Launch this link below to read a PDF copy of “Eurofutures – the challenge of innovations” (1984) published by Butterworths as a FAST report on behalf of The Commission of the European Communities.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C6G7-_sNxE67rX2eP-HCEHorObKSNWZQ/view?usp=sharing
Part of my Innovation Library
Like all good blogs lets
begin with the obligatory story. Back in 2001 I was out of “paid employment”
seeking a new employer. At 54 years old it was the usual nightmare struggle
being essentially a IT Middle Manager without very specific marketable skills
submitting CV’s and getting a 98% rejection rate. So in parallel to job hunting
and to keep some sanity I looked to start two businesses. Both required a
considerable investment before they could even hope to obtain any revenue.
Firstly I joined up with the
mother of someone I had previously worked with at my last employer. It was Vivien Harley who owned and ran
Business Network Limited a Redditch, Worcestershire based Training Business.
The idea was I would write and deliver four individual One Day Training Courses on the
leading trend of eCommerce. They would cover eCommerce Business, Solutions,
Technology and Strategy. With excellent premises which were fully IT equipped it was a perfect venue. The
excellent three fold A3 card based pamphlet is shown below. Vivien was excellent at
marketing with both email and telephone call centre back up. But who could have
foreseen the Twin Towers disaster on the 11th September 2001 which
just halted bookings although it had run very successfully with some paid for
customers one a business development team from Belgium.
eCommerce Course Phamplet
Secondly, it was my software development business I called Active Publisher working with Dawn Baggott my programmer and Alan Bannister my PC expert son. It was the development of a book and every other type of printed material publishing and printing package, we called it Active Publisher, driving a large HP Two Sided Laser Printer. The significant innovation was the new automated two sided colour laser printers now entering the marketplace notably from HP.
A prime target was Estate Agents and Car Sales where specific booklets could be produced to be given the customer based upon the local database of these item (s) that the customer had shown interest in receiving more printed information. A booklet or brochure or leaflet on a house or car printed on the spot. Obviously, not surprisingly also the market for home based book publishers, like myself, being provided with a Print on Demand (POD) book printing capability. That's a surprise then.
Active Publisher User Manual - Leaflet Module
So there is the background. Now
the story. Like all businesses in their development stages obtaining revenue
with nothing to sell is always a nightmare which does prove somewhat soul destroying particularly if you at the same time cannot pay your domestic bills. You are both having to try to earn a living whilst also investing in the assets
required by your new business venture. Now like every new experience in life
you always learn something new and normally unexpected. The unexpected was learning one way
that the Business Network business obtained revenue. It was a bit of an serendipity
moment.
In this case Vivien Harley at
Business Network sourced some of her revenue by tendering and winning Government
contracts to provide IT Learning Skills to the general public for free. Well
this lead me to consider this as a route to getting revenue for my startup businesses.
So I found that Warwick
University was offering a free 3 day course to innovative small businesses on
how to apply for European Economic Community funding. So I thought Active Publisher
met this criteria. This was “European Charter for Small Enterprises,” which
was endorsed by the European Council in 2000 and implemented in the early 2000s.
The European Economic Community (EEC), which had evolved to become European
Union (EU) by this time launching this initiative to promote
entrepreneurship, innovation, and growth in small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs) across Europe. That's me. Perfect.
The Warwick University had obviously submitted a proposal to the EU to get the funding to run this course for free for attendees like me. The course was brilliant especially the catering arrangements. At the beginning we all had to introduce ourselves and our innovative idea for which we wanted EU funding. One guy in this 80’s was proposing a new design of petrol engine. Another only looked about 12 years old and he had written an advanced video editing software package. The course emphasised that to be successful the innovation needed to be aligned with providing the EU with significant social benefits. Typical. So overnight my Active Publisher become focussed upon being very suitable for use by those with special educational needs because it was so simple to use. It ticked more boxes on the form presented this way. I clearly remember going home to my wife and discussing with her when we want the £1m requested paid by which specific dates in four equal instalments. We submitted the form to the EU at the end of the course. I heard nothing for months only to receive a letter asking me to select a partner in a different European country to join me on the proposal. I selected HP in Paris, France because they made the printers I used with Active Publisher. I wrote to HP in Paris and never got a reply but it did not stop me submitted them as my partner in the letter back to the EU. Then I heard nothing for about 9 months. Then it arrived. Not surprisingly it was rejection letter. So this was the only experience I ever had in terms of EU promoting innovation . A waste of time and effort but the catering was excellent. Sadly what I had proposed was a very plausible genuine innovation. It would have been a worthy EU Investment.
So back to the Eurofutures book I have given you a link to above. It was free in a Gloucester City Centre Charity Book Shop that just gave away books to the general public in 2019. No doubt funded by the European Union (EU). The reason I have bothered to share it is because it is a brilliant document. Reading it now with 40 years passed by since its 1984 publication it was right on target. It did an excellent job of predicting the future with much of its content just as relevant today as back in 1984. Its focus upon bio-tech and info-tech was profound at the time. I have just re-read it with many excellent points being made in respect of employment, technology and society. One thing that immediately springs to mind is there was not even a hint of the development of the Smartphone and Cloud Computing two of the many innovations not predicted. Smartphone as we know it today by Apple in June 2007 predated by Cloud Computing as we know it today by Amazon in 2002. But there were earlier prototypes of both of these but lacking the functionality offered by Apple and Amazon respectively. This only proves that commercial enterprises particularly America ones are the best at innovation. Governments don't have a clue apart from the Chinese.
It is also obvious the EU lost
out completely in terms of Information Technology in particular in chip design
and more significantly manufacture. Europe did a lot better in the bio-tech
innovation. Whilst Airbus secured a significant place next to Boeing in the
aircraft industry. In terms of materials manufacturing and making things nobody
could have predicted the rate at which China innovated to capture these markets
illustrated by their push into the steel industry and at a consumer level
electric cars where they currently lead the world and are likely to do so for
the foreseeable future.
It goes without saying the new
Labour Government needs to take on board innovation as a very specific
government objective with a need for them to produce a similar report to this
one now (2024) covering the next 40 years. I dread to mention Dominic Cummings
yet again but he was a profound out of the box thinker who had grasped the need
for this governmental approach to innovation. I have said it before and I will
say it again Labour needs to tap into his thought processes because as mad as
he seems he does have a profound vision for the future.
The Small Print. No need to read as usual.
Publisher Copyright of
“Eurofutures“ is acknowledged as the Butterworths & Co (Publishers)
with their association with the Commission of European Communities.
DMB Publishing the Digital Publisher of this digitised copy
operates on a strictly non for profit basis, whilst it is shared here strictly
under a Creative Commons 4.0 Licence defined by CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Deed. The
copyright owners are acknowledged and if there is any objection to this
digitised copy being shared the content will be immediately removed from the
internet. The sole objective of its publication on the internet is to raise
public awareness of this publication whilst ensuring its retention for posterity
so future generations can have access to its content.
Afterword
It does appear some journal websites charge to provide a digital copy of this book although it is 40 years old with the content completely out of date. It only acts as an historical artefact and it should be noted it has been used for this purpose only within this blog post.
Someone charging £20 for what I have given you for free above. At least like me they agree it should be given a second chance at publication all be it as an historical artefact.
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