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As part of Ofwat’s bid to drive innovation in the water sector the regulator has been looking to other industries and large organisations to explore what helps create a culture of innovation.
In its latest instalment of its digital campaign Spark! water companies can take inspiration from the likes of Microsoft and BT.
Ofwat said there is “a greater need to innovate more in a changing world” and is urging the water sector to “fully embrace” innovation and the opportunities it brings.
Michael Wignall, chief technology officer at Microsoft explained innovation is about having the right purpose and the right culture.
He said: “Purpose and culture together drive the right outcome for innovation because there is always going to be new technology changes, new global economic changes, changes in the political environment and changes in the macro-economic environment.
“You can’t always future-proof yourself against those changes but if you’ve got the right mission, purpose and culture then you can be pretty confident about getting the right outcome.”
Sophie McPhillips, alliance innovation manager at Tideway, the infrastructure company building a new super sewer beneath London, said workers need to be given the “space and time” to think differently.
She said: “Culture is all about the people. You can’t have innovation and create a culture of innovation without supporting the people doing it. That starts with leadership, really strong vocal leadership from CEOs to project directors. It’s about sending the message out that innovation is important to them.”
She added: “Part of the culture is sharing knowledge and recognising the small things as well as the big. When you start to recognise the small parts and share it across the sites then people start to think of the big stuff and tackle the big challenges.”
Energy retail service Flipper, which switches customers to the best deal, echoes the view staff need to be allowed time to come up with new ideas.
Charley Maher, director at Flipper and managing director of water2business, said: “It’s really easy for a business or regulator to say we need to innovate more. You can give that message but you have to provide the means to innovate, allow people the time, create the space and create the right environment.
“It’s only if you do those things that you can evidence you are really serious about innovation.”
Participants in Ofwat’s video also warned about accepting innovation can sometimes lead to failure although they stressed the importance of learning from mistakes.
Sandeep Raithatha, head of innovation central at BT, said: “Executives all through the organisation understand the importance of innovation and really help challenge their teams and business to think differently and make sure that when they are making key decisions they are the right decisions, because that can create new products and services to set as apart from our competitors.
“But there has to be a willingness to accept with innovation there is always going to be some failure, you’re never going to have a 100 per cent success rate. Be ready to fail and learn from those lessons.”
Ofwat’s digital innovation campaign went live on YouTube on 6 February. It features a series of videos over a four-week period with each week focusing on a theme around innovation. Innovation is one of the main themes of the forthcoming 2019 price review, PR19.
Watch the latest Spark! video here.
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