The first Ingenuity KnowledgeXchange breakfast event of 2016 brought Dr Liz Evans and Ben Smithwell together to outline their experiences around ‘engagement’ and enhancing the customer experience.  With over 70 local business leaders in the room it was a lively and interesting session.

Dr Liz Evans (Faculty of Arts: Department of Culture, Film & Media) challenged various perceptions around ‘engagement’ and linked them back to the business environment while  Ben Smithwell drew on his many personal experiences as a customer and using them to suggest how to develop appropriate customer strategies within micro and small businesses.

Comments from the audience included:

• Great start to the New Year
• Very logical and very interesting – thank you
• I like the variety of having an academic and business speaker

The next breakfast is entitled ‘Writing your own Success Story’ on 8th March.  For full details and to register click here.

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The breakfast programme resumed after a short summer break with a returning favourite –  Christopher Barnatt, Associate Professor of Strategy & Future Studies here at The University of Nottingham’s Business School. The morning’s breakfast presentation was based on ‘The Next Big Thing’ – helping people think big: to remember that the possible can become possible.

Chris recapped the last big thing – the Internet Revolution. This may be over and it’s still very important, however this is not where the revolution is anymore. He outlined his four predictions of The Next Big Thing;

• Local Digital Manufacturing (LDM)
• Synthetic Citizens
• Resources from Space
• Transhuman Evolution

In the last 30 years we have rebuilt the economy to rely on nanoscale and microscale machines. We call them microprocessors, and they process information. In the next 30 years we will rebuild the economy once more based on nanoscale and microscale machines – this time microfabricators that will turn digital designs into physical things. The prediction for 2035, is that 3D printing, synthetic biology and nanotech will all combine together to create a new idea, the example shown was printing of human liver, heart and printing skin onto burn victims.

The second of Chris’ predictions is based around Synthetic Citizens. Chris spoke about the different virtual assistants online, which different companies have all began to develop, e.g. Siri, Cortana etc. Chris also showed the evolution and development of robots made in recent years. With robot ideas developing and becoming more advanced, plus their links to artificial intelligence it is likely that many repetitive tasks done by people, will eventually be carried out by machines.

Chris’ next prediction was based around Resources from space. The example given was that as resources on Earth continue to dwindle, an option for us is to harness Solar Energy from space. These orbiting systems would receive sunlight before it hit the Earth, and wirelessly transmit their collected energy to a receiving station on the ground. Mining the moon for specialist materials is another possibility; NASA and others are also looking into asteroid materials, not only how to harvest them but also where they might be used.

Chris’ final prediction was regarding Transhuman Evolution. Genomic medicine is the idea of prescribing medicines based on genetics. As the cost of DNA sequencing continues to fall it opens up significant opportunities for the health/pharma/medicine industries.  Prescription drugs would be accurately targeted towards suitable DNA profiles to increase the efficacy of the medicine while simultaneously minimising the risk of adverse side effects.  Drugs would be developed to suit specific individuals.

Our next breakfast session will be on Tuesday 10^th November, where Louise Mullany, Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics, will be sharing her knowledge on Effective On-Line Communications. For more information, please visit the Ingenuity Website.

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This week’s breakfast presentation, delivered by Jonathan Tallant (Head of Philosophy at The University of Nottingham) with guest speaker of Tony Brooks (The Leadership Training Workshop), was based on how philosophy and positive thinking could help your business.

Jonathan Tallant started off the morning stating that creativity is hard, but it is essential if a business is to succeed, as it allows the products produced to be further ahead than the competitors. Jonathan outlined to the group why they should think about philosophy; data suggests that philosophy helps people perform better on tasks involving numeracy and literacy and philosophy students are in the top 10 most employable graduates.

The philosopher’s approach is to analyse and question everything, allowing you to look at things from a different perspective. With a different perspective come different ideas, resulting in business products or plans that can only become better and more innovative. Jonathan went on to explain that life naturally has a purpose; Aristotle thought it was living a eudaimonic (flourishing) life. Taking on new skills, new hobbies etc mean we flourish as a person.

