Business leaders and entrepreneurs who want to lead high-performance, double-digit growth companies, need to assemble an integrated strategic toolkit to design, develop and deliver a strategy to breakout beyond average economic performance. 

That was the key message from Professor Thomas Lawton when he delivered the InterTradeIreland 2011 Innovation Lecture at University College Dublin last night. Organised by NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre, his lecture was entitled Innovate for Advantage: A Strategic Toolkit for Designing and Delivering a Breakout Strategy.

 
Pictured at NovaUCD is Professor Thomas Lawton 

Professor Lawton is Professor of Strategy and International Business at EMLYON Business School (France), one of Europe’s top ten business schools, and visiting Professor at the internationally renowned Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (USA).

During his innovation lecture Professor Lawton outlined the strategic tools that business leaders need to gather in order to breakout and achieve double digit growth. These include identifying the business route to industry breakout and market success; clarifying and communicating a vision of where they want to go and what they want to be; aligning their  value proposition with customer needs and expectations; assembling a business model that is both efficient and effective; and balancing people-oriented culture within their business with their IT-enabled processes.

According to Professor Lawton, “Having a joined-up approach to strategy, regardless of the company size or industry sector, is what differentiates breakout companies from the average. It also requires business leaders to be innovative in their capacity to rapidly and pre-emptively adopt or adapt in markets or industries.” He added, “This results in the creation of a ‘magnet’ company which excites markets, attracts and retains customers, repels new entrants and renders competitors unable to respond.” 

 
Pictured at NovaUCD are Nicola McGuinness, InterTradeIreland, Professor Thomas Lawton and Dr Pat Frain, Director, NovaUCD

Professor Thomas Lawton is also the author several books including Breakout Strategy: Meeting the Challenge of Double-Digit Growth which has been widely commended for its global focus and relevance to practicing managers and aspiring leaders. He has spent more than 15 years consulting for and advising business leaders and managers of large and small companies and organisations such as Bombardier Transportation, EDF Energy, IBM, the Singapore High Technology Association and Volvo Group on business development and market growth.

Professor Lawton concluded his innovation lecture by saying that, “During times of economic challenge such as those that exist today in Ireland, strategy is never more needed. A clear sense of purpose and direction, underpinned by an efficient and effective strategic toolkit, is essential to get you and your company to the higher ground of market success. Now is the time to think creatively, to act innovatively to achieve a strategic breakout. If you wait until tomorrow, someone elsewhere in Ireland, or in India or in Israel will have seized the initiative and turned opportunity into advantage.”

Dr Pat Frain, Director, NovaUCD, said, “We are delighted that Professor Lawton is here this evening to share his expertise and insights. Early-stage research-generated companies, with strong technology and intellectual property are being established at centres such as NovaUCD.  Such companies need a well developed strategy and implementation plan if they are to become outstanding high-growth companies. Given our current economic environment these are the types of innovative companies which Ireland needs to generate much needed high-quality employment opportunities.”

This innovation lecture was delivered as part of the InterTradeIreland All-island Innovation Programme. This Programme, a partnership between InterTradeIreland, Queen’s University Belfast, NovaUCD and the Centre for Innovation and Structural Change at NUI Galway, aims to promote and encourage innovation across the island of Ireland.

Speaking at the innovation lecture, Aidan Gough, InterTradeIreland Strategy & Policy Director said, “For the ambitious firm, achieving sustainable, innovation-led growth is both a complex and challenging imperative. Internal capabilities are no longer sufficient to gain and sustain competitive advantage as companies must draw on external resources and expertise across the island and beyond to be successful.”

ENDS

17 June 2011

For further information contact Micéal Whelan, NovaUCD, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, t: +353 1 716 3712.

Editors Notes

Professor Thomas Lawton, an Irish national, is Professor of Strategy and International Business at EMLYON Business School (France) one of Europe’s top ten business schools. He is also a visiting Professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (USA) and a visiting faculty member at Imperial College London. He has spent more than 15 years consulting for and advising leaders and managers on business development and market growth.

He has worked with a wide range of international companies and organisations in developing their current and future strategic leaders and charting their strategic trajectories. He has facilitated senior management and board level workshops and led executive and graduate programs on corporate strategy, leadership and international business dynamics at universities and corporations.

His research expertise focuses on business model innovation, strategic political management and organisational capabilities, political risk and internationalisation strategy and strategy process and practice. He is also a leading global authority on strategic management in the airline business.

He is the author or editor of 6 books including Strange Power (2000) and Cleared for Takeoff (2002). His book, Breakout Strategy: Meeting the Challenge of Double-Digit Growth, was published by McGraw-Hill Professional, New York, (2007) and has been widely commended for its global focus and relevance to practicing managers and aspiring leaders. His next book, Aligning for Advantage: Business Strategy for the Social and Political Arenas, will be published by Oxford University Press in 2012.

The InterTradeIreland All-Island Innovation Programme aims to promote and encourage innovation across the island of Ireland. Best international practice in an area of innovation is shared with business leaders, students, academics, knowledge transfer professionals and policy makers in each region via innovation lectures, seminars and master classes. The Programme is a partnership between InterTradeIreland, Queen’s University Belfast, NovaUCD and the Centre for Innovation and Structural Change, NUI Galway.

NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre, is the hub of innovation and knowledge transfer activities at University College Dublin. NovaUCD is responsible for the commercialisation of intellectual property arising from UCD research and for the development of co-operation with industry and business. NovaUCD as a purpose-built centre also nurtures high-tech and knowledge-intensive enterprises. NovaUCD has been funded through a unique public-private partnership that includes AIB Bank, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers, UCD and Xilinx.