Services

Innovation Management

Innovation is manageable and can become any organisation’s driving force. From innovation strategy to agility, processes or culture, it can all be measured and improved, essentially towards attaining growth by innovation.

With the aim of increasing the performance of a company in terms of innovation management, certain steps will be taken:

• Innovation Strategy – creation and set into implementation
• Organisational Culture – adaptation and upgrade by means of practical tools
• Innovation Life Cycle – structured and empowered in order to bring innovation to the market
• Enabling Factors for Innovation within the company – such as IPR, project management or IT – designed to deliver the expected and measurable results of the overall innovation management

The consulting approach is meant to bring the company from the current innovation management performance towards significantly improved process parameters and innovation key performance indicators. These imply, for example, increased income from sales from new products and services, cost reduction or extended operational profit from innovation.

Proposal Writing

The European Commission provides direct funding for pioneer companies, via highly competitive R&D support programmes such as the European Innovation Council or Horizon Europe. Even if it is an outstanding challenge to win such a proposal, it is doable and definitely worth the effort, as it places the company from the get-go on a global track.

The building up of a winning proposal is a complex and thorough endeavour, encompassing:

• complete overview of the research and development dimension
• team’s background and experience
• business case and scaleup scenario
• budget and financial forecasts.

During the entire time dedicated to the preparation of the application, on an average between 8-10 weeks, the consultant works closely with the company / university / organisation and, based on data and structured discussions, elaborates the contents of a successful application.

Alongside access to funding, such an opportunity provides access to new markets within the EU and globally, access to networks, ecosystems and investors, extensive media coverage and promotion. Moreover, it provides a solid ground for the scaling up of disruptive or breakthrough innovation.

Investment Readiness

There is a difference between having a great product or service and being investment-ready. Any company is compelled to understand which is the right type of financing it needs throughout its growth journey, as well as how to be attractive for investors.

Within an fast-paced global scene of financial intermediaries, ranging from private equity, business angels, venture capital or crowdfunding, founders and managers ought to be supported in:

• developing the financing strategy
• deciding on the right mix and intensity of investments
• preparing for the valuation
• delivering a compelling pitch deck
• selecting the optimal investors
• ramping up for the due diligence process
• negotiating the terms and deploying the investment.

The advisory approach addresses all the above stages, up to the actual landing of the investment, as well as its follow-on.

Customised Consulting

The future of a company is made at its crossroads, hence business decisions need to be backed by a strong mix of experience, strategy, knowledge and vision. Be it the case of startups or scaleups, consulting brings depth, clarity, structure and a safe landing into the next stage of a company’s lifespan.

Business consulting, as a fully-fledged practice, is increasingly becoming worldwide a crucial element for business success. As an external peer, the consultant’s approach is to work, in a unique and customised way, with each company’s managers and teams. The consulting process encompasses:

• needs assessment and diagnosis
• strategy development
• ideation and projects
• informed and structured business growth or scaleup decisions
• follow-on consulting in terms of accessing new markets and business alliances, development of R&D projects or acquiring of advanced competencies.

Our aim is to help you successfully cross the junction, while having set into place sound change management and internal agility, which will allow it to navigate and perform, through either auspicious or uncertain times.

From Strategy to Portfolio

In order for the public administrations to seize the momentum for providing the fruitful context for the evolution of communities and ecosystems, through innovation, digitalisation and sustainability, they need to properly design and align the Strategy of the city or county with the Portfolio of Projects, and then with the right funding programs.

The consulting provided for the public bodies aims to provide for an overall clear and sound intervention logic that will create authentic impact on communities and ecosystems:

• design of the strategy, based on in-depth analysis of the current situation, extensive consultations within the organisation’s team, as well as with the city hall’s / county council’s partners and stakeholders
• scenario building and ideation
• elaboration of concept notes per each project
• benchmarking with EU and international good practices
• partnership building and project management
• definition of KPIs and measurement tools
• alignment with the priorities of funding programs.

The public administrations will be able to take onboard the advanced opportunities provided by complex, deep and knowledge-based ecosystem development projects. Furthermore, they will own the tools to implement the right investments, under the umbrella of state-of-the-art strategies.

Developing Initiatives

Everyday people and their organisations, either private or public, devise initiatives for tackling a social issue, exploiting a business opportunity or improving a work process, most of the time in complex situations. Positive interaction between the parties involved begins when they understand each other’s logic. This is when new solutions are found.

The consulting approach is meant for employees of large and small organizations in the business community and in the public sector, project managers and project staff, internal and external advisors and team leaders, for programme managers and active citizens. In short, for anyone who wants to test, elaborate and realize an initiative that in his or her eyes is of value. The impact that we provide lies on:

• creative dialogue instead of exhaustive discussion 
• clear choices instead of feeble compromises  
• more team-thinking and fewer objections  
• swift progress without repeating moves. 

By the time we turned complexity into a fully-fledged initiative, we would have reached the following key milestones:

• mapping out of the links between the problems with the parties involved so that they understand each others situation
• formulating a shared vision of the future and composing the initiative in such a way that it is worth the effort for everyone
• giving tangible shape to the initiative and using the restraints of those involved to strengthen the initiative.

Technology Transfer

Technology Transfer implies the process of transforming Research & Development results into marketable products and services. Implementing this service requires collaboration between research organisations and industry stakeholders, licensing of intellectual property rights, launch of start-up businesses or university spin-out companies.

We support innovation stemming from companies and academia, throughout the entire value chain, linking research to commercial and societal deployment, by means of:

• technology scouting, trend analysis, as well as technology and market assessment
• IP – intellectual property protection, management and promotion
• product development
• marketing and commercialisation and more.

Novel scientific discoveries, even breakthrough ones, are extremely vulnerable in their inception phase. This is mainly due to insufficient IP protection, difficulty to access state-of-the-art testing and certification laboratories, or modest capabilities of small scale production. Nevertheless, accompanied by TT consulting services, innovation can reach its potential and become attractive to industry and investors.