Case study - Qinetic & GCHQ
QinetiQ and GCHQ are two seperate entities within the UK’s defence and security infrastructure with a working relationship. QinetiQ is a privatised British Defence Technology Company formed in 2001, and provides a range of defence and security services including R&D, test and evaluation, and cyber and digital resilience solutions to government and commercial customers. GCHQ is one of the UK’s three intelligence and security agencies, responsible for signals intelligence and cybersecurity.
Enhanced collaboration, communication skills, trust and innovation-led mindsets
From transactional working to genuine collaborative engagement & shared innovation vocabulary.
Working knowledge of design thinking, lean start-up and outcome-driven design
Implementable solutions to live operational problems & enhanced potential
Despite their complementary capabilities, QinetiQ and GCHQ maintained a transactional working relationship where co-location was mistaken for genuine collaboration. Different leadership cultures (private sector versus civil service, engineering-driven versus intelligence-driven) created friction in joint working. Limited user empathy and resistance to new approaches prevented both organisations from fully leveraging their collective capabilities to deliver innovative solutions to complex national security challenges. As both organisations navigated significant transformation while responding to evolving threats, the need for more effective innovation-led partnership became critical.
MAB was already driving a tech-led change programme to simplify the customer and adviser journey. But the leadership team knew that without a unifying culture, the transformation risked stalling.
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A six-month pilot programme led by innovation strategy and leadership experts designed to build a connected culture of innovation across both organisations. The programme worked on two live operational challenges:
The programme integrated proven methodologies within a comprehensive framework:
Established a Culture Design Group of leaders, managers, and colleagues to surface real issues and define the future culture.
Leaders were upskilled and supported through mentoring, and cultural metrics were introduced to track progress.
The Leading Innovation Programme successfully transformed a transactional partnership into an innovation-led collaboration by developing leadership capabilities, establishing common innovation language, and equipping teams with practical frameworks for tackling complex challenges. In an era where adversaries innovate continuously and threats evolve rapidly, this capacity for innovation-led collaboration becomes essential to mission success.
By working on live operational challenges within a supportive coaching framework, the programme delivered both immediate mission value and sustainable capability development. The proven approach provides a replicable model for building connected cultures of innovation in other complex, security-sensitive, multi-stakeholder defence and intelligence environments.
The project was incredibly fulfilling both personally and professionally. Seeing our MABology culture take shape and come to life has been brilliant. I’m so proud of everyone who worked on the project, but special thanks must go to the team at Culture Consultancy who really helped us get to where we are now.
People and Culture Director, Mortgage Advice Bureau
Making
Complexity
Simple.
