GLOBAL INNOVATION - M
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EVERYCOOK INTELLIGENT COOKING -
LOOKING AHEAD INTERVIEW WITH A FUTUROLOGIST -
A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO OPEN INNOVATION OUTSIDE IN, INSIDE OUT -
THE WORLDS GREATEST INNOVATIONS #1 SAFETY FIRST - THE SEATBELT -
FORMULA E GLOBAL INNOVATION -
M A G A Z I N E
ISSUE 2 JUN 2014
A LOOK INSIDE THE NEW FIA CHAMPIONSHIP, THE WORLDS FIRST FULLY ELECTRIC RACING SERIES
CONTENTS FOUNDER’S VOICE JAMES O’FLYNN
OPEN INNOVATION A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO OPEN INNOVATION
GLOBAL INNOVATION -
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EVERYCOOK SWITZERLAND
IS THE NEW WORLD REALLY BRAVE?
M A G A Z I N E
INTERVIEW WITH A FUTUROLOGIST
FORMULA E THE FACTS
FORMULA E WE WILL RUN AND THEN WE WILL SPRINT
FOUNDER James O’Flynn CREATIVE DIRECTOR Aidan Creed EDITOR AT LARGE Cat Turnell SALES Hannah Mckinney Published by SoMoGo Publishing/ admin@somogopublishing.co.uk/ www.somogopublishing.co.uk Global Innovation Magazine is published every quarter /Copyright SoMoGo Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be stored or transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means, including photocopying, scanning, or otherwise without the written permission of SoMoGo Publishing Ltd. Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the publishers. Acceptance of advertisements does not imply official endorsement of the products or services described. While care has been taken to ensure accuracy of content no responsibility can be taken for errors and/or emissions. Readers should take advice and caution before acting upon any issue raised in the magazine. The publisher reserves the right to accept or to reject advertising and editorial material supplied. The publisher assumes no responsibility for the safe return of unsolicited photography, art or writing.
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FORMULA E DONNINGTON PARK HEADQUATERS
VIRGIN ON A NEW DAWN
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CHANGING RELATIONSHIPS, ONE HOUR AT A TIME
THE SEATBELT
A FEW THINGS THAT CAUGHT OUR GAZE
FOUNDER’S VOICE JAMES O’FLYNN
“ WE WILL RUN, THEN WE WILL SPRINT.
Electric cars have had their criticisms over the years. Not everyone has hopped on board the electric party bus and for a number of reasons, be it issues over recharging, infrastructure, technology or even image. What’s more, it’s not easy to shake off our reliance on petrol and diesel - it’s all we’ve ever known.
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However, something is in the air and it isn’t carbon fumes. It feels like we’re at an important juncture in the history of the electric motor vehicle. Perhaps even the tipping point. With Tesla and BMW now injecting the ‘cool’ factor into electric production vehicles, electric technology has also stepped up to the mark. The Sinclair C5, a commerciallychallenged electric vehicle from back in 1985, is now merely an uncomfortable memory. Electric cars are here and there is little doubt the future will come with a recharger. The missing parts of the e-power jigsaw - the glamour, the speed and the competitiveness of electric racing - are now falling into place, and we’re thrilled to bring you the story from the
starting line as the green flag is about to drop. Formula E is the world’s first fully electric racing series, calling on the international elite of the engineering and racing worlds. In this issue we talk to some of the key players in the championship and get their insider take on the future of racing. Naturally, innovation is key in this competitive arena and, importantly, while technical specifications and parameters exist in Formula E, the series is ‘open’ to allow constructors and manufacturers to showcase their latest innovations in a racing environment. I believe electric racing has the power to be generational gamechanger - and that isn’t a phrase I use lightly. I hope you enjoy reading this issue and its insight into the world of Formula E. James
GI | JUN 2014
OPEN INNOVATION A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO OPEN INNOVATION
Marcel Bogers of the University of Southern Denmark presents a beginner’s guide to open innovation.
“No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else,” Bill Joy, cofounder of Sun Microsystem, reportedly said to highlight that no single company has the monopoly on knowledge for innovation.1 This principle, also known as ‘Joy’s Law’, is at the centre of open innovation, an emerging paradigm for understanding how companies innovate. Back in 2003, Henry Chesbrough coined the term open innovation to refer to “a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology”.2 He originally proposed a number of ‘erosion factors’ that undercut the logic of the earlier ‘closed innovation’ model of research and
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development (R&D), namely increased mobility of workers, more capable universities, declining US hegemony, and growing access of startup firms to venture capital. To this, we can add yet another erosion factor that allows firms to leverage distributed knowledge sources, namely the rise of the internet and the related increase in use of social media, which have opened up knowledge access and sharing capabilities, internal ICT networks to the World Wide Web.3 Open innovation has been receiving an increasing amount of attention, both in academic research and in industrial practice. On the academic side, there are currently, according to Google Scholar, more than 7,000 citations of academic work to Chesbrough’s original book, which was published more than a decade ago.
