2020). Roper and Vorley’s (2020) survey shows that almost 60% of firms planned to reduce R&D and innovation investments in the three months following their survey.

What are the most common policies for increasing firm-level R&D and innovation?

There are number of policies that policy makers implement to encourage more innovation among firms. Some of the commonly used policies are R&D tax incentives and R&D subsidies. Previous research has shown that both can lead to the desired effect (Castellacci and Lie, 2015; Dimos and Pugh, 2016; Bloom et al., 2019). Unlike R&D tax incentives, R&D subsidies can offer a more targeted support for certain projects that are of interest (Bloom et al., 2019). Riom and Valero’s (2020) survey (discussed above) shows that new tax incentives and business grants or vouchers were chosen by firms to be favourable policies to deal with problems such as financing constraints for innovation for both product and process innovations. Other policies that may positively impact innovation are policies directed at human capital supply (e.g. skilled immigration) or policies boosting competition and trade openness. Additionally, historically, there are evidences that mission-oriented policies, which are focused on a particular mission – certain technologies or sectors – can lead to innovation (Bloom et al., 2019).

References:

Bloom, N., Van Reenen, J., and Williams, H. (2019) ‘A toolkit of policies to promote innovation’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 33(3), pp. 163-184. doi: 10.1257/jep.33.3.163

Castellacci, F., and Lie, C. (2015) ‘Do the effects of R&D tax credits vary across industries? A meta-regression analysis’, Research Policy, 44(4), pp. 819-832. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2015.01.010

Dimos, C., and Pugh, G. (2016) ‘The effectiveness of R&D subsidies: A meta-regression analysis of the evaluation literature’, Research Policy, 45(4), pp. 797-815. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2016.01.002

Riom, C., and Valero, A. (2020) ‘The business response to Covid-19: The CEP-CBI survey on technology adoption’, A CEP Covid-19 Analysis – Paper No. 009. Available at: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/cepcovid-19-009.pdf

Roper, S., and Turner, J. (2020) ‘R&D and innovation after COVID-19: What can we expect? A review of prior research and data trends after the great financial crisis’, International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship, 38(6), pp. 504-514. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242620947946

Roper, S., and Vorley, T. (2020) ‘Assessing the impact of Covid-19 on Innovate UK award holders: Survey and case-study evidence’, ERC Insight Paper – September 2020. Available at: https://www.enterpriseresearch.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ERC-Insight-Assessing-the-impact-of-Covid-19-on-Innovate-UK-award-holders..pdf

The current pandemic has thrown into sharp relief the importance of both leadership and employee commitment. Where in the past the work of key workers has increasingly been defined in productive and quantitative terms the nation is not (literally) applauding their commitment. For small companies the commitment that can flow out of the relationship between leadership and engagement is key.

Management writer Daniel Pink has argued for some time that real performance flows out of intrinsic motivation and not material rewards and fear of sanctions. He argues that the key drivers of motivation are autonomy, mastery and purpose. Well, working from home has provided far more autonomy for most people. Remote working, to be successful, has required employees to assume a far greater mastery of their own work than previously when there were managers and processes to ensure visible compliance. The uncertainty of the crisis has exposed the fragility of economics and life, which has caused many people to think about the purpose of the work that they do and the lives that they lead. Organisations that have been able to align and re-purpose their businesses towards supporting others have gained much respect with employees and customers.

Key to surviving disruptive times is to start by shifting the organisational culture from what Argyris calls single loop learning; where people ask ‘how do we do things right?’ to the far more challenging double loop learning question of ‘what are the right things?’. This means to question fundamental assumptions about what we do and how we do it. In disruptive times, simply leaning harder upon established best practices may well prove disastrous. Evidence of this taking place often appears through people working harder but organisational performance continues to decline. When this happens its time to stop and apply double loop learning.

Some employees find adapting to new working practices deeply unsettling and this requires leadership that is not just visionary, but also caring. One of the great discoveries of this crisis has been that many people that were on very low wages with poor career prospects have seized this moment to step up and show, through their actions, that they can and will do more, if provided the opportunity and encouragement. Think about care workers, farm labourers and delivery drivers. My experience suggests that very often the most innovative and profitable ideas to improve performance are found within the company. If managers can create an environment where it is okay to question assumptions and speak up, rather than simply told to get on with their work, the results can be surprising. Whatever you have done before this crisis is a defining moment. Would you like to learn how to leverage your businesses core competence in new ways and build employee commitment? What kind of leader will you be? Let us help you be the best that you can be.

Develop and master core competencies in support of your management and leadership ambitions. The Staffordshire University MBA is designed to accelerate your professional and personal development and to contribute to the journey of being the best you can be. You can also study the MBA via our Level 7 Senior Leader Apprenticeship where you will also gain a Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Level 7 Diploma.

