How to use the Government’s purchasing power to boost Britain’s most innovative businesses
Yesterday I had the pleasure of responding to a talk by Bill Janeway at the IPPR. Janeway, remarkably, has combined a career as a legendary venture capitalist with a sideline as an economist of innovation*.
After months of evidence gathering and weeks of cogitation, the London School of Economics released the report of its Growth Commission yesterday. This is as close as you can get to the great and the good of British economics speaking ex cathedra - the author list is a role call of distinguished experts on economic growth, both academic and non-academic.
Two and half years ago, Nesta had the privilege to work with two of the most outstanding figures in the UK's creative industries, Alex Hope of Double Negative studios and Ian Livingstone of Eidos. We'd been asked by the Government to look at what could be done to make sure the UK had the skills it needed to maintain its world-class visual FX and video games industries. These were industries that Ian and Alex knew better than most, since they'd played a central role in building them.
Over at Marginal Revolution, the economist Tyler Cowen proposes an interesting intellectual parlour-game*. If you could travel to some distant point in the past, say 1500AD, what could you do to improve the future and help people living in 2013?
It's been National Schumpeter Week on the British High Street. Gales of creative destruction have swept away three well-known chains of stores whose business models had been made obsolete by the last decade of technological progress*.
It's against the law to download a pirated £0.99 MP3. But (technology permitting) it seems that printing your own £249.00 iPod is fine.
The Economist has put a toilet on the front page of its innovation issue. I get it - toilets are useful. They're ubiquitous. Sanitation has saved millions of lives.
News out today suggests that Lord Heseltine's review of industrial strategy will call for foreign takeovers of British businesses to be subject to a "public interest" test.
Who are the neglected heroes of public service innovation? Perhaps it's not the inventors, but the adopters.
![Twitter icon [original]](http://admin.nesta.org.uk/library/images/Twitter-button_34x35.jpg "Twitter icon [original]"){kind=small}
Follow our daily updates on Twitter @nesta_uk
![Linked in icon [original]](http://admin.nesta.org.uk/library/images/LinkedIn_button_34x35.jpg "Linked in icon [original]"){kind=small}
Take part in the discussion on our LinkedIn group
![Facebook icon [original]](http://admin.nesta.org.uk/library/images/facebook.jpg "Facebook icon [original]"){kind=small}
Share your views on our Facebook page
Sign up for our regular updates for the latest news and opportunities.
T +44 (0)20 7438 2500
F +44 (0)20 7438 2501
Nesta Operating Company, a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales with company number 7706036 and charity number 1144091. Registered as a charity in Scotland number SC042833.
