Crumpet and Ale

Surveying more positive news, Warburton has come up with a solution to cut waste, brewing beer from crumpet that, to quote them, “didn’t quite make the cut”.  

It is interesting to see how some of our clients instigate and encourage innovation, both within their own business operations and in order to present themselves externally in a way more aligned with market demands.

Of course, the best innovations have multiple benefits.  In this example, we can see fairly clearly the potential financial improvements from new revenues and reduced waste disposal costs and then follow though to marketing collateral from a “green” solution and increased brand awareness.  But a wider point is business energy: the positive employee impact from working on something “new”, and the brand pride from working for an organisation that is moving forward, innovating and with a positive socio-environmental impact.

Approaches to encouraging innovation within businesses range from formal R&D teams through to relying on adhoc flashes of inspiration among staff.  

In our experience, the progressive business will give its people the opportunity and support to develop new solutions, combining a willingness to listen to input from all sources with a genuine interest in developing improvement.  Typically, such forward thinking businesses reap the benefit of this approach, not only directly but also indirectly, through a more motivated workforce and improved brand recognition, often with a consequential positive impact on valuation.

Whatever the original inspiration for this particular innovation (and I suspect this one was probably genuinely “thought up over a beer or two”), getting the processes right so that initiatives such as making beer from rejected crumpet can be identified and developed into worthwhile propositions is certainly an area where forward thinking businesses can make a difference.