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The UK’s 70-year innovation itch
The UK’s 70-year innovation itch By Simon Devonshire OBE, serial entrepreneur, angel investor and former Entrepreneur in Residence for the UK Government
Right now, I think that the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem here in the UK is especially vibrant. Looking to the future, I see some remarkable new technologies on the verge of breaking through. Looking back, the UK has a long history of innovation and entrepreneurialism: it was the birthplace of the first Industrial Revolution.
1880 Education made compulsory for children up to age ten
1948 The NHS is founded
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2020
D/srupt The magazine for innovators & entrepreneurs
T
he good news is that pioneering innovation is global. Innovation operates without borders. The UK has some extraordinary home-grown entrepreneurial ventures, added to which it is also home to entrepreneurial talent that has commuted from all over the world. No country has monopoly on invention. I suspect every nationality can legitimately lay claim to globally iconic innovation. As a patriotic Brit, two innovations pioneered in the UK that I am especially proud of are: • In 1880 the UK made education compulsory for children up to age ten. • Almost exactly 70 years later, in 1948, the NHS was founded. Universal education and healthcare – what makes these innovations so remarkable is that in 2020, astonishingly, stubbornly, still neither of these services are ubiquitous across the world – worryingly, not even so in the developed world. Whilst education and healthcare in the UK are far from perfect, what they highlight is that there is still so much scope for improvement. According to the World Health Organization, apparently approximately two billion people on earth still don’t even have access to a proper toilet, let alone free access to classes, books, teachers, medicine and doctors. Having celebrated the NHS’s 70th birthday, I hope that by 2028 so much progress has been made that the nation is compelled to celebrate the NHS’s next big birthday even more euphorically. Which got me thinking … • 1880 universal education – 1948 universal health. • 1880 education – 1948 health. • 1880 - 1948. Seventy years apart (give or take a couple of years). Perhaps the UK has a 70-year innovation itch? 2020 – this year – is 70 years since the UK launched the NHS. I think that this represents an opportunity. My point is: if the UK is to maintain a 70-year cycle of delivering societally transformative innovation – then the UK’s next big innovation is now overdue. The next logical exam question this provokes is: how (and with what) could the UK follow the creation of schools and the NHS?
Given all the scientific evidence regarding the world’s environmental issues, the overwhelming priority is for radical environmental interventions that: • exponentially reduce emissions; • substantially deliver decarbonisation; • vastly accelerate the realisation of “net-zero”; • deliver significant environmental restoration. A contrived 70-year deadline for innovation is not a reason in itself to push through invention. However, it would be a regretfully missed opportunity not to recognise and maintain the UK’s remarkable 70-year track-record of innovation. Especially so in the face of such overwhelming need for reformation. I am concerned that the UK is sleep-walking without note through a momentous opportunity to powerfully launch its next big breakthrough innovation. I hope that the UK Government can intelligently apply its resources and funding as a catalyst to seize this 70-year innovation opportunity and scratch the UK’s 70-year innovation itch. Perhaps this could form the basis of an innovation competition/challenge fund: a £70-million fund for the UK’s next big 70-year innovation? The “Megatrend Megatrend” is great place to start for those looking for inspiration. One thing that is absolutely certain: new innovation that societally is as significant as education and healthcare will not happen without conviction and purposeful pursuit. It’s not just the environment that needs attention. Despite record levels of employment, career anxiety and financial inequality also seem dangerously high too. New technologies are driving an urgent need for reformation. Historically, the UK has admirably demonstrated that governments and regulators can be a massively positive force of change if they have the courage to lead. And that’s why entrepreneurs are so important. Entrepreneurs recognise opportunities and more importantly, entrepreneurs are activists – entrepreneurs make things happen. Follow Simon’s blog at www.tallmanbusiness.com
Issue 3 / 2020–21
