UK Businesses Urged to Think!

UK Businesses Urged to Think! Creatively to Ensure Competitiveness Authors of best-selling book Think! launch an innovation consultancy

Tina Catling and Mark Davies, co-authors of Think! the recent best selling innovation book in the UK, today announced the launch of their new consultancy of the same name, which aims to enable corporate businesses to inject creativity into the way they do business and make decisions.

With launch clients including Arup and npower, Think! offers bespoke consultancy and services including workshops, seminars, coaching and training to business leaders, companies and their staff.

Standardisation of business practices in the pursuit of excellence has often been seen as the means of securing competitive advantage. However in today’s commercial environment where we are seeing a move from a knowledge-based economy to a creative economy, best practice, based principally on systems and procedures no longer ensures competitiveness, commented Catling.

In fact, if not kept in check, rigid standardisation of business processes can squeeze and stifle innovation, resulting in weakened competitive advantage. Striking a balance between best practices and fostering an atmosphere of creativity, in all types of companies, has become more essential now than ever for UK businesses.

As well as her work with outside the box, Catling is involved in a committee headed up by NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and the DTI, for Government Minister James Purnell, which is working to increase the UK’s capacity for innovation.

At the same time, with the UK government’s commitment to make the UK the world’s creative hub, companies that put creativity and innovation at the heart of their businesses, will be well positioned to take advantage of this overall drive and potential resultant business, she added.

Having worked in marketing and creative businesses for 25 years each, Catling and Davies are already co-founders of the award-winning marketing agency outside the box which, founded in 1994 works with clients including BT, Dulux, npower, Nestle, Tiscali and Boots.

When Tina and I wrote Think! we wanted to share our knowledge and learnings about creativity to enable businesses to think about business practices or issues in a different way, to unlock the latent creative talent in their own employees, and to fulfil unmet customer needs, commented Davies.

Through facilitating the integration of creative processes and thinking into the organisational culture and employee development process, new ideas that help sell products or services can be created. These opportunities can deliver cost savings, increased staff loyalty, improved customer retention and ultimately financial benefits to the bottom line. The services we offer are particularly useful to companies who want a period of rapid growth or are undergoing organisational change.

Catling is also a Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) Master and a lecturer on the IDM (Institute of Direct Marketing) Diploma. Her career began with Saatchi & Saatchi and Ogilvy & Mather working on blue chip clients such as Wedgwood and American Express.

Davies has worked with companies such as Marks and Spencer, Littlewoods and Halifax Building Society, his expertise lies in corporate based development.

Together they train teams around the world and have just returned from speaking at a direct marketing conference in Dubai.

Are you ready for the challenge of the creative economy? To find out more about how Think! can help you think visit www.thinkso.co.uk