Reignite your business!
Build your innovative leadership capabilities whilst being mentored and supported to identify and implement changes that help your business thrive in a modern world.
Hear from Sam, CEO of 25eight, as she talks through the Innovation Program.
Innovation Program for SMEs
Small medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that invest in innovation are more likely to survive and grow than average firms*. With slow and fast market changes impacting businesses on a daily basis, innovation, as a tool, can help to create mindsets that can adapt to change, can help you navigate through uncertainty, and can position you more strongly in your industry.
“I left with tangible outcomes and a structure and frameworks that I immediately started using and have continued to use. This has been something I have been needing for a long time but have never found the time for.”
— Ben, Real Response
Learn the power of incremental innovation
Business growth and progress is achieved by hundreds, if not thousands, of small improvements that build on each other to have a big impact. Minor tweaks that are quick and easy to do, married with the right mindset, strategy and approach add up to big breakthroughs. In this highly personalised training, mentoring and support program, you focus only on the areas that will give you and your business the biggest impact, which could include:
A new business model
In established SMEs you may have had the same business model since the beginning of your business. Whilst your success has been based on this model, a new model could accelerate new opportunities for your business. We’ll work with you to discover new ways to create, deliver and capture value within your existing business.
Finding new markets
A new market could be geographical or it could be a new use case. We will help you apply your current offerings to a different segment of customers in the existing or new way. It may be that a different segment finds a new use for your offerings or that your offerings have a different meaning to a new segment.
New product development
A brand extension or new product development is when you look to use your existing reputation and company name on a new product or new product category. You use your existing equity to help launch the new product which then helps promote you to new customers expanding your customer base.
Re-designing customer experiences
The most important aspect of modern business is how you make your customers feel. Often simple innovations in your customer experience can make the biggest impact. We’ll support you to examine all of the interactions a customer has with your business and find ways to help you delight them.
Identifying new channels
A channel is the way that you connect your business’ offerings to your customers. Whilst e-commerce will be a natural extension for those operating in the physical world, new traditional channels can’t be discounted. The trick is to find multiple but complementary ways to bring your offerings to your customers.
Reinventing business processes
Business processes are the backbone of your business and often the invisible thread that holds it together. Identifying ways to re-invent or optimise them can not only lead to efficiencies but can sometimes lead to breakthroughs that wipe out your competition. We’ll support you to re-invent or optimised your processes.
Modernise your business so it thrives now and into the future
In 12 weeks, you’ll not only have created a strategic action plan to help your business go from good to great, you’ll have built your own capabilities as an innovative business leader with future of work skills and strategic foresight. In 24 weeks, you’ll have created change in your business through minor improvements that will lead to big breakthroughs.
24 weeks to transformation
This program will build your innovation capabilities and confidence as well as develop your understanding and use of modern tools and frameworks. You will adopt new practices and mindsets to help you master innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. We will support you to lead your business through this transformation and retain its position in a world of accelerated change.
Key benefits of the program
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Transform your business
We’ll support you to pinpoint the exact changes you need to make in your business to help transform and modernise it - prioritising those that will have the greatest impact on your time and money. Together we’ll position your business to stand out in a competitive and digital marketplace and broaden your customer base.
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Build your capability
We work with you by using your experience and knowledge of your business combined with our frameworks and processes. We equip you with the knowledge and skills you need to become a leader in your business and continue your innovation journey now and into the future.
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Grow your business
The ultimate outcome of the program is growth. You will gain a deeper appreciation of the value your business can provide to customers and how you stand out in the market. In turn, you’ll attract the right customers that love what you do and keep coming back for more.
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Remain competitive
The world is changing at an accelerated pace and what is relevant now may not be in 10 or even 1 years time! Our innovation program equips you with frameworks you can use time and time again to make strategic and innovative decisions to ensure the health and longevity of your business.
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Get structure
As well as gaining clarity about your business and the value it provides to the world, you’ll develop a clear structure around how best to interact with your customers. We’ll support that with the best tools and processes to measure your success and provide you with a real-time ‘pulse’ of your business.
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Be supported
Our experts and mentors will guide you and your team through the transformation. If you need extra help to do some of the heavy lifting, we can help there too. Whatever you need to reinvigorate your business, be that creative, digital or operational tasks we can help
The detail
The 25eight Innovation program is personalised for every SME who participates and wants to transform their business.
You know you need to do something different and may know what it is but you want a structured approach that will help identify the best moves for you and your business.
You may need a fresh pair of eyes, some new ideas, new content or a new approach. Or you could need a total transformation because market changes mean you have to really change things ups. This could mean a new business model or new product development.
