CDP wins business excellence award

Technology and product design firm Cambridge Design Partnership (CDP) has been named one of the top companies in the world-leading Cambridge technology cluster. It has won the high growth award in the Cambridge News Business Excellence Awards 2018.

The judges heard how the company – founded by three engineers more than 20 years ago – has now grown to around 120 researchers, designers, scientists and engineers. In the last financial year, sales increased by more than 35% – with particular growth in US sales – and the firm has an increasing number of loyal clients who choose it as their innovation partner year after year.

Over the last three years, CDP has expanded its capabilities significantly to make it a ‘one-stop shop’ for businesses that need to innovate and launch their next-generation products quickly. While its strength has traditionally been in engineering development and product design, it now also has strong teams working at the front end of innovation – helping clients optimise their innovation plans – and at the back end, where its manufacturing engineering group sets up new processes and multinational supply chains.

The company undertakes fast-track, customer-focused innovation programmes using its proven ‘Potential Realised’ framework to optimise the return on clients’ investment in innovation.

CDP founder Mike Cane said: “Our success is the result of a lot of hard work and commitment from our talented team and loyal clients – and winning this title is a fitting recognition of their achievements.

“Our clients range from small, innovative start-ups to giant multinational organisations. And our product developments range from connected medical devices and diagnostic equipment to consumer products and manufacturing solutions. But, at the end of the day, we believe product development is all about people.

“What sets us apart is our focus on the user – we work on the basis of ‘market pull’ rather than the usual ‘technology push’. We never lose sight of the fact that products are for customers – the technology is only there to make something do what it’s supposed to do at the right cost. We work from the customer’s perspective. Our aim is to significantly improve people’s lives through innovation.”