We’re achieving enduring results for our clients
Our Purpose – bringing ingenuity to life – is the lighthouse that guides our efforts to innovate towards a positive human future.
It's been central to our work with Milliken, a global industrial manufacturer, with whom our materials scientists and business strategists identified ways to reduce the environmental impact of plastics. It's also been critical to our relationship with Photobox Group, Europe's biggest digital personalised gifting business, as our digital and design experts overhauled the company's online customer experience. Purpose has further guided our work with the UK's Ministry of Defence, whom our defence and technology experts advised on the future technologies that will keep people safe, and with Airbus and partners, with whom our quantum experts designed a prototype next-generation navigation system as a failsafe to the Global Positioning System.
We've organised our 2019 annual review around four forces that came together last year to offer an unprecedented opportunity to affect positive change:
- society, with its bold new attitudes about how to pursue business growth and respect social impact
- customer, who has more buying power than ever
- people, who accept that difference is a powerful stimulus for spurring innovation
- technology, which, whether repurposed in new ways or designed from scratch, creates breakthroughs that make life materially better.
We’re different in what we do and how we do it
Our clients benefit from our diverse teams of experts. Our strategists, digital experts, consultants, designers, scientists and engineers work across a range of industries in the UK, Europe, Nordics and the USA. Because we operate as a single firm, we're able to quickly pull together the best people. The depth and breadth of our capabilities – and our people's prized skills – means we're the only firm with a unique end-to-end innovation offering. We take clients from idea to prototype, to market at pace, and achieve meaningful and enduring results.
We're trusted advisers to global leaders on the innovation strategies and technologies that will grow their business and create a better planet. We recognise these leaders want to work alongside the very best people, with the very best thinking. That's why we invest in researching and publishing on the topics that matter most to them. We've partnered with the United Nations (UN) to produce thought-leading publications on the breakthrough technologies that will accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With the UN, we've also co-authored a guide to how businesses can achieve breakthrough innovation at scale.
We’re making life at PA ever more ingenious
Beyond our client work, our Purpose shapes how we evolve our business to have ever more relevance and impact for our clients. In the past year, we've welcomed 40 new partners. We also acquired the specialist innovation consultancy 4iNNO, which delivers new product platforms to drive top-line growth for leading global brands. 4iNNO was our fourth acquisition in just two years. All told, our acquisitions further strengthen our strategy, customer insight, innovation, product and service design, engineering, and digital offerings.
As we've grown, we've made further investments in our people, through learning programmes, which enable our people to continuously upskill to meet our clients' needs, and through our focus on wellness and inclusion and diversity so that everyone feels able to bring their full selves to work.
We’re inspiring the next generation of ingenious leaders
We're proud to be inspiring the next generation of ingenious leaders and will once again hold our Raspberry Pi competition. The competition challenges schoolchildren to invent something that benefits society using engineering and coding skills. Our work experience programme, Springboard, paired young people with our consulting teams to solve real-world social challenges using new and existing technologies. And our digital experts taught young women the digital skills they need for more meaningful careers through our Women in Tech programme. Meanwhile, our internship programme at our Global Innovation and Technology Centre gave young people the chance to gain hands-on experience solving real-world challenges.
We’re bringing ingenuity to life
As rapid change continues to define our world, overcoming the inherent challenges will uncover opportunities to make a positive impact. Key to achieving this will be a strong sense of purpose in each of our organisations.
I thank all our clients who chose to work with us this year and our people for their commitment to our Purpose.