Innovate
Making innovation business as usual
You know you need to innovate but aren’t sure where to start. From people to processes, we see the big picture. We’ll facilitate and support you by designing frameworks and processes to enable your organisation to innovate and grow. Because in successful organisations, innovation isn’t a once-off – it’s business-as-usual.
Case Studies
Embracing farming innovations
The Bundaberg region is an important agricultural region in Queensland and Australia. Central Queensland University’s (CQU) Institute for Future Farming Systems has been actively engaged in supporting the agricultural industry by finding ways to promote new and innovative technology (agtech) to local producers under their Hinkler Agtech Initiative (Initiative).
CQU engaged Sparrowly Group to strategise and develop an action plan (the Legacy Action Plan) as part of the Initiative. The objective was to increase local producers’ adoption of innovative technologies by giving them the opportunity to trial the agtech for themselves and, therefore, increase the profitability and sustainability of agriculture in the area into the future. CQU’s goal for the Legacy Action Plan was to identify the activities that they could implement before the Initiative’s funding period ended to capitalise on legacy opportunities and impacts.
OUR APPROACH
In order to design an actionable Legacy Plan that would meet CQU’s objectives and goals, Sparrowly Group:
Undertook research and gathered information from stakeholders to better understand how to demonstrate the value of the agtech opportunities to local producers.
Articulated the barriers to agtech adoption, including legacy objectives.
Strategised and mapped a series of activities that would contribute to achieving the objectives, and that was designed to remove barriers and demonstrate value to stakeholders.
Designed an implementation guide for each activity, which explained their goals, the method for implementing that activity and factors that should be considered by staff when making decisions around that activity. These included an analysis of investment, complexity, risk and impact.
IMPACT
CQU’s initial focus has been to determine which agtech trials are a priority to local producers, and find an executable strategy to ensure their delivery. The Legacy Plan has given them the approach they need to make strong decisions that will achieve their ultimate goals and objectives of continuing the growth of farming in the Bundaberg region into the future.
Developing skills for innovation
The NewSkills Program is an innovative program designed to create opportunities for Newcastle residents and drive the community and economic prosperity of the region. It does this by:
helping Newcastle residents and local businesses adapt to Newcastle’s changing economy
mentoring businesses to attract and develop their talent in emerging industries or in areas that have been impacted by rapid change.
The City of Newcastle engaged Sparrowly Group to design and deliver a program that would act on the goals of the NewSkills Program by driving innovation and new business in the Newcastle region.
OUR APPROACH
We conceptualised The Side Hustle Bootcamp (the Bootcamp) in response to the goals of NewSkills and business development opportunities for Newcastle. The Bootcamp was created as an intensive 12-week cohort-based program. It supported 18 Newcastle residents to take a leap and learn the skills necessary to turn a passion, profession or project into a desirable, feasible and viable business venture.
This was accomplished in many innovative ways to capture the varying learning styles of participants. For example, we developed inclusive online learning content, group workshops, one-on-one mentoring and a supportive online community.
During the training, we worked with the participants to teach them to:
identify their unique value proposition
target their ideal customer segment
develop a robust business model
develop a unique brand and strong online presence
communicate and pitch their business
launch their business idea into a sustainable business venture.
IMPACT
The Bootcamp participants brought a broad range of innovative business ideas into the program including: a car enthusiast events club, a community consultation service, and a video and content production education service for small businesses.
Participants learned how to successfully evolve and pivot their ideas in response to validation results. The new skills gained enabled them to take their business ideas and understand how to launch them into successful business ventures, with some launching and securing customers by the completion of the program.
