Latest news with #CreatingtheJobsofTomorrow
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Former Volvo chief says individualism is holding Scotland back
"Rather than inspire new thinking, we have to some extent romanticised this," he told the Creating the Jobs of Tomorrow conference in Glasgow. "The constant recycling of these great achievements risks being akin to having a picture of Bonnie Prince Charlie on the side of a biscuit tin. "It is now time for the next chapter in Scottish innovation to be written," he added, noting that the means are available to develop a highly-skilled workforce that will dictate which countries fare best economically in the years to come. Read more: 'We need to educate young people not just in the technical tools and the business skills of tomorrow, but the basic building blocks of how to work effectively together to build a culture of shared prosperity," he said. "Individualism, digital nomads, scrolling as a form of entertainment [and] working from home has all torn the fabric in the cultural collaboration, and we need to amend this.' Originally a mechanical engineering apprentice at Tate & Lyle in Glasgow, Mr Rowan switched into the technology sector when he joined Digital Equipment Corporation in Ayr in 1986. He went on to hold chief operating officer roles at both BlackBerry and Dyson, and was chief executive of Dyson from 2017 to 2020. Despite all the current geopolitical turbulence and uncertainty, he said it remains his firm belief that "fantastic opportunities" lie ahead for companies and countries that find ways to invest in the key talents and technologies of the future. 'The combination of high computational silicon, artificial intelligence, low latency cloud connectivity and energy security will provide the foundations to accelerate growth and prosperity we have never seen before," Mr Rowan said. "I would go as far as to say that what happens in the next five years will define the industrial and the military landscape for the next 25 years.' Mr Rowan added that this constitutes a "potent cocktail" designed to Scotland's advantage that can enable a "new wave of prosperity for our country". 'To bring this vision alive, we need to be able to get our young talent to embrace these opportunities and engage in the journey, a journey that can create something long-lasting and future-proof for the next generation," he said, but added: "Many of our young people today are out of practice with what it takes to be successful on the global stage."
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Lord Sainsbury: Give Glasgow greater devolved powers
"A major challenge which government faces if it wants to increase Scotland's rate of growth is a way to find and support such clusters," he said. "All the evidence from other countries suggests that the only way to effectively support clusters is to do so at a city region level. Read more: "I appreciate in Scotland, unlike in England, metro mayors have not yet been introduced, but if you want to support high-tech clusters, this is something I think you should seriously consider, with Greater Glasgow being given powers similar to those devolved to Greater Manchester and the West Midlands." Lord Sainsbury was speaking at the Creating the Jobs of Tomorrow conference organised by Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, where he was introduced to the stage by former Labour chancellor and prime minister Gordon Brown. Mr Brown said growth and productivity have been perennial problems in the UK and Scotland, with innovation the key to boosting performance. A new study by economist Dan Turner, head of research at the Centre for Progressive Policy, has suggested this could unlock the creation of hundreds of thousands of high-value jobs. "There are huge sources of innovation and inventiveness in Scotland, just as has been traditional in our history," he said. "The question is can we turn that into scalable companies that stay in Scotland, invest in Scotland, create jobs in Scotland, and Dan's study suggests we could create 300,000 jobs in the next 10 years. "That's 300,000 well-paying jobs, 120,000 in the new industries, the spin-offs in terms of the service sector another 180,000 - that is a possibility if we invest in the infrastructure, the skills, and the development necessary to achieve that." Lord David Sainsbury (Image: Nate Cleary) Lord Sainsbury is a Labour peer and served as minister for science and innovation under Mr Brown and his prime ministerial predecessor, Tony Blair, between 1998 and 2006. He was appointed a life peer in 1997. Lord Sainsbury said there are new opportunities for employment and growth in sectors such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and biotechnology. "There are economists that will argue that it is investment that is the engine of economic growth, but we have to realise today that capital flows easily around the world, and it flows as it has always done, to where the best investment opportunities are created by innovation," Lord Sainsbury said. "You can sit in London today and you can invest in Silicon Valley, you can invest in practically any country - until recently you could even invest in Chinese venture capital - because that is what modern communication enables you to do. That is why investment is not the real driver of the economy, it's innovation." Among the other speakers was Michael Spence, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 for his work in the analysis of markets with information imbalances. Read more: "There are two things that [people] associate with Adam Smith correctly," Mr Spence said. "One the 'invisible hand', which is the market system is a reasonably efficient tool for decentralising and allocating resources. "That actually is not the most important thing that Adam Smith said, but it's the one that neo-conservatives remember because they elevate market systems to the status of a religion, rather than a way of accomplishing economic and social goals. The most important one for our purposes is specialisation. "Adam Smith meant specialisation within an economy, when of course everything that David Sainsbury talked about in the global economy is just the Adam Smith insight writ large, and of course it is the ultimate source of growth. "Without specialisation you don't get scale of spread your activity over too much territory, and you don't get innovation. You get nothing if everybody has to do everything. "The fundamental message I want to deliver today is that's still true, and that growth is fundamentally about specialisation and structural change."
