The EnvisionaryInnovation my old friend, come back before it’s too late! How innovation in the UK will be determined by value, but which type?
I try to stay clear of politics but it becomes a bit difficult when you see innovation in the UK falling sharply behind in terms of innovative output for many years now. It’s not to say innovation doesn’t exist, but it’s a less than it should be, and it’s concerning.
I don’t normally write articles so direct towards a failing of my own country, as these articles try to stay clear of politics where they can, but it becomes a bit difficult when you see your own country behind in terms of the research & development funding it requires for much-needed innovation.
Why Innovation In The UK Moves Too Slowly (My Brief Story)
It is slowly improving but that’s exactly the problem, it’s far far too slow.
Unfortunately, those in charge think the UK is already innovative when the reality is the UK is far from it today and has fallen further behind other countries, who in the last decade or so have not just caught the UK up but flown past them.
I’ve seen this first hand from my time living in South Korea, which is far more innovative these days, and who have well-funded research & development systems in place to ensure a lot of workers are trained up to think ahead today.
The UK might paint an ‘innovative’ picture, after all, it’s become a buzzword used today to sound good, and many university degrees (such as science research degrees) are being labeled as being innovative degrees when they aren’t the value-creating, forward-thinking innovation-led programs we need (although I’m sure students within these types of degrees absolutely having the potential to think innovately if only it was promoted properly).
As an innovation consultant, I can’t shake my head enough at the lack of understanding or ability to innovate in this country. That might sound harsh, but it’s for good reason. It’s a shame as it leads to the brightest, innovative minds leaving this country to go elsewhere.
I did it myself, and thought coming back after 10 years (on and off) away I’d see a different landscape, one truly ready to innovate on all scales, one to fit the net-zero promises. I hoped there would be as I truly want to help my country innovate.
15 years ago, I had a lot of enthusiasm about a few interactive app ideas and developments I’d come up with just as Apple was launching the iPhone touchscreen technology. I knew about this sensor technology the year before.
In my final year degree within Interactive Design (one of the first of its kind in the country at that time) there were at least a few modules and lessons that tried to forward-thinking into future technologies. A course solely in innovation was hard to find, yet I was excited about how I could blend my two biggest interests in innovation and psychology together somehow and showcase my abilities in a company.
However, there were no companies that were really fueling this upcoming technology. Where were they? The US of course, and in other countries. And whilst others in my course likely realised the same, that the opportunity for their minds wasn’t in the UK, I remained in hope that I could do something bright and ‘sparky’ for my own country.
I know the UK has always been more conservative and traditionalist to some degree, but I genuinely thought it was just going to be a matter of time until they caught up and there would be one or two innovative tech companies coming our way soon after.
It didn’t really happen. Entrepreneurship and innovation in the UK was solely focused in finance or medicine. I can’t deny the UK’s excellence in that, but it was very limited beyond that, and very red taped in that.
Creative vision wasn’t really appreciated, understood, or encouraged. If you had it, you were seen as artsy, and it was seen that you should do a BA Hons degree in the ‘Arts’ rather than in the Sciences, such was the misunderstanding of what Interactive Design actually was (and the many following industry titles that followed).
Even today, you can find a UX designer paid three-fold in the US compared to the UK, and no it’s not because of the currency exchange, it’s because of the perceived value in what creative and empathetic designers give.
In America, that value is seen as very important as they understand the fundamental importance of value creation, whereas the UK has for far too long been living in its past history of value extraction. The UK sees innovative thinking, technologies, or UX designer titles as ‘nice to have but not essential’, despite other countries seeing it as the opposite.
If we look at who is prospering now, then, unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) it’s not the UK.
Value Creation Is What We Need, Not Value Extraction
The difference in countries outputs today is largely down to that focus on value creation rather than value extraction.
I always wondered what my Dad meant when he talked about ‘value’ being the most important thing you can provide a consumer. Now I get it, as without value creation within business we truly seize to exist. We just hold onto any value that was there before, but when it’s gone, it’s gone.
The good (or bad) thing for the UK was that there was a lot of previous value to hold onto, so much so that they didn’t see the need to create anything new.
It was like the cupboards were full of wine stock that was once seen as valuable, wine that they assumed would just grow in value with age, but didn’t stop to think about what happens if all the wine is drunk.
This value extraction is clear to see. The UK focuses its business primarily on finance and real estate. Why?
That is where the wealth is, in old hands who have been in those industries for a long time (who have all those old bottles of wines both metaphorically and physically filling their cupboards up). Some who care more about extracting and increasing their current value to afford their private luxury villas than they do about sharing or redistributing some of that wealth into value creation projects, where innovation really can blossom.
Yet, you can’t really blame them either. People weren’t to know any different. After all, the same value extraction mindset has led the UK to great prosperity in the past. Lots of this wealth was extracted before the world became more globalised and before the world started movements around social and environmental change.
No wonder some wish the good old days were back, but were they really as good as we think?
When people have been brought up with a value extraction mindset you simply look for ways to capitalise. Money is your master, and you end up thinking that is all that matters in life. You get comfortable rather than seeking to value create and add something new that is needed NOW and in the future. If you’ve been extracting value our of old industries like finance or real estate for so long you don’t really know how to do anything else.
Instead, you keep trying to extract every ounce of what value you already have, selling it down to others like a pyramid scheme, however which way it is manipulated. No wonder there was such a push on how accountants and lawyers were seen as noble careers.
The impact on only focusing on value extraction
Unfortunately, only focusing on value extraction leads to a bigger downfall in the future, and it’s today’s younger generations that have been hit by the reality of it.
