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Scotland-wide project launched to unlock and sustain culture of innovation in family-owned enterprises
19th April 2005, McDiarmid Park, Perth – an event today marks the launch of a Scotland-wide programme to create a self-sustaining Community of Best Practice in innovation for family-owned small to medium enterprises (SMEs).
The 18-month pilot project titled ‘Developing a Culture of Innovation in Family Owned Enterprises’, is part-funded and run by Glasgow Caledonian University’s Family Business Centre, and brings together a cross-regional representation of 12 Scottish SMEs who want to increase the level of innovation activity within their businesses.
Project funding support also comes from the Scottish Innovative Actions Programme (2004-2005), which is part-financed through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and managed by Strathclyde European Partnership (SEP) Ltd.
The project is the brainchild of Renée Reid, Director of the Caledonian Family Business Centre. Renée originally researched and designed the project in collaboration with Professor Rodney McAdam, University of Ulster1. She brought the initiative to Scotland after successfully launching the project in Ireland with 16 family-owned businesses, and believes that ‘strong working links between the Universities will help to promote a cross-national spirit of collaboration’.
The Scottish company participants span a diverse range of industry sectors and include an almost century-old ice-cream manufacturer from Mid-Lothian, a kayak paddle company set up by ex-Olympians from Ayrshire, a precision engineering firm from Clydebank, and a family-bakers from Aberdeenshire.
Renée Reid said: “It is vital that Scotland strives to engender a culture of innovation in and collaboration among family-owned businesses, develops sustainable channels for sharing of best practice, and importantly, increases knowledge transfer between business and academia.
“Working with such an exciting mix of Scottish family-owned business, we are confident that much of the creative and innovative best practice that is developed during the course of the project, can be rolled-out to deliver long term benefits to other family-owned businesses which make-up almost 70% of the SME sector in Scotland.”
Today’s launch event will outline the content and scope of the project and will be attended by representatives from across government, academia, business and industry.
Laurie Russell, Chief Executive of SEP Ltd said: ‘’The Glasgow Caledonian University project ‘Developing a Culture of Innovation in Family Owned Enterprises’ is an interesting and innovative approach to supporting businesses that could make a great economic impact.’’
Dr Ian Johnston CB DL, Principal and Vice-Chancellor at Glasgow Caledonian University said: "At Glasgow Caledonian we want to produce skills and do research that supports the Scottish economy. As a result we have adopted a 2010 vision to be entrepreneurial and innovative.
“We are delighted that the Caledonian Family Business Centre is launching their new programme focussed on developing a culture of innovation in family-owned businesses. This is totally consistent with our 2010 vision and is specifically designed to meet the needs of, and address practical issues faced by, family businesses. These businesses are essential to the Scottish economy and like all other organisations they need to innovate to prosper in today's fast changing world.”
Today’s event will also host a workshop – ‘Leading Innovation in the Family Owned Business’ – the first of five workshops to be attended by all 12 companies at different locations in Scotland throughout the duration of the project.
Each participating company will also have access to a range of events, network services and support in the months to follow including an initial company assessment across five key areas covering Leadership; People & Culture; Knowledge & Information; Total Quality/Continuous Improvement; and Product & Process.
Support will include personal mentoring by business psychologists to enhance senior level management potential. Companies will have the opportunity to visit and share experiences with other family businesses across Scotland, and also engage with previous participants from the Irish project which has been running since 2003.
Yolanda Luca, Partner at S. Luca, the Mid-Lothian based ice-cream company commented:
“We are participating in the project to understand the importance of good leadership and the issues involved in choosing and passing control to new leaders. We are very aware of the fact that most small family businesses don’t make it to third generation, so we hope to learn how to make the right decisions!”
Graeme Ross, Director of Inverurie based bakers, JG Ross Ltd said:
“Over the past three years we have made a significant investment in training and development. We have seen numerous benefits from this but in order to achieve our growth aspirations we need to take this further. We hope the programme will help us to develop a culture of innovation throughout the company whereby all our colleagues have the opportunity to contribute to growth and development for many years to come.
“Innovation and cultural changes are going to become more important for us as we expand, especially as we hope to move into a purpose built state of the art production facility during 2006.”
Notes
1 With support from EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Border Region of Ireland (European Structural Funds 2000-2004)