Member Spotlight
Tertius Rust, Founder & Executive Director – The Innovation Consulting Company
At TICC, we turn innovation from a wild guess into a well-oiled machine. Using behavioural science, digital smarts, and business transformation, we help utility sponsors cut through the chaos, make smarter bets, and stretch their funds further—because innovation should be an investment, not a gamble. Our mission is to be the best partnering organisation that scales transformation through trusted relationships.
Let’s be honest—most people hear “accounting” and think of calculators, spreadsheets and auditors. Innovation Accounting is shaking things up! How would you explain it to someone who still thinks innovation is just about brainstorming ideas?
Traditional accounting audits the past, measuring what has already happened. Innovation Accounting, on the other hand, helps organisations navigate the future by tracking progress, learning, and value creation in real time. Innovation isn’t just about coming up with ideas—it’s about testing, validating, and scaling them effectively. While brainstorming can spark creativity, true innovation requires structured experimentation, data-driven decision-making, and the ability to measure what really matters beyond just financial metrics. It’s about ensuring that bold ideas don’t just remain ideas, but turn into meaningful impact.
If you could challenge every water utility CEO to rethink one assumption about innovation, what would it be?
Innovation is not inherently risky—what creates risk is how you approach uncertainty. Many water utility CEOs assume that innovation means taking big, disruptive leaps, but in reality, effective innovation is about systematically reducing risk through small, strategic steps. By experimenting, learning from failures, and iterating based on real data, utilities can innovate with confidence rather than fear. Instead of viewing innovation as a gamble, leaders should see it as a structured process for solving complex challenges with lower long-term risk than standing still.
We hear a lot about “data-driven decision-making,” but data is only as good as the story it tells. What’s the most unexpected or exciting insight that came out of using Innovation Accounting in a project?
One surprising trend we are seeing is that even if we assume we achieve the 75th percentile of our projected benefits, the total sum of ideas in our pipeline often still isn’t enough to solve a strategic challenge. This means that even when everything is executed optimally, we still won’t reach our desired future state. Recognising this early allows organisations to invest in research, open innovation, and ideation much sooner—either to enhance existing benefits or to create entirely new benefit streams to tackle residual business challenges.
View TICC’s Anglian Water case study on “Using People Data to Drive Meaningful Transformation.”
Fast forward 10 years—what’s one thing you hope every water utility will have adopted?
A specific way of thinking: Automation should be seen as a foundation for freeing staff from the burden of noise that stifles creative thinking. It should not be viewed merely as an efficiency mechanism to reduce headcount. True progress will come from using automation to empower people, not replace them.
What advice would you give to a young professional who wants to shake up the industry but keeps hearing “that’s not how we’ve always done it”?
You don’t need permission from anyone to advance your career. Buy your own flight tickets to conferences, ask for free passes to top thought leadership events, and seek mentorship. Ask for help, make mistakes—correct them quickly. The industry is changing and soon, “that is the way we do things here.”
Don’t be afraid to share your ideas fully. The value of an idea grows exponentially when others contribute to it. My biggest career breakthrough came when I shifted my mindset from “this is my idea, my knowledge, my pathway to success” to “if I share my ideas, people will trust me, and we can build knowledge together faster than anyone else.” Trust yourself to learn the next big thing faster than those you’re worried about copying your current ideas.
