All avid 3million lives supporters

Last night I attended a reception at the Institute of Directors following the December publication of the government’s life science strategy and its ‘Innovation, health and wealth’ report.  In attendance we had the Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley, Under Secretary of State for Health Earl Howe, Universities and Science Minister David Willets and the NHS Chief Executive Sir David Nicholson.  It was a fairly informal gathering with key people from the NHS, DH and industry mingling around slapping each other on the back for a job well done on getting so many stakeholders agree on a collaborate way forward to ensure the NHS continues to lead on innovation and quality.

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Technorati Tags: 3million lives, Future Forum, health IT, information for health, Innovation, Intellect Healthcare Programme, joint plan DH and Intellect, NHS, Telehealth

The recent story of Bombardier losing out on the Thameslink train contract to Siemens has triggered talks over whether the UK should act like other European countries and factor ‘socio-economic’ rationales in public procurement policies, or, obstinately continue to be solely market-led. Awarding public contracts based on domestic industrial objectives in addition to a mere ‘value for money to the tax payer’ principle is not just a continental practice. Other western liberal economies have been pursuing similar exercises for many years. The so-called ‘buy America’ policy and offset agreements (especially in aerospace and defence) are good examples of how Americans are making sure their industrial base remains solid. It’s not just a matter of protectionism vs. liberalism – there are many ways policymakers can tackle the issue. Without going into philosophical debates here, the message is clear: It’s now time for the government to think outside the box. With no immediate prospect of new train orders, train manufacturer Bombardier has begun a 90 day consultation with staff at its Derby plant regarding plans to reduce the 3,000 workforce by over 1,400. How many times have we heard stories like this before? (more…)

Technorati Tags: bombardier, buy britain, Innovation, manufacturing, public procurement, siemens, thameslink

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee today published a report on public procurement & innovation. We submitted a written response to the committee back in December and have been eagerly waiting for the conclusions of the inquiry. We are pleased to see that the committee has recognised some of the key points we highlighted in our submission. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight three of our key arguments:

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Technorati Tags: Innovation, procurement, Public Sector, SMEs

Time is ticking on towards the Intellect/Payments Council ‘Driving change in payments’ Conference 2011 and in the midst of our preparations it occurred to me… building an accepted, trusted payments system is much like baking a cake, or at least what I imagine baking a cake is like, I’m no whizz in the kitchen.

I’m told that every cake needs a decent base (is this flour?), and in the case of a payments cake, the base is innovation. It’s eye opening, just how much innovation there actually is in the payments ecosystem at the moment. Name me a retailer… there’s a very good chance that they have run a contactless payment trial at some point in the last couple of years. Since December 2010, a small number of black cabs have been fitted with contactless payments technology, making payment more convenient for customers. Look ahead to 2012 and we’re expecting TfL to be accepting contactless payments cards as part of their Oyster system and later this summer we’re expecting one of the leading mobile operators to launch what is arguably the first mobile wallet in the UK.

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Technorati Tags: conference, Innovation, payments, payments council, payments systems

Market and industry analysts have finally done their number crunching for 2010. It’s no secret the electronics industry across Western Europe rebounded last year, with production of electronic equipment and components increasing by 6.8%, according to figures recently released. The drive for growth has been the export led recovery in Germany, particularly in the area of industrial electronics and the recovery in automobile production. On the other hand, component shortages had a negative impact on equipment growth in 2010 although the situation eased towards the end of the year. Looking forward, the industry will definitely continue to rely on the automotive, industrial, high-end communications and defence segments. Analysts are currently forecasting further growth in 2011, albeit a more modest increase of 1.6% according to some, with downside risks still very much present, particularly due to fragile consumer confidence and the impact of reduced government spending.

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Technorati Tags: electronic equipment, Electronics Manufacturing, growth, Innovation

There is an excellent article in the latest issue of Computing about the impact of the downturn on the ability of financial services firms to innovate. Although one might think that the economic slowdown would impact negatively on the levels of innovation occurring, it’s clear that many firms realise the benefits of investing in new or existing ideas to help push their businesses forward during these difficult times.

The three ‘innovation winners’ highlighted in the article are mobile banking, customer networking and ‘un-sexy innovation’. The last of these can be summed as efficiency projects that, although they don’t grab the headlines, improve the customer experience and deliver results. In light of some of the results announced this morning, this would be a wise move.

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Technorati Tags: Financial Services, Innovation