Accordingly, academic and practitioner journals have shown an increasing interest in open innovation, as reflected by the increasing amount of publications on the subject, including inclusion in special issues that are organised around the concept. There are also an increasing number of books that address various aspects of open innovation. The academic scholarship has moreover been supplemented by a favourable response of industry to the open innovation concept. For example, job titles like Manager or Director or Vice President of open innovation are becoming more increasingly common, and many consulting firms now feature an open innovation practice area in their work. More generally, while a Google search on the term open innovation yielded roughly 200 page links before 2003, the millions of page links
that Google now reports in response to the term suggest a widespread use of this concept. Given the increasing use of open innovation, the world is already filled with examples of organisations that have implemented it as part of their operations and strategies. For example, a company like Philips, which wants to become a leader in health and well-being, relies on external partners to achieve this ambition. The company’s website states: “That is why we actively pursue what we call open innovation-sharing our expertise and technical abilities with universities, institutes, and other companies so that, together, we can realise the very best ideas. We engage in two kinds of open innovation. Through ’inside-out’ innovation, we make our skills and resources available to the outside world. For example, we
regularly undertake contract research for external parties, provide technical facilities and support, and assist with IP licensing. Through ‘outsidein’ innovation, we draw on the capacities of individuals, organisations, and even small start-ups from around the globe. By providing a broader window
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on the world of health and wellbeing, these strategic partners help us gain new insights and access to new technologies.” Another example is Procter & Gamble (P&G), which embraces open innovation through its Connect + Develop
programme: The website for the programme states: “Today, open innovation at P&G works both ways - inbound and outbound - and encompasses everything from trademarks to packaging, marketing models to engineering, and business
services to design. It’s so much more than technology.” P&G thus also emphasises the importance of open innovation beyond only R&D, as illustrated in the updated model below.
Other Firm’s Market
As highlighted by Philips and P&G, there are different types of open innovation. Essentially, outside-in (inbound) open innovation refers to the purposive management of knowledge flows from outside stakeholders into the firm, while inside-out (outbound) open innovation refers to
reverse flows from the firm to the outside. Besides, coupled open innovation implies combined knowledge inflows and outflows between inside and outside stakeholders in the innovation process. The table below gives a description of these different types and some mechanisms on how to manage
them. Taken together, open innovation can be defined as a distributed innovation process based on purposively managed knowledge flows across organisational boundaries, using pecuniary and nonpecuniary mechanisms in line with the organisation’s business model.4
OPEN INNOVATION TYPES AND MECHANISMS Our New Market Licence, Spin Out, Divest Internal Technology Base
Our Current Market Internal/ External Venture Handling
OPEN INNOVATION TYPE
DESCRIPTION
OUTSIDE-IN (INBOUND)
Involves opening up a company’s own innovation processes to many kinds of external inputs and contributions.
INSIDE-OUT (OUTBOUND)
Involves allowing unused and -Outlicensing intellectual under-utilised ideas and assets property and technology to go outside the organisation -Donating intellectual property for others to use in their and technology businesses and business models. -Spin-outs -Corporate venture capital -Corporate incubators.
COUPLED
Involves combining purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to collaboratively develop and/or commercialise an innovation.
External Technology Insourcing External Technology Base
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy’s_Law_(management)/ (Accessed: December 9, 2013) 2 Chesbrough, H. 2003. Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, p. xxiv. 3 Chesbrough, H., & Bogers, M. 2014. Explicating open innovation: Clarifying an emerging paradigm for understanding innovation. In H. Chesbrough, W. Vanhaverbeke, & J. West (Eds.), Open Innovation: New Frontiers and Applications. Oxford: Oxford University Press. GI | JUN 2014
MECHANISMS
-Inlicensing intellectual property -Scouting -Crowdsourcing -Intermediaries -Competitions and tournaments -Communities
-Strategic alliances -Joint ventures -Consortia -Networks -Ecosystems -Innovation platforms.
Adapted from Chesbrough and Bogers (2014).
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Most research and practice in the domain of open innovation has focused on the outside-in type, with obtaining, integrating and commercialising as phases of the inbound open innovation process.5 And while there is an increasing amount of insight in
how to obtain knowledge from external sources, it remains quite poorly understood how to exactly integrate and commercialise this external knowledge. Internal capabilities, practices and culture appear to play an important role, also
because they are among the factors that lead to failure in open innovation.
4 Chesbrough, H., & Bogers, M. 2014. Explicating open innovation: Clarifying an emerging paradigm for understanding innovation. In H. Chesbrough, W. Vanhaverbeke, & J. West (Eds.), Open Innovation: New Frontiers and Applications. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 5 West, J., & Bogers, M. 2014. Leveraging external sources of innovation: A review of research on open innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 31 (4):814831. Available at: http://ssrn.com/ abstract=2195675.
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EVERYCOOK SWITZERLAND
If ever you wished a person some success, then you would wish it upon Alexis Wiasmitinow. He has taken Everycook, his intelligent food device from idea to product, on a mixture of passion and determination whilst improving and learning the skills necessary to build the product at the same time. This isn’t what gets you rooting for Alexis though. What draws you to Alexis is his humour and his positivity. Thirty five year old Alexis is the guy you can relate to in the start-up world. He is the guy next door who came up with an idea, and made it happen, working long hours in a day job and then going into his garage at night, homing his skills and improving his product through trial and error. If he couldn’t do it, he learned how to do it, if he couldn’t learn how to do it, he worked with his friends and brought in other people to develop the team. One step at a GI | JUN 2014
time he has moved forward to the point where he is ready to crowdfund his product, which is a remarkable achievement. James O’Flynn spoke to Alexis in Zurich on the weekend that he was making his crowdfunding film.
