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BT Innovation Strategy and Innovation Continuum
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Matt Bross |
BT?s 2005-6 Innovation Strategy focuses on enhancing the quality of those people?s lives and the success of those organisations that choose to do business with BT.
Matt Bross, BT?s Chief Technology Officer, is responsible for setting the BT innovation vision and the pan-BT Innovation Strategy, strongly believes that building a sustainable innovation continuum will return BT to the top of the global innovation league tables.
The BT Innovation Continuum represents the global reach and cycle of innovation activity that is connected to generate the best of innovation within BT. It is instrumental to driving and accelerating the BT Innovation Dividend that will provide sustainable value to both customers and shareholders. It is shaped by continuous market, customer and technology insight at each stage of the continuum that is provided by the numerous BT?s innovation partners, including:
- Customers
- Academic research partnerships with world institutions such as MIT, University of Cambridge, University College London, Stanford University and Berkeley
- Venturing partners (for example, BT is a limited partner in the independent corporate venturing partnership, NVP Brightstar, which generates value by launching key innovations as new high-technology businesses)
- Strategic business partnerships such as HP and Intel
The BT Innovation Continuum has three key areas of activity:
Discovery and Research
Three innovation ?lifeblood? generators are active in this area. Firstly, there is a global technology intelligence team which is responsible for scouting the upcoming ideas, technologies and broadband, ICT and mobility innovations across the US, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Secondly, there is a dedicated service evolution team that is responsible for developing radical and breakthrough service evolution innovations that will transform the existing and future market and feeds into BT?s overall product and service portfolio.
Finally, there is a world-class research and venturing unit that is based both at Adastral Park in the UK and in Malaysia. Underpinned by £257 million investment in research and development in the 2005 financial year, this unit consists of over 400 researchers who, in line with BT?s strategic business objectives, focus on developing incremental, platform and breakthrough innovation to BT and its customers from today looking outward to the next 25 years. Current activity has included the filing of 109 new patent applications in the last financial year and maintaining a total portfolio of 7,400 patents and applications.
Among the global innovation awards won by BT?s technology research team was the British Computing Society?s IT Developer of the Year.
| BT?s Innovation Continuum represents the global reach and cycle of innovation activity that is connected to generate the best of innovation within BT |
Validation and Articulation
There are two levels of validation within the innovation continuum.
The first level focuses on taking innovation propositions generated in the ?Discovery and Research? stages and rigorously testing and probing for improved solutions that will best meet the market and customer existing and future requirements. Within BT, this takes place in the format of innovation ?hot housing? whereby new ideas and propositions undergo an accelerated innovation opportunity screening.
If the proposition is successful, this stage is followed by the development of a realistic prototype that can be shared and evaluated by BT?s innovation partners for further improvement. The second level refers to the validation of the business case by the innovation strategy team and/or the techno-economic analysis team. Both teams work seamlessly to understand and confirm the revenue generation or cost reduction opportunity.
At this point, the innovation continuum moves in to the ?Articulation? stage. The Articulation stage refers to the development of a creative and inspirational vision of the new innovation proposition that is meaningful and visionary for employees within BT and customers and innovation partners. A dedicated innovation media, design and showcase team focus on the tailored development of communication packages and physical demonstration exhibitions that highlight the benefits of the innovation in a simple, inspiring and meaningful way for the selected target audience.
Media packages range from the latest techno-thriller series ?Invisible Intelligence? which is a futuristic drama set in 2009 demonstrating in a TV-drama style the innovations for the personal lifestyle, professional lifestyle and future state of business, to an interactive sci-fi game that allows people to explore what 21CN is and can do for them, to an edgy ?Magazine- Laboratory? innovation internet site, to a global range of interactive innovation showcases. The global innovation showcases are driven by input jointly developed by BT?s innovation collateral teams across the business and innovation partners to present the best of innovation in BT for the future.
Finally, all of the articulation activities are driven by a number of BT?s ?Innovation Ambassadors? who have been specially selected for skills and experience in building and promoting BT?s global innovation thought leadership.
Execution
This final stage of the Innovation Continuum refers to the exploitation of the innovation proposition through transformation into a product or service as an integral part of the global BT portfolio or as a specific licensing activity and the tailored marketing and operational strategy for the delivery into the appropriate channel and the measurement of success with customers.
This activity is underpinned by the support of the relevant developed architectural standards and the downstreaming of the designed infrastructure required to support a successful execution. Throughout the Innovation Continuum, there are critical activities that serve as catalysts for continuous innovation at every functional and operational level.
| all of the articulation activities are driven by a number of BT?s ?Innovation Ambassadors? |
Examples of these include the BT Innovation Awards, a highly prestigious award ceremony for the recognition of the best of innovation, the BT Innovation Strategy Summit, which the world?s best innovation thought leaders and strategists are invited to attend to discuss and develop future BT innovation strategies and finally, the range of BT Innovation Research investments that are made to support UK innovation including governmentled innovation and research activities, academic and industry institutions, global innovation architecture standards committees and educational programmes.
For any further information on the BT
Innovation Continuum and activities,
please contact:
Gemma Harman,
Director of Strategy and Media, BT
Chief Technology Office
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7356 6747
E-mail: