John Rainford
John runs a business innovation and marketing consultancy and was fortunate to be offered a scholarship working with the American marketing guru, Philip Kotler at Kellogg Business school in Chicago. He was subsequently awarded a second scholarship at the Richard Ivey Business School in Western Ontario.
Before these trips to North America, John had already made a name for himself as a business coach for small businesses, rocketing them to high growth and profitability within a relatively short space of time. John uses creativity as an ‘enabler’ for innovation. A start-up company using Strawberry Fields special brand of innovation creation, specialising in computer hardware became market leader within 12 months, in a fiercely competitive market.
Working as an innovation consultant for Royal Dutch Shell, John developed creative programmes and creative tools such as the “Darwin Innovation Matrix” that helped Shell turn out many new patents and services. His innovation techniques helped with new and radical business models. Shell were so impressed they sent him to deliver his workshops all over the world to help with business development and business engagement. They asked him to help launch a brand new company called Shell Global Solutions (SGS). SGS grew from a research and technology unit with a minimal marketing budget at the beginning and now has a turnover of over $1billion per year, John acknowledges that the success of Shell Global Solutions was due to the management style and the distinctive innovation culture of the organisation.
John is a visiting Fellow and teaches Entrepreneurship (MBA) and Creativity for Competitive Advantage at the University of Birmingham Business School. He has taught “how to innovate” at the London Business school and teaches innovation techniques for business people at the University of Hong Kong and at the National University of Singapore and closer to home at the Ryan (Air) Academy for Creativity and Entrepreneurship in Dublin. John runs creative workshops for the Chartered Institute of Marketing as part of their accreditation process. John is Director of Rapid Innovation for Business Development at Birmingham City University and helps to develop fast track methods for business growth.