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What took you into engineering? I’m a mechanical engineer, and during my childhood I was modifying bicycles and motor cycles, whatever got into my hands, so I knew mechanical engineering was what I wanted to do. I went to ETH Zurich (a University known for technology and science) and graduated there in renewable energy. That’s my day job now, I help people save energy. Everycook is a fascinating idea, but how did transfer your renewable engineering skills into making a machine associated with food? It started with a burnt risotto. Risotto is a pain to make, you have to keep stirring for 20 minutes, and I did a quick email check, came back and it was burnt. The idea hit me and I thought I needed something that stirs and controls the heat so that this kind of problem wouldn’t happen again. Based on that I took it further. I didn’t want a device that meant I had to put in the cooking parameters,
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I wanted a device that already knew this, and would tell me what it needs to make the food. I wanted something programmable, inputs and outputs, scales and something pressurised so we could do pressure cooking as well. Have you come up with a product that you just put food into it and it takes care of the rest? Yes, but it starts earlier because it helps you with planning. It asks how many people will be eating, and then it calculates the amount of ingredients and scales the recipe. It has a progress bar so add the rice and it tells you to stop, add water and it tells you to stop, it programmes all the ingredients and then starts to cook it for you. You burnt the risotto, came up with an idea, but there is a long way between coming up with an idea and having a product.
looking for finance. I also went to some manufacturers but in the end I figured out that they didn’t want to make huge steps in innovation. They wanted to make small steps in innovation but with huge marketing plans surrounding the product. The investors were asking for patents, but the idea was not new, the innovation was in putting everything together. It was difficult to find money but that didn’t stop me. In the end I chose to wait and go crowdfunding for finance (crowdfunding is sourcing finance from the public often for a stake in the business and/or a sample product). How will you be Crowdfunding? We will be using IndiGoGo (www.indigogo.com) many sites for crowdfunding are currently not available in Switzerland.
There is. First I did a CAD model, and then I did courses on start ups, and market analysis stuff at the same time I was already
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I’m getting images of you working at night in your garage, putting things together trying to develop this. Yes and blowing up transistors, but that’s the way it goes. I learned so much about electronics, I started to learn code until someone else joined the team, my coding improved as did my knowledge of electronics. You have to improve your skills. What I learned on this project, no one can ever take away from me. The team that you work with, that’s crucial I imagine? I knew the programmer from my first start up, when I was 25 I started a Linux cafe in Basle (Switzerland). A guy came in and asked me to install Linux on his laptop and a great friendship developed. The Linux cafe doesn’t exist now but in the cafe I met my wife, my friends. A lot of people think it was a failure as I lost money, but I met my wife and 2 good friends, it wasn’t a failure.
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Do you have your eye on the future in terms of innovating the product? I can’t wait until I get the last version in my hands, it’s currently being manufactured, and it looks great and has loads of safety features. Feedback from people has been great, reproducing cooking and food, time and time again to the same quality is now possible. The hardware will be unchanged for some time. What’s innovative is the software, this is the enabler for the product. Predictive algorithms and machine learning algorithms will be the future. I have been nominated for 2 prizes, one at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, so it will be the first time I have taken Everycook on a plane, so that will be interesting!
we now have the perfect recipe for fudge every time. Melting chocolate is also easy. You can deep fry as well. We have programmes for all of these. What advice do you have for people looking to develop products? Get it going, do it, make those steps, developing hardware has never been easier. Using international markets to develop your product can really help: great prices are available, even in small quantities. I asked so many companies for quotes who were on my doorstep, I didn’t even get responses to my emails, not one response, I was ignored. Internationally I got four answers within 24 hours, and this was on a public holiday!
Can you give me a good example of a tasty meal you have made? Curries, soups... Caramel fudge is a good one because you don’t want it too light, or too brown,
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IS THE NEW WORLD REALLY BRAVE? INTERVIEW WITH A FUTUROLOGIST
Jessica Bland works for Nesta, a UK based innovation charity with a mission to help people and organisations bring great ideas to life. As a Futurologist part of her role is to explore how Nesta can best support disruptive technology innovations that introduce new markets, displacing old technologies. Jessica also leads Nestas work on foresight methods - how we think and plan for the future. She published ‘Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow: a modest defence of futurology’ in 2013, and was a guest speaker as part of Yoko Onos Meltdown Festival last year. Jessica was previously Senior Policy Advisor at the Royal Society, the UK’s National Academy of Science.
Your job title is an interesting one? When I was hired it was ‘technology futures research analyst’ and I was given the role of managing the research but also running peer reviews, a very descriptive job description! Have you always had an interest in technology, science fiction and the like? Yes interested, but you wouldn’t have found me as a 16 year old reading science fiction under the duvet with a torchlight. I certainly when I was younger was happy trying to break my computer by reprogramming parts of it, and would be an early adopter of things. How old are you? 28.
I did a joint honours masters in physics and philosophy, so, I have always been interested in technology but also the why does a theory make sense? and the why do we do science? I moved quite quickly into science and policy work, and that meant working for the Royal Society (the national academy for science in the UK) which is a great place to be to meet Nobel Prize winning scientists and leaders in their field. Very exciting people quite often. I was working with them thinking about the ways that science and technology are going to change our social and political environment, also thinking about how can we work with government to anticipate those and do something about them in advance. Whether that’s encouraging discussions about genetically modified crops or before a new generation
Which puts things in context for me in terms of what technology was around for you. GI | JUN 2014
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of technology comes online to enable a better and more informed discussion about them, right the way through to open data in science and how climate data needs to be open for greater scrutiny. Working somewhere slightly ahead of where everyone currently has got to, 10 years before, and trying to work in that space to build robust or better regulation that enables us to deal with those new innovations as they come online. I worked a lot on responsible innovation, which means thinking about the intended and unintended consequences of innovation before they are even in production, looking at worries around everything from nanotechnology to synthetic biology. Have you just described futurology? No. I think futurology is a good umbrella term which can use thinking about the future to get to a particular goal in the present. A lot of what I do is about imaging plausible futures either in terms of scenarios or big trends, drivers that are going to change things in the future
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and not worrying too much about whether that gives you a right or wrong version of the future but just fleshing that out and bringing it to life, to enable you to make a decision about which way to go today. A really concrete example of one of my parts of my work is that I put on events around technologies that either people are excited about or worried about that are getting some media exposure, areas that haven’t quite hit the mainstream yet. One of the ones we held was on unmanned aerial vehicles, drones. On the panel we had a mixture of people from Liam Young (a speculative architect from the London based Tomorrows Thoughts Today) who is taking technologies that are plausible today and imagining the full cityscape, to the other end of the panel, Stephen Hailes from the University College of London, an engineer who looks into and flies small quadcopters (quadrotor helicopter), often several at the time. An event very much rooted in the present and reality but imagining what would happen if these things became much more mainstream and widespread. What would that mean to our
lives, the society we lived in, and the things we choose to do? Tell us about a couple of things you have come across that are particularly exciting? In our paper from May 2013 ‘Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow’, we looked at new data driven techniques that extrapolate from present trends into, the future. Quid.com a company from the USA mine data from websites often related to science and tech and map a technology genome which shows a link between the themes and words which come up time and time again on those websites. The dots on the map, in the white space are often really interesting as it may be someone bringing together next generation cloud computing,
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which won’t just be storage, but will enable the execution of computing commands over several data sets geographically separate at the same time, almost a virtual compiler. Quid. com is doing some particularly interesting work around this. George Orwell said that people can foresee the future when it coincides with their own wishes, does futurology have the potential to change people’s behaviour or will people just hear what they want to hear? An example from ‘Don’t Stop Thinking About Tommorow’ was a flooding report that was asked to look up to 80 years into the future to try to work out the type of things we should be doing now, to make sure the UK’s coast line was protected, a fairly negative thing in the future to be thinking about, most of us don’t what to consider that. Yet by doing it they built up a picture, a collection of scenarios so negative that the budget for coastal defences was increased considerably by the UK Government. So futurology can change things.