Angela Lawrence, Associate Dean, Staffordshire Business School

As the summer draws to a close and we pack away our well-worn flip flops, it’s good to reflect on the long, warm days that we have enjoyed outdoors, before the shorter days of Autumn set in. I recently spent some time browsing through photographs taken this year, to remind myself of the best of 2020. I came across two pictures that led me to ponder on how each one of us approaches life so differently.

Both pictures taken on the same day, within the same 10 minutes. Both taken at the same location. Both my grandsons, yet both with such different approaches to life. One a risk-taker who throws himself headfirst into everything, giving 100% and constantly on the lookout for the next challenge. The other a thinker, a complicated little soul who weighs the options up very carefully before making any decision and even then, approaches life cautiously, sometimes with some anxiety and trepidation. Can you tell which is which?

What this means for me is that I have learned to speak to them differently, to explore different activities that each may enjoy, to play different games with them and read them different stories before tucking them up into bed at night. I accept that they are very different and embrace and enjoy their unique personalities. I celebrate their individuality, encouraging them to be true to themselves and to live their life the way that they, and only they want to.

Don’t be a sheep

We are all unique, all different – let’s face it we are all made up of different DNA! As I welcome new students to the university this week for the start of their journey as independent learners, I’m at pains to remind them of this. I have spent many years welcoming freshers, excited to be beginning a new chapter in their life. Amongst the information and advice that I share to prepare them for the student journey ahead, is the video of a social experiment that I call Don’t be a Sheep.

The video never fails to make students smile and laugh. It depicts a young lady behaving the way that others around her do, just because she feels that she must. My advice to students is to be true to themselves and not to feel intimidated or pressurised by anyone else’s behaviour. I’m acutely aware that in today’s society there is a great deal of pressure from the media and social media, to be someone or something that you are not. Many have written about the phenomenon of social comparison and the ensuing mental health related issues and lack of self-esteem. 

Generation Z

Generation Z in particular seems to be challenged by continual obstacles in the path of individuality. This uber-connected cohort has spent a lifetime inundated with messages telling them how they should look, how they should behave and whom they should aspire to. The 2020 documentary film The Social Dilemma has gone further to heighten fears around the controlling influences of social media and the divide deepens between those who readily fall under the influence of social pressure and those who have the strength to follow their true self.

Something for everyone

The first few weeks at university provide an opportunity for students to get to know their housemates, their lecturers, their surroundings and their studies. Whoever you are and however you like to approach life, there will be something for you. A full range of societies to join and different teaching methods to accommodate different learning preferences – diversity is recognised and embraced in a way that many have never before experienced.

This is one of the reasons why I love working in higher education so much. I love to see confidence build, personalities develop, independence grow and life ambitions accomplished.

Live your own life

Steve Jobs famously told us “your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life”. I fly the flag for being yourself but I appreciate that not everyone has the confidence to do so. The beauty of university life is that support is always available for those who struggle with mental health issues or anxiety. We know that some find this new environment harder to adjust to than others. Don’t be afraid to reach out and be reassured that you are absolutely not alone in feeling this way.

I hope that my grandsons will continue to follow their own individual, unique paths through life – that people will accept them for who they are and that they will be confident to do things their own unique way. My message to students beginning their university journey is live your own life and follow your own path – you don’t have to look that way, you don’t have to dress that way, you don’t have to behave that way, you are unique, you are yourself and that’s okay! Be kind to yourself and be kind to others.

At Staffordshire Business School, we understand that business evolves with time and technology, so we are constantly adapting our learning strategies and courses to give you the best chance to get ahead of the competition when you graduate.

For 2021, we have developed four brand-new courses that follow contemporary themes such as sustainability, entrepreneurship and digital marketing:

BA (Hons) Finance and Business Enterprise
BA (Hons) Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship
BA (Hons) Business Management and Sustainability
BA (Hons) Digital and Social Media Marketing

Dr Andrew Taylor, Senior Lecturer, staffordshire business school

During disruptive times small scale can be a key advantage.  The management writer Mintzberg (1989) describes most small companies as either simple structures or adhocracies.  My research (Taylor 2013, 2019) indicates that in both cases innovation is central to their mission and survival.  The strength and the weakness of simple structures is that they are driven by one or two key individuals.  This both makes decision-making fast and flexible.  Adhocracies are project based, mission driven places, with little respect for traditional idea’s of good management practice, where inefficiencies are the price of high growth.  There is often a tendency, in both cases, as they grow, to define becoming professional as having more formal and robust processes.  The trouble is that as they seek order and stability, innovation and commitment often crashes as  resent a perceived loss of purpose or human commitment. 

