‘Innovation in Finance & Law’ workshop co-hosted by The Future Economy Network & Foot Anstey and sponsored by Strategic Innovation
On Tuesday 22nd January 2019, The Future Economy Network hosted an event about innovation entitled ‘Innovation in Finance & Law’. The event took place at the Foot Anstey’s, Enable Law offices in Bristol.
We started off the morning with the usual coffee & pastries to fuel us up for the innovation workshop! Paul Frobisher, Director at Strategic Innovation kicked off the session by talking us through the typical innovation models and how some can be potentially misleading – tending to focus on idea creation and management - innovation as a project. Paul presented their ‘Innovation Process Model’. He explained how inputs, controls and mechanisms are all required to generate the innovation output. Innovation is about the whole company, including finance and law – not just the few involved in ideation / implementation. It even includes the customer. It is about intangible and tangible impact, the organisations “ding in the universe” – its footprint, as well as the bottom line. Innovation is almost synonymous with strategy.
Part 2 of the workshop entailed learning the dynamics of innovation, and how to manage the challenges and contradictions that occur when implementing an innovation strategy. He then highlighted the 40 Inventive Principles and gave a few examples such as: Take Out, Merge & The Other Way Around.
We also learned about the difference between the tangible and intangible factors that influence us all in purchasing decisions of products or services. It is the intangible, emotional world that influences us the most, illustrated by the personal story of Russel the Rabbit!
Next up was Tara Walsh, from network subscribers, Foot Anstey. Tara presented a case study about their ‘Innovation Strategy’, she highlighted the differences between ‘playing to win’ and ‘playing not to lose’ in creating a balanced portfolio of innovation. She spoke about the challenges they have faced whilst implementing their innovation strategy and the importance of creating a culture of innovation within the firm. She presented the innovation model they use now and explained some of the benefits to clients, in working collaboratively to develop solutions that add value (and revenue), in addition to legal advice. Paul & Tara then discussed the model together, with interaction and input from the audience.
We then handed over to James Berry, Bristol Credit Union (BCU), who presented a case study about warming homes and reducing carbon footprints in the private-rented sector. He presented the problem that 24% of Bristol’s homes are in the private rented sector – over 46,000 properties - and 28% of homes have energy efficiency < band C. James then talked us through some of the trial & errors they have faced such as; in April 2018 you couldn’t rent a property with an EPC of less than E, however EPC band E is still pretty poor for a city looking for carbon neutrality! We then heard BCU ideas moving forward, one of which is, we must push for an EPC C+ standard. The idea concept is to use carbon offset mechanisms to fund interest free loans to landlords to invest in property efficiency improvements.
James case study lead to a discussion chaired by Paul, which got the audience very engaged, asking lots of questions & even proposing new ideas for Bristol Credit Union.
There was a general feeling that Bristol needs to do something about this. It is a complex problem, and maybe the FEN could help to find solutions.
We would like to offer sincere thanks to all of our speakers and to Network subscribers, Foot Anstey for hosting and Strategic Innovation for proposing the workshop in the first place! Also, a big thanks to all of the attendees – we hope you found the workshop insightful & will be able to use the innovation models in your own organisations.
The Future Economy Network look forward to seeing you at another event soon!