Business leader from Caythorpe receives MBE in King’s Birthday Honours List 2024

Decades of pioneering employee-driven innovation have culminated in a prestigious MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List.

Caythorpe resident Andrew Beddows has been awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List for services to innovation and business.

Mr Beddows is managing director of IdeasUK, a not-for-profit helping global organisations improve innovation through consultancy, training, and best practices.

He said: “I’m amazed and shocked.

“It’s not just me; it’s the whole organisation over the last 30 years that’s shown that it’s working.

“It’s been very much a team effort over the years, and I’ve been proud to lead that team and help them move forward.”

Originally from Manchester, Mr Beddows joined the Royal Air Force at 20, stationed at Cranwell where he met his wife.

They spent three years in Oslo before Mr Beddows was posted to Scampton.

Other Lincolnshire and Rutland people have been recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours List

Eventually, in 1978, they settled in Caythorpe, where Mr Beddows has now lived for over 40 years.

After leaving the Air Force, he worked at a Cook shop before becoming an industrial engineer at Boots.

It was here he began taking part in the UK Association of Suggestion Schemes, an organisation formed following a BBC TV programme in the 1980s about ideas in business.

The aim was to extract ideas from the workforce to improve business.

The idea was that employees on the ground see opportunities for improvement and innovation, and suggestion schemes provide a way to capture those ideas to make processes more efficient and cost-effective.

Mr Beddows’ first conference was in Brighton and within a year he was on the committee and “well involved”.

“You would be surprised by the suggestions over the years which have come from employees, whether they come from someone in the army about how to change the axle on a tank much quicker, or someone on a production line helping to improve a bottle of shower gel,” said Mr Beddows.

One of the most memorable ideas Mr Beddows recalled came from a production line worker at Boots.

She noticed the cardboard trays used to bundle plastic bottles were unnecessary, saving the company an estimated £90,000 per year after a successful trial removed them.

It showed how valuable even small suggestions from employees close to operations can be.

The UKASS, which eventually led to IdeasUK and nearly 40 conferences later, also holds annual competitions for ideas both nationally and internationally, working with partner organisations across the globe, including the Middle East, Dubai, and the USA.

Mr Beddows left Boots in 2011 but has carried on with IdeasUK since then with his base in Caythorpe and other management positions based elsewhere in the UK.

He has seen suggestion schemes appear and disappear (and occasionally reappear) from a number of businesses—usually in line with changes in management.

“British Gas joined the organisation three times,” he said.

“Each time it was a fresh idea and they didn’t realise they’d been members before.

“Companies can change so dramatically over periods, and we're always there to help nurture them by involving employees in the ideas.”

Mr Beddows said technology has made making suggestions even easier these days, having developed from writing the idea on a piece of paper back in the 1990s to inputting it into a phone in today’s modern world.

Away from the working world, Mr Beddows has played his part in the community of Lincolnshire.

As his two sons grew up, he spent time as a governor at the Sir William Robertson Academy in Welbourn.

Mr Beddows joined the Samaritans four or five years ago, initially as a listener to provide empathy and support to those in need.

When Covid hit, he and some other older members reduced their listening roles for safety.

At that time, he took on the treasurer role, which keeps him busy most days handling finances like bills, payments, and claims.

He sees the Samaritans as a very worthwhile charity that provides crucial support to many through their network of over 200 branches across the UK.