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What’s exciting me presently is twofold: I’m really hoping to explore further data techniques, how much can we understand about technology trajectories. If they will take off, is there a curve you can draw that will predict what will take off, based on data? Professor Ian Miles from the University of Manchester Business School, has been looking at this for many years, but trying to develop these new techniques to these older questions is very exciting. Design fiction and speculative fiction, what Tony Dunne (from the Royal College of Art) calls critical futures, so imaging objects that you may not want in your future as a way of changing behaviour today, is also very interesting and exciting. These two areas are ones I’m exploring a lot more.
FORMULA E THE FACTS
Formula E’s debut race will hit the streets of Beijing, the Chinese capital, on September 27. The 10 race season accelerates to a heady close in London on June 27. Formula E has ten teams and 20 drivers. The cars for the first season are all the same: the Spark-Renault SRT_01E. The French built single-seater boasts electrics and powertrain by McLaren, Williams Advanced Engineering provide the 200kw battery - equivalent to 270bhp - which is about half the power of a Formula 1 engine, and Italian firm Dallara has built the monocoque carbon fibre and aluminium chassis. The allimportant 18” specially designed wheels come from Michelin. The Spark-Renault’s maximum speed is estimated at 200mph. The vehicle’s weight, including driver and 200kg battery, is a minimum 800kg.
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In the second season teams will be able to modify the vehicle. The 10 teams are: E.Dams, France. Drayson Racing, England. Andretti Autosport, America. Super Aguri, Japan. China Racing, China. Audi Sport ABT, Germany. Mahindra Racing, India. Venturi Grand Prix, Monaco. Virgin Racing, England and Dragon Racing, America. Where can I watch it? If you live in Beijing, China; Putrajaya, Malaysia; Punta del Este, Uruguay; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Miami or Los Angeles in the US; Monte Carlo, Monaco or London, England, you’ll be able to see Formula E in the flesh. Otherwise, you can see it live on ITV4 in the UK, or on Fox Sports or Japan’s TV Asahi.
FORMULA E WE WILL RUN AND THEN WE WILL SPRINT
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SOMETIMES IT CAN BE A HANDICAP WHEN YOU ARE AHEAD OF YOUR TIME AND THE RIGHT TIMING IS PERHAPS A LITTLE LATER. IN THE CASE OF FORMULA E WE BELIEVE THE PRODUCT IS RIGHT, THE TIMING IS RIGHT AND THE WORLD IS LOOKING AT SUSTAINABILITY NOW.
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Mahindra, the subcontinent’s electric automobile pioneer, is the Indian muscle in Formula E. So we had SP Shukla, Chairman of Mahindra Racing, on the phone from Mumbai, India, and he chatted to Cat Turnell.
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We’re just weeks away from the first ePrix in Beijing. How has India taken to the idea of an Indian Formula E team? As a nation, India loves sports. Moreover, motor sport is becoming an increasingly important area of interest within the country, particularly among young Indians. Mahindra Racing’s Facebook page has over 1.4 million fans - one of the highest for any racing team in the world - more even than half of the Formula 1 teams. This indicates the kind of response we are receiving from racing enthusiasts in India. This has been the catalyst in driving
our increasing ambition, which has seen us entering new racing formats. Just recently we had over 500,000 visitors at the Auto Expo in New Delhi where we unveiled the new livery for our Formula E car. Today, Indian drivers and sportspeople are becoming icons and role models, giving rise to immense aspiration among the youth. This has been complemented by very good
FORMULA E|025
coverage of international motor sport through traditional and digital media. Do you believe electric racing cars will eventually overtake petrochemical cars in terms of speed and performance? Electric racing using hybrid technology is growing by leaps and bounds. We just need to look at some of the other major championships globally like Formula 1 and the Le Mans race to understand the impact of these new technologies. Today, KERS – the Kinetic Energy Recovery System [Waste energy created by braking then transformed in to electric energy] - is delivering nearly 20 per cent of the output from a Formula 1 car. Ultimately, electric racing does not exist only to demonstrate pure speed or performance, but to underscore its strengths as a very credible alternative to traditional forms of transportation. Various other dynamics also come into play like range and usable power. Electric racing is going to GI | JUN 2014
provide a very interesting spectacle and will attract new demographics to the fan base of motor sport. What led you to be the chairman of the Indian Formula E team? I have been involved in the racing initiative as President of Group Strategy and Chief Brand Officer for the Mahindra Group. Both motorcycle and Formula E racing have a direct business connect with our automotive and two-wheeler business which is a significant part of our US $16.7 billion revenues. At the same time, our participation and success on the race track provides an element of youthfulness, a rub-off effect from cutting edge technology as well as a vibrant image to the brand Mahindra. Thus, you can see a wonderful correlation between the racing initiative and the Mahindra Group: business connectivity, technology absorption and brand synergy. It was, therefore, natural for me to be both excited about and involved in Mahindra Racing as its chairman. But let me add
that we have a very capable team comprising of two CEOs for Formula E and Moto3 racing as well as very talented riders supported by a fully-fledged team infrastructure to make Mahindra Racing what it is today. The technology for Formula E has been established for quite some time. Why do you think 2014 has become the year for its launch? Sometimes it can be a handicap when you are ahead of your time and the right timing is perhaps a little later. In the case of Formula E we believe the product is right, the timing is right and the world is looking at sustainability now. So, from every potential angle, we believe this series has every reason to be successful.
