Put Innovation At The Heart of Your Company … Strive For A Vision … and Collaborate With Those Who…

Put Innovation At The Heart of Your Company … Strive For A Vision … and Collaborate With Those Who Share Your Vision

We live in a world which is increasingly dominated by large companies, and these companies can create virtual monopolies. They can then undercut small companies and win business which can effectively continue their dominance. But, as these companies become larger, they often struggle to innovate, spot opportunities, and take risks. They care little for the ideas generated by individuals, and try and formalise the approaches to R&D. It is this gapp that allows small company to beat large companies. It is requires three magic ingredients: vision, collaboration and innovation.

Large companies often lack vision, as they often just aim to sustain the status quo, and their own standing. People matter less than the processes within the company. These companies often struggle to sustain and gather strong partnerships where there is true knowledge exchange. These partnerships must share the same vision, and know the long-term route to the solution, and what it will take to get there.

A large company will often try to grow expertise inside the company, and where vision can be lost along the way. But, at the core of success is to innovation … to not do things in the usual way. Large companies often create solution which fit them, and which minimises effort and maximises the rewards, but this solution can age and fossilize, and it needs new blood to come along and disrupt.

And so we have been luckily to collaborate with some great small companies who have managed to succeed against companies with vastly more resources. One of our proudest collaborations, and the one that possibly has the greatest impact, is with Bright Red Publishing, and who are celebrating their 10th birthday:

Over their short existence, they have stuck to their vision, and worked with others to create the learning environment and which supports schools and pupils best. So with in just 10 years, they have:

• Sold one million books.
• Over 100,000 registered users on Digital Zone.
• Over 2.5 million test questions taken on Digital Zone.

Not bad when you consider the dynamics of the publishing industry, and where their competitors have virtually no meaningful on-line presence for pupils to learn on. And so they have continued to innovate with new test question generators and in parsing answers, and automated marking (through a Scottish Enterprise grant).

But most importantly helping a whole lot of kids achieve their dream and their full potential.

Innovation beats in the heart of every employee:

Education can truly change our world for the better. Never stop learning!