Daniel Calleja-Crespo, Deputy Director General, European Commission, believes in “Revolution not Evolution”. He said: “This Conference has addressed a major issue – how do we foster innovation, how do we move to a revolution in service innovation to grow and to create economic prosperity.”
The strategies companies had adopted to succeed in the past might not serve them well in the future. Yaver Abidi, Managing Director, Halcrow, said: “It's a very global company and the fundamental challenges of change for us are about dealing with its global nature and actually becoming truly global in out outlook.”
The public and private sector are working more closely together than ever before and in some cases championing the interests of both through umbrella organisations - even if such alliances are initially unpopular: Fiona Capstick, Chief Executive Officer, Southwest One said: “We see a lot of discussion in the public sector about the future of the organisation and how change will affect people and we have to scotch a lot of rumours to focus on delivering better services to the citizens of Avon and Somerset. There is quite a lot of complexity about arriving at change agreement with all the parties together.”
Peter Thomas, Director – Transforming Whitehall, Institute for Government, says attitudes will have to change but that’s not daunting it’s truly inspiring and that Whitehall is not risk averse: “I think it will give people permission to try something different, if you have to take up to 50 per cent out of a service, people will want to find the best way of delivering services as possible.”
Keith Jordan, Managing Director, Hitachi Rail, already works hand in hand with the public sector, in what he describes is a top down “penalty” driven system but it works! He has to convince the Banks to invest in a 27 year business strategy: “The right business model is absolutely essential for a long term industry such as the rail industry, where you pay a lot of money for an asset that has to last up to 45 years, there is a lot of chance to lose money, so you have to get the model right at the start.”
Professor Andrew Neeley, Director, Cambridge Service Alliance, says the Conference itself set out to innovate and achieved its objectives: “Everyone worries about risk, everyone worries about the role of technology, everyone worries about delivering great services to your client whether you are public or private.”
Founded in 2010 by BAE Systems, IBM and the University of Cambridge's Institute for Manufacturing and Judge Business School, The Cambridge Service Alliance, brings together world-leading organisations with an interest in complex service systems.