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Developing a Culture of Innovation in Family Owned Enterprises
12 family businesses from across Scotland have been recruited as pilot-group participants to represent a cross-section of regions and industry sectors in the project.
They have in common the desire to increase creative family leadership and build up the level of innovation activity within their businesses.
The key aim of the project is to create a self-sustaining Community of Best Practice (COBP) for family owned SMEs, themed around best practice and creative leadership utilising innovative methodologies.
The primary objectives of the initiative are to:
- Provide the structure for intervention centred on ‘creative family leadership’ to increase participation in innovative activity by family owned SMEs in Scotland and the rest of the EU.
- Assess the current status of innovation in participant SMEs using an audit tool.
- Create a network linked to the Caledonian Family Business Centre of innovative family owned companies to ensure continued innovation activity in the long term.
- Ensure that the structures and processes (i.e. a working group of owners) are in place to support this innovative network.
- Encourage participant investment in R&D activity for the medium term through joint actions e.g. Knowledge Transfer Activity.
- Analyse and prioritise opportunities for improving innovation in participant companies via existing support agencies.
- Encourage the development of collaborative projects between family-owned SME programme participants.
- Identify barriers (and provide solutions) which may exist in family owned enterprises that may be hampering innovative activity.
At the end of the project in June 2006, the Caledonian Family Business Centre and various government agencies will continue to have links with the original pilot group companies in an effort to sustain and build the Community of Best Practice. It is anticipated the companies will play an invaluable role as:
- Ambassadors in demonstrating innovative activity to other family-owned businesses.
- Role models to encourage the adoption of Knowledge Transfer Activity between business and academia.
Caledonian Family Business Centre is keen to allow all SMEs in Scotland to gain from this pilot project so if you are interested in receiving (free of charge) information regarding the programme activities please send an email to: info@familybusinesscentre.com or r.reid@gcal.ac.uk.