Orchard LABS blogs

innovation?

INNOVATION IS ABOUT APPROACH

AND NOT TECHNOLOGY.

Written by Dai Butcher - Creative Director

Writing is an outlet I enjoy, it helps me to process my thoughts and understand myself better. it’s like talking to yourself about a subject and picking apart why you believe what you do . Occasionally, I write something that I think others may enjoy reading or may find interesting and so I post it as a blog. I invite conversation about my thoughts and enjoy hearing another’s perspective on a subject. How else do we gain empathy? How else do we learn? How else do our thoughts and behaviours evolve?

I wrote this after an interesting conversation with a client. They claimed to not be working in a space where “innovation” was something they could get the team onboard with and were favouring “tried and tested” and “old and boring” methods (their words, not mine!) . But after a short conversation we discovered that they had innovated in lots of ways and were just not using “the latest tech”. They may not be innovating externally and changing the world, but there had been innovations internally and they had been slowly re-imagining their offerings to their teams. This, in my opinion, is innovation.

All too often people confuse technology and innovation.

We set up labs to be a department focused solely on innovation and whenever we talk to new clients, the conversation starts with questions about technology.

  • Do you work with AI?

  • Do you work Blockchain/crypto?

Yes, but what’s that got to do with innovative ways of looking at your business problem?

we sell solutions,

not products

Uniquely Orchard LABs has started with a portfolio of clients and the support of a large agency in Orchard media and events group but also partners across lots of disciplines. Our team is very digital focussed and works across video, animation, VR, and similar technologies but, with the real benefit of being able to be totally solutions focussed and getting to put the products, platforms, and technologies in a box when we meet a new client. We can discuss the problem first and not pitch “our products” which is good for me because I’m not the greatest salesman. If my heart isn’t in the project and what we are offering, it can be obvious.

So, when we started Orchard LABs, we made sure the first part of our process was consultancy. And that is the only service/product that we push. That was our innovation. We had the luxury of being able to strip out the sales pitch and create a process that allows us to talk about the problem and solution.

That’s not to say that we don’t meet clients who know exactly what they want - and we support with that. But we help every client assess the need before implementation. We talk about the problem and the desired outcomes, then we talk about other potential solutions and make a recommendation. When we feel there is a different supplier or different “specialist” within the Orchard Group that better fits... we make an introduction. From here we stay as involved or not involved as needed or wanted. For some clients they like us there through implementation; for some, they would rather work directly. But whichever version of events, we support with the needs of the client with the project at the heart of our process.

innovation doesnt have to change the world,

It just needs to change the way you do something

Innovation is about an idea, and how that idea is implemented. We see innovation everywhere and during the COVID lockdowns that was more evident. But truly there weren’t that many “new ideas” - just new approaches. As a business we adapted to remote working very well and transferred to WFH with little to no hiccups. We moved to Microsoft Teams (which we were already using), did more through email and project management tools (that we already had or were familiar with), and for most businesses this was the story. We adapted editing and feedback workflows to be online; we got better at project management of WEB and APP builds and even delivered 360 /VR projects with filming on location. We adjusted and adapted our process to innovate in our approach across all Orchard solutions.

I watched the events-based side of the Orchard business take on the digital world and deliver amazing experiences for their attendees. I also saw other businesses that I follow, doing great things. (big thumbs up and recognition to the team a RECfest here). Recruitment was a difficult space to survive in during the height of COVID especially for an events-based recruitment company. There is a very moving video of Jamie Leonard (founder and CEO) addressing his team about how they survived and innovated.

Great team doing great things.

But, back to the point….

Innovation is in approach and isn’t reserved for tech start ups and management consultancies. Education, health care, recruitment and training can at times be stagnant in approach. Best practice, technological advances, tools, and visual design is usually at least 5 years behind and some areas even further behind.

There are obviously examples of where this isn’t true, but they tend to be exceptions to the rule.

My career has slipped in and around these industries since the beginning, I have been lucky to work with some great people and some great companies, and every place I have worked has reaffirmed my opinion that we should always been innovating.

For some of our clients, this has been technology based. For example, our driver instructor training with BSM and AA Driving School.

But other times it has been subtle. With Netflix we supported the team with video content to communicate internationally in the training and Health and Safety space. The innovation here was around the process. We took stock from the wider Netflix offering to communicate with their teams with the same way as the B2C side does. Not getting bogged down in the standard “safety” look and feel and instead went with the Netflix look and feel. Big shout out to Ruth Denyer, Wouter de Gier and Shaina Jones for being innovators in everything they do and for trusting me and my vision in the projects we have done together.

But my point is, the innovation was in how we communicated and not in what technology that was being used.

It can be a scary place to be when you are sitting in a room with someone banging on about innovation and you are looking at your budgets. I will make 2 statements here.

  1.  INNOVATION DOESN’T HAVE TO BE EXPENSIVE.

  2. DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY DOESN’T HAVE TO BE RISKY.

INNOVATION DOESN’T HAVE TO BE

EXPENSIVE

To be clear here, innovation can be expensive. It depends on what you want to do. Sometimes we meet a client and what they want isn’t achievable within their budget, but more often than not, this isn’t the case.

If you work in one of spaces mentioned above, then you almost certainly have space to grow, space to do something different and space to better connect. The answers for what would work best for you are often already in your head, we just help you get them out and translate them into a solution.

We understand our role in our clients’ projects, but we never pretend to know more about your industry and/or your business than you do. We work as part of your team to deliver something great.

This is also a common fear and an understandable one.

‘What if I spend the budget and don’t hit my KPIs?’

We are KPI focussed and do everything we can to ensure that your project is focused on the question.

“What does success look like?”

We are looking to surpass expectations but also manage expectations for our clients, we don’t want to sell vapourware or snakeoil, your project is as important to us as it is to you.

But we believe there is one certainty.

DOING THINGS DIFFERNTLY DOESN’T HAVE

TO  be RISKY

 “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Henry Ford

how  can labs help?

We are here to help you do and think differently and the key being help and support. We work with small teams, to wider business teams to align goals and budgets, to create something great and not just a tick box exercise in

  • “Done a video”

  • “Done VR”

  • “Done a new social post.”

We build long-term relationships with our clients, and want to end every project talking about what’s next not just a thank you and move on.

Start innovating with your approach.

Get in touch to see how OrchardLABSs can help you and your team with your next project.