Capturing innovation…

Howard Wright, Post&Parcel’s technology guru, on the importance of innovation. I was speaking at a venture capital conference last week in Ireland, and apart from being blown away by the enthusiasm and support for new ideas, there seemed to be a disconnect between this entrepreneurial spirit and postal sector.  There were over 300 entrepreneurs at the conference with some great ideas many with relevance to the industry.

The ideas ranged from locational services, through sensors and tags to finance and business models. One of the big challenges these entrepreneurs had, was not raising money, but getting interest and support from large corporates that would give them credibility and a testing ground for their concepts. Having a great idea and the funding to turn it into a prototype/pilot is seemingly not enough.

In years gone by, many organisations had an R&D department or at least someone who actively sought out the sometimes wild and wacky – sadly these days are gone. So this begs the question “how is the industry going to innovate if it is disconnected from the cutting edge?”. I am sure the response would be “that the industry isn’t set up to deal with the potential disruption that these entrepreneurs would bring”, however I would argue that this is exactly what the industry needs.

For too long it has relied on ideas from within the industry itself which has led to a period of idea stagnation – nothing really new coming through the pipeline. Ok there has been some initiatives which have thrown up some interesting ideas, but most have been incremental and there has nothing that is going to change the industry. If we look back, the postal and logistics industries were hotbeds of innovation – and today they are becoming, or have become, dinosaurs of efficiency which are being out-evolved by the mammals of the online world.

So I put forward a challenge to find the postal entrepreneurs of the future – those people with the foresight and vision to drive the industry forward. These will typically not be people from within the industry, which is where the awards etc. are focused today, but the students, the academics, and the true entrepreneurs, who are looking for the next challenge. Let’s rebuild that innovative culture, the curiosity to find the new and interesting and save the industry from extinction!