As the new school year starts, I always find it shocking how poorly many schools develop children’s creativity. Although creativity and innovation is fundamentally important for economic growth, in most schools it has become totally subservient to the need to push kids through ever more tests. Continue reading Kids deserve creativity
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
Over the last few months I’ve been involved with several organisations exploring the way disruptive innovation is transforming the ways we get around. Continue reading The way ahead
As I write, it’s been a good month for global environmental agreements. First, the Paris Agreement was ratified and so entered into force on 4 November 2016. Although some environmentalists will rightly say that it’s currently inadequate, it is an extremely significant step forward. This is because it’s setting a very clear signal about the direction of travel, and smart businesses are very good at responding to this. Trillions of $ of investment are starting to flow in new directions, and many companies are investing for the new reality, significantly ahead of governments and regulators. Continue reading Cool technology
Having spent much of my professional career involved in both technological innovation and environmental sustainability, I’ve always taken it for granted that the two are natural partners. Continue reading Innovation and sustainability
Our politicians keep introducing reforms, claiming that this will make public sector organisations as efficient and innovative as the private sector, but each time it just seems to make things worse. Continue reading Creativity in the public sector
I was recently giving a talk to about 200 engineers at one of the regions most innovative and successful companies. When we got to the Q&A, one of them asked me “Are you motivated by making money?” Continue reading Are bankers bonkers
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