The Department of Philosophy at The University of Nottingham offers businesses the opportunity to explore these principals in greater depth via Ingenuity workshops, bespoke challenge sessions and individual consultancy. These are just 3 of the ways you could get involved and potentially change your business frame of mind.

Jonathan then handed over to Tony Brooks, who took to the floor to talk about the power of a positive mind-set for business leaders. Tony outlined 3 key things which affect your positive mind-set: the way you view yourself, others, and your circumstances, and we have a tendency to view these in a negative way.

In people who tend to view things in a negative way, depression is 10 times more common and 66% of this is due to work-related stress. This is because we are continually chasing success and don’t notice the smaller successes we achieve on a day to day basis. So changing our mind-set to view the smaller things as a positive can change the way you work.

Tony shared an example with us about GP’s. When GP’s were working with a more positive mind-set, they were 3 times more effective and 20% faster. This showed that doing things differently will get you different and better results.

To bring the session to a close, Tony shared a piece of advice. To view things in a more positive way, all we have to do is shift our filters. A small way to begin to do this is to write down 5 positive things at the end of each day, to allow you to appreciate the small positives or successes from your day, rather than focusing on the big yearly achievements.

As we are now taking a short break for summer, our next breakfast event is on the 29^th September, where Chris Barnatt Associate Professor of Strategy & Future Studies will be talking about “The Next Big Thing”. For more information, please visit the Ingenuity website.

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This breakfast presentation delivered by Bob Berry (Boots Professor of Accounting and Finance) with guest speaker and  tax expert, Chris Bond (BDO’s Nottingham Office) highlighted the way in which the UK government uses the tax system to encourage specific types of capital and revenue expenditure, such as R&D spending, which are key elements in determining how a business will develop.

Bob began the session by outlining some basic financial ideas to warm up the audience. He explained that the key part of finance is cash flow – as a business you should aim for more pounds coming in and less going out. The key message which Bob put across to businesses in this segment was that generally a lower tax bill paid later rather than sooner is preferable.  Bob outlined  a number of ways in which you can reduce your tax; however you shouldn’t build your company based on the tax advantages.

Bob then demonstrated how profit is calculated, he also explained that profit was not dependant on cash flow.  This then lead onto a discussion about depreciation, which is where you are using an asset over time; therefore you should get taxed over time. However the tax man does now allow you to pick and choose how and what tax you. Capital Allowances can be a useful tool to address challenges associated with depreciation; the tax man defines tax allowable patterns of depreciation and this is known as a Capital Allowance in the UK. Some examples of this are; machinery purchases, renovation of business premises and Patent rights. For more examples of this please see the Capital Allowances Act 2001 and Case Law.

Bob then brought all this information together and related it back to the majority of our audience; how can you benefit from R&D relief as an SME? You must be liable for Corporation tax, have fewer than 500 employees and either an annual turnover, less or equal to £100 million, or a balance sheet less or equal to £86 million.

Bob Berry then handed over to Chris Bond, a tax expert from BDO’s Nottingham Office.  Chris took to the floor to explain about the Patent Box. The Patent Box is a tax regime which from April 2013 allows 10% of UK corporation tax of attributable profits  derived from patents and similar IP to be phased over 5 years.

However Chris warned us that there are big changes to the Patent Box from 30^th June 2016, so he advised reviewing your business plan for the next year and maybe take this opportunity to bring some projects forward, before the changes occur.

Both presentations from the breakfast session can be accessed by clicking their names… Prof. Bob Berry and  Chris Bond.

Our next breakfast session will be on the 14^th July, where Jonathan Tallant (Head of the Department of Philosophy at The University of Nottingham) and Tony Brooks (The Leadership Training Workshop) will be sharing their thoughts on Disruptive Thinking in a business. For more information, please visit the Ingenuity Website.

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This week’s ingenuity breakfast session took on a different format and considered how changes in the public sector could present opportunities to local businesses. Richard Baker, Deputy Editor of the Nottingham Evening Post, put a range of questions to three representatives from the Council, Local Enterprise Partnerships along with Small and Medium Enterprises.

Ingenuity Breakfast Event: Tuesday 21^st April 2015

Interviewer: Richard Baker

Speakers: – Jayne Francis-Ward, Deputy Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire County Council

– Peter Richardson, Chair of D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership

– Steff Wright, MD of Gusto Group Limited

Richard put to the panel: What does the council do for businesses?

A generally positive response came from the panel, and to put things into perspective, they outlined a few examples of ways in which councils support businesses. The council helps businesses and people every day providing us different services including: Adult care, Social Care, library services, health services are provided to us.

However local authorities are under resourced in some areas which can present challenges – delays in planning was cited as an example. Also, it became apparent that large organisations, such as the County Council work to a longer time frame which isn’t ideal for SME’s.

It was also suggested that small businesses have to work harder to understand large organisation’s processes, however if they align their practices to match the public sector then opportunities can be opened up.

What is the impact on businesses of council cut backs?

With the council already having cut backs of £185M over the last 5 years, Jayne explained that crisis breeds innovation. These cutbacks have therefore had some positive impacts for the council, as customer satisfaction rates have in fact increased in recent years.  Further significant savings are required, which the council are looking to achieve through digitalising many of their services.

Steff also pointed out that council cut backs were in fact benefiting SMEs as it is fuelling engagement with the local authorities; he outlined the; ‘Men in Sheds’ project, which has been set up by a small amount of funding from the local council and support from the Gusto Group. Men in sheds is a project specifically for men aged 60 years and over. It aims to bring older men together to put their practical skills to good use and encourage them to be more socially active.

Is the public sector going to change?

No-one can be certain on what is going to happen in the forthcoming election, or indeed over the next 10 years. However, all agreed that many more partnerships and social enterprises will be forming in the coming years. Also, Jayne suggested that health and emergency services will see more integration with combined hubs around our local areas. Looking forward, Peter stated that our Universities and Colleges are absolutely essential to innovation and business growth, they also need to be sustained and improved.

Richard brought the session to a close by asking the panel members for 3 key messages that the audience could take away from this event:

• Engage with an open mind and build strong relationships
• Be innovative, Be unique
• Tell larger companies what you need – they are willing to help.

Our next breakfast session will be on Tuesday 2^nd June, where Bob Berry (Boots Professor of Accounting and Finance) will highlight the way in which the tax system is designed to encourage specific types of capital and revenue expenditure, such as R&D spending, which are key elements in determining how a business will develop. For more information, visit the Ingenuity Website.

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Ingenuity Breakfast Event – Tuesday 24th March 2015

Speaker: Gianluca Sergi, University of Nottingham

This week’s Ingenuity Breakfast was entertaining in every respect. Gianluca Sergi, Associate Professor of Culture, Film & Media Studies at the University of Nottingham, gave an insight into how some of the leading lights in Hollywood encourage creativity in their employees.

The film industry is generally thought of as being a medium of arts and science. It’s easy to forget it’s also very much about business:
• In the USA the industry is forecast to hit $100billion of revenue by 2017
• In the UK it’s the fastest growing sector, totalling £1.4billion in 2014

Making a film is a complex business – averaging $139m and 10 producers per film, not to mention the hundreds of behind-the-scenes workers, there’s often even a ‘Thanks’ department. Most businesses are small though and the majority working in the industry are freelancers – it really is an industry built on SMEs.

At the other end of the scale, one of the biggest, and probably the best-known film studios in the world, Disney employs 180,000 people worldwide. It would be easy to think the company adopted a hierarchical approach to deal with such a workforce, however, Gianluca revealed that Disney has operated an innovative, collaborative process since its early days in the 1920s. While other studios, such as Fox, had traditional layers of management, Disney’s approach was process-led:
• The story is king, and at the heart of the process
• Staff work to a creative brief, going the extra mile to realise the client’s vision
• Creativity is rewarded creatively; all involved in making a film are listed in the credits (although a revealing video clip of Danny Boyle showed that even Oscar-winning directors sometimes forget someone!)

So what are the lessons for businesses outside the film industry? As Gianluca said, remember:
• You don’t have to be in show business to show off your business
• Creativity is not restricted to those labelled ‘creatives’
• Allow your whole workforce to reveal their creative side

If this has whetted your appetite for more tips on how to bring out the creativity within your business, Gianluca is running a workshop on the topic on 6th May – contact us for details.

Our next breakfast session will be on Tuesday 21st April, when Richard Baker from the Nottingham Evening Post will be interviewing Jayne Francis-Ward (Nottingham County Council), Peter Richardson (D2N2 LEP) and Steff Wright (Gusto Group Ltd) – they will be outlining challenges, opportunities and benefits of local businesses working with and in collaboration with local authorities and local partners. Come along – listen, learn and contribute.  For more information, visit the Ingenuity website.

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Ingenuity Breakfast Event – Tuesday 20th January 2015

Speakers: Esther Eidinow and Katharina Lorenz, University of Nottingham Department of Classics and John Griffiths, CONNECT Venture Enterprises Ltd

What’s your story?

A key part of any organisation’s success is having a good story, knowing that story—and sharing it effectively. Our first speakers of the morning are Esther Eidinow and Katharina Lorenz from The University of Nottingham’s Department of Classics. In this, their first keynote talk at an Ingenuity breakfast event, they bring a new and refreshing perspective to the network and indeed to the subject of storytelling.

“It’s a very natural thing to tell a story” begins Esther, acknowledging the efficiency of storytelling as a tool for communication. Telling stories may come as second nature in our daily lives, but perhaps we underestimate their power to define who we are, where we’ve come from and more importantly where we’re going.

In business, the stories we tell can have a significant impact on the way we build successful teams, attract funding and ultimately succeed or fail in attracting customers!

“In a world where people have a lot of choices, the story may be the deciding factor.”

– Nick Morgan, a communications consultant and author of How to Tell Great Business Stories

It’s all about the way you tell it

Katharina and Esther share a number of case studies showcasing examples of successful storytelling in business.

Betty’s and Taylor’s of Harrogate tells the story of two businesses who were masters in their respective fields coming together for greater glory. Told another way, this could have been a simple tale of one business taking over another, but this company has crafted a story that works to their advantage.

Innocent Drinks tells the charming story of its enthusiastic founders selling their first smoothies from a stall at a music festival in London. “Should we give up our jobs to make these smoothies?” they ask their customers, inviting them to throw their empties into bins marked ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. By bringing their audience into the story, it becomes even more engaging.

Esther Eidinow and Katharina Lorenz – The University of Nottingham

Further case studies highlight other examples of effective storytelling in business, but one thing is clear; emotional engagement is key. Emotional engagement with your staff, suppliers and customers ensures that everyone feels they have a stake in the business and a shared vision.

Storytelling protocols

There are certain ‘eternal templates’ for storytelling and archetypal characters that consistently appear. Katharina and Esther guide us through some archetypes from the ancient world: the Hero, the Trickster and the Tactician.

– The Hero is good at problem solving and takes the initiative.

– The Trickster is a skilful communicator and quick to act.

– The Tactician is resourceful and inventive.

Once identified, these characters can be deployed to great effect in stories. Katharina and Esther invite the audience to consider what character they have cast themselves as in their own story.

They close their section with an invitation to their forthcoming workshop on ‘The Business of Stories’ and invite businesses to explore the theme in greater depth at this free one-day session. For more information about this workshop, visit the Ingenuity website.

Raising money, making money

Our second speaker, John Griffiths of CONNECT Venture Enterprises Ltd, brings a different perspective on the value of a good story. As an angel investor, John understands only too well the importance of storytelling in pitching for investment.

John Griffiths – CONNECT Venture Enterprises Ltd

Before constructing your story, first you must understand your customers’ wants and needs. Then, says John, you can match your story to their story.

Who is my customer?

When raising money, the customer is the funder, so understanding their wants and needs becomes the basis for your story.

– A bank wants you to repay the debt

– An equity provider wants a return on their investment

– An angel investor, like John, may even want Tax Relief on their invested money

Understand your customer, then construct your story to assure them that your management team, your route to market and your vision and strategy can meet their wants and needs. John is also quick to add that there shouldn’t be any skeletons in your closet; at the first sign of a skeleton, the deal is dead.

Where’s the exit?

“If an investor puts money into your business, remember that they will want to get it out again!”, says John. Whilst this might seem obvious, it can sometimes be overlooked in the storytelling process, so ensure you write an exit route into the story you tell.

