Coutts Nicholas

Innovation Advisory Board Member, UNLEASH – Innovation Lab for SDGs

An expert in the design, development and marketing of services, he has developed tools, process and services that help companies go to market more effectively and efficiently.
He is developing new techniques and software for the systemic management of benefits, change and value in organisations.
At IBM, Nicholas was Vice President, Global Distribution Channel Strategy, having been Director of Channels and Business Partner Management, EMEA, with a revenue of >$3bn of sales via business partners and then
This responsibility included the development and application of the methods and processes used by the brands, known as Routes to Market, to reach and support customers via the global network of 48,000 business partners. His team grew sales via distribution channels to over $4bn.
He has undertaken assignments in strategy development, performance management, segmentation, impact estimation, customer experience design, optimisation modelling and prioritisation of objectives.
Since 2003, Nicholas has been a partner of Business Finland (formerly Finpro), facilitating workshops on channel strategy and development and routes to market. His experience in channels include working as a value added reseller, a systems integrator, a distributor and a vendor.
He has also worked on designing and implementing systems in manufacturing and services industries, including aerospace, automotive, fire safety, digital printing and flexible electronics.
He works with ETICoop in France which has created 200 startups since 2013 and as a member of the Innovation Advisory Board of UNLEASH – a global innovation lab which gathers top talents to collaborate on solutions that help meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Nicholas is a Visiting Lecturer; past and current collaborations include: Imperial College (Management and Business for Computing Engineering; Design-led New Venture Creation); Imperial College Business School (executive education; IE&D MBA: Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Design) and the Royal College of Art (service design; IDE: innovation design engineering; GID: global innovation design; design enterprise) the Ecole Supérieure of Advanced Industrial Technologies (ESTIA) (masters in systemics), aalto University (executive education) and the University of Tampere (executive education: service design); University of Barcelona Business School (Masters in Business Innovation).
A member of the Society of Projectics: the science of projects addressing complexity in systems; he is an editor of the Journal of Projectics.
He has a Masters in economics, from King’s College, Cambridge and has interests in several early stage companies developing innovative products and services, including BlindMate, Claned, PlasmaTrack, Plumis, Repindex, Smartology and Waratek.