By John Hunter, Emergent Technology Director

This week I was honoured to be able to speak to the new cohort of MBA students at Robert Gordon University, in Aberdeen.  I was asked by RGU Entrepreneur in Residence Amanda Boyle to speak to the group during their Entrepreneurship module.  Amanda has an amazing track record of innovation and commercialisation in numerous industries.

In 2016, Tendeka launched our SPARK program, where we look at how ideas can be generated, nurtured and turned into products and services. SPARK begins by looking at what innovation, that is always brought about by a series of ideas.

I spoke to the students about the process and training we do, the reasoning why we started it and the results to date.  It is all about the belief that we can all be creative and have ideas; that the best people to find better ways are the people at the coal face, your team.

When one of the cohort was asked why he was interested in this module, he said while he thought he wasn’t an innovator or creative,  he felt when he entered the business world, his business and team would need to be.

Part of the SPARK training shows that coming up with the ideas is just one part of the whole journey, some people are good at seeing challenges, others at solving them, some people are just good at making it all flow.  And then there’s those that help bring it all together.  We discussed Steve Jobs, and all agreed all he really did was make it happen.  But that ‘all he did’ was anything but simple, and has had a huge commercial and technical impact across the globe.

Tendeka encourages and embraces collaborative ideas and innovation, and my hope is that others will do the same.

For further information on Robert Gordon University‘s MBA programmes, please go to:  www.rgu.ac.uk/areas-of-study/subjects/business-management-and-accounting/study-options/mba-degrees/mba-degrees