A large crowd provides a lively audience for our speakers.

Our next breakfast session will be on Tuesday 24^th March, when Dr Gianluca Sergi will be talking about ‘Hollywood in Your Business’. For more information, visit the Ingenuity website.

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On Wednesday 10th December, the University of Nottingham welcomed over 20 business leaders to a unique showcase. The event, hosted by 25 of our brightest Product Design students, showcased some of the outstanding designs from their Product Design and Manufacture degree courses.

The event presented a chance for businesses to preselect some of the top, fresh talent in the country for graduate jobs. There was also an opportunity to write a student project brief.

Student projects provide a fantastic way for businesses to access our talent to work on their product ideas; an opportunity many businesses in the room were keen to take advantage of. A number of conversations took place between students and businesses about how they could work together to develop new products.

Nottingham has one of the top 3 Product Design courses in the UK; a fact that came as little surprise to the businesses in the room, having witnessed the quality of the work on show. Unlike many other design courses, at Nottingham there is great emphasis not only on product aesthetics but design for manufacture, material specifications and ergonomic sciences. The resulting products are not only beautiful and functional, they are properly costed and genuinely fit for the production line.

The following selection of photos pick out some of the highlights of the event, but if you’d like to find out more about Product Design and Manufacture at Nottingham, or how to engage our students in a project, please get in touch.

Above and below: Product Design students add the finishing touches to their display boards.

Below: High quality visuals bring the designs to life.

Below: Emma Hartley, President of the Product Design Society provides a warm welcome and introduction.

Below: Simon Harrison, course director, gives an overview of how to engage our students in a project for your business.

Below: Lively conversations take place between businesses and students.

Below: Delegates commented on the confidence and professionalism with which students presented their work.

Below: Networking continues throughout the morning.

Delegate Stewart Trewern, of Rapid Expansion Systems Ltd, said of the event:

“We were hugely impressed by the innovation, presentation and professionalism of the work displayed at the event. The passion and understanding with which the students discussed their projects revealed the depth of their skills and shows the University of Nottingham to be a clear leader in the field of bringing high class product designers into the market. Rapid Expansion Systems Ltd is keen to partner with one or more of the students we spoke to, to work on our projects, with the intention of bring new talent into our team at the end of the project period.”

Did you attend the event? Leave a comment below and tell us what you thought. And to ensure you never miss another event, subscribe to our mailing list.

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Speakers: Dr Louise Mullany, Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics, Faculty of Arts and Jane Box, Managing Director of Interactive People Development.

Becoming reflective language users

Louise explained that today’s breakfast session will ask the audience to reflect on their current communicative styles and assess the ways in which their interaction with people can be enhanced. The aim of this exercise is to open up brand new possibilities for effective leadership performance.
The first topic of focus was the linguistic profiling method which is a means of identifying your own communicative style. The unique feature of the linguistic profiling model that Louise has been developing is it is based on real life interactions between business people.

Louise explained that this model involves work in the following areas:

• Establishing the ideal self/team – how do you want to project yourself to others?
• Understanding identities e.g. gender, age, ethnicity
• Rapport management – maintaining harmony in the workplace
• Creating a broad organisation culture – includes non-verbal communication e.g. body language

Louise went on to identify the key areas for possible improvement to encourage productive communication in business. These are as follows:

• Face-to-face communication
• Business meeting effectiveness
• Customer-client interaction
• Non-verbal communication

Remember, communication is not limited to the words we say, but also the way that we say it. Consider the use of tone, pitch and intonation. Also think about how quickly and how loud you talk.

Non-verbal toolkit

Louise spoke about the importance of non-verbal communication and that there is much to be gained from body language analysis. Within the linguistic profiling model, there are a set of toolkits including non-verbal tools.

• Facial expression – there’s a huge amount of information that we take in from facial expressions.
• Eye gaze – Do people give you enough eye contact? Or perhaps not enough? Getting the balance right is important.
• Haptics – Refers to touch. Do people touch you when talking to you? It can sometime be inappropriate!
• Proxemics – how close are people standing/sitting to each other?
• Kinesics – body language and gestures in the broader sense.

