New appointment at WMG heralds greater opportunities for SMEs
A LEADING marketing academic and entrepreneur has been appointed to a new facility at WMG to help the group develop its links with small businesses.
Professor Irene Ng has been selected as Director of the International Institute for Product and Service Innovation. IIPSI is the newest facility within WMG at the University of Warwick and is jointly funded by the university and the European Regional Development Fund.
IIPSI will translate WMG’s innovative work into commercial opportunities with small businesses. The digital innovation facility is designed to help businesses access the very latest cutting edge product and service design technology, which in turn is intended to lead to the creation and testing of market leading products and services.
Demonstrating three of WMG’s research areas – Digital Innovation, Polymer Innovation and Experience Led Innovation – IIPSI is aimed at becoming the first stop for companies looking to innovate and compete in the digital economy.
Prof Ng joined WMG in 2011 and has been selected for her new role because her entrepreneurial and academic pedigree fits with the strategic vision for IIPSI.
Prof Ng was an entrepreneur for 16 years as CEO of SA Tours – one of the largest tour operators in Southeast Asia, based in Malaysia, Singapore and China – and as the founder of Empress Cruise Lines, a company with an annual turnover of $250m, which she sold in 1996.
She became an academic in 1997 and she now has a global reputation for her work in value-based pricing and service systems.
Joining her as IIPSI deputy director is Jonnie Turpie, who has produced and directed public service drama, documentary and digital media in the West Midlands for the last 25 years. He has applied new video, technology and digital techniques to create innovative styles and approaches to award winning television and media. Over the past 20 years he has been a director of Maverick Television, which he founded and has grown into one of the UK’s leading regional and national independent production companies.
He is also a director of Creative England, Screen West Midlands, the children’s charity First Light Movies, a member of Birmingham Science City and a trustee of the Birmingham Ormiston Academy. He is a former Advantage West Midlands’ board director, a member of The Innovation Technology Council and is an Honorary Fellow of Warwick University. He was awarded an MBE for services to international trade in the 2010 New Years honours.
Prof Ng said: “Digitisation is changing the way we buy and use products and services. The future digital economy will be the convergence of connectivity, community, content and objects that would be more personal than ever before, creating markets for products and services that would serve individuals wherever they are, and on demand.
“This means we need much closer collaboration between manufacturing, computing, social science and business research. The relationship between research and practice has also to be closer, with winning firms having the abilities to develop their technologies quicker, creating new markets and constantly innovating their business models.
“IIPSI will be a showcase of cutting-edge interdisciplinary research that works alongside businesses in a creative and innovative knowledge eco-system can create real impact, from start-ups to established global corporations.”
IIPSI is expected to create or safeguard more than 200 jobs and catalyse start-ups through a funded support programme for West Midlands SMEs that will run until the end of June 2015.
During the three-year project an Innovation Programme will be delivered by WMG’s SME team, headed by Dr Mark Swift, working with innovative West Midlands SMEs to exploit new ideas through an established knowledge exchange programme.
The SME team has recently created more than 200 highly skilled jobs and 13 new start-up businesses on the successful digital lab programme.
