The recently finished Knowledge Transfer Partnership project between Howden Group and Department of Marketing at Strathclyde Business School was awarded the highest grade by the Innovate UK evaluation panel: “A – outstanding”.
The KTP project led by Dr Nusa Fain from the Department of Marketing and Howden Technology Head David Mitchell aimed at developing and implementing a sustainable new product development procedure optimised for Howden that will ensure timely and cost-effective delivery of commercially viable products to the market.
This project was fortunate enough to benefit from an excellent advisory team, including Dr Beverly Wagner from the Department of Marketing and Mr Graeme Russell from Howden Technology and the experience of two associates. The first associate set-up a project plan and undertook relevant research across the business to better understand what procedures were currently in place, whereas the second associate, David Grant developed the bespoke process and delivered an outstanding engagement methodology to roll out the delivered process into the business. He has also been shortlisted for the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards in the category Skills Development.
The project has embedded a cross-disciplinary culture of agile NPD, supporting effective innovation, which will address existing product maturity issues and allow the company to grow in new and emerging markets and technology areas.