During the first quarter of 2020, for the first time ever, UK electricity became lower carbon than gas.
Continue reading Going GreenGoing Green
A time of transformation
With the UK in lockdown, our immediate focus is rightly on tackling the Coronavirus emergency. However there are things we should be doing now so that when we emerge from this crisis, the world will be on track to tackle the climate crisis too.
Continue reading A time of transformationCOVID-19 advice for early stage companies
I am sharing some advice from a contact of mine, who put it together for his early stage companies.
The key message is to plan for serious economic disruption on a 12 month + timeframe. This is not a short term problem.
The more companies are able to be creative and flexible in responding to the very difficult times to come, the better their chances.
TEDx
Brexit as Innovation
As the UK embarks on the complicated process of negotiating itself out of the EU, I found myself reflecting about the parallels with innovation.
Many R&D managers will recognise the feeling of being asked to achieve a complex multifaceted project with an apparently impossible timescale and distracting internal politics, while being under-resourced and under huge pressure to “just get on with it”. Continue reading Brexit as Innovation
A post-Trumpian cautionary scenario
This is a fictional scenario, but everything described is a plausible possibility, particularly in the light of President Trump’s election in the USA. It is not a prediction (the future is too unpredictable for that) but aims to stimulate creative thinking by policy makers, business and NGOs. Continue reading A post-Trumpian cautionary scenario
Life in the 3rd Age
Whether it’s a stage of life thing, or an indication of the state of the times, I’m finding that I’m quite often helping people think creatively about what they want to do in “retirement” Continue reading Life in the 3rd Age
Beyond the brainstorm
The other day I was giving a talk about creativity, and was asked whether brainstorming was the only way to be creative. I thought this was a good question, because although a free wheeling “Brainstorm Session” is often seen as the main way of having new ideas, for most people other techniques will work better. Continue reading Beyond the brainstorm
crisis creativity
As I write this, it’s been a rough month.
First an obscure Icelandic volcano grounded all European air travel. Then three young bankers were burnt to death by rioters in Athens, while Greece’s debt levels suddenly looked like bringing down the Euro. Finally a blowout in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico turned BP’s exploratory well into a financial and environmental nightmare. Continue reading crisis creativity