Ask the right questions you get the right answers.
Innovation rules of uniqueness, deliverability and believability apply more than ever.
Truly unique and different ideas where a need is met, means less price sensitivity and a greater chance of leading sectors within the EU.
However, all innovation now must have global scope, especially in services.
Like anyone else, I and most of my colleagues at The Innovation People are almost beyond caring about Brexit, since much more fundamentally important issues face the world. But the reality is that whereas we have spent the last four years talking about Brexit, now for the first time, we are actually living with it and experiencing the consequences of it!
For the innovator we need to understand what we can and cannot do. For colleagues and clients based in Europe it is sort of business as usual, the pandemic notwithstanding. For us in the UK it’s new unchartered waters. We have free trade in products, but it is not straight forward. Rules of origin, compatibility with EU standards add a layer of complexity that was not there before and they open up plenty of potential traps. Innovating around new products or packaging will be problematic.
More than ever, practicalities of what is and isn’t logistically possible will come into play if a successful outcome is to be achieved. Is it cost effective to source across Europe and the UK, can one innovate for the whole continent? Utilising Asian manufacturing and technology can help deliver cost effective sourcing solutions, but does this compromise content origin? However, the key to the solution is being able to ask the right questions.
Service sector. Data for 2018 showed that service exports in the UK accounted for some 46% of overall exports. France’s services share of total exports was 34% and Germany 17% so really quite insignificant. Whereas services account for 80% of UK exports to the EU. Innovating services needs to have a global outlook and a thorough understanding of how to work through local representative offices.
Much of the service sector has until now worked under a scheme called equivalence. Much of that for the UK is represented by financial services where the problem of losing ‘passporting’ privileges as the UK moves from mutual recognition of its regulation as an EU country to equivalence status as a third country is a major issue. There is, as we know, still not sufficient clarity as to what sort of equivalence will be accorded to the UK and how exactly it will work in the future.
The opportunity, we are told, lies in the newfound freedom to access more freely and openly global markets, technology, ideas, resources, suppliers utilising them in a more competitive way. Create a real and distinct point of difference with innovative technology and trade into Europe with market sector leading sector goods and services. Easily said but difficult to do? However, go back to basics, and the rules we use at The Innovation People. The concept/ product has to have a unique point of difference to the market. It must have a really strong benefit and your target consumers have to be convinced and believe that the product or service really delivers. If by delivering market beating new products and services, where we set the market standard and market rate, the price is less sensitive. Therefore, suppliers are more able to absorb any taxes or tariffs. There is no magic formula, but we must get our heads above the parapet and start fighting back if we are to retain our leadership in the service sector.