Phil Webster
Phil is a strategy consultant specializing in technology and innovation management, with an academic background in the life sciences.
Areas of Focus
Education
Newcastle University (UK)
MSc Industrial Biotechnology
University of York (UK)
BSc Biology
Phil is a Partner in the Global Technology & Innovation Management Practice of Arthur D. Little, and is based in London. He has worked internationally across the healthcare and life sciences, agri-food and chemicals sectors.
Since joining Arthur D. Little in 2006, Phil’s work has focused on helping businesses set innovation strategy and identify new growth opportunities underpinned by effective science and technology. He also works with the corporate innovation centers and quality management functions of some of the world’s largest companies to improve their capabilities through better business processes, organizational structures and governance models.
He also works with universities, research institutes and Government in setting national science policy, defining technology roadmaps and finding effective ways to use and manage intellectual property.
Before joining Arthur D. Little, Phil worked in the agricultural biotechnology industry. He has a passion for achieving responsible business performance through innovation, and particular interests in sustainable agriculture, clean energy and renewable chemicals.
Strengthening resilience in food & beverage product development
The food and beverage industry is experiencing rapid, unpredictable disruptions driven by supply scarcity and commodity price fluctuations. This presents an existential challenge in getting safe, consistent products to market. In this Viewpoint, we identify practical actions to strengthen resilience and build supply chain security through a combination of supply chain innovation and improved product development approaches.
Democratizing Tech
Digitizing government services and processes is crucial to delivering greater efficiency and increased economic competitiveness, bridging equality gaps, and meeting the changing needs of citizens. Yet many government solutions failed the stress test of the pandemic, wasting scarce resources and adding to suffering.
How to build a unicorn in the post-pandemic inflationary world
The global boom in start-up valuations has abruptly stopped. What felt like never-ending growth in venture capital and private equity investments that created a conveyor belt of new tech disruptors has been replaced by a landscape of failed initial public offerings (IPOs), dramatically lower valuations, and job cuts. Q3 2022 saw 37 new USD1bn+ valued tech unicorns created – a year earlier, the figure had been 165. Venture funding dropped by over 50 percent year-on-year.
Time to renew your pilot’s license?
Five technologies board members and CEOs must keep on their radar screens
Why the bio-based materials market is finally poised for growth
This is now changing rapidly, reinvigorating the market. Demand is growing, driven by increasingly environmentally conscious consumers and governments’ Net Zero targets requiring consumer-focused product companies to achieve sustainability. Finally, technology breakthroughs are bringing down production costs for bio-based materials, while improving their performance to make them comparable or superior to fossil-based counterparts.
Appetite for disruption – Making the most of the future of food
Being the leader of a global food and beverage business has been anything but easy over recent years. Going back a decade, the industry had a reputation for being fairly stable and conservative, dominated by a limited number of global brands that delivered steady growth and margins. Since then, the industry has been shaken by a succession of disruptions, including sluggish demand for traditional core products, rapidly changing consumer patterns and preferences, accelerating technological developments, and evolving attitudes towards the environmental and social impacts of food production.
Corporate/ start-up collaboration
Why is it important for large corporations to work with start-ups?
It’s well known that businesses are being disrupted faster than ever before. Innovation launch and adoption cycles are dropping. For credit cards to reach 100 million users? 25 years. Online banking? 10 years. WhatsApp? 2 years. Candy Crush? A matter of months.
Entrepreneurial start-ups are one of the main driving forces for this acceleration. Almost 65% of Fortune 500 companies joined the list in the last 20 years.
Driving transformation in research & technology organizations
Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) are under growing pressure to stay abreast of rapidly evolving business or national science and technology priorities and to demonstrate greater impact. They therefore undergo continual strategic and operational change to adapt, but in some cases, transformation programs can underperform. Often this is because there is no real incentive to behave differently due to problems with how performance is measured and reported, and how incentives are created and aligned.
Sustainable portfolio steering
Understanding the sustainability risks and opportunities across the product portfolio is vital to creating tangible business value. However, assessing every product in-depth, in every market, can appear daunting. This article outlines how sustainable portfolio steering can provide a simple and comprehensive approach to delivering strong sustainability performance across the organization.
The next generation of corporate incubators
While large organizations have enthusiastically embraced the creation of in-house corporate incubators to identify and support breakthrough growth opportunities with start-ups, the results have been disappointing for many. This article argues that to overcome these challenges and successfully scale up new opportunities, corporates have to embrace next-generation models.
The Future of Innovation Districts
The way in which organizations innovate, and places where they are based to do this, have changed profoundly over the last decade due to two overall trends – convergence and disruption. Companies have moved away from closed innovation models to more open approaches in which organizations and places work in collaborative ecosystems and networks, forming “uncommon partnerships” between previously unrelated industries.
