On the road to innovation

Cambridge Consultants, a leading product design and development company, is now taking registrations for its 'Innovation Insights' road show, a series of free events around the UK designed to demonstrate how companies can buck the trend in a recession and translate innovation into profit. In the current economic climate, the temptation for business leaders is to reduce investment in 'risky' R&D activity and to seek to conserve cash. However, Cambridge Consultants' experience suggests that R&D expenditure is not discretionary, and that cutting it in a downturn is a sure fire way for a company to lose market share to its more innovative, more long-sighted competitors. Smart businesses are viewing the current downturn as an opportunity for growth, optimising their operations and investing in innovative new product development. By doing so, they will emerge more competitive, more profitable, and with greater market share. Translating innovation into profit is the theme of Cambridge Consultants' three 'Innovation Insight' events. Featuring a range of seminars, hands-on technology demonstrations and one-to-one consultation sessions, the events are designed to enable companies to share best practice in technology development and innovation, and to benefit from Cambridge Consultants' experience of developing innovative products for the medical technology, wireless, consumer, security, transport and cleantech industries. Outlining the importance of the events, Eric Wilkinson, Head of Product Development at Cambridge Consultants, said: "As marketing and development budgets are tightened, many businesses are struggling to find ways of differentiating themselves from their competitors, and therefore risk losing market share. Our experience, based on nearly 50 years of developing breakthrough products for a wide range of businesses from start ups to blue chip multinationals, tells us that the most effective way to protect and grow both market share and profitability is to innovate, and then get to market fast. We're seeing the boldest companies doing this now. The intention behind these events is to share our experience of this more widely, and to help UK plc maintain its vitality in the face of global competition." The three 'Innovation Insights' events will be held in London on 2 June, Newbury on 9 June and Manchester on 16 June. For more information and for bookings, see website below