Stefan Stern looks at the work of one consultancy with a strong tradition of technology prowess
Consultancies like to talk about solving their clients’ problems. Sometimes they may actually do this. Rarer still are the occasions when a consultancy helps the client to develop a new product line or fundamentally different way of doing things.
Everyone wants to see more innovation. But when all is said and done, more is said than done.
The bright ideas and “Eureka” moments that may spring up in dark corners of the organisation might never make it to the market in a commercially viable form. The thinking may be good, but the execution is lacking.
Clients realise they need to innovate effectively as a matter of urgency. As Martin Smith, head of technology at PA Consulting, says: “When resources are limited it focuses minds.” PA is entitled to speak with some confidence on this subject as, uniquely among consulting firms, it has a 35-year tradition of working closely with clients via its technology centres, near Cambridge in the UK and in Princeton, New Jersey in the US.
The centres concentrate on hard scientific research and fast-prototyping. They work with several big industrial sectors: pharmaceuticals, for example, developing new delivery systems for drugs: transport, on high-tech timetabling and passenger information systems: and, among others, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. PA helped rush the John Smith “widget” – which uses a tiny gas explosion to create a fuller-bodied beer – to market in a matter of months after rivals Guinness had stolen a march.
“There are broadly two different kinds of companies who work with us,” Mr Smith says. “We might see a start-up with funding in place that needs the back-up of a ‘virtual organisation’, which we can provide. Or it could be a big corporation, looking for a breakthrough development to come from outside. If you are just talking about extending an existing product line that is not really innovation,” he adds. The people who are still embedded at the business “know too much” about their world to innovate in a new direction.
Three of PA’s recent clients testify to the useful contribution the firm made in their attempts to innovate. Rotork Controls, which makes valve actuators that control the flow of liquids and gases in pipelines, wanted to develop a more creative approach among its engineers, boosting its ability to innovate and develop new products.
“PA’s guys were credible in front of our engineers,” says Graham Ogden, Rotork’s research and development director.
“They seemed to ‘walk the talk’ – they hadn’t just read a book on innovation. What they were saying came from the heart.”
PA ran training sessions in techniques such as brainstorming, ideas clustering, mind mapping, quality function deployment (QFD) and scenario development. These were followed by a series of ideas workshops, which helped Rotork develop hundreds of ideas for new products and services.
Terex, the construction equipment manufacturer, faced a slightly different challenge. As Paul Douglas, its director of product management, explains, new thinking was required to reduce the manufacturing costs of some of its biggest trucks. But 80 per cent of the costs were fixed, and “you can’t re-engineer to get cost down”.
His engineers – “hard people to impress” – took part in cost management workshops that got them to think differently about their processes. This approach worked, Mr Douglas feels, because the consultants had a solid background in industry – they weren’t just “degree, MBA, consulting” people, he says.
“We came up with a list of short, medium and longer term potential savings, of which 60 per cent came from these workshops. Overall we generated 750 cost-saving ideas. We targeted the 110 short-term and 230 medium-term ideas to give us some rapid cost-reduction at low risk and without any impact on quality.”
So much for heavy industry. At the other end of the scale: imagine a thermometer that is accurate to 0.001 deg C being inserted into the aorta (the main artery from the heart) to pick up early signs of the inflammation that could be the precursor to a heart attack. This is the product, made by Thermocore Medical, which PA has helped bring to the market.
According to John Yianni, company founder, PA managed the co-ordination of a range of manufacturers, designers and suppliers across Europe (and the US) – which involved leading a roomful of 35 people. It also led the development of the main component, a catheter that is highly innovative. For one thing, it is smaller than previous versions of the device. Secondly, it is easier and quicker to use, thanks to its improved technology.
PA produced prototypes throughout the project, to make sure all parties understood how much progress had been made and where they were all heading.
“It was no easy task co-ordinating all the different players,” Dr Yianni says. The patients’ heart attacks were not the only ones that were avoided.
