Foundation Industries Ventures (FIVe)

The  Executive Education team is working with Foundation Industries Ventures (FIVe) to deliver strategic tailored business management to support organisations and their supply chains across the sector.

FIVe is an incubator and accelerator that enables sustainable, innovative growth for start-ups and spinouts in the Foundation Industries (i.e. cement, metals, chemicals, ceramics, and glass).

One of the companies benefitting from this tailored support is BlueCube.  Led by ecologist Dr Ruth Callaway, BlueCube manufactures textured (bio receptive) tiles that become home to barnacles, algae, moss, crabs, and other sea life to increase biodiversity.  Their tiles are low-carbon, low shrinking and stronger than traditional cement and are being used in eco-engineered projects across the UK.

Associate Professor and Innovation Fellow, Peter Allen, worked with BlueCube’s Directors to look at the fit between their business and potential customer needs, to support future growth.

With a career spanning the steel and chemical sectors before moving to the Business School, Peter has always kept one foot in industry and supports businesses, from global companies to start-ups, with advice on strategic planning, transformation and innovation.

Peter said: "A lot of my work is about sharing the theory and tools of business management and through discussions, workshops, and scenarios, guiding that business large or small along their journey.

"There's so much information out there but often innovators are too busy working on their great product, technology or process or growing their business to think as strategically as they should.

"Working with FIVe I'm able to support organisations working across the Foundation Industries and their supply chains to overcome their individual barriers and challenges.

"That could be anything from getting them to look at the value proposition in a way they've not done before, to identify their customers and routes to market or it could be helping them access and understand Intellectual Property and digital transformation."

Peter's training also includes a toolkit of advice and material to help organisations as their business grows.

BlueCube Director, Charles-Phelines, said: "It was brilliant to take time out of the office to focus and to think. Peter made us think strategically and ‘out of the box' and by following management tools and models helped us better understand our business through critical thinking.

"We were able to evaluate BlueCube, and the successes and mistakes we'd made and what we need to do in the future. He helped us understand our customers and routes to market and unearthed the processes we need to go through to get there."