Our innovation program is tailored to your unique situation and takes into account your business situation, as well as your capacity and confidence in strategy, innovation, digital and marketing/CX so we help you understand what it is you don’t know, rather than teach you what you already know.
The program consists of a 2-3 hour commitment per week for an initial 12 weeks. This is where we work together to identify any quick wins and build a strategic action plan via a combination of 1:1 sessions with a mentor, online content, activities and virtual group sessions.
Each week, for the first 12 weeks, you’ll view short videos (3-5 mins) that help build your understanding and complete activities specific to your business, before coming together for a collaborative 1-hour virtual group session. There’ll be 3.5 hours of 1:1 mentoring throughout this period to give you the best chance of focusing on big impact activities.
At the end of the 12 weeks, you’ll meet with your mentor to go through your action plan before finalising your 90-day implementation sprint. The sprint is where you put your plan into action, with weekly implementation support from us and monthly mentor check-ins.
The Process
FAQs
Who is this program for?
This program is specifically for small to medium-sized business leaders that want a structured process to ensure their business, themselves and their teams can adapt to changing markets and ways of operating. Whilst all industries will benefit from the program, we have seen a particular impact with professional services adapting to new ways of interacting, technology or engineering firms needing help connecting with the right customers, manufacturing companies building a digital presence, and tourism-related businesses dealing with New Visitor Economy
How does the program work?
We run the program in cohorts of participants that start throughout the year. Each cohort has a start date and will begin with a 1:1 diagnostic session. You’ll spend time answering questions related to your business so we can tailor the program to your exact needs. During the first six weeks, you’ll get access to new content each week, you’ll watch short videos and complete activities before attending a group session to workshop and refine what you have been working on, plus have any questions answered. In weeks 7-11, you’ll get into the detail of where you need to focus for your innovation strategy and start to build out your action plan. The final two weeks of the first stage are all about getting you ready for implementation. The following 90 days is all about action, making changes and getting the support to transform your business. You’ll get one hour of implementation support as well as one hour of mentoring each month.
Why is the program run in cohorts?
This ultimately keeps the cost of the program down because one consultant can help several businesses at the same time, just like a group training class versus a personal training session. In our experience, this aspect also makes the program. You gain new alliances, contacts and a support network. Friendships are formed and you get ideas from others in business. Those that are able to attend as many of the group sessions as possible always see the greatest impact to their business and themselves.
Can more than one employee of the business participate?
Most definitely! One of the values of 25eight is ‘Go together, not alone’ and we think you get the best results if you can complete the program as a team. Not only do you have more brains working on it that know the business, but you’re also upskilling the whole team and creating more autonomy for action to take place.
What if I fall behind?
No judgement here! We know what it’s like to run an SME and sometimes stuff gets in the way. Every session is recorded so if you can’t attend live, you can watch it again at your leisure. Each session is designed so you can bring your specific challenge regardless of the week, so you will always get support. By the end of the 12 weeks, when you sit down with your mentor you still have some things to do, they’ll work with you to identify the most important bits to do first and still get you moving on your plan.
What if I want a 1:1 innovation program for my business?
That’s totally okay! We love helping businesses 1:1. You get fully personalised service (rather than just personalised education) and flexibility around when you complete activities. What we’ve found, however, is that this doesn’t often make a difference to the time it takes to make changes and that those in the group program often finish faster because of the weekly structure. The cost is also higher because you get such dedicated support. Phil, our Co-founder, would love to chat with you. You can book a call with him here.
What if I have more questions?
No problem! You can ask us as many questions as you’d like, we want you to make sure this is the right program for you. You can either book a call with our Co-founder and Chief Mentor Phil using this link, email us at hello@25eight.co and one of the lovely team will get back to you or watch our information session - register to access here.
What People Are Saying
“So much food for thought and I learnt great frameworks for making the most of our current opportunities and identifying new ones. The support has been incredible. Plus, the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals in similar positions to us as SMEs. Being able to focus on this specific task for a period of weeks has been very helpful.”
— Senatas
“The most beneficial aspect has been the creation of the strategy with company vision, identified goals and then the Value Curve exercise that assisted with key strengths and competitive factors we could develop to ensure we're competitive when customers are comparing providers and we need to stand out in the market.”
— TraumaSim
“Some of the key outcomes achieved in this program to date have been identifying our key points of difference against the competition. We finally really understand our USP. This has been a game-changer for our business, giving us the ability to communicate this to our clients for greater returns.”
— Evolution Gear
Submit your EOI
We’d love for you to consider us as your innovation partners. We take our role seriously, so we’d love to get to know a little bit about you and which cohort you would prefer to start in. Please complete the relevant form fields below and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible to take you through the next steps.