During disruptive times it is often better to leverage the flexibility and commitment of peoples in smaller scale organisations to adapt, rather than seek to optimise.  Small companies, like speedboats, are fast and nimble compared to the large oil tankers of corporate business,.  Asking what are the right things, rather than how do I do things right Argyris (1991) is easier where best practices are less defined bureaucratically.

Small companies can most effectively do this through identifying their core competencies (Prahalad & Hamel 1990) .  Core competencies are the source of how you create value – those things that you do for your customers better than your competitors.  They:

1. Provide access to a wide variety of markets
2. Should make a significant contribution to the perceived customer benefits of the end product
3. Should be difficult for competitors to imitate.

Knowing these allows you to ask yourselves how they could, using what Gavetti (2011) calls associative thinking, be transferred into new, more distant, marketplaces. Managers are good at identifying opportunities that are cognitively close to their business, but need to learn to recognise similar underlying patterns in distant markets and make the cognitive leap.

Organisations, that we are familiar with, successfully doing this include Fuji-Film, Honda, Danone, Dyson and Virgin.

Often leaders of small companies familiar with doing this as anyway as a matter of survival.  Learning to use such knowledge to leverage the strength of organisation and its people, in a joined-up way, can, however, both transform the effectiveness and legitimise existing practices, such that small companies can harness their scale and people to flourish.

References

Argyris C. (1991), ‘Teaching Smart People to Learn’, Harvard Business Review, May – June.

Gavetti, G. (2011), ‘The New Psychology of Strategic Leadership’, Harvard Business Review, July -Aug.

Mintzberg, H. (1989), Mintzberg on Management: Inside Our Strange World of Organizations, New York, The Free Press.

Prahalad, C. K.  & Hamel, G. (1990), ‘The Core Competence of the Corporation’, Harvard Business Review, May-June.

Taylor, A. & Krouwel W. (2013), Taking Care of Business: Innovation, Ethics & Sustainability, Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Risoprint.

Taylor A. & Bronstone A. (2019), People, Place & Global Order: Foundations of a Networked Political Economy. London, Routledge.

Paul Dobson, Senior Lecturer, Staffordshire Business School

At Staffordshire Business School we support businesses as part of our courses and I’m aware that some takeaways are doing really well, especially as their customers do not want to go to the shops, queue up, be too close to other people, etc.  But we’ve been told to expect a recession, possible depression, plus we have Brexit and there are concerned about the environment, so the way ahead is going to be tough.  My last blog to help hotels and bed & breakfasts post lockdown received a lot of positive feedback but the restaurants and takeaways I support requested that I could do a blog for them so, I’ve written some top tips.

1. Reduce costs

Look throughout your organisation where you can reduce running costs, for example I’ve helped takeaways reduce their online ordering costs by over 50% by looking around for better and cheaper systems, enabling ordering direct and not through other platforms, Facebook now has a free online ordering system, other e-commerce systems including a website has substantially reduce their cost and are now just a small one-off price. See if you can reduce your supply costs for example: a local restaurant and takeaway to me has reduced their electricity costs by 15%.

2. Watch and learn what’s happening abroad and in retail

Keep an eye on what is happening with restaurants in countries ahead of the curve and how they are adapting.  Retail shops are opening but in a post-Covid-19 more spaced and structured way. There are some good learning points being shown but also what issues/blockages they have and how they’ve got over it.  Look at how the best are using their social media such as YouTube to raise their profile and showing how they’re safe.  Trust is becoming a key area of importance in many areas ahead of this pandemic curve, use your social media to help gain this trust.

3. Transition to online

If you haven’t already; go online properly.  Don’t rely on third-party platforms who take a percentage of your money and don’t think that a PDF document showing your menu is enough.  It’s going to get even more competitive.  There are some I’ve already seen that are burying their head in the sand…don’t do this or you could be one of those closing.

4. Do not suddenly re-appear post lockdown

There are great examples out there how restaurants and takeaways are continuing to market their restaurant on social media in areas that are important to customers, for example takeaways showing disinfecting their insulated food delivery bags, extensive cleaning in their kitchens, personal protection equipment, how they’re developing their customer protection and so on. Social media videos are working really well at the moment so you need to enhance your marketing.

5. Mobile is king

One of the takeaways I support has over 70% of their orders via smartphones.  It is no longer the case their customers look on their mobile and order via a laptop or computer, they do the whole lot on their mobile.  If your website isn’t mobile friendly, you can lose at least 53% of your online clients and your website needs to load in less than 3 seconds because around an additional 27% drop off if it’s too slow. Your website speed can be easily tested at http://testmysite.withgoogle.com/

6. Try and develop your entrepreneurial spirit

Look to develop other products and services.  Some restaurants I work with have:

• setup subscription boxes where they include cooking instructions or paid membership sites with videos and food deliveries
• some have developed frozen versions to be cooked at home
• a pizza takeaway has developed a separate salad takeaway business
• some have developed drop off points for their meals

I’m working with one restaurant to develop and sell aprons, baseball caps and t-shirts with their brand on. What can you do?

