Founder & CEO of The Big Bang Partnership Ltd & Idea Time. Innovator. Author. Business Coach. International Keynote Speaker & Facilitator. Director Technology & Transformation at Port of Tyne. Leader of the UK’s Maritime 2050 Innovation Hub. Non-Executive Director. Associate in Business Innovation and Creativity at University of York and Lancaster University.
Dr. Jo North has been the architect of her own successful and varied career.
Her experience ranges from accountancy, HR and sales management, to marketing, commercial business growth and customer experience at Board level. She has an exceptional track record for delivering innovation, business transformation and expanding the capability of leadership teams across a wide variety of industries – including tech, transport, utilities, energy, advanced manufacturing, government departments, retail, financial services, environmental science, charities and more.
Leading Sustainable Innovation
Dr. Jo‘s new book, Leading Sustainable Innovation: A Roadmap for Technical Environments will be published in September 2024 by global, award-winning business publisher Kogan Page. It’s available now for pre-order here from Kogan Page, Amazon, WH Smith, Waterstones and other major book sellers.
Leading Sustainable Innovation shows how to deliver eco-innovation within technical environments. It is tailored to support innovation leaders and managers in fields such as transport, engineering, infrastructure, energy, utilities and sciences.
This book offers practical methodologies, tools, frameworks and actionable steps that readers can implement to create lasting sustainable change for their projects and programs. Through following a step-by-step process, readers will craft a comprehensive roadmap for sustainable innovation, customized for any team or organization. It is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Leading Sustainable Innovation examines multiple drivers of sustainable innovation, such as innovation strategies, state-of-the-art technologies, circular solutions and organizational factors necessary for success. It emphasizes distinguishing good ideas from weak ones and provides guidance on building a sustainable innovation culture. It features real-world, global examples and case studies such as the Microsoft Sustainable Datacenters (global), the Sellafield Nuclear Power Station Decommissioning (UK), Wunsiedel (Germany), Clean Path (New York), Roads and Transport Authority (Dubai) and Agriphotovoltaic Assets (China), enabling readers to learn valuable lessons from adjacent industries.
Founder and CEO of The Big Bang Partnership Limited
Dr. Jo founded The Big Bang Partnership Limited, driven by her passion for individual and business growth.
She applies her research and extensive experience to help leaders and senior teams to achieve much more than they thought possible through coaching, expertly facilitated sessions, hands-on consulting and bespoke innovation programme development.
Thought-leadership and Media
Dr. Jo regularly appears in the media, sharing thought-leading content and insight on innovation strategy. You can read articles here in Raconteur , Start Ups Magazine and We are the City, and listen to some of her podcast interviews on the shows Influential Women and The Innovation Room.
Women in Leadership
Dr. Jo works to proactively support the development of women in business. Her specific area of expertise is helping women to gain the skills and confidence to progress and make an even greater positive impact through strategic thinking, innovation and influence through speaking and corporate programs. In November 2021 Dr. Jo was the winner of the Most Inspiring Female Business Leader of the Year Award by the NEE Chamber of Commerce.
Dr. Jo is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management.
Idea Time
To reach more people and share the evidence-based insights from both her research and commercial experience, Dr. Jo created Idea Time®, a series of high performance innovation programmes. Her goal was to create a time-efficient resource that equips busy innovators with scientifically supported tools and techniques to help them to make a step change in their personal impact and effectiveness by developing their entrepreneurial thinking, innovation event design and facilitation skills.
The programme has now become an established brand, built on the exceptional reputation of Dr Jo and her work. Today, the Idea Time ® portfolio consists of a book, a selection of online innovation and professional development courses, a community of like-minded people, and top-class events, keynotes and workshops led by Dr. Jo.
Dr. Jo North’s PhD Research
The differentiator for any organisation is the ideas that come from its people. As a commercially-focused high performer, Dr. Jo has always been fascinated by what causes some individuals to progress and reach new heights, where others seem to hit a level and stay there. She was so motivated that she decided to begin her PhD, while still working full time, to fully understand the characteristics and mindsets of these high-performing executives, and the measurable, commercial outcomes that they generate for their employing organisations. She successfully completed her PhD as a mature student as a result of this ground-breaking research. Here is a link to the summary of Dr. Jo’s thesis.
Connect with Dr. Jo North
Rob Beadle interviewed Jo, as part of his Professional Profile series. Click here to read more.