Studies show that getting the right balance of eye contact, not invading personal space and body language and gesture all attribute to giving the right impression and being understood correctly.

See the book Lend Me Your Ears by Max Atkinson for some top tips on body language including how certain positions and gestures are interpreted in different cultures, which may lead to misunderstandings.

Louise demonstrated the difference that these factors could make in understanding with a video via her MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), How to read your boss.

Digital communications and social media – fantastic communication opportunity but a potential curse

The continued expansion of digital technologies has completely transformed the ways in which we communicate at work on a daily basis with colleagues, customers and clients. Using the right combination of public and private communication with the consumer is vital in successfully communicating via the digital medium.

Possible improvements in digital communication at work can be found in the use of:

• Email
• Video conferencing
• Social Media – Twitter has an account dedicated to tips and training for UK SMEs
• Website language and layout

Building relationships online

Before you start using digital communications and especially social media, consider what kind of relationships you want to create online and how you are going to reach out in a way that the consumer will respond favourably to.

Here are a set of linguistic strategies that can be used to bring about relationship building online:

• Repetition
• Exaggeration
• Typographical emphasis (e.g font – make your written language come alive!
• Emoticons – smiley faces etc
• Use of positive expression
• Hashtags and searchable talk

We must always be aware that online there is a shift away from ‘one-way’ publicity and that the best way to build brand loyalty is to respond to customers and involve them in the relationship building process.

Wrapping up with some general recommendations from Louise on using digital communication:

• Think about why you are using this form of communication
• Post regularly
• Make updates searchable (use Hashtags to achieve this on Twitter)
• Use a friendly and conversational tone
• Respond to people that contact you

Communication for business success

Next to take the floor is Jane Box with a practitioner’s view on communication for business with a focus on improving business results. What is communication? Why do we often get it wrong? She asks the audience to address the fundamentals and go back to basics.

Feedback fear

Jane believes that when defining communication we forget about including our physical behaviour which, as Louise mentioned, counts for as much as what we say.

But mainly, getting feedback on our communicative performance or feedback in general at work is what we fear most. Yet feedback is important and must be listened to to effectively understand how to improve.

Rules of engagement

There are multiple communication channels and different personality types to deal with at work. We tend to like people that are similar to ourselves but this isn’t always the best way to recruit a team. It takes a variety of personalities to form an effective team.

Jane’s methods focus on using more conventional methods first and improving the basics before moving elsewhere. Think about the medium of communication that you are using. Consider your telephone manner – think about how you say things, consider your tone as well as the words that you speak. Think about the impact of sending an email – is it appropriate for the situation? For example, do your sales team read emails? Chances are they don’t.

Three areas to look at to improve performance at work

• Climate – also known as culture
What does it feel like to work here?

• Capability
Do we understand what excellence looks like?

• Management
How do you transfer responsibility so that people want to do things for themselves?

Does the team have values and goals? These need to be defined. Establishing an acknowledged team identity will help to instil core values throughout the organisation. Do people in Sales have empathy for customers? We must process employees’ capabilities and take into account whole team behaviour.

Jane had these final thoughts for improved communication in business:

• Is it clear what you are trying to communicate?
• Does it add value to the person you are communicating with?
• Is it relevant to them?
• Is it accurate?

Copies of the two presentations are available for download:

Louise Mullany’s presentation.
Jane Box’s presentation.

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The event began with a presentation delivered by Christopher Barnatt, a futurist, author, videographer and Associate Professor of Strategy and Future Studies here at the Nottingham University Business School.  Presenting to a room of 84 guests the presentation went on as follows:

Future Gazing and Future Shaping

Nobody can predict the future. However, we all have the ability to mentally remove ourselves from the present in order to imagine events and states of the world that are yet to happen.  If you can imagine the future as being complete darkness, then future studies can be seen as a torch. How powerful the torch is will determine how much you are likely to see.

Chris continued on to explain what future gazing and future shaping is all about: ‘‘ The terms define the process of taking actions today to select and work towards the possible future we desire, our ultimate goal being to choose the best tomorrow.’’ The key to successful future gazing and future shaping is to obtain the best information today that will enable us to predict the most likely range of possible futures.

