A Research and Innovation opportunity for the UK. Read the papers by following the links below.

Nothing changes unless you make it change.

Well it’s a great quote, and from a probably slightly more subjectively good film. But it serves as a great intro for this piece.

Today we give some backstory to some recent work we have been doing. We are big advocates of transparency and think it really helps to understand motivations and bring people onboard for the journey.

So, with over 20 years in the innovation game, starting way back when with doctorate studies and gently working through post doc contracts, start-up companies and very large corporate environments, I would say I have seen a lot of good and bad innovation. It is a really good way to experience from all angles, including at the coal face, how innovation works. All the hardships, pain points, failures and success stories are logged in memory for the next time as lessons learnt. Its quite a privilege to be able to experience at first hand such a diverse set of roles all linked into innovation, and not to become focussed or enshrined in one aspect as people can do sometimes.

When working in innovation your perception and understanding of how that system works is very different depending on the type of organisation you work for, and the scale that you operate at. The pointy end to innovation is very much around commercial exploitation, this is the value adding part. Its easy to be disjointed and removed from this part of the innovation pipeline if you are focussed on the earlier processes. Many times, earlier in life I was trying desperately hard to be innovative, but not really getting that connection and route to commercialisation and how that is the 100% must be driver behind it. If the market doesn’t want it, it doesn’t matter how great or cool it is!

For me a true understanding of innovation was not gained until working for that large organisation where the numbers, scales and sector influence you are working with are very different. The innovation is applied and very much a real part of the commercial viability of the organisation. It’s a great influencer to be looking at a portfolio and products that are emerging from innovation, that will in the relatively near future disrupt and revolutionise huge global sectors.

Working there was the final piece of the jigsaw for me and provided a much more holistic understanding of how innovation works at scale across complete sectors, which was aided in no small part by working with some truly exception people. It became very clear how important innovation is to the resilience and prosperity, not only of individual companies, but to whole sectors in the economy.

Moving from that environment and sector to financial services (FinTech) there were some obvious differences to the means and mechanisms that were in place to enable innovation. Whatever the sector of application there needs to be a well-oiled innovation machine that supports growth, resilience and long-term prosperity. If this is not fully functioning, it can be more obvious as an outsider coming in, as opposed to someone who is a long-term resident of that world.

So, the opportunity was identified!

Now we, as a sector, just needed to get going and make some changes, because as the title says, nothing changes unless you make it change.

Data was collated and analysed. Conversations were had with those government bodies that effect innovation at scale across the UK. Ideas were generated on how things could look. Applying those years of experience would help make a positive difference and be able to build strength and resilience in FinTech and ensure it keeps growing. Initially this was aimed at the Welsh scene working with Fintech Wales to build more strategy around the potential that innovation could have here in Wales. Following this an opportunity presented itself, through good work rather than luck, to potentially impact more widely by creating a positioning paper and proposition.

We liked the way FinTech Scotland were helping Scotland to be really progressive in FinTech, so it made sense to ask if they would like to join forces on this opportunity that we had been busy setting up and positioning for. Working with Wales and Scotland and their FinTech bodies was a great way to eat the elephant one bite at a time. Assessing and theorising across Wales and Scotland was the more effective way of approaching this and would allow us to more quickly be able to make recommendations that would support FinTech across the UK.

Theorise and prove and then grow and scale, it’s a common logic to development, and one that works well when resource constrained! So, use Wales and Scotland as examples, and then expand that thinking wider to the rest of the UK. It should be a win-win situation for UK FinTech across all regions.

So, 18 months later of working for FinTech wales in the day-time and on this in evenings and weekends with colleagues from Scotland, we have finally made public the findings.

Scotland and Wales joining teams worked really well, with great complementary skill sets and experiences, making it very much a team effort, that we are all proud of. It’s a really nice way to work, with independent not for profit bodies and no one with a commercial interest. This makes a positive difference as it helps to remove political or commercial bias being injected into the work, making it quite a refreshing way to operate. Ensuring that transparency exists is something we are passionate about, driven by the fact that we are doing this because we want to make positive change, and because it’s the right thing to do. Hopefully the rest of the UK is as passionate as we are about making UK Fintech grow and prosper by enabling a well-oiled innovation machine.

Big thanks to the co-authors Nicola Anderson and Stephen Ingledew from FinTech Scotland and Johnny Mayo from FinTech Wales.

Gavin Powell is a Director at Connect & Convey, recently working at FinTech Wales, also as a Director.

hello@connectandconvey.co.uk