BT's next steps in innovation - simply academic

As one of the UK's leading innovators in the commercial sector, BT has an enviable track record of bringing new technologies to market, but its aspirations are for even greater achievements in this area. In 2005, the company began a partnership with Judge Business School that is already delivering concrete results in terms of academic achievement and business evolution.

Intended as a long-term collaboration, it is one of a series of similar arrangements BT has with leading institutions around the world. Judge Business School, part of Cambridge University, has already established itself as one of the leading business schools in the UK in terms of MBA education, and has a strong reputation in terms of business and innovation research.

This presents a wide range of co-operative opportunities for BT, which is able to turn the complex challenges of business into the kinds of difficult questions that the faculty at Judge Business School thrives upon.

Dave Brown, who oversees the relationship for BT, says: "As a business it is fundamental to understand what constitutes best practice in the innovation space and to work with the best people at the leading institutions. Judge Business School is very good at bringing together a whole community of brilliant people, so that through this programme BT has access to top class capability around the world."

World class faculty

Judge Business School has a world class faculty more than 80 strong focused on researching and bringing to light best practice in business innovation, corporate leadership and knowledge sharing. Professor Arnoud De Meyer, Judge Business School director, says BT was an obvious partner given its track record in innovating.

He says: "The telecommunications industry - the operator in particular - experiences significant change, which makes it very interesting to study and to try to have an impact on. Within this changing industry, BT is a particularly innovative player, with interesting ventures in other areas, such as systems engineering, IT, and IT for health, making it an ideal organisation for us to work with."

The partnership covers two broad themes: knowledge sharing and research. The Centre for Competitiveness and Innovation (CCI) at Judge Business School has run events for BT employees involved in some way with innovation activities, with subjects including the impact of disruptive technologies, pricing services and supply chain management.

Experts from Judge Business School faculty act as high level trouble-shooters for BT teams facing specific difficult challenges, with dedicated workshops proving to be an extremely effective way of fast forwarding to solutions. A number of post graduate students have also taken short secondments on BT projects to supplement their studies.

A shared interest in research

In terms of research projects, BT has provided funding for specific studies, including Turning Innovation into Value and Dynamics of Networked Innovation. One study, Distributed Working at BT, looked at the relationship between different forms of communication and virtual working, interviewing hundreds of BT employees to assess the best approach to virtual projects.

Judge Business School also participated in a new BT programme called Partner Vision, which takes senior executives at BT's key system integration partners to meet with leading academics to talk about strategic business challenges.

According to Mary Compton at BT: "Judge Business School helped make the event a great success through being innovative and supportive, providing very good academic material and selecting interesting and credible speakers."

The partnership operates at all levels across BT. For example, leading academics brought in by Judge Business School have worked with BT’s senior management on areas such as managing risk within a complex portfolio of services, achieving value from innovation, and corporate strategy in telecommunications markets.

While BT has already established itself as a centre for innovation, the intellectual challenge delivered by some of the leading experts at Judge Business School has enabled BT's innovators to broaden their thinking and to formulate stronger long-term strategies, as well as fostering ideas around improving product development, customer service and competitive dynamism. As with all successful partnerships, the sum of this relationship is even greater than its constituent parts.