The traditional approach of large companies has been to do as many things as possible themselves, and focus on controlling most of the value chain internally. This is especially true of innovation.

But next generation products are evolving quickly in terms of product and technologies, and traditional ways of working can’t always keep pace. 

We recognise that we need a different approach, and that we can't do it alone. That's why we are embracing external partnerships to create an open ecosystem so we can adopt agile practices to interact with – and learn from – consumers during our product development. 

Our strong capabilities in consumer understanding, our disciplined, efficient supply chain and our responsible approach to business is guiding us in selecting partners. Now, we are moving to a new world where these core strengths, combined with focused and selective innovation, need to be supplemented by new thinking and the ability to commercialise innovation, at scale and with pace.

One key way we are stepping up our innovation quality and pace is by building new, deep partnerships – with product designers, science labs, third-party manufacturers and digital providers. What I love most about this partnership approach is that it brings more diversity of thought into our working lives.

Working this way enables Imperial, as the smallest of the global players in our sector, to out-compete larger competitors.