We believe innovation happens by design

Radical innovation springs from well-designed strategy.

Investing in innovation, whether in the context of government, a corporation, a university or a non-profit is a long-term and complex endeavour. We bring expertise in innovation strategy, policy, programming and design to help clients with their innovation mission.

The Innovation Mission believes that governments and organisations can construct environments that incentivise transformational and breakthrough innovation—the type of innovation that moves society and economies forward. We help de-risk these innovation efforts by using rigorous processes, encouraging deep collaboration and partnership outside individual organisations and designing for the long-term, not just for today.

Our Services

  • We can provide everything from organisational-level (or government Department-level) innovation strategy to business unit strategy, including facilitated strategy design.

  • Innovation policy design, ecosystem design, innovation precincts and ecosystem connectivity, international investment attraction and innovation export promotion.

  • We can design and assist with the delivery of accelerators, curriculum design, bespoke packages of assistance for innovators, or end-to-end open innovation programs.

  • Grand challenge design, Big Thinks and prize design (open innovation processes), ecosystem support, design of mentoring networks. Innovation Portfolio Management and/or other tools for managing and evaluating your own suite of innovation activities/investments.

Areas of Practice

Open Innovation

Open innovation processes allow organisations to bypass traditional R&D and to test, acquire and scale up new technology, startups and policy ideas using a low-cost, low-risk model. We help clients develop sophisticated strategies to source breakthrough ideas, technologies, and capabilities both within and outside their organisations.

Mission-Oriented Innovation

By formulating clear but ambitious goals for positive social/environmental impact, policy makers can shape innovation markets both directly and indirectly. This is best known as ‘mission-oriented innovation’. We can help clients shape innovation activity and funding under broader missions, including through scoping and designing missions, partnership building and creating the enabling and funding environment to achieve the mission.

Innovation Economy

An innovation economy whether local, regional or global is based on the principles that knowledge, entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, and collaboration are the key drivers of economic growth. Obtaining this unique mix of economic inputs is not simple. We can help governments to create the enabling environment and the right policy settings, programs and incentives for innovation and investment-led growth.

Commercialisation, R&D and global markets

The Innovation Mission can help at any stage of the commercialisation journey, whether it’s helping a startup find product-market fit, entry into global markets or supporting an organisation to shape a better commercialisation strategy. We specialise in finding entry points into and funding from actors in desirable global market destinations, along with ways to increase regional and global connectivity within markets.