Phil is a Partner in the Global Technology & Innovation Management Practice of Arthur D. Little, and is based in London. He has worked internationally across the healthcare and life sciences, agri-food and chemicals sectors.
Since joining Arthur D. Little in 2006, Phil’s work has focused on helping businesses set innovation strategy and identify new growth opportunities underpinned by effective science and technology. He also works with the corporate innovation centers and quality management functions of some of the world’s largest companies to improve their capabilities through better business processes, organizational structures and governance models.
He also works with universities, research institutes and Government in setting national science policy, defining technology roadmaps and finding effective ways to use and manage intellectual property.
Before joining Arthur D. Little, Phil worked in the agricultural biotechnology industry. He has a passion for achieving responsible business performance through innovation, and particular interests in sustainable agriculture, clean energy and renewable chemicals.
Strengthening resilience in food & beverage product development
The food and beverage industry is experiencing rapid, unpredictable disruptions driven by supply scarcity and commodity price fluctuations. This presents an existential challenge in getting safe, consistent products to market. In this Viewpoint, we identify practical actions to strengthen resilience and build supply chain security through a combination of supply chain innovation and improved product development approaches.
Democratizing Tech
Digitizing government services and processes is crucial to delivering greater efficiency and increased economic competitiveness, bridging equality gaps, and meeting the changing needs of citizens. Yet many government solutions failed the stress test of the pandemic, wasting scarce resources and adding to suffering.
How to build a unicorn in the post-pandemic inflationary world
The global boom in start-up valuations has abruptly stopped. What felt like never-ending growth in venture capital and private equity investments that created a conveyor belt of new tech disruptors has been replaced by a landscape of failed initial public offerings (IPOs), dramatically lower valuations, and job cuts. Q3 2022 saw 37 new USD1bn+ valued tech unicorns created – a year earlier, the figure had been 165. Venture funding dropped by over 50 percent year-on-year.
Time to renew your pilot’s license?
Five technologies board members and CEOs must keep on their radar screens
Why the bio-based materials market is finally poised for growth
This is now changing rapidly, reinvigorating the market. Demand is growing, driven by increasingly environmentally conscious consumers and governments’ Net Zero targets requiring consumer-focused product companies to achieve sustainability. Finally, technology breakthroughs are bringing down production costs for bio-based materials, while improving their performance to make them comparable or superior to fossil-based counterparts.
Appetite for disruption – Making the most of the future of food
Being the leader of a global food and beverage business has been anything but easy over recent years. Going back a decade, the industry had a reputation for being fairly stable and conservative, dominated by a limited number of global brands that delivered steady growth and margins. Since then, the industry has been shaken by a succession of disruptions, including sluggish demand for traditional core products, rapidly changing consumer patterns and preferences, accelerating technological developments, and evolving attitudes towards the environmental and social impacts of food production.
Corporate/ start-up collaboration
Why is it important for large corporations to work with start-ups?
It’s well known that businesses are being disrupted faster than ever before. Innovation launch and adoption cycles are dropping. For credit cards to reach 100 million users? 25 years. Online banking? 10 years. WhatsApp? 2 years. Candy Crush? A matter of months.
Entrepreneurial start-ups are one of the main driving forces for this acceleration. Almost 65% of Fortune 500 companies joined the list in the last 20 years.
Driving transformation in research & technology organizations
Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) are under growing pressure to stay abreast of rapidly evolving business or national science and technology priorities and to demonstrate greater impact. They therefore undergo continual strategic and operational change to adapt, but in some cases, transformation programs can underperform. Often this is because there is no real incentive to behave differently due to problems with how performance is measured and reported, and how incentives are created and aligned.
Sustainable portfolio steering
Understanding the sustainability risks and opportunities across the product portfolio is vital to creating tangible business value. However, assessing every product in-depth, in every market, can appear daunting. This article outlines how sustainable portfolio steering can provide a simple and comprehensive approach to delivering strong sustainability performance across the organization.
The next generation of corporate incubators
While large organizations have enthusiastically embraced the creation of in-house corporate incubators to identify and support breakthrough growth opportunities with start-ups, the results have been disappointing for many. This article argues that to overcome these challenges and successfully scale up new opportunities, corporates have to embrace next-generation models.
The Future of Innovation Districts
The way in which organizations innovate, and places where they are based to do this, have changed profoundly over the last decade due to two overall trends – convergence and disruption. Companies have moved away from closed innovation models to more open approaches in which organizations and places work in collaborative ecosystems and networks, forming “uncommon partnerships” between previously unrelated industries.
More About Phil
- Newcastle University (UK)MSc Industrial Biotechnology
- University of York (UK)BSc Biology