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What are the cars - the Spark-Renault SRT-01Es like to race for the drivers? Are there any major differences with the more established motor racing vehicles, such as the weight, the handling, the response? These cars are different and do require the driver to adapt to new concepts like regeneration [Braking energy turned into electric energy] and high torque at low speeds, etc. But this is the direction other series are also taking. For example, recently in Albert Park [Melbourne’s grand prix circuit] we did see some drivers lock the rear under braking as they were still coming to terms with regeneration and its impact on the rear axle. All indicators so far confirm that this is going to be an exceptional race car which will provide fans with very exciting racing. The whole package seems very promising and recent tests have only confirmed this. The test drivers have been very satisfied with the car and are convinced that there is a lot of potential. From my perspective, I think that it’s one of the best looking race cars! GI | JUN 2014
I’ve been to a fair number of motor racing meets over the years - at Donington Park and Silverstone, and yet the noise and exhaust fumes prevalent in petrochemical racing cars will be absent in Formula E. While I won’t miss the fumes, I’m not so certain about the engines’ roar. Is it odd for a person within the racing industry to suddenly be without racing’s decibel-shattering symphony? (SP Laughs) While the roar of speeding cars has been part of racing, I think our audience will very soon adapt to the uniqueness of Formula E races. Fans are going to enjoy the convenience of a race that is brought to their city centre rather than them having to go 100 miles out of the city to a purpose built track to view a race over three days.
As the saying goes, “We will run and then we will sprint.” Formula E is starting on a very strong footing with the right technology and also the right format to make a very interesting racing series. With the increasing focus on electric mobility among all manufacturers globally, we can only expect Formula E to grow on a tangential basis. There is substantial investment being made in alternate mobility technologies and this is only going to help drive the acceptance of Formula E. Electric car racing is going to be a staple in the next five years and Formula E is going to be at the pinnacle.
Lower pollution and easier access will help in attracting young fans and the next generation of fans will grow up on Formula E. Where do you see Formula E in five years’ time? FORMULA E|029
FORMULA E DONINGTON PARK HEADQUARTERS
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WHAT WILL HAPPEN IS ALL THE BARRIERS WILL BE KNOCKED OVER ONE BY ONE
” Cat Turnell speaks to the managing director of Donington Park, the world headquarters of Formula E slap bang in the middle of the English countryside.
Chris Tate has seen a number of changes over the three decades he’s been involved in motor sport. But the Managing Director of Donington Park, the new world headquarters of Formula E, currently has a ringside seat on the biggest shift in its history - the evolution from hydraulics to electrics. As the boss of the legendary course in Leicestershire, there’s no disguising the excitement in his voice when he talks about the circuit’s new role as a technological nursery. Donington as a track has eighty years of racing history under its belt and an international reputation in motor sport. But what good is its past, says Chris, if it can’t establish a future? His office is just a stone’s lob from the glass and chrome
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buildings where ten teams from England, France, Italy, Germany, Monaco, America, China and Japan will be perfecting their cars on the factory floor and then testing them minutes later on the circuit. “I think it would be true to say with young Japanese engineers there is a sense of excitement at working at such a historic venue,” acknowledges Chris. “It’s very well having a distinguished past, we want to be building a future. Now, to pull this together - the partnership with FIA and the teams - that was a good moment,” he says.
The Spark-Renaults that will be rollicking around Donington’s two mile circuit are much, much quieter than their Formula 1 counterparts, but no less exciting. With top speeds of around 140mph, they do kick out a fair amount of torque at high speed. And yet, they do so without the noise and the exhaust fumes of their hydraulic brethren. “What’s important is to match the expectation of the audience,” believes Chris. “Motor sport has grappled in recent years with the fact that not everybody finds the noise, in particular, that acceptable, so I think that’s a change for the good”. “Another important thing is Formula E will also be racing in city centres and above all it will be showcasing a fumefree future. If you look at the development of that – showing it to 200,000 people on the streets of Beijing, and in places like Jakarta and Indonesia where
they don’t have the longevity or culture in motor sport, they’ll be looking at something new and different and shown in a different way.” “But will it be exciting?” Chris asks, prompting the next obvious question. “What will be exciting is to have street racing, which is not much seen in England. When I worked in American motor sports they permitted streets to be closed. The equivalent of Formula 1, IndyCar Racing, they had racing at Long Beach in California, Detroit, Miami, Toronto, Vancouver.
roads, which makes it perfect for testing, allowing Formula E teams to roll from factory to track in a matter of minutes. It’s also situated in the English Midlands, an area with a 48,000 strong engineering workforce and an established automotive and autosport industry. It’s also right next to East Midlands Airport and the hub for Formula E’s haulage contractor DHL. What’s more, the local councils acted quickly to raise the funding and secure the relevant permissions when it came to sign the deal to bring Formula E to England.
