Does your business have a key opportunity or a problem you’d like to tackle? Our pioneering Service Innovation Programme is harnessing world-class expertise to support Hertfordshire businesses to scale up – apply before 4 March.

The fully-funded programme brings a design-thinking approach used by leading organisations globally to deliver service innovation, better customer experience and improved value for high-growth potential businesses.

Leadership and development business, Estu and Royal College of Art (RCA), the number one ranked university worldwide for design teaching, are delivering the programme on behalf of Hertfordshire LEP. Together, they have worked with leading brands such as Samsung, NHSX, Adidas, McKinsey, HM Treasury, Google, the United Nations, Philips, Dyson and Apple.

Rikesh Shah, Head of Commercial Innovation at Transport for London; Pedro Tolipan, Head of McKinsey Design and Yao Yingia, Design Chief at Lenovo, are among the experts who have signed up to offer their expertise as Industry Practitioners on the eight-week Practitioner Programme.

Places are now available for the Foundation programme starting on 17 March with 4 x 2.5 hour sessions over two weeks. Early applications are encouraged as places are limited, with expressions of interest to be assessed on 4 March.

For both the Foundation and the Practitioner Programme, learning takes place online with a rich virtual learning environment, live real time and interactive presentations that will be recorded for participants, online workshops in breakout rooms as participants undertake project work and an experiential project brief that enables participants to apply their learning to a real-life project.

These are complemented by additional project group activities to reinforce the learning from the taught sessions, and to help participants apply this learning to their own business challenges.

The programme is open to businesses who have been trading for at least one year, including divisions of larger and internationally owned organisations, and across a wide range of high value sectors with a focus on creative, digital, life sciences and green/net zero.

Nitin Dahad, Hertfordshire LEP Board Member and Chair Enterprise and Innovation Board, said: “As Hertfordshire moves out of the acute recovery phase from COVID, supporting our high-growth businesses will be key to future economic activity and productivity. The LEP’s Enterprise and Innovation Strategy focuses on the breadth of enterprise and innovation across 60,000 businesses, offering particular opportunities for high value and ‘additional’ growth which will equip Hertfordshire to compete internationally as well as nationally. This programme is a prime example of that innovative approach being developed by the LEP in partnership with prestigious organisations.”

Norman Jennings, Operations Director, Hertfordshire LEP, said: “I am really excited to bring this executive programme to Hertfordshire and further bolster the excellent business support provision in the county. Innovation and adaptability is key if businesses are to remain competitive in this ever-changing world. This programme is in direct response to businesses seeking tailored, high quality support which, in turn, will create a huge uptick in the local economy.”

Simon Littlewood, CEO of Estu, said: “This pioneering programme will give businesses across the county access to world-class commercial and strategic design skills at the highest level and supplement the strong local business support offer already available. Thanks to the calibre of the organisations involved, Hertfordshire business leaders will, for the first time, be able tap into specialist support and innovative practices which have already been successfully applied to companies across the globe.”

Register here for a programme place.

Watch this video and download the brochure to find out more about the programme and how to apply. Visit the Service Innovation Programme website page or contact: Simon.littlewood@estuglobal.com