Engaging Market Collaborators
Tom Flaherty is a Senior Advisor to companies in the global power and utilities industry for Strategy&.
Since inception of their innovation activities, utilities have emphasized their closest knowledge sources — their employees. This reflects their focus on linking innovation to practical business application and their need to build internal innovation capability.
Pragmatically, this makes sense as companies need to create an open environment for internal engagement and collaboration. Utilities recognize that standing-up innovation capabilities requires a case for change to galvanize employees to pursue new ideas to advance the business as they envision it.
Utilities appreciate that moving from innovation stand-up to sustained collaboration cannot be resolved in the short-term and doesn’t occur by only leveraging internal experience and perspectives.
Smart utility managements realize expanding market insights requires broad collaboration to obtain relevant market experience. Established third parties provide rich experience regarding technology development and deployment, customer attitudes and preferences, and channel options and requirements.