Our innovation services
CCB Consulting helps UK SMEs turn customer and market insight into decision ready innovation, new offers, and measurable growth. We combine future back strategy with rapid validation, so you prioritise the few bets with evidence of demand, clear unit economics, and a delivery path your team can execute. Clients typically get a sharper innovation focus, faster learning cycles, and an operating rhythm with clear owners, decision gates, and KPIs that keep momentum.
Request for Proposal
To explore how our consulting services can support your objectives, please submit a request for proposal. Our team will review your requirements and respond with a tailored solution designed to meet your goals.
Innovation strategy and roadmap
We help you define a practical innovation direction that fits your ambition, constraints, and market reality. This starts with clarifying the outcomes you are aiming for and the few opportunity areas where innovation will create an edge. We then translate that focus into a prioritised roadmap that leadership can fund, teams can deliver, and the business can measure.
You leave with an innovation thesis (where to play and how you will win), a manageable portfolio of initiatives, and clear owners, decision points, and KPIs to keep momentum.
Typical outputs
- Innovation maturity snapshot and gap analysis
- Opportunity map and prioritised initiative backlog
- Roadmap with milestones, owners, and decision gates
- KPI framework with leading indicators and outcome measures
Culture transformation
We help set up scalable innovation processes that guide ideas from inception to market launch. Our method focuses on shifting organizational culture to encourage smart risks and experimentation, while keeping structured frameworks for growth.
This transformation supports a more adaptive environment where teams can innovate consistently, leading to sustained progress and alignment with business aims.
Business model innovation
Sometimes the strongest innovation is changing how you create and capture value. We help you assess business model options and test what works, including new revenue models, partner-led routes to market, channel shifts, and packaging changes.
This work is particularly valuable when growth is constrained by the current commercial model, when margins are under pressure, or when new entrants are changing customer expectations.
Typical outputs
- Business model options and unit economics view
- Assumptions map and validation experiments
- Recommendation and transition plan (go-to-market, operating impacts, risks)
Product, process and service innovation
Product innovation consulting
We transform customer insight and market trends into products that create measurable business value. For SMEs, product innovation needs to be commercially grounded and execution-ready. We help you define the product concept, validate the riskiest assumptions early, and build a clear path from prototype to launch.
We define success measures early (adoption, margin, retention, payback) and translate the concept into a short test plan. Validation can include customer interviews, pricing and packaging tests, landing pages, concierge trials, or prototype testing. The aim is to prove demand and unit economics quickly, then move into build and launch with confidence.
We focus on the questions that determine success: what problem is being solved, why customers will switch, what drives willingness to pay, and what is required to deliver reliably at your scale.
Typical outputs
- Customer problem definition and value proposition
- Concept options, prioritisation rationale, and prototype plan
- Test results and decision-ready recommendation (build, pivot, stop)
- Product requirements and launch plan inputs (pricing, channels, sales enablement)
Process innovation and technology enablement
Innovation is not only about new offers. Many SMEs unlock significant value by redesigning how work is done, then enabling it with fit-for-purpose technology. We help you improve speed, quality, and consistency by removing friction, clarifying standards, and building processes that scale.
Where technology is needed, we focus on targeted use cases with measurable impact, such as workflow automation, better customer data, smarter forecasting, and decision support. The emphasis is on practical integration and adoption, not tools for their own sake.
Typical outputs
- Current and target process maps
- Automation and AI use case shortlist with impact logic
- Pilot plan and implementation backlog
- Operational KPIs and dashboards aligned to outcomes
Service innovation
We design differentiated service experiences that strengthen customer loyalty and market position. This includes mapping the customer journey, identifying points of friction and value, and redesigning the service so it is easier to buy, easier to deliver, and harder to copy.
We design the service experience and the operating model together, so it is easy to sell and consistent to deliver. That includes service standards, handoffs, roles, control points, and measurement. The goal is a service that scales without losing quality, while improving customer confidence, loyalty, and repeat purchase.
Where relevant, we explore new service models such as subscriptions, bundled offers, managed services, platform-enabled delivery, or tiered service levels. The emphasis is on creating a service proposition that customers understand quickly and that your operations can deliver consistently.
Typical outputs
- Customer journey map and service experience blueprint
- Service model options and operating implications
- Pilot design, service standards, and measurement approach
- Commercial and delivery plan for rollout
Innovation capability building
Sustainable innovation doesn’t happen by chance, it requires the right skills, structures, and governance systems to support continuous progress. We help organizations embed innovation as a core competency, ensuring teams are equipped not just for one initiative, but for ongoing transformation.
Our approach focuses on three pillars: vision, capability, and culture. We co-develop a clear innovation vision aligned with your business objectives, design the governance frameworks to manage innovation effectively, and build the skills and mindsets needed to make innovation part of everyday work.
Key services include
- Developing innovation visions and governance structures.
- Designing innovation teams, labs, and partner networks.
- Conducting workshops on design thinking, agile methods, and problem-solving.
- Fostering cultures that encourage experimentation and creativity.
Change management and implementation support
To drive innovation, we provide expertise in preparing organizations, aligning cultures, and executing plans effectively. This involves building support, minimizing pushback, and generating enthusiasm for new approaches.
We analyze impacts across departments, identify advocates, and create messages that highlight innovation’s benefits. Our support covers all implementation phases, from planning and engagement to redesigning processes and integrating technology, helping teams experiment and scale successes.
Implementation services include
- Project planning, stakeholder analysis, and readiness assessment with leadership sponsorship.
- Interactive workshops, change champion development, and technology integration support.
- Performance tracking, adoption measurement, and recognition systems for innovative behaviors.
This service fits UK SMEs seeking growth through new products, services, or commercial models. It is also relevant if you are seeing changing customer needs, new entrants, or technology shifts, and you want a disciplined way to innovate without wasted activity.
We do both. We can lead strategy and portfolio work, and we can stay involved through prototypes, pilots, and early scaling so plans translate into results.
We define a set of success measures upfront, including leading indicators (tests run, conversion signals, adoption) and outcome measures (revenue, margin, retention, cycle time, cost-to-serve). We then link these to a simple benefits tracker and a governance rhythm, so progress is visible and decisions happen quickly.
Validation means turning assumptions into tests and data. Depending on the situation, this can include customer interviews, landing page tests, pricing experiments, concierge trials, prototype testing, or small pilots. The output is a decision-ready recommendation: build, pivot, or stop, with the reasons and evidence documented.
We prioritise ideas using a simple set of criteria: customer value, commercial potential, feasibility, risk, and strategic fit. We then identify the biggest assumptions behind the top options and design tests to validate them. Investment is staged, so you scale only what has evidence.
We support four areas: product innovation, service innovation, business model innovation, and process or operational innovation. The right focus depends on where growth and margin pressure sit today. Many SMEs start with one priority area, then expand into a balanced pipeline once governance and measurement are in place.