Keeping Innovation Alive

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 | Posted by: Grant Thornton

As President of Boeing UK, Sir Roger Bone is responsible for advising the main board on political and economic developments in the
UK, and also oversees Boeing’s UK outreach and philanthropic activities

“The excitement about innovation is the uncertainty and that’s why you’ve got to be brave….open minded….courageous and just go for it”

Here in an edited transcript of the interview, Sir Roger outlines Boeing’s approach to innovation, and he emphasises why he believes the United Kingdom is a formidably innovative nation.

Speaking of Boeing, Sir Roger remarked: “We depend on partners overseas to a very large extent, we are a huge globalised company, and we have an enormous global reach, in the sense that our marketing strategy obviously is global. We depend on our antenna being extended all over the world to pick up innovative ideas, to gain from the richness of what we discover overseas.”

“Over the last decade we have become much more globalised. We are dependent on a significant degree of outsourcing; we are dependent on a significant degree of innovation coming from overseas. And at the same time, as a globalised company, we are conscious of what we bring to countries in which we do business. We are able to invest in research overseas; we invest in research in the United Kingdom to quite a significant degree.”

On Partnerships
“Let me give you some examples of Boeing partnerships which relate to the UK. We spend about $25m a year on research in the UK. For that relatively modest sum of money, we get terrific inter-relationship with the skills here. We get terrific benefit from it, and we invest in some universities here, we invest alongside other companies in research projects.”

“Let give you one specific example. We are very proud of the relationship we have with Sheffield University. We think that Sheffield University is one of the relatively few Universities worldwide which really does understand the link between research and industrial application. We sponsored the build of an advanced manufacturing research centre on the campus at Sheffield, which is doing all sorts of exciting research in technologies, which are aerospace related, and one British company on the new 787 Dreamliner aeroplane comes directly from research on that campus.”

Encouraging Internal Innovation
“We encourage innovation through financial allocation, we have to be absolutely certain that the company allocates money efficiently and effectively to encourage the degree of research that we need. At the same time, we do everything we can to encourage people working in the company to have an open mind, to have the ability to think laterally, to have the ability to innovate, the ability to have vision, so we need to create in the company the mindset which is consistent with innovative skill.”

Developing Corporate Innovation
“Corporate innovation has to be a continuation of what corporations have done in the past, we need to maintain continuity within our company, we need to be conscious of the fact that we need to innovate in all sorts of areas, in order to meet customer demands, and in order to improve the products that we manufacture, so we focus at this point in time, on environmental innovation.”

“Trying to ensure that we make our products as environmentally user-friendly as possible, this means all sorts of exciting research in aerodynamics, biofuels, and air traffic management for example, we are producing the kind of product which fits the bill.”

Adapting to Current Economy
“The recession is, of course, going to have an impact on our business, customer requirements may decline, we will see a decrease in air passenger traffic, and we have already seen a decrease in freighter traffic, so we will all face challenges as we go through this, but the point to remember to remember is that we are in the business of building aeroplanes which are more efficient, of more environmentally friendly use than every before; and we are confident that we will get through this recessionary period, because those airlines that are going to come through it are going to need the most innovative and up to date products that they can, in order to meet their customer demands, and we are well-placed to provide that.”

The UK as an Innovation Leader
“Yes, I do believe the UK is an innovation leader. I’ve got a great faith and belief in the ability of the UK aerospace supply community to continue to perform at an excellent level. The Boeing company has traditionally relied enormously on the UK aerospace community; we have drawn more from the UK aerospace supply chain traditionally than from any other source outside the United States.”

“Our annual spend in the UK aerospace community is very significant. It goes up and down depending on the point in the business cycle, when we go back to figure before 9/11, which is really the period when the business was last humming along at its peak, our figures indicate that we were spending up to about $2.5bn dollars a year on the UK aerospace supply chain. Now, when the 787 is in full production, we will again, we think, be up in the $2 bn per year region of expenditure here. So excellence in the UK supply chain will continue to matter to us enormously.”

Main Barriers to Innovation“
There has to be enough financial allocation, research allocation, to ensure that companies are able to invest in research. I think that Government has a significant role to play in bridging research opportunities. I do think that is hugely significant. Another barrier to innovation would be, how do I put it - mindset. You really have to remain open-minded, innovative, imaginative, and visionary, in the way that we use the skill base in the United Kingdom.”

“The third point that I would make, and this is really an important one, it that education, I do think that we have some way to go in the UK before we could be satisfied with the way in which we attract young people and young students into the industrial sector; specifically into the manufacturing sectors. And encourage that focus of talent into the innovative industries that we will continue to depend upon.”