Steer Davies Gleave hacks its way into innovation!

Last week Steer Davies Gleave hosted its first HackDay where seventeen of our consultants became ‘hackers’ for a day and worked during 12 intensive hours on innovative solutions to a number of internal and external challenges to SDG and the transport industry.

Fuelled by copious cups of coffee the consultants were distributed into four teams and each team scoped and developed their hacks in the anticipation of presenting their efforts to a panel of senior staff, including our CEO Hugh Jones, at the end of the day. All of this was achieved whilst graciously humouring the organisers who encouraged them to participate in ‘stimulating’ side-activities including a virtual table tennis competition and completing rubix cubes.

The final products addressed a range of problems: streamlining and enhancing internal processes, using the latest data visualisation software to interpret large datasets and providing solutions to clients’ funding constraints. Over the course of the next few months, the teams will harness the momentum, excitement and creativity of the day to further progress their ideas and contribute to the legacy of the day.

At Steer Davies Gleave we take research and innovation very seriously, actively investing in the development of new ideas and products, and encouraging our staff to think creatively and imaginatively about their work. The HackDay was first conceived at a meeting of the Research and Innovation Club, an internal group which regularly generates innovative new ideas and research projects.