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Innovative Actions Programe Workshops
Our Innovation in Family Owned Enterprises commenced January 2005. The programme team, led by Renee Reid, Director of the Centre, are currently working with personnel from 12 family owned businesses across Scotland who span a diverse range of industry sectors. These include an almost century-old ice-cream manufacturer from Mid-Lothian and a kayak paddle company set up by ex-Olympians from Ayrshire.
Programme activities commenced with individual company innovation audits (involving a sample of all employees) across five areas of company activity to provide a benchmark. Areas assessed included Leadership, People and Culture, Total Quality/Continuous Improvement, Product and Process and the Management of Knowledge and Information. Following the audit, the programme team have developed a range of innovative activities based on these five areas. Activities have included:
- Workshops/Masterclasses hosting family business speakers (from a similar Irish innovation project), as well as topic experts
- Mentoring and coaching from Business Psychologists
- Use of Software (ZING) to support brainstorming sessions. This software not only increased the amount of information contributed by participants during sessions but also recorded the information for later use
- Small inter-group meetings between the participant companies.
- Visits to external best practice companies.