“But that’s never been the case in Britain. There’s a government consultation document to permit road closures for motor sporting activities on British roads. The government consultation will allow the London Formula E race to take place in June next year.” Why Donington? It was chosen for a number of reasons. One fact is the track closely resembles city centre
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Ultimately, says Chris, there’s an established framework in place which will propel electric car innovation from the sidelines into the mainstream. “To have that concentrated fire power, and all the best minds working on electric power put in one place with an established motor racing family, you’re going to move the whole ball game forward by 10, 15 years. “People from all corners of the globe are coming together with their technical expertise. Williams will be working on the battery, McLaren will be working on the power unit and the gear box. Renault is a partner and so is the Italian chassis maker Dallara. “I think the most significant factor of Formula E is the traditional role of motor sport in the automotive industry. The development of new technology starts with motor sport, from brake disc development to safety. The power of change comes from the autosport industry and there are a lot of eyes on what we’re doing.”
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Where do you expect to see Formula in five years’ time? “I would expect it to be well established and what our governing body FIA expects to see happening is those major global automotive manufacturers will have in motion some or all of Formula E advancements in the next stage of development.” Ultimately, Formula E will be the tail wagging the dog of electric car development. “That’s where the innovation and excitement lies,” smiles Chris, “and what will happen is all the barriers will be knocked over one by one.”
VIRGIN ON A NEW DAWN
Sam Bird is a driver for the Virgin Racing Formula E Team. Having previously been shortlisted for McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award, Sam has also held testing duties for the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team. On the day of his announcement as driver for Virgin, he took a series of questions on behalf of GI Magazine from young motor sport fans at Venture House Youth Centre in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.
Sam - who were your role models, growing up, both in sport and in your community? “My sporting idols and icons growing up were people like Ayrton Senna. I was still pretty young when the tragedy occurred, but I was still old enough to appreciate him as a driver. After many years of growing up and watching footage of him, and the recent film, you really begin to appreciate just how amazing he was as a racing driver and also as a person. My other hero...and I was very, very lucky to not
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only work with him but to become good friends with him, and my fingers are still crossed for him and his family, and that’s dear Michael Schumacher. Michael was extremely supportive of me and we became good mates, and from watching him win so many world titles, to working with him, to chatting to him on the phone, or just chilling out with him, is something that was phenomenal for me.
My mum and dad are heroes in their own right, because they brought me up (laughs) they had to be fairly heroic. They are amazing parents.” Does your family worry about your safety as a racing driver? “I think that they probably used to. If there’s any worry now, it’s not so much worry about safety and stuff. We all know that racing can be dangerous and that’s indented in to the back of our brains, its fast paced and unfortunately accidents do occur, but the cars are made to such a level now, that you like to think, touch wood, that most incidents happen and people are unharmed by them. They are more worried about me not achieving what I wish to achieve, so that’s probably their worry.” Kieran, aged 14, asks: Could I drive a Formula 1 car? “Any form of motor sport to someone who isn’t used to
motor sport, is very difficult. car fast”. It’s not like just getting in What car do you to a road car and driving currently drive? round a track, it’s far more complex than that. If you “I’m in between cars, but I gave any racing to car to any have a little white 1.2 litre human being and said ‘go Volkswagen Polo. What round the track’, they may did you expect? As I’m now be able to, but there would on board with a form of be scary moments with technology that’s very green, them going so slowly. I’m my next car will reflect sure that they could drive that. I was in San Francisco it, but at 14 could you reach recently and I saw some the pedals? It’s difficult for Teslas out there, I could see me, actually (laughs).” myself in a Tesla or one of the electric BMWs.” What is the difference between driving a Do you use a simulator traditional Formula 1 car for practice? and the Formula E car? “Testing is so limited in most “My initial impression is forms of motor sport now, that the feeling of driving and to an extent we have the car itself will be vastly some tests days in Formula different but the challenge to be competitive will be as great as in Formula 1. The two biggest differences are the power source and the tyres. Cornering speeds are likely to be very different and this presents the driver with a very different and exciting type of challenge for driving the
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E, but we would love more. The more testing you do, the faster you get the car. Testing on a simulator, if it’s a good simulator, can be very beneficial as well. One difficulty will be the track maps for the different places we go. Beijing and Rio are some of the first rounds, but can we get the laser scans of those cities and the track layouts? That is another question. That will be the difficulty, but it would be good to do that, because you learn the track, you get up to speed with things like minimum speeds, braking points, et cetera. Simulation is something I have done extensively for the last four years of my life for Mercedes Formula 1. In fact that was one of my main roles at Mercedes Formula 1, so it’s something I’m used to and confident in using.” Do you play racing games?
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“I have an Xbox 360, but I probably need to upgrade to the Xbox One, the newer version. After watching the Masters golf, I have kind of got in to the Tiger Woods’ golf game, I’m currently crushing the field and I’m ranked No 1 in the world (laughs). This is the only time I will be No 1 in golf, because I’m definitely not in reality. I don’t normally play a lot of racing games when I come home. In my previous job I would have eight to ten hours in a simulator, the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was to play more racing games. You never know, in the future there may be a Formula E game coming out, I’ve put it out there for people to think about!” Did you take the carting route into motor sport? “I did. Although I didn’t cart to the same intensity as other people did. I lived
at school, and I played a lot of other sports, so I found it very difficult to always do the carting thing. Academics was really important to myself and mum and dad, I needed to get a proper education and I went to some good schools, which was great. I also played cricket at a high level and football at a good level, so if the teams needed me then I would have to forgo the local cart race. Carting, I was never heroic at. I never won any European championships, I started to find my feet when I got into single seater racing, that’s when I really was able to find a good level.”
