Innovation in the UK Retail Sector - Nesta

Innovation in the UK Retail Sector
companies – as some firms have done – simply transfers the problem (and in some cases
the innovation potential) to those firms.
8.34 It is difficult if not impossible to train to deliver an innovation culture, but it is possible
to train for management of the innovation process, or for the management of
organizational change. Project management skills (required to implement innovative ideas
within the sector) also appear sought after. In relation to strategic leadership skills, the
Leitch Review suggested that the “highest level of skills drive and facilitate innovation, leadership
and management” and urged Government to provide employers with clearer incentives and
mechanisms to engage and invest in Higher Education, through lifelong learning.
Reinforcing this, the Lambert Review of the UK’s HE system stressed the need to ensure
that courses put on by Universities in particular areas were relevant to the needs of
business.
8.35 Finally, for retail SMEs, attitudes towards innovation and preferences for exposure to
innovation-related skills development may be rather different from those of larger firms.
For example, the general reluctance to engage in formal ‘training’ has been noted by a
number of commentators and forms of peer-to-peer mentoring appear to offer better
results, but good practice is isolated 30 . Different kinds of innovation may also be
important to smaller firms to allow them to think differently about their businesses – for
example, new approaches to product buying and presentation can provide for a
distinctive form of innovation.
8.36 Support for innovation by retail SMEs has tended to be provided at a regional or local
level. The RDAs have conventionally been seen as the home for such involvement and
investment, alongside work by Business Link and Job Centres Plus. Skillsmart Retail has
also identified the importance of local context in assisting retail SMEs. The council’s
‘location model’, developed by its in-house research team, has proved a useful vehicle for
focusing awareness relation to skills and personal development at the local level when it
has been conducted. For example, following a mystery shopper exercise and local market
review in Colchester, 35 independent retail businesses attended a discussion of
opportunities to improve their performance. A significant proportion of these firms
subsequently engaged in training initiatives. Skillsmart Retail’s ‘Location Wise’ and ‘Skill
Shops’ initiatives – outlined in its most recent Sector Skills Agreement report – seeks to
consolidate the learning from the location model as a mechanism for providing “practical
advice and best practice for those wishing to design interventions that are relevant for
their locations” (Skillsmart Retail, 2007b).
8.37 The skills council’s proposed Coaches and Mentors 4 Retail scheme seeks to build upon the
preference for mentoring amongst SMEs by coaching smaller retailers in “bite-size
chunks to match the phasing of the retail year”. This complements its online RetailDetail
toolkit, launched in 2005 31 . However, replicating skills support and mentoring activity at
the local level nationwide presents a number of resourcing challenges and it would seem
sensible for a further degree of integration and collaboration between providers to be
encouraged, to improve the clarity and accessibility of support on the ground. Moves in
this direction would also be consistent with the principles of BERR’s Business Support
Simplification Programme.
30 See for example http://www.dormen.org.uk/main.asp and Kent, T., C. Dennis, and S. Tanton, (2003), ‘An evaluation of mentoring for SME
retailers’, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, p. 440.
31 http://www.skillsmartretail.com/retaildetail/features.htm
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