Everyday innovation report - Nesta

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34. Rickards, T. and de Cock,
C. (2003) Understanding
organizational creativity:
toward a multiparadigmatic
approach. In Runco, M.A.
(Ed.) ‘Creativity Research
Handbook.’ Vol. 2. Cresskill,
NJ: Hampton Press.
Social networking at Virgin Atlantic
Established in 1984 with one just plane,
Virgin Atlantic Airways is now Britain’s
second largest airline and the third largest
airline to carry across the North Atlantic.
Headquartered in Crawley near Gatwick
Airport, south of London, it has offices in
the USA, Caribbean, South Africa, Hong
Kong, Tokyo, Shanghai, Delhi, and Lagos.
Virgin Atlantic has enjoyed huge popularity,
winning a huge array of awards from around
the world, including Best International
Airline and Best Scheduled Airline to the
USA, and most recently, recognition for
its new Upper Class Suite and Heathrow
Clubhouse.
The airline industry was significantly
affected by the tragic events of September
11 2001, which led to an immediate
significant reduction in passenger demand
and the bankruptcy of a number of airlines.
With recent challenges associated with the
recession, it is clear that in order to compete
and survive in this challenging environment,
it is crucial for airline companies to adapt
and evolve.
of organisations making use of this resource.
Nonetheless, when designed appropriately, the
research evidence is encouraging for purposebuilt
innovation labs. Indeed, most of the
stakeholders interviewed described the need
for an appropriate physical environment and
facilities that are more conducive to innovative
working. Kevin Waudby, Head of Innovation
at Cancer Research, explains how his company
is about to address this when they relocate to
a new office next year: “In a bid to innovate
more the company has decided to invest in the
concept of ‘water cooler movements’, where
employees relinquish their own desk space,
allowing them to sit somewhere different
everyday”. Participants in our interviews
provided many examples of initiatives that
work to promote innovative working in their
organisation, such as job rotation or job
secondments, or the dedication of resources in
the shape of a team or a person whose sole role
is to improve innovation within the company.
In terms of methodologies for innovative
working, brainstorming is reported as the
In a bid to pioneer a range of innovations
for setting new standards of service Virgin
Atlantic recently launched V-JAM in
November 2008.
V-JAM is a day-long workshop, which
brought together a diverse group of staff,
customers, suppliers, partners, developers,
and social media experts. The idea was to
connect people and bring together groups
with shared interests to share insights and
brainstorm new ideas for improving the
travel experience. The agenda for the day
was to explore the future of air travel and
in particular the role that social media can
play.
Lots of good discussions took place on
sustainability, enabling travellers to be more
productive in the air, family friendly flights,
and how to make more of traveller data.
The participants were left with an open
invitation to send Virgin their proposals and
Virgin Atlantic is planning to take up to six
projects forward.
most common method used today to foster
idea generation, being cited by 45 per cent
of our survey respondents. Perceptions of its
effectiveness are high, with a large proportion
of respondents to the survey identifying it
as one of three most effective methods for
enhancing innovation (see Table 5). However,
the research evidence rarely supports the
view that brainstorming is a highly effective
methodology to promote innovative working. 34
As highlighted in our interviews, the success
of such methodologies is highly dependent on
the existing culture of the organisation and the
linkages with other organisational initiatives.
In overview, our results confirm that innovative
working manifests itself through a variety of
practices and a range of indicators have been
used in the past to measure innovative working
within organisations. In our survey we asked
about the levels of resources allocated to
innovation (considered to be an indicator of
the level of effort employed), and measures of
achievements (i.e. extent of idea generation
for new or improved goods, services, processes