ECHO CHANGING RELATIONSHIPS, ONE HOUR AT A TIME
Echo is an economy of hours, a marketplace currently operating in London where the trades that you make are not dependant upon how much money you have, but on how much time you can give and take. Simply put members trade the skills, services and resources they have for those they need, using a currency called the Echo. Trade an hour of your expertise in marketing, for example, and that gets you one Echo (One hour = 1 Echo). With the Echo you’ve earned you can buy an hour of another member’s skill, service or resource. This system
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enables communities to be built and businesses to achieve their aims without having to use the market economy or money. Global Innovation Magazine met with Matthew McStravick the CEO of Echo in London.
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Tell me about your role at Echo? “Well, I am CEO and founder of Echo. That means running a small team of four people to develop and progress the marketplace of time. We are a marketplace for organisations of all types, as well as individuals to trade their time, skills and resources, an hour for an hour.” What kind of work were you involved with before Echo? “My background was in the music industry, I managed artists for about five years or so, developing a fairly successful career doing that. I had a pretty bad road accident, I came off my bike and I was really poorly for a while. I was very fortunate I made more a less a full recovery. Although I don’t have a sense of smell and I have tinnitus,
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which is irksome, essentially I got away with it. This led to me being able to really think about what I wanted to do with my life, and I wanted to be involved with something that had a greater benefit to people and society. “I received a lot of support from Headway London, a charity which supports people with brain injuries, and as part of this I started to read about timebanking. I guess I was looking for something innovative, something that had a clear social purpose as well as being something that I could take some ownership of. They assisted me in getting involved in starting a local timebank which eventually led to me starting Echo.”
“We are up to about 420 organisations who are trading members, who are exchanging close to 300 hours every month, which is brilliant. This is mainly within Hackney in London. Our membership is really broad: Small and medium sized businesses, start ups, sole traders, corporates and lots of companies working in the arts. Our members offer lots of different things.” Can you think of any exchanges that sit fondly in your mind?
Where is Echo now in terms of numbers of members and hours traded?
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“There are stories that come to mind, the stories of organisations delivering a little bit of their core business for Echoes and going on to win commercial work as a direct result. There are IT consultants who delivered an up-skilling workshop for the voluntary sector, then went on to win work. There was a guy who did a barista workshop for a restaurant who went on to be the provider of their coffee supply, not just for them but for two other members. Rather than one single exchange, what’s exciting for me is to be able to draw the dots on lots of exchanges, to follow a trading circle that’s what’s really exciting.” What’s the plan for the next two years? What’s the vision? “We have just become a community interest company, and have assembled a board. Broadly speaking we are focusing the next year on East London and then looking to scale across London, providing
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the business to business service. We don’t turn anyone away who wants to be a member though, that’s important. After this we would like to make the model available to other organisations across the UK, the whole package as a social franchise. Thereafter we hope to stitch them all together to create a national currency of Echoes.” How will you fund such a socially innovative project? Currently we are not charging organisations to access and be involved. It’s part of our long term sustainability plan to charge a fee though. At the moment we are grant funded and that funding will take us through to self sustainability.”
organisations find dormant resource, latent capacity, to trade for Echoes and buy-in things that you would otherwise be going without, unless you’re spending money. This has a clear commercial benefit. However, at the same time if you put an hour in, you get an hour out. This simple mechanism means that whenever people trade there is an implicit acknowledgment that your time is worth the same as mine, that has a distinct benefit that monetary exchanges cannot bring to the equation. It’s a bond between trading members, a relationship, a core economy and for me that’s very special. Money just can’t get you everything you need.”
What makes the Echo system special for you? “It’s interesting that our members are winning business and contracts as a consequence of trading in Echoes, because on the one hand we help
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THE WORLD’S GREATEST INNOVATIONS THE SEATBELT
Number one: The seat belt Now, we know what you’re thinking, a seat belt – how very beige and unexciting. Perhaps, yes. But also, no. In fact, no, no, no, no, no. Before that durable strip of woven polyester was added to car seats, there was nothing stopping people in said vehicles from disastrously obeying the laws of physics. Volvo - good, solid Volvo - came up with the three-point belt design in 1959. In an act of enduring human generosity, the Swedish company didn’t have the three-point patented so as to encourage other carmakers to include the new safety feature. A few years earlier, in 1955, American motor manufacturer Ford under the insistent
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leadership of Robert McNamara, had begun offering lap only belts, but only as optional extras. McNamara has been credited as the seat belt pioneer… however, he later became US Secretary of State for War, and was responsible for the loss of 1.5 million lives on both sides in Vietnam. He’d probably be drawing about even by now. By the 1970s the seat belt had become established. On January 31, 1983, they had become compulsory for front seats in the UK and in 1991 for back seats. In America, the law is imposed state by state. New York State became the first in the US to get its motorists to belt up in 1984. Today, New Hampshire is the only US state where the law does not require drivers to wear a seat belt. Yes, you read that right.
and back, since 2002. Sri Lanka did the decent thing and made its citizens safer in 2011. More than 400 lives are lost in the UK annually because the deceased was not wearing a seat belt. In the US, more than 4,000 people are killed when a simple strip of woven fabric would have made the critical difference between get well soon and with deepest sympathy. Seat belts: A very good idea. Especially if you’re wearing one. Cat Turnell
In India, a seatbelt has been compulsory in most states, front
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NEWS A FEW THINGS THAT CAUGHT OUR GAZE
AUTOMANIA
LONGITUDE PRIZE 2014
Automatic for the people, well almost...Americans only at the moment.
Ten million pounds is up for grabs to the person who can solve one of the greatest problems facing humanity. The Longitude Committee, a benevolent group of English university professors, has short listed six seemingly insurmountable problems - see below - and a public vote will decide on which one gets tackled.