Why Do Big Companies Use Futurists?

Chris stated that ‘‘generally, companies want futurists to come in to find out about the latest technologies and trends, and to disrupt their thinking and stir things up a bit!’’ Futurists can also help with leadership development, as good leaders need to be able to develop credible visions of the future that others will then work towards.

Environmental Scanning

Chris asked ‘‘how do futurists provide a glimpse into the future?’’ They scan the environment for clues, which can generally be placed within one of the following three broad headings:

• Challenges
• Technologies
• Trends

Future Challenges

Here futurists would address the ‘elephant in the room’, the known obvious problems that many just ignore. The key problem areas are as follows:

• Climate change – a scientific, but also, political certainty that will continue to lead to frek weather, crop damage, flooding and pressure on food supplies
• Peak oil – the point at which there is less oil in the ground than we have taken out, demand will significantly outstrip supply
• Net energy time bomb – we face the problem of transitioning to new energy sources (like wind, wave and solar) that have far lower net energy yields than fossil fuels
• Peak water – a situation where demand for water will outstrip supply in many regions. Falling water tables will force changes in agricultural production and industrial location in regions ranging from China to the Southern United States
• Food shortages – we can’t feed everybody in the world at the moment, and all of the above place further pressures on food supply
• Resource depletion – sustainability is a myth, we could use stuff more slowly, but eventually it will run out
• Ageing population

It is at this point that Chris asked “are you depressed yet?”  “No need to worry” he continued “the next slides could offer some potential solutions for a future in which we will have to consume less, but value more.”

Future Technologies

Future technologies are perhaps a little easier to predict because what will be in the market in ten years’ time is already in the lab. Key areas:

• 3D printing – create real, solid objects from digital data by building them up in layers. The first printer was created in 1984, and today is increasingly being used  in direct digital manufacturing (DDM) of end use components (e.g. Airbus creating parts for planes)
• Synthetic biology – applying an engineering mentality to biology to, for example, create synthetic bacteria that can ferment organic food stocks like corn or algae into bio-acrylics, bio-diesels etc.
• Vertical farming – farms being built in the middle of cities vertically
• Nanotechnology – currently being used in the production of some microprocessors and computer displays. In combination with 3D printing, may allow for creation of new materials
• Big data and AI – generating value from the storage and analysis of large banks of data that computers cannot store today (30TB+). Already one Japanese company has voted an AI onto the board!
• Quantum technology – rather than storing data in a binary format using miniature transistors contained in silicon chips, quantum computers work with data using the quantum-mechanical states of sub-atomic particles, so allowing computers to move beyond the limitations of binary processing
• Robots – We may have 200 million smart, humanoid robots sharing the planet with us by 2050 – for example, helping with care of the elderly

Future Trends

Chris acknowledged that “Predicting future trends is a bit like putting your finger in the air, as trends are a bit trickier to predict.” Key points of change:

• Dematerialization – when looking at current and future challenges there is an urgent need to become less materialistic
• Localization – again when looking at current and future challenges trading globally – especially in basic goods like food – will become a thing of the past, instead localization should be the new focus
• Low/zero economic growth –stop relying on economic logic; economic growth puts more strain on the limited resources we currently have
• Decline of Western nations – the new economic super powers will be China and South America
• Crowdsourcing – ‘open source’ computer software, 3D printers, cars, prosthetics and robots are being created by online communities
• Design for repair – Today far too many things get thrown away only a few months or years after they have been purchased e.g. smart phones. There is a need to return to a bygone age where designers and manufacturers sell us items that we can maintain for long periods of time

Future Narrative

In conclusion, Chris suggested that the future narrative perhaps should be as follows:

• “We should consume less and value what we have more”
• “We should take a more proactive role in upgrading the human species” (transhumanism)
• “Use attractors (beacons) set in the future to ensure that we keep on track and meet at the right place”

A final thought, “visionaries who have big, crazy ideas in your work place shouldn’t be disregarded, instead they should be encouraged.” For example, Honda set itself the project of building its Asimo humanoid robots back in the 1980s. This grand vision project is far from commercial completion, but has helped the company to develop many new technologies that are already in use in other products.

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