Everyday innovation report - Nesta
Everyday innovation report - Nesta
Everyday innovation report - Nesta
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<strong>innovation</strong>. Our results suggest that in the<br />
public sector the prevalence of a risk-adverse<br />
attitude in particular often inhibits civil<br />
servants from innovating. Our interviewees<br />
<strong>report</strong>ed that national performance measures,<br />
budgets, and targets often leave little room for<br />
<strong>innovation</strong> in the public sector. “The specificity<br />
of outcome measures” for example is identified<br />
as a barrier to <strong>innovation</strong> in universities by<br />
Peter Spurgeon, Professor of Health Services<br />
Management, Warwick University.<br />
A lack of appropriate and sufficient incentives<br />
to innovate was <strong>report</strong>ed as a barrier in many<br />
large organisations, especially in the public<br />
sector. “Paper chasing in the public sector<br />
undermines judgements and weakens the<br />
decision-making process. The controversial<br />
case of Baby P is an extreme case in point<br />
of what happens when a decision-making<br />
process becomes weakened over time. Public<br />
servants are often over-concerned about<br />
the consequences of failure: negative media<br />
Developing innovative working at UBS Poland Service Centre<br />
Headquartered in Zurich and Basel, UBS is<br />
one of the world’s leading financial firms,<br />
serving an international client base with its<br />
wealth management, investment banking<br />
and asset management businesses. In a bid<br />
to expand its business process off-shoring<br />
capacity in Central Europe, UBS decided<br />
to set up a new service centre in Krakow<br />
in 2007. UBS Poland Service Centre is<br />
responsible for providing the corporation’s<br />
organisational units with services including<br />
analysis, transaction, data processing, and<br />
IT.<br />
Derek Smith, Executive Director of UBS<br />
Poland Service Centre takes <strong>innovation</strong><br />
very seriously. The concept of the company<br />
is very simple: to embed <strong>innovation</strong> in<br />
the culture and to attract, build, and<br />
support a pool of excellent and motivated<br />
employees for <strong>innovation</strong>. The main drivers<br />
of <strong>innovation</strong> within the company are<br />
leadership, the culture of the organisation,<br />
and the performance management systems.<br />
A wide range of initiatives are in place<br />
to support <strong>innovation</strong>. “We need the<br />
resources, as well as the enthusiasm”, Derek<br />
Smith comments. The firm’s 3-day induction<br />
programme emphasises the importance<br />
of <strong>innovation</strong> as a company value and the<br />
fact that making mistakes is not a problem<br />
as long as certain rules are respected. Line<br />
managers attend a half-day workshop which<br />
provides them with the specific skills related<br />
to managing <strong>innovation</strong>. The performance<br />
of all employees is actively managed<br />
through regular meetings with the CEO,<br />
opportunities to discuss development needs<br />
and goals, and evaluation of on the job and<br />
off-the-job training. Performance-pay is<br />
also tied in with <strong>innovation</strong>. The company<br />
has invested in a quality team responsible<br />
for working on <strong>innovation</strong> processes and<br />
there is one full-time employee whose role<br />
is to foster <strong>innovation</strong> (in an office with<br />
100 employees). Employees are given the<br />
chance to drive their own development, and<br />
they are trained in the process improvement<br />
methodology Six Sigma. All staff are also<br />
given the opportunity to run several internal<br />
initiatives, such as the social or sports clubs.<br />
The company emphasises that team sports<br />
are valued over individuals sports, and<br />
within this framework, employees are given<br />
the opportunity to run their own social or<br />
sport club.<br />
Quick win initiatives to enhance <strong>innovation</strong><br />
are also in place. One example is the<br />
creation of the ‘I Think Programme’<br />
which involved sending all employees an<br />
intellectually challenging puzzle every<br />
Friday for eight weeks. Employees who<br />
successfully completed the challenge<br />
received small monetary rewards and prizes.<br />
During the Go Green campaign, employees<br />
were given the opportunity to come up with<br />
Green ideas that could be applied either in<br />
the office or outside the office. Employees<br />
who came up with valid ideas were given<br />
small prizes.<br />
Derek Smith comments: “In order to<br />
innovate organisations need to allocate<br />
the right resources. Making the right<br />
choices when deciding where to allocate<br />
the resources can be especially hard in<br />
difficult financial times, but there is no<br />
doubt that now more than ever is the time<br />
to innovate”.<br />
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