Dementia - How can we help people with dementia live independently for longer?
The six conundrums:
Visit www.bbc.co.uk/ programmes/b006mgxf and www.nesta.org.uk/project/ longitude-prize-2014
Automatic is a smart driving assistant app. You plug the hardware into your car’s data point, download the app and it helps you improve your driving skills. Fuel economy is improved as the app advises you on hard braking points, speeding and rapid acceleration. Safety is also an added feature via the accelerometer technology which can tell if you have been involved in a serious crash. If this happens the app, via an agent, can contact your loved ones and the local authorities. It’s also capable of conducting engine diagnostics, explaining problem codes and enabling you to look like you know what you’re talking about before you go to the repair shop. Finally for those of us that lose, er, sorry, misplace our cars regularly, assistance is on hand to enable you to backtrack the previous night’s movements.
Flight - How can we fly without damaging the environment?
This is the big question that the public can help solve. And that’s the important bit - the teams behind the prize are looking for the public to get involved, not just the boffins. Get involved and innovate.
Food - How can we ensure everyone has access to sustainable and nutritious food? Antibiotics - How can we fight the resistance towards antibiotics? Paralysis - How can we restore movement to those with paralysis? Water - How can we ensure everyone has access to safe and clean water?
www.automatic.com
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DON’T MESS WITH TANKCHAIR Brad Soden is a combat veteran and the inventor of Tankchair, a piece of kit that wouldn’t look out of place in RoboCop. Tankchair is an electric wheelchair, in the sense that it can carry a person, but that’s where similarities end. The Tankchair, originally created for Brad’s disabled wife Liz, can climb hills, go through sandy and snowy terrain and hit speeds of 30mph. You can also customise the product - some owners have had fishing reels and roll cages fitted. One was even developed for a police officer with pulsing LED lights. For more information visit www.tankchair.com
INNOVATION JOCKEYS The hunt is on for India’s most innovative minds. Yahoo and Accenture are now presenting the third season of Innovation Jockeys which sees undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students submit ideas which use technology capable of transforming Indian society and business. This year’s competition is focused on the themes ‘Internet of Things’ and ‘Digital Government’. Hari Vasudev, Vice President of Yahoo India, said: “With its reach across 1,000 campuses, this contest serves as a catalyst for India.” Inspiring stuff. For more information www.innovationjockeys.net
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EDITORS VOICE NEWS|053 |003
COME AND BE INSPIRED BY GREAT BRITISH INNOVATIONS AND THE PEOPLE BEHIND THEM It’s time to illustrate, it’s time to articulate and it’s time to collaborate - in fact, it’s time for Innovate UK 2014. The countdown is on for the biggest showcase of innovation in 2014. It’s happening in the heart of the city of London, at Old Billingsgate, on the 5th and 6th of November 2014, and we want you to be there. Innovate UK is the largest multi-sector showcase of UK innovation and is jointly hosted by the Technology Strategy Board and UK Trade & Investment. They are expecting around 200 premier exhibitors representing the latest cutting edge innovation in agri-food, built environment, digital economy, energy, high value manufacturing, space, transport and globally innovated projects. There’s a whole support network under one roof, with some superb speakers packing a wealth of experience to push those attending businesses to the next level. The event’s intentions are to create
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networking opportunities, to help innovators meet other innovators and draw inspiration from their ideas. Furthermore you can learn how to deliver your innovation if it is in its early stages and crucially, identify collaborations. With more than 2,000 visitors, 3000+ high-potential businesses, international investors, Government and academia representatives expected, it’s a chance to rub shoulders with some of the most exciting innovative brains in the UK. Take part in workshops and participate in the support zone where you can seek advice from the likes of the Intellectual Property Office.
or call +44 20 7034 4849 or to take advantage of the early bird offer to all Global Innovation readers, please click here. Ticket Prices (excluding VAT): £95.00 - One Day Early Bird Ticket £125.00 - Two Day Early Bird Ticket £145.00 - One Day Standard Ticket £199.00 - Two Day Standard Ticket It’s an innovation extravaganza which you can’t afford to miss.
The Technology Strategy Board are offering all readers of Global Innovation Magazine the chance to buy attendee tickets at an early bird rate (quote Global Innovation when applying) as well as the chance to exhibit any of their innovation ideas. For more details: www.innovateukevent.com
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PDF FILES AND ONLINE PUBLICATIONS ARE NOW A MUST FOR PUBLISHERS, BUSINESSES AND WEB DESIGNERS. HOWEVER, IS IT ALWAYS EASY TO CREATE OR EVEN READ THEM? NO.
The problems you might encounter include: File incompatibility for mobile device users Downloading problems (for big files) Troublesome zooming Lack of indexing in Google Uncomfortable page flipping And many others An innovative and intuitive approach to creating online publications is extremely important for producing an excellent reading experience. What if the PDF publications you design every day were significantly better, captivating your readers’ imaginations?
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MASTER DIGITAL PUBLISHING FLIPPINGBOOK MAKES IT DELIGHTFUL
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Our truly innovative e-commerce feature allows your readers to use your shopping cart without leaving the publication page With FlippingBook Publisher all your publications are mobile ready and look great on any desktop or mobile device You can add your brand or logo and use the white label option to make sure all unnecessary mentions are removed Videos, links, flash and sound are all available to make the reading experience even better
The distribution options include website embedding, the App Store, Google Play, cloud sharing and offline publication You can monitor visitor KPIs with Google Analytics and instantly share your publications on social networks FlippingBook Publisher has several formats that you can use for your publications: Online Catalog – which you can use to create your own shop window on the web Online Magazine – perfect for periodicals Business Brochures and Presentations – impress your
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