Roger On Drupal

Thinking about R&D across Europe is an honour and a privilege but also a deep responsibility: a responsibility to reserve & preserve the future of our country and its people. It is also daunting adding to the many & multiple experts in the field and adding to what is a significant body of knowledge. However the ideas here - and their implementation - represent the future of the UK, of our families and of our children - in times of significant and global change we need to make those steps which exploit our talents, capitalise on our skills and underwrite our futures.

 

R&D is not the Cinderella of the economy but is the engine of our prosperity & wealth - it is the DNA of our competitiveness [ figures on patents, UK punching above their weight ]. And it extends our heritage of science, innovation, entrepreneurship and economy to this new century.

 

As information professionals it is clear that in the information age industry & economy derive from information - if the engineers & wheel wrights were the architects of the industrial age so the IT & IS professionals are the architects of today’s economy. But where to start? It is not that the traditional view of learned information means that that librarians rule the world [although Laura Bush's fabled card index demonstrates the mastery of information management] but an information environment as production, propagation & [ex]ploitation is the theme of today’s economy

 

To illustrate the problem, and opportunity, that lies with information we intend to look at the facets of information through the ages of a firm. Every firm matches patterns, or distinct ages, of information use in its development. Like a hungry child entrepreneurial firms devour information and like a prudent pensioner older firms husband and exploit information. A healthy economy needs to be modelled on a healthy family - to support and encourage all ages of information use by being supportive whilst at the same time differentiating across each age. Encouraging the new yet protecting the old. An industrial environment without all ages of the firm is as unbalanced as a society without a spectrum of cultures, opinions and ages.

 

In order to develop the themes of information excellence / advantage we will look at these ages of information. Consider our thesis as a model of excellence of how the UK as a competitive entity in the world economies can capitalise on its excellence by aggressively driving its competences whilst preserving its heritage. As an entirely Europe has a cultural and social diversity and cohesion which addresses directly the challenges of the world economy. Our challenge to UK plc and the government as the majority shareholder in UK plc is to deliver the Knowledge environment for R&D, the job of the Information Professional is to design this environment.

 

Europe plc should be the environment of choice for industry and innovation – it is the home of the industrial revolution and it provides a cohesive environment due to it’s social and cultural connectivity. However the government has the responsibility to act as patron to industry to ensure that the climate and the facilities for industry match individual interests and societal expectations.

 

Our stance is to think of the climate for industry and innovation as the ages of the firm – firms like people have distinct phases of their existence during which they have different internal characteristics and external manifestations

 

Throughout the ages the innovation [see what everyone sees but thinks what no one thinks] is forever a balance of risk – it is the uncertainty of speculative outcomes against the hunch of the moment. At times the organisation may court complete ignorance [ I am looking Feynman – on the youth in science or leadbeater on ignorance management ] but often the decisions are made with a supportive backcloth of information.

 

Information and Knowledge are the foil to risk – it is information that closes the gap between a wanton gamble and a calculated risk.

 

Information and knowledge combine from many forms – from the knowledge used in learning, to the proprietal protection of a patent, to the experience acquired in apprenticeship and the wisdom of experience. Together, cumulatively and across the ages of the firm these elements of knowledge – societal, professional, organisational and personal - guide the decision maker and the success of the firm.

 

To illustrate the role of Information in the R&D economy we consider the five ages:-

 

The age of innovation - generate ideas [20’s]

The age of entrepreneurship - generate companies [30’> s]

The age of markets - generate opportunity [40’s ]

The age of expansion - generate employment [50’s ]

The age of income - generate money [60’s]

 

The age of innovation - generate ideas [20’s]

 

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done – Henry Ford

 

Setting the pattern

The age of disruptive technologies and the opportunity to learn and experiment – requires an iconoclast’s attitude to authority tempered by a rich academic and learning environment.

Case study around academic excellence and the linkage of the universities to industry with specific reference to the learned societies.

 

The age of entrepreneurship - generate companies [30’s]

 

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. Thomas Watson

 

Scaling the experience

The age of experience where accelerated experiential learning is by matching progressive experimentation with a rising scope – it is scaling up the early experiments and learning how to do the next new thing and next new experience. It is the learning process of refining a product offering and understanding the mechanism of production. It has to link to location and cluster ideas of industry development.

 

Case study – around the value and need of modern day apprenticeships in enterprise/ middle management and the dangers of outsourcing which reduces the ability to learn

 

The age of markets - generate opportunity [40’s]

 

A mobile phone needs a manual in the way that a teacup doesn’t – Douglas Adams

 

Engaging society

The age of society where the freedom to act is matched by a growing responsibility to, and position in, society as a whole. With the deep social agenda of the EEC this is where an organisation, large enough to be significant, build its linkages with the society in which it sits. It is here that collaborative product and market research define and refine the product offering and the company learns. It is here too that the firm draws on protection from the community it serves.

Case study about the linkage between industry and R&D – both scale [eg Pharma & biotech] and industry/society partnerships [such as biomedical research]. Could be the opportunity for material on social science research

 

 

The age of expansion - generate employment [50’s]

 

I’m stuck here I want some material on the (negative) balance of trade in IT!

 

Exploiting Markets

 

Case study on the attractiveness of markets and the availability of a trained workforce

 

 

The age of income - generate money [60’s]

 

… the third-quarter numbers contained a surprise £145m provision for legal costs. That was ample evidence to support the sceptics’ view that the most important people at xxx these days are not the scientists who discover new compounds but the lawyers who defend patents on old drugs.

 

Reaping the rewards

Business school thinkers talk of the cash cow as the definition of income generation without heady growth. It is the era when the firm and its markets are mature and the organisation capitalises on prior investments. EU based companies need to be as competent and aggressive at preserving their assets as foreign competitors.

 

Case study – arguably on the governance team but to address the issues of good information (and patent) governance of the core business assets

 

Case study on the value of patents and the twin threat of global organisations trawling/circumventing IPR and the Asia Pac organisations