Conservative Party Conference: Made in Britain

Date: 04.10.2010 12:30 - 14:00

Location: IET Birmingham: Austin Court, Telford Room, 80 Cambridge Street, Birmingham, B1 2NP

Made in Britain: Building a 21st century economy

As the UK emerges from the worst financial situation in living memory the need to build sustainable economic growth has become increasingly important.

Our event 'Made in Britain: Building a 21st Century Economy' brought together David Willetts MP and leading entrepreneurs to explore how policy can be framed to aid the UK's economic recovery and ensure we create the right conditions for the innovative companies that will generate sustainable growth.

The challenge we face

Jonathan Kestenbaum started by challenging each of the panellists to explain how they would build a more competitive economy for Britain in the 21st century.

Brent Hoberman

Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com, took up the challenge by saying that we needed to work more with entrepreneurs to turn the UK into an ideas factory.

"We need to make the UK an easier place for entrepreneurs to grow their business", he said and he urged Government to help in three ways.

Firstly by cutting bureaucracy - he pointed out that many people don't start businesses because they've become too difficult to close.

Secondly he called for the creation of more knowledge hubs - for sectors such as digital, space and life sciences - to foster a UK-wide culture of information exchange and innovation.

And thirdly he argued for better support for companies wanting to expand into the EU and global markets. "Government needs to help entrepreneurs to think internationally early on. Only then can we build a more competitive economy".

Mike Lynch

The founder of Autonomy, one of Britain's biggest technology success stories, said that the past few years have shown that we need to rebalance the economy and not just rely on the financial sector to drive our growth.

He put forward a compelling argument about the need to encourage more bright graduates to create and grow businesses, not just take the safe route and join established ones.

He said it was imperative to make entrepreneurship a more attractive career option for Britain's best students.

Mike Emmerich

After citing Manchester as a rich test-bed for innovation hub, Mike Emmerich sent out a warning that unless we put an innovation infrastructure in place in all our cities and schools, we risk losing the race altogether.

"If we do not innovate now, the West will soon find itself unable to compete with other emerging economies".

David Willetts MP

The Universities and Science Minister admitted that the UK is formidable in many areas of education innovation, but a weak point in the current set-up is advice and guidance for young students.

"We need to get better at telling pupils which qualifications have the most value in the wider economy".

When it came to the practical area of targeting businesses with the most promise he said that although the Government "can't pick winners, it can pick races", and argued for more support for sectors which have high-growth promise in future years, from space to life sciences.

He finished by saying that innovation in the UK economy is vital if it is to prosper this century. Areas such as knowledge transfer, advice and guidance, and the breaking down of barriers between small business and universities are key to our future success.

Q&A session

Mike Lynch responded to a question from Twitter about the problem with managers blocking innovative ideas.

He agreed with the complaint and said he had the same experience when he started out working for various large blue-chip companies.

"The problem with many big businesses in the UK", he said, "is that they are run by accountants whose primary concern is to balance the books and minimise risk.

"However the key to radically improving your business is to employ and give license to innovators so that you have different ways of looking at the business model.

"It's why so many big businesses failed to respond adequately to the digital revolution, and are still catching up. The shape of their companies prevented them from adapting fast enough".

Brent Hoberman finished off by saying that there is a huge opportunity for Government to make entrepreneurship a viable career path.

He made an impassioned appeal to make it a positive option, celebrating success whenever it occurs, and normalising the failure that it so often entails.

Speakers

• Jonathan Kestenbaum, Chief Executive, NESTA
• Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science
• Mike Lynch, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Autonomy
• Brent Hoberman, Co-founder, Lastminute.com
• Mike Emmerich, Chief Executive New Economy