Coming up with innovative product ideas that differentiate your business from competitors isn’t easy. By collaborating with other innovative companies, maybe in your supply chain or locality, not only can you share ideas and even the cost, the collaborative process often equips your staff with new ways of working and new networks of contacts to access.
InterTradeIreland can help you find partners throughout the island of Ireland. We can offer you unique access to an all-island collaboration platform called Innovation Engineering Labs and through our All-island innovation Programme, we’ll be holding masterclasses on 11th October in University College Cork and on 22nd October in Queens University, Belfast to help you make best use of the platform and start looking for innovation partners. For more information please email karen.mccallion@intertradeireland.com
Getting your suppliers, customer and staff involved early in the innovation process widens your net for capturing insightful feedback, potentially reducing your risk of being blindsided by developments by your competitors. And testing your innovations early with trusted partners outside of the firm, often reduces the number of iterations required, shortening your time to market.
If you’re looking for a globally validated innovation process to follow, consider InterTradeIreland’s Challenge programme. It follow’s Doug Hall’s Innovation Engineering methodology and helps your business develop a process for innovation. Most companies have processes for Finance, HR and Sales, having a process for Innovation, a function that has the potential to dramatically increase your profit margins and market share, deserves a process too.
When you’re busy focussing on your own industry, it’s easy to miss opportunities that could lead your business to new and lucrative markets. By joining forces with a partner outside of your industry, such as a University or even from a completely different sector with skills complementary to your business, opens possibilities for creating innovative products that attract new markets. Diversity of thought is key.
InterTradeIreland can support you in this through our FUSION programme. A knowledge transfer partnership where we work with you to find and fund a high calibre science, engineering or technology graduate and partner you with a third level institution with specific expertise.