How to drive innovation within UK businesses?

"Innovation" was repeated 8 times by Rishi Sunak in his recent speech.

A speech intended to galvanise the British public into building a better future.

Rishi placed huge emphasis on driving:
1. Innovation
2. Creative thinking
within businesses across the UK.

But he was (very) light on detail as to how to actually achieve this...

Sure, I have the benefit of working with some truly innovative companies when advising on R&D tax credits, the patent box and helping founders navigate the SEIS and EIS tax reliefs when raising finance for new exciting ventures.

These companies are typically run by creative and fearless founders. They are visionaries who can see a better future. They are the mavericks. The change-makers. They are exciting to be around!

But are these visionary Founders the outliers....?

I fear so.

For now...

The question is how we can instil the culture of risk-taking and creative expression across a broader myriad of companies?

Tax breaks like the R&D tax credit are great, but they are an AFTER the event relief i.e. you need to innovate first and then claim the relief.

We need to grapple with encouraging the upfront (often messy) work of rolling up sleeves and trying new stuff. Taking commercial and financial risk in starting new projects that 'might' just work (but being comfortable that most probably won't). This is where true innovation lies.

It will take encouragement.
It will take tolerance and acceptance of failure.
It will take a collective mind-shift.

But the results could be incredible.