SAIC Comment: Finding a home for innovation

There is a common perception that innovation is a single event, a lightbulb moment in the mind of an extraordinary, highly creative individual. The truth is that innovation often is, and should be, part of the everyday fabric of life. It can occur in offices, fabrication yards, homes and farms all over Scotland whenever we imagine a new way of working, a better product or service.

But it takes hard work for repeatable, reliable innovation to be firmly embedded into the structure of how we operate – whether as individuals, as businesses, or as a nation.

This was discussed some time ago in a Harvard Business Review article on Inspiring Innovation, where interviewee Craig Wynett of Procter & Gamble said: “For innovation to be reliable, it needs to be addressed systematically, like any business issue in which you define the problem and then solve it: What do we want to accomplish, and how? What resources will we need? Who will be on the team? How do we motivate and reward them? And how will we measure success?”

These very questions are being asked in a series of conversations taking place right now among Scottish aquaculture stakeholders who are keen to commit to the future of the sector.

We know that the landscapes of both innovation and regulation are changing. So how do we make sure that in the midst of these changes, we are creating an environment where innovation can thrive?

Based on SAIC’s experience over the past 11 years, we already have some of the answers:

• Pre-competitive collaboration, finding shared solutions to shared challenges.
• Seeking input from unusual places and people, not just the “usual suspects”.
• A sufficiently resourced regulatory system that keeps pace with innovation, reflects commercial realities, and is founded on scientific fact.
• Facilitated conversations that emphasise common ground rather than reinforcing entrenched positions.
• Fostering relationships between the public and private sectors where each partner seeks to genuinely understand the other’s pressure points, and where action is valued above good intention.