Your perspectives on the UK as an innovation nation

Addressing: Competitiveness in industry, Design Innovation in Public Services

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- Should Government be promoting business innovation - or should the market be left to determine its own fate?

- How do we learn from the UK's many world-class public services?

- Can a culture of innovation be created in our public sector organisations?

- Do we have the skills - or motivation - we need to become an innovative nation?

- How can companies use their supply chains to help them innovate?

David Kester

Design Council Chief Executive

 

Quote: The DIUS Innovation Nation strategy underlines the vital role of design in making Britain more innovative, competitive and effective in key areas of national life. It marks a pivotal moment for the UK design industry, building on our work to establish design’s role in enabling innovation – not just in science and technology, but in business and public services too - and we are hugely excited to see this boost being given to the role of design in these vital areas.

Recent submissions

Mike Goatman said on 19 March 2008 at 12:23

To achieve this we have to become more sophisticated in ways of understanding the other professionals or stakeholders' discipline perspectives.  Everyone has their initial platform in their own constituency, and can see how problems should be solved from that point of view. But we need to move beyond that, and understand the different positions, methods, target measurements etc. Ultimately this means new methodologies and may take some research.

Frank Davis said on 11 February 2008 at 14:14

True history of innovation in the UK is part of collective knowledge and experience of the organisation. There are bad examples of projects, but look at PPP. 'Smarter ways' of tackling problems, with designers become quick fix commercial solutions reflecting the world we live in rather than a better way of doing things. Replacing a bus conductor with a ticket machine and a video camera reduces operating costs but is a poor user experience. We need institutions, with easier access to R and D, well educated employees with a sense of pride and ownership. Innovation will follow.

Swati Mehrotra said on 22 January at 15:04

The designers are changing the way we see things. The next era belongs to innovation and that's possible with the help of designers be it fashion or technology. The things are changing! Now to meet up with customers expectations one needs to be really matching with that of private sector! We need to be technologically advanced and innovative in design! To tackle such problems one needs to closely check the prototype and deliver new stuff in mkt!

Lydia Thornley said on 22 January 2008 at 14:12

It's important not to let innovation become something you 'do'. Real innovation is not comfortable. It goes straight to the problem. The public sector needs to redesign procurement to let innovation in. Education needs to get rid of the mutual exclusivity between academic and creative subjects to foster a sense of possibility. For businesses, innovation will need championing from the inside. There's enormous potential - if we use our creative thinkers at a high enough level and at an early enough stage.