About the Centre for Innovative Products and Services
The Centre for Innovative Products and Services (CIPS) is a new research centre at Cranfield School of Management, formed in 2006. The Centre's aim is to develop leading edge management tools, techniques and approaches that enhance the capability of companies to develop successful new products and services. Our faculty team has extensive business experience and this helps us in working with companies to identify areas where research can make inroads into the understanding of innovation management. The Centre works closely with companies in both the manufacturing and service sectors in a number of ways:
- Research. The research we conduct is applied in nature. We work closely with organizations to understand the issues involved and develop approaches which can be used by management to improve performance. In addition to being practice-oriented in the topics which we choose to research, we place a strong emphasis on conducting research in a way to produce the highest quality of results (that is, we make no compromises in the rigour with which we design our studies). We are currently looking for companies to work with us on our projects.
- Seminars and In-company Workshops. CIPS offers several seminars on key innovation topics. These include our flagship programme Managing Innovation, which gives an overview for senior managers and project leaders involved with innovation. Other seminars cover product development, intellectual property and portfolio management. Much of our work on innovation is related to companies' confidential strategies and so we regularly run in-company workshops for senior management teams.
- Publishing. Our seminar and research work with companies generates a steady flow of publications. Typical outputs are academic papers, case studies, management articles, reports and a recent book. We have also prepared a poster summarizing the key tools and techniques for managing innovation.