About Us

Tenshi is an innovation consultancy with significant experience in open innovation practices, innovation process management platforms and early stage design.

As an innovation consultantcy, we understand how to help organisations to become curious, to be inspired, and to better articulate the innovation challenges they face. Partnering with us creates meaningful, useful and original solutions. We stimulate innovativeness within our clients’ teams and staff, embedding design thinking and creating strategic, commercial, long term value.

Tenshi means Angel in Japanese, and was formed after recognising the need to accelerate innovation in SME’s, by the UK Government. We’ve delivered Innovate UK’s ‘IC tomorrow’ programme over the past 5 years and have successfully written and led other innovation consortia. In early 2016 a MBO led to a broadening of our offering.

Leadership

Victoria Milne

CEO

Victoria is a qualified, award winning industrial designer with a wide range of skill and expertise in innovation, branding and strategy. She has worked internationally for Philips Design, Unilever, Saatchi & Saatchi and the Brand Union amongst others. In a consulting capacity throughout her career Victoria delivered design led innovation strategy which has revolutionised clients including Wedgewood Royal Doulton, The Banking Council of South Africa and RentWorks.

Steve Price

Managing Director

After a background in Computer Science and Management Consulting Steve has spent the last 10 years advising on and implementing innovation strategy in a variety of organisations across the Public Sector, academia, NGOs & large corporations. He worked with the Technology Strategy Board for three and a half years where he set up a successful digital programme in Tech City and led the creation of a smart city based programme for Amey PLC to facilitate them in delivering better services for their clients.

Our Values

We deliver successful innovation solutions with limited resources by identifying and using the strengths of your organisation whilst finding collaboration opportunities which will benefit both parties.

We will consistently deliver unique, tailored solutions to stimulate innovation within your organisation.

Impactful innovation means stepping outside your comfort zone, we will help you to choose an innovation journey to deliver maximum value and grow beyond what was thought possible.

Case Studies

Preventing injuries amongst runners with WWP

The Client Walk with Path (WWP) are a UK health-tech startup, who have developed assistive solutions to prevent falls for the elderly and people with Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, neuropathy, or those who have suffered from a stroke. Their existing product range aims to not only prevent falls and therefore injury, but hopes to improve an...

Empowering citizens in cities with Trueform

The Client Trueform are a UK based medium-sized industrial engineering and design company specialising in the manufacturing of public signage and wayfinding for all modes of passenger transport. Operating internationally, Trueform holds contracts with major cities like London, New York and Shanghai, for the design, manufacture, installation and...

Securing public innovation funding for Fidel

The Client Fidel are a digital technology start-up focused on improving the customer experience in the area of brand loyalty. They aim to take the pain out of the customer loyalty process by linking loyalty schemes to standard debit or credit cards removing the need for additional cards or apps. The Problem Fidel had developed the idea for their...

Stimulating innovation for a major credit card supplier

The Client The client provides payment, travel and expense management solutions for individuals and businesses of all sizes. They are the world's largest card issuer by purchase volume and process millions of transactions daily as the premium network for high-spending cardmembers. The Problem The client promotes a strong culture of innovation...

Delivering warmth with Baxi

The Client Through their heating, hot water products and the iconic back boiler Baxi have been keeping Britain’s homes nice and warm for 150 years. They are a market leader in the manufacturing of gas and electric home heating products. Operating as part of the BDR Thermea Group, Baxi owns nine major brands, including Main Heating, Megaflo,...

Scoping regional innovation for Bath Spa University

The Client Bath Spa University seeks to be a leading university in creativity, culture and enterprise; they transform students’ lives through inspirational teaching and research. The university specialises in art and design, education and liberal arts and is currently growing its focus on enterprise. The Problem With the changes to the university...

Creating an open innovation platform for Amey

The Client Amey are the largest infrastructure services company in the UK. They work for public and regulated sector clients including local councils and transport providers to create better places for people to live, work and travel. The Problem Amey’s clients were demanding more efficient services and reduced costs in response to public...

Making open data more accessible for Staffordshire

The Client Staffordshire University are a modern, vocationally inspired university focusing on the areas of creative arts, business and computing. The university put student experience at the heart of what they do and are also committed to becoming a key part of the local digital economy and enhancing economic growth in the Staffordshire region....

The use of Design Thinking in increasing SME Productivity

However, Design Thinking has not yet become a mainstream innovation methodology. Whilst private sector training exists, these are not directed to the SME’s who need it most.

Tackling the UK’s Productivity Problem

We face a productivity puzzle; however we have a significant amount of research that supports and even directs us toward a powerful solution. Design Thinking has the potential to step change the UK’s productivity.

Using Open Innovation to help better communicate roadworks activity with citizens.

We ran a challenge-led open innovation trial, called ‘Dare to Solve’, looking for digital solutions to increase citizen awareness and knowledge of roadworks.

How do you define Innovation?

Innovation is a very bandied around term in the world of business today but when we strip it back to its origins, what does it really mean?

How to benchmark your organisations Innovation Maturity

Often it is necessary to motivate for budget for innovation programmes. One of the easiest ways to achieve this is to assess the current state of innovation maturity in the organisation.

Innovation borne out of a challenge

Running challenge led accelerator trials are highly effective in fostering a culture of innovation that can in turn generate growth.

Insights lead to innovation, but what is an insight?

An insight is something in (your) sight, that wasn’t, before now. It exists already, but not something that you’ve opened your eyes to before.

The Lloyd’s Register Safety Accelerator

Working together with Lloyd’s Register we have been setting up a Safety Accelerator, to accelerate the adoption of digital technology for safety.

How to successfully apply for grant funding

Its not only difficult for businesses to get traditional forms of investment, it can also be very time consuming and expensive. However the opportunity to receive public funds and resource support, if your solution fits the criteria for a government grant, is a powerful enabler.

The Smart City and it’s Forgotten Citizen

The benefits of finding out what people want, before making decisions based on the limitations of your technology.