Dyson and Jaguar

Two stories on Friday, illustrate both sides of the real problem with innovation and manufacturing.

Government is totally out of touch with innovators, because it listens far too much to trade unions, employer’s bodies and large companies. Only when someone iconic like James Dyson starts protesting, do they actually pay lip-service to their problems. Most innovators, myself included, just spend our time trying to do the best for our companies and getting round the anti-competitive practices and rules of all governments.

But when Jaguar threatens to close a factory, Governments jump!

It has always been so, with very few exceptions.

In the seventies, I programmed a system called Artemis, which is used in the planning of major projects. A well-known consultancy saw what we were doing, went to the Government and received a large sum of tax-payers money to create a competitor to our fledgling system. They sold just one to themselves. On the other hand Artemis went on to dominate the project management market.

A level playing field must be created, where everyone has equal access to assistance.

Help should go in at the grass roots level :-

1. Universities should be given subsidies to help anyone who needs it in design and innovation. They should also provide skill centres where specialist research and one-off manufacturing can be performed.

2. Fees for job-creating degrees should be reduced. (I benefited from a superb free education in engineering at Liverpool University. Would I do that now for £30,000 of debt?)

3. Patent fees should be heavily subsidised. (One successful company I backed spent two-thirds of turnover on intellectual property!)

4. The risk taken by individuals in backing projects should be allowable against tax.

Only by being innovative in how we promote innovation will we encourage more ideas that will truly benefit everybody on this planet.

I don’t think that one car factory in the Midlands that makes out-dated cars with poor fuel consumption, deserves any help at all!