I went to a talk last year on trend spotting, hosted by Marcus Lindkvist, which explained that most trends sneak up on you and then one day suddenly (it seems) they are commonplace and you don’t remember life before that. They are not things that are easy to see coming. Facebook is a prime example where relatively few people knew of it only 3 years ago and now if you are not on Facebook, you are making some sort of statement.
There have been many efforts to collaborate and understand innovation and the globalisation of business and it just feels like this year, ‘suddenly’ it is everywhere we look. We are involved in CLIQ, (Creating Local Innovation through a Quadruple Helix), an EU project to optimise the benefits of globalisation and innovation to SMEs and entrepreneurs in medium sized towns.
There are many similar initiatives we are involved with simultaneously ‘suddenly’ and all of these things combine between 15 and 20 countries working together on getting innovations to work across regions. The premise “together we’re stronger” has never been truer and maybe a global recession – or even the idea of one for those sceptics out there – is the tipping point we needed to push many organisations from Government, corporates and SMEs alike into being more collaborative, innovative and receptive to new ideas. In a sense, we are all forced to innovate to survive. With this backdrop, it is easy to see why, in times of crisis, new ideas have a strong track record of flourishing. In fact, a company in Bristol recently suggested that it’s lower risk right now to start a business than get a ‘proper job’.
In any case, we welcome the surge in collaboration and the focus on innovation funding from the Government and corporates alike. Long may it continue for the sake of our growing number of brave entrepreneurs.
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