The triggers for change in an organisation may become the opportunities and the specific leverages for innovation. The primary triggers for change in more recent years have been;

• the introduction of a product or service from one sector across to another sector
• deep insights to a limited element of an existing product, from which a new product is created
• the exploitation of a new technology.

Research & Development is frequently the vehicle for the last three of these initiatives, automation through mature technologies, development of new products and services, and adoption and exploitation of new technologies. This is represented in the organisation through an R&D Department or Centre. The advantage of this organisational approach is that it has a greater probability of being formalised with a greater probability of success in implementation. The research element will help to elucidate and validate, and it may help to reveal many further opportunities.

This does not imply that innovation is confined to the R&D Department. The ideation, the use of initiative, typically generated by greater empowerment of employees is organisation wide. The competence centres for IT and Hr and for initiatives on Lean or Agile operation are also major potential contributors to innovation.

See model of Innovation and R&D Model developed by the CSE. It shows the gradual bottom up approach to maturing and elaborating the use of an R&D project environment to achieving greater innovation and knowledge driven opportunities.