7. Learn from the best

Domino’s marketing is really good, they know my last order, they email me a prompt at the same day and time as my ordering time from the previous week offering me an easy click option to re-order plus they have what looks like great offers for my customer type (family with adult kids). They don’t make the best pizzas in my area, but they do a good prompt at the right time and make it very easy to order.  Other local takeaways know my details and order preferences as I’ve signed into their website giving my contact details…and yet they don’t prompt me.  I don’t even get emails or offers from most of them.  Have a look around at what others are doing and learn from the best. As a minimum you should be capturing your customer contact details and keeping in touch.

In addition, look to develop and improve your marketing in all areas not just online, the graphics, the text, the menus, what your offering, and so on.  Look for what the best organisations are doing, for example in the US and how can you adapt this to improve your marketing.

8. Go paper and contact free

Your customers are concerned about hygiene and avoiding contact, use technology to be better and cheaper. Your customers should not have to touch a pen or receipts or have their card taken away to be put in a card machine.  Everything should be contact free.  They should be able to go totally contactless using their mobile phone and their receipts should be emailed to them.

9. Look at the numbers

If you have a website, you should be getting weekly statistics including what your customers are doing and where the blockages are.  This is important information, in just 10 minutes I enabled a 100% increase in takeaway orders just by pointing out where the barriers are for customers and how to get over them.

Do a user test, find someone who’s not seen your website before, give them a task, for example buy a vegetarian or meat feast pizza for delivery, and watch how they use your site.  Do not prompt or guide them and see if you can learn from this to improve the customer journey to increase sales.

The websites analytics should also give you the keywords customers are using to find your website.  Are they looking for meals or services that you don’t currently provide, and you could? – If customers are looking for these meals you know your onto a winner.

10. Create a Wow factor

As a family of four we take turns to order one takeaway per week so we like to try different meals. In our town the pizzerias all offer the same types of pizzas, there’s virtually no difference between them and none of them have tried to educate and sell Roman, Sicilian or Detroit style pizzas.   None have talked about milling their own flour onsite or getting their flour from a local stone mill and therefore they have a low carbon footprint.  I’m not aware of any of them demonstrating their special techniques or trying to raise their personal brand.  Have a look around and see what you can use to develop a wow factor in your restaurant and takeaway.

Angela Lawrence, Associate Dean, Staffordshire Business School

There are lots of things that make me happy, but not many of them are material things. My “thing” is more profound, more enduring and gives me a far greater sense of purpose and contentment. Over the years, my thing has changed, adapted and moved in different directions, but it comes down to this – seeing things grow and develop into beautiful entities that I appreciate and am proud of yields more happiness than anything tactile you could gift to me.

So, watching my children grow into independent, hard-working adults that I am so proud of makes me happy. Seeing them enjoy the delights of parenthood themselves brings me great delight. Watching their children, my grandchildren, blossom and thrive in a world full of confusion and mixed messages, knowing that they love me unconditionally, is priceless.

Greeting students on their first day at university, nurturing them through the highs and lows of academic life, watching them mature and grow over years of study, applauding proudly at their graduation and then following the development of their careers on LinkedIn or Twitter gives me a huge sense of pride and hope for the future. Over my career, few jobs have ever made me as happy as I feel on graduation day.

I must make mention of the gift of nature and the delights of watching seedlings emerge from warm soil in the springtime, cultivating and raising those seedlings at my allotment to be strong independent plants that delight me and provide sustenance, both for my dinner table and to share with others – never forget the delights of sharing. The pleasures I gain from growing at the allotment are more profound and not only make me happy but provide head space for me to escape from the complications of modern life. I am in my absolute element when rummaging in the soil and watering my crops. Thinking time is so good and fresh air so invigorating.

I never would have thought 40 years ago that I would say studying makes me happy, but it does. Who would have known that I would still be studying? Yet here I am, halfway through my Doctorate in Education and thriving on it. Pondering why this should be so, I believe it is about being able to express myself, able to share with others what fascinates and challenges me, in the knowledge that I will bring something fresh and new to my field of study. At times I forget how much this matters to me, when deadlines are looming and time is precious, but it is always worth the effort and undoubtedly will be so when I cross that platform to receive the title of Doctor.

In all of this there is a theme of nurturing, be it people, plants, thoughts or words. Incredibly we don’t need money or objects to nurture, we just need to be ourselves and to learn to derive happiness from the small things that we can control in our lives. It’s true what they say – all the money in the world cannot buy you happiness. Find your “thing” and create your own – smile and be happy!

International Day of Happiness – March 20th