Tudor Aw, head of tech sector at KPMG UK
“In a post-Brexit era, it is crucial that the UK tech sector is front and centre of the Government’s new industrial policy. I am therefore delighted to see that key areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence, Smart Energy and 5G have been identified as areas that will underpin the Government’s approach. The hope is that this is just the start and we will see other future disruptive technologies such as Nano technology, autonomous vehicles and IoT get similar focus and funding.
“As has been long recognised, to be successful in tech, we desperately need to upskill our workforce in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects and to see investment in these skills as well as in science, R&D and innovation is hugely promising.”
Marc Waters, MD for UK and Ireland, HPE
“HPE welcomes the publication of the Industrial Strategy Green Paper and the focus being placed on digital technology and the development of a modern industrial strategy.
“The digital economy is creating a world where everything computes – from secure data centres to mobile devices and the ‘internet of things’ – and we welcome the support and investment by the government to encourage our businesses in the UK to realise the benefits from these new technologies.”
Rob Lamb, Cloud Business Director UK&I, Dell EMC
“To date, investing in STEM and digital skills has not been a focus for UK businesses in the industrials sector. Engineering and manufacturing organisations need to keep up with the pace of innovation, and make IT part of their business strategy, not just a function of it.
“It’s important for organisations to foster talent within their workforce to ensure that their teams feel valued within the business. They also need to modernise their IT infrastructure to free up IT professionals to innovate and promote the brand of ‘new IT’ in their organisation so that it’s an aspirational function, with clear career progression and opportunity.
“With the rise of technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence, industry can no longer afford to ignore the skills gap. Having the skills in place to make use of this technology and data will be fundamental to the next stage of economic development and the transformation of all business and industry sectors. However, the Government’s Industrial Strategy must consider how to spread the benefits of technology across the whole of the country through the cross-pollination of data.
“We need to be able to create such links between traditional organisations and new innovators, fostering clusters and collaborative communities where problem solvers encounter problems and are able to create something new. Technical education, big data and knowledge sharing is going to be vital to the success of the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy.”
Quiz: What do you know about London’s technology sector?
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View Comments
I've actually read most of the industrial strategy document (have the Commenters?) and these are my conclusions:
1. The 10 Pillars of the strategy is a wish list and a great solution to which there is no defined problem or opportunities that I can see.
2. I'm not sure who it was written by but it bears all the hallmarks of a Utopian optimist
3. No strategy in a sea change environment like Brexit can succeed without a SWOTs analysis or equivalent. The outcome of such a beast is the development of a strategy/plan to capitalise on Strengths, Remedy Weaknesses, Prepare for exploitation of Opportunities and Mitigate any identified. I see no evidence of this having been done.
4. Spouting techno-babble about throwing digital technology at what is a very knotty problem I've seen before, many times, and it does not work. My GP surgery has gone all electronic from all manual and you know what? It takes longer to get prescription fulfilled and it is wrong more often than before. This is because all this technology is a TOOL, not an end in itself, and to utilise it needs a defined process aimed at a defined end result. Throwing technology at a poor process or method just hastens the inevitable end; a cock-up.
5. The strategy doesn't seem to mention details of industrial opportunities. I'm thinking of graphene in particular, invented here and being pursued and products implemented by the USA, Japan and others. There will be others which the UK will let slip like we did the linear motor, now powering maglev trains in the Far East. We can't even make nuclear power station, our own cars or trains these days and our police buy their motorcycles from BMW. 'Twas ever thus.
6. One key tactic has to be to develop premium products/services which minimise imported material where possible and are also eminently exportable. The document is so flowery prose oriented that hard objectives like this do not stand out, if indeed they exist. I'm trying not to be negative but I've seen 'PLANS' similar to this before and watched them sink.