Whilst they are the fortunate inheritors of being able to live in a more comfortable world than ever before, and a big part of that is thanks to the work Britain did in the industrial revolution, today is a very different world.
Living on past successes will only end up seeing us fall further behind. It won’t generate the solutions that are needed to catch up and become an innovative hub again.
All the government’s promises about being net-zero and so on by 2030 simply won’t happen if value extraction is the focus and heart of the agenda. The UK will simply ‘say’ they are innovating without really knowing how to, and people like myself will begrudgingly have to move abroad again to be able to put our value-creating minds to use.
In some ways, I guess this article is a bit of a plea, as I don’t want to necessarily feel that opportunity and future only lie abroad. We need to be making people realise that the UK is full of innovative and inventive minds. We have a history of it, but in order to do that we need to stop thinking in past glories and start bringing about new innovations again.
This may sound repetitive but it needs to be drilled into our minds. For us to be able to be a productive and prosperous country in the future we have to start creating value now, and we need innovation to drive it.
Yet, it’s not just about government funding or programs to help drive this.
There are two major mindset shifts that need to occur too.
There will be those who will try and answer any challenge with the typical ‘I’ll sue you’ approach for capitalist ‘value extraction’, but there will also be the younger generation who will angrily cry from the rooftops without really knowing what else to do.
We can do better than simply crying from the rooftops. Modern-day activists from younger generations are clearly angry at their lack of opportunity to be able to afford their own piece of the ‘good life’ and whilst they have inherited home comforts, they have also inherited a potentially bleaker future.
Yet, angry protests won’t change anything. Learning to be value creators will, and persuading the older value extractors to see the bigger future value in value creation rather than value extraction is key.
The UK will always have a bit of value extraction within it. It has heritage and history that it won’t throw away, some of which it should be very proud of, other parts, not so much (but most countries are like that).
The difference in innovation from the likes of South Korea today though is the emphasis on forward-thinking (they put a lot into R&D, patents, manufacturing and tech), whereas the UK is stuck in backward thinking (only tertiary efficiency remains competitive), or at the very least the lowest gears of forward-thinking. The self-awareness is there now maybe, but not the know-how.
We could argue that this is because we are a victim of our own success. That the cost of living and maintence in the UK is far higher than in other places. But there’s other countries with historic pasts that are innovating much more than us (others nearby like Denmark, Germany and Netherlands).
It’s more to do with the mentality, a mentality of sticking to what we know. Part of this is down to English being the world lanaguge. It makes things convenient so we don’t have to put our learning cap on, yet this could also be seen as an advantage to innovate as it gives us more chance to communicate effectively with others.
The impact if we became more value creation orientated
We have first been brought up to idolise lawyers and accountants in society (the top value extraction jobs), so it’s no wonder we find it hard to shake that approach. Everything in our country is set up for thinking that is the rule to follow, to swindle people for profit, and this makes it hard to shift that mentality.
Yet we need different role models to change. Younger people might idolise celebrities, influencers, or activists. Yet, that’s not what we need either. That just creates no value at all.
Again, this wonderful island has a rich history of inventive and innovative minds. We need to bring them back and put full focus on value creation (and go further towards holistic co-creation), where we see the government and companies reinvest into research and innovation, where competence and merit are rewarded over manipulation or influence, and where bright minds are once again attracted to the UK rather than seeking to run from it.
The impact will surely see us create many new and interesting jobs for people, and lead towards the kind of entrepreneurs that are able to create value for generations to come. We need less people just putting money into stocks of crypto hoping to one day become rich, and more backing value-led projects and companies that can help the UK redevelop into an innovative hub once again.
The opportunity for this has never been greater and never been more needed. David Attenborough’s stark words speak volumes, but do they have to fall on deaf ears and greedy eyes? We don’t need people who spend a lifetime climbing ladders to obtain ignorance. They add nothing of value.
Yet, greed and ignorance may simply become humanity’s downfall. Not just greed for money, but also greed for attention and validation. We don’t need either, we need better, and better only comes from creating value.
A Tale Of Two Different Outcomes For Innovation In The UK
If you really want to visualise what the future may hold for the UK if we don’t change our mentality to a more value creation led one, then think of this:
The time is 2035, the targets were missed, but it’s okay, we are told, we are more prosperous than ever. We’ve found a way to manipulate our financial system to level out the mess, only we are starting to sink and we have no ideas for how to curb it. People are becoming desperate, rents are extortionate, and people can’t sell their homes. We are stuck here, sinking together.
If only We’d had known what else to do. Feels like a bit of a squandered opportunity hey?! What is innovation anyway? Thought it was just a buzzword people used. Anyway, it’s okay, money can make a life raft apparently. Money stained in wine that we have to drink now as there’s nothing else left. Let’s all drink the last batch, revel in our magnificence of yesterday, and then, oh bugger, it’s too late, down we go.
Now, of course, that’s an exaggerated story. Reality tends to play out slower than stories, but it doesn’t mean stories can’t tell us something. Of course, there’s another story that could be written:
The time is 2035, I awake from a bad dream about a sinking wine-soaked boat in the shape of the UK? What was that about? Must have been that natural wine we made the other day, it’s was a good one! I might come up with an even better one using the resources we have at hand. Well, the wines still talking it seems.
Okay, the world is not perfect but it’s still here. The UK have made a remarkable turnaround, actually delivered on their net-zero, who’s have thought? University is booming full of ideas, my kid came home with a remarkable development idea with his team, and it might just work. He’s got a grant and the know-how to make it happen, so pleased for him. There’s so many interesting thing happening here. There’s hope for our adapting land yet!
The choice is ours. Value creation or value extraction?