Earlier this November, the British-American Business Council’s New England chapter (BABCNE) hosted an inspiring event in Boston that brought together nine high-ranking foreign diplomats, members of international business associations and business leaders to discuss how innovation can increase productivity and income opportunities through cross-border participation. The fact that the event was organized by Susie Kitchens, HM Consul General of the United Kingdom is no surprise.
National Mind Shift
The UK is mobilizing a strong and quite deliberate push for innovation-driven business development—domestically and globally. And nowhere is this more evident than in London. As a British “subject” (yes, that’s still the term!) who now calls the USA home, I am struck by a truly seismic cultural shift taking place in Britain—the nation’s stereotypical attitudes toward risk-taking and shunning conspicuous success are at long last changing, and quite visibly. Having lived and worked in London for several years, I may be partial to its continuing progress as a major center of cultural, academic and economic influence, but the changes I see during every visit are undeniable. Especially so in the last couple of years.
Mayor Boris Johnson’s 2020 Vision
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games brought millions of people to London, and they also brought Londoners together to continue the positive momentum ignited by the success of the undertaking. The city’s charismatic and surprisingly popular Mayor Boris Johnson outlined a plan for London in his “2020 Vision: The Greatest City on Earth, Ambitions for London” where he emphasized the importance of innovation-driven entrepreneurship, and the education of the workforce needed to sustain it, as well as efforts already underway to make London a “smart” city with major improvements in transportation, housing and connectivity. The Mayor is not alone in this ambitious vision. London’s business community is helping to carry the momentum with a wide variety of initiatives and programs aimed at strengthening the city’s and the country’s economic growth.
MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program
One such example that’s actually close to home is the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP). A joint offering from MIT Sloan Executive Education and the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, MIT REAP is a two-year educational engagement designed to help regions around the world promote economic development and job creation by teaching multi-disciplinary teams of participants how to build an innovation-driven entrepreneurial ecosystem customized for their specific needs. London is one of the eight teams in the current cohort (the program’s second). A typical MIT REAP region has a population of three to ten million people and is represented by a team of five to seven highly driven and influential stakeholders from government, corporate business, academia, risk capital and the entrepreneurial community, all headed by a regional champion. London currently comprises over eight million residents and accounts for 12.5 percent of the UK population. The team’s co-champion is the Director of Enterprise and Community Engagement, Corporate Banking Division at Royal Bank of Scotland. Coincidentally, in addition to her duties as a UK HM Consul General, Kitchens is an active member of Team London. Such high profile of participants is a clear signal of how serious London is about innovation-driven entrepreneurship!
Team London Rolls Out the Red Carpet for International Entrepreneurs
During the course of two years, participants attend two-and-a-half-day workshops twice on MIT campus in Cambridge, and two more workshops are hosted by selected partner regions. This October, I joined MIT REAP participants in London for an unforgettable week of program workshops, tours of the local business ecosystem and cultural events. One of the highlights was the daily opening ceremony at the London Stock Exchange. Unlike the NYSE, the LSE doesn’t have a physical trading floor—it is completely virtual. That didn’t diminish the sense of being at the heart of global finance, but I have to say we humans did feel momentarily superfluous as we observed a pageant with little purpose other than our own entertainment.
Speaking of pageantry, another equally memorable visit was to the Tower of London. (MIT’s Bill Aulet who teaches in REAP commented that execution is one of the challenges of entrepreneurship! He would know, too, as the director of MIT’s Entrepreneurship Development Program, an intensive one-week “boot-camp” for innovation entrepreneurs.) We were treated to a private tour of the Tower by a Yeoman Warder in formal regalia—a fount of knowledge about the Tower, as well as a fun photo-op for the visitors! The tour was followed by a reception in the centuries-old Armory where a lively group of international MIT REAP participants, MIT and Sloan alumni and London entrepreneurs mingled among medieval weaponry and suits of armor. As we walked around the Tower, I was struck by the juxtaposition of this historic landmark from the eleventh century (currently surrounded by a sea of 888,246 red ceramic poppies commemorating those lost in the “Great War” of 1914–18), the nineteenth century Tower Bridge and the very twenty-first century monumental glass “Shard,” recently constructed just across the Thames River.
The culmination of the REAP London program was a reception at Durbar Court, an impressively renovated covered courtyard in the heart of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The event featured a high-tech startup showcase, which included a 3D printer designed for school children, a robotic hand (of course, we’ve had one at MIT for a few decades, but still impressive!), prototypes of dragonfly-like miniature flying “drones” and a mock-up of a jet engine-powered vehicle that will attempt to shatter the world land-speed record.
The Foreign Office reception reminded me of what John Chambers, the Chairman and CEO of Cisco told me at the Internet of Things World Forum 2014 in Chicago (the subject of my recent post)—that in the connected future, there will be winners and losers as adoption of pervasive connectivity assumes a larger role in the future economic and social success of companies, cities and even entire countries. With its commitment to high-tech entrepreneurship, education, and major infrastructure advancements, London appears destined for the winning side. City Hall is leading the way with its “Smart London Plan,” a development platform that focuses on broad digital inclusion, significant investment in technology companies, and increased support for businesses that are “innovation active.”
New and ‘Old’ England Innovation Initiatives Bridge the Ocean for Everyone’s Benefit
All of these programs and initiatives strengthen London’s leading position among the world’s business centers not only for traditional industries like finance and higher education, but also increasingly for inventors, risk-takers, and makers of things and services yet to be invented. There are signs that this spirit of renewed innovