A recipe for success?

Dr Aimée Fox will discuss the British Army's approach to learning and innovation during the First World War.

Innovation is big business. Whether we're talking about blue-chip companies, multinationals, or the Defence community, the ability to innovate is associated with greater competitive advantage and versatility.

But innovation isn't just a 21st-century concern. Over 100 years ago, the British Army was thinking creatively, exploiting new opportunities, and attempting to win the innovation game against its adversaries in the First World War.

Drawing on key themes from her award-winning book, Dr Aimée Fox will consider the importance of culture, military doctrine, and personnel to the Army's ability to learn and innovate during the war.

She will show how innovation was fraught with friction, failure and risk. She will also seek to draw out lessons for contemporary British armed forces, particularly with the recent focus from Chiefs of the Defence Staff on the importance of innovation in the contemporary and future operating environments.

Dr Aimée Fox is a lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King's College London. She earned her doctorate in 2015 from the University of Birmingham. Her first book, 'Learning to Fight: Military Innovation and Change in the British Army, 1914-1918' was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. It won the British Army Military Book of the Year 2018 and the Society for Army Historical Research's Templer Best First Book Prize 2018.

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