LONDON, June 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- PA Consulting (PA), the global consultancy that's Bringing Ingenuity to Life, announced today that the team from 4iNNO has joined PA. Based in Cincinnati, 4iNNO is a specialist innovation consultancy. It delivers new product platforms to drive major innovations and top line growth for leading global consumer brands.

This is the fifth acquisition for PA in eighteen months and its second in the United States, following the acquisition of Essential Design, a Boston-based innovation strategy and product design consultancy, in October 2018. It follows PA's acquisition of Sparkler, a digital customer insight and strategy consultancy, We Are Friday, a digital service design and engineering agency, and Nyras, a specialist aviation consultancy.

4iNNO's ability to deliver world-class strategy, consumer insights and research and development work to create new growth for clients complements PA's global capabilities in strategy, innovation, and new product development. PA's team supports world-leading ingenuity such as Virgin Hyperloop One's reinvention of transportation, Skipping Rocks Lab's sustainable plastic alternatives, and Monica Healthcare's, part of the GE Healthcare family, innovative wearable devices that monitor the health of unborn babies at home and in the hospital.

Fundamental changes in consumer buying behaviours are transforming consumer goods and retail markets globally. To keep up, manufacturers and retailers must innovate – whether it's sustainable products, direct-to-consumer initiatives or just bringing new products to market faster. In a world where strategies, technologies and innovation collide, PA and 4iNNO's combined capabilities will help clients create competitive advantage by taking initial ideas through to development and commercialisation.

Ken Toombs, Head of Americas at PA Consulting, says: "We are delighted to welcome the 4iNNO team to PA Consulting. We have a long-standing heritage of working in the consumer sector, across both consumer goods manufacturers, brand owners and retailers. The 4iNNO team will add further scale and depth to our existing consumer and innovation expertise, as well as enhancing our Americas presence. This is an exciting addition to PA and supports us as we use the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future in a technology-driven world."

4iNNO's CEO Jim Barrett comments: "We are excited to be joining PA Consulting and look forward to bringing our broad range of skills to help large companies create new growth.  PA has the rare focus in consulting to deliver innovative yet tangible solutions with measurable impact, done in a collaborative way with major companies."    

4iNNO Founder Larry Huston adds: "We are proud of the powerful firm we have created, the team we have assembled and the potential that now exists to go forward with PA."

The terms of the asset-based transaction were not disclosed.

Notes to the editor

PA acquisitions

PA has completed five acquisitions in the last eighteen months:

• 4iNNO, a specialist innovation consultancy, in June 2019
• We Are Friday, a specialist digital service design and engineering agency, in December 2018
• Essential Design, an innovation strategy and product design agency in October 2018
• Sparkler, a digital customer insight and strategy consultancy in May 2018
• Nyras Limited, a specialist aviation consultancy, in December 2017.

About PA

We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future in a technology-driven world.  

As strategies, technologies and innovation collide, we create opportunity from complexity.  

Our diverse teams of experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough technologies to progress further, faster. Our clients adapt and transform, and together we achieve enduring results.

An innovation and transformation consultancy, we are over 2,800 specialists in consumer, defence and security, energy and utilities, financial services, government, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, and transport, travel and logistics.

We operate globally from offices across the Americas, Europe, the Nordics and the Gulf.  

PA. Bringing Ingenuity to Life.

www.paconsulting.com

About 4iNNO

4iNNO's mission is to drive a revolution in Growth through Open Innovation. Consulting is focused at the CEO level of firms. There are five key areas of focus: growth through innovation operating model implementation, development of billion dollar new growth platforms, development of disruptive technology platforms, transformation of firms to an open innovation business model, and innovation culture change through education. 4iNNO initiatives have included the creation of Innovation Operating Models for companies in the areas of Pharma, Foods, Consumer Products, and Apparel. And, the creation of new growth platforms in such areas as diabetes, beer, packaging, cognitive agility, eye care, incontinence, beverages, national security, human energy, fertilizers for developing countries, sodium reduction in the diet, weight management and others. 4iNNO has extensive experience in accelerating growth by leveraging external assets that can enhance current brands, create new brands and products, and insource technology discontinuities utilizing the ideas and assets of innovators globally. 4iNNO is unique in bringing four key skill sets to innovation engagements: Business Model Development, deep consumer insight modelling of "What's Needed," technology capability on "What's Possible," and Open Innovation. 4iNNO's staff of world class consumer insight professionals along with 4iNNO's staff of scientists, brings significant value added perspectives to innovation challenges. https://www.4inno.com/

SOURCE PA Consulting