Innovation in the UK Retail Sector - Nesta

Innovation in the UK Retail Sector
Academy likely to prioritise specialised ICT or technical development in-post, nor
especially strategic leadership issues. These are important gaps, since out respondents
observed that innovation in retailing is often hindered by:
“…on occasion a lack of technical skills, but often a lack of leadership skills to drive/demand innovation
and tie everything together.”
8.30 On the ground locally, wider activity is currently taking place on the skills agenda, but
only part of this activity is relevant to innovation-specific skills. This includes the
integration of the Train to Gain skills broking service with Business Link’s Information,
Diagnosis and Brokerage (IDB) service, managed by the Regional Development
Agencies; the Qualification and Curriculum Authority’s current consultation on the
accreditation of employers’ own ‘in-house’ training; and specific work around innovation
being undertaken in the regions by the Regional Development Agencies and Higher
Education Institutions (although the relationships and clusters established here have
again been mainly in respect of the science & technology base 29 ). However, feedback
from retailers suggests a degree of dissatisfaction with the priority accorded to the sector
by Business Link amongst its many responsibilities.
8.31 Many of the kinds of specialist skills required to support retail innovation are as likely to
come from other sector skills councils as from Skillsmart. These include:
• e-skills UK (ICT and telecoms skills);
• Skills for Logistics (freight logistics and wholesaling industry);
• Skillset (broadcast, film, video, interactive media and photo imaging);
• SummitSkills (building services engineering); and
• Skillfast UK (fashion and textiles)
8.32 During 2007, the 25 Sector Skills Councils established the Alliance of Sector Skills
Councils (TASSC), whose purpose is to support the SSCs in achieving their collective
agenda, including taking greater responsibility for their own collective action and
performance. The Alliance sees the link between innovation and the expressed shortage
in technical skills as shared in common by a number of sectors and is encouraging the
SSCs, where appropriate, to work collaboratively to address these needs.
8.33 The Leitch Review of Skills made some helpful observations in this area. It noted the
increasing specialisation of skills as new ways of producing goods and services (such as ecommerce)
evolved. It pointed to retailing as being a sector where specialisation was
accelerating. For example, e-skills UK has drawn attention to the lack of e-business skills
(rather than just professional ICT skills) which are needed to address the longer term
development needs of firms. In many ways these are cross-disciplinary skills: comprising
business, creative and technical skills partially learned in: ‘business studies, commerce,
multimedia, multimedia, information systems, fine art, librarianship, journalism, film
studies, photography …’ (Expert Group on Future Skills Needs 2001). As the retail
sector grapples with a multi-channel future, innovation will increasingly be driven by a
range of overlapping skill sets. This is particularly the case given that innovation within
the service sector is as likely to span firms and whole value chains as well as channels to
market. But outsourcing the problem or relying upon the expertise within supplier
29 See for example the discussion of the creation of ‘science cities’ in RDA National Secretariat, (2006), ‘Bringing Regional Prosperity’, Regional
Insight, Sept/Oct.
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