Leeds-based change enablement specialist – CDS – has recruited Dom Baker as its new head of innovation.
He joins the firm with a creative career spanning design, customer experience, and production roles, including 15 years specifically in innovation-focused positions.
Most recently he was innovation director for a range of household brands and has created and run successful programmes for some of the world鈥檚 best known organisations, such as Public Health England, Jaguar Land Rover, Google, NatWest, the Royal Navy, Arthritis Research, the BBC, and Transport for London.
Drawing upon his ability to determine where organisational, technological, and societal obstacles restrict effective user engagement, his approach is to 鈥榝ind a way, or make a way鈥�.
Baker said: 鈥淚鈥檓 hard-wired to focus on people – 聽the users of a process, product or project, both internal and external.
鈥淚 love to unpick what they want, what鈥檚 in their heads, and how we can devise different approaches and solutions to drive behavioural and system change.
鈥淭ransformation is an overused term in the tech space and wider business environment. But the need to transform remains, and inspiration for how this should happen can often be found in the most surprising places.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about exploring, designing and testing the best solutions, with a clear view of how they聽 scale. And it鈥檚 my job to support CDS clients 鈥� as well as our 170 -strong team – to uncover insights,聽 get innovation started, embed the right behaviours, and leverage the power of relevant technologies, to enable problem solving that never stops.鈥�
CDS鈥� marketing and innovation director, Adrian Odds, said: 鈥淭he only constant in our clients鈥� world is change, and innovation is often the catalyst that enables them to take a new view of what needs to change, when and how.
鈥淲e often encounter private and public sector challenges that can be addressed with user-centred innovation strategies, which prove value quickly, are scalable, and can be safely deployed with good governance.
鈥淩esolving these challenges leads to positive user, stakeholder, and operational outcomes, resulting in improved experiences, greater engagement levels, and revenue growth.
鈥淒om鈥檚 experience means that he deeply understands both the needs of users, and the knottiest of challenges that large and complex organisations typically face.
鈥淗e has an ambitious outlook and an unswerving drive聽 to create things that work well, look good, and deliver the impact they set out to achieve. Dom is the ultimate problem solver – and the perfect hire for our growing innovation team.鈥�
CDS clients include some of the UK鈥檚 largest and most important public bodies, such as The Cabinet Office and Home Office, as well as private sector clients in regulated markets like financial services, healthcare and education.