Making Connected Places a Reality

The UK is in a period of major transition, with ambitious targets across transport, infrastructure, and climate. The scale of change is vast, from the creation of Great British Railways and projects like HS2, to the urgent need to meet Net Zero commitments. These initiatives are high-profile, politically sensitive, and financially demanding.

Suppliers are feeling the pressure. Following the financial fallout of HS2, Government is pursuing cost-cutting measures in the current control period (CP7), which are hitting the supply chain hard.

Catapult defines a Connected Place as one where infrastructure, systems, and the local economy work seamlessly to improve quality of life. Synonymous with ‘Smart Cities’, Connected Places use technology and innovation to create sustainable, resilient, and productive communities.

So how do we make Connected Places a reality, and what makes this approach different from previous infrastructure programmes?

Read our latest insight article "Innovation: The Engine of Connected Places" here.

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"Innovation is too often misunderstood, seen as a ‘nice to have’, confused with incremental improvement, or assumed to emerge naturally over time."

Innovation at Oaklin

Our core innovation offerings

Innovation Machine

Big teams. Bold transformation. Long-term impact.

A proven, large-scale, people-focused innovation sprint model that turns disruption into transformation. We help you build, test, and scale breakthrough solutions that drive measurable, organisation-wide change.

Innovation Culture

Empowered Teams. Engaged Leaders. Sustained Innovation.

A sustainable framework that equips leaders and teams with practical tools, mindsets, and behaviours. We help you to embed innovation into everyday practice, so that your people can confidently create lasting impact themselves.

Innovation Trebuchet

Small teams. Big ideas. Half a day.

A fast, focused workshop for senior leaders and teams to tackle a live challenge. We support you to rapidly generate and prototype novel ideas that spark immediate solutions and momentum.

Latest Thinking

Oaklin's Innovation Culture Framework

At Oaklin, we don’t see innovation as the preserve of a select few with Steve Jobs type genius. Rather it’s an entirely accessible spectrum of behaviours, methods, processes and tools that any organisation’s people can practise. There are simple steps that you as a business leader can take to develop a culture of innovation in your organisation. Through our ‘innovation culture framework’ we will help you on your journey to a culture of innovation.

Oaklin's Innovation Culture Framework

Creating the space for innovation

There is an undeniable constant in business and society, that innovation is a relentless wave bringing consistent change and disruption.

Tasked with not only keeping pace with this change but driving it, businesses and their leaders have a hefty job on their hands. Innovation at pace and scale (the kind required by the ever-changing marketplace that businesses currently operate in) requires space, time to think, to explore and to experiment.

So, the question facing business leaders today isn’t, can we afford to invest in this space; it’s whether we can afford the consequences of not doing so.

Creating the space for innovation

Speak to our specialists

Danny Kelly

Partner

Alex Walsh

Associate Partner

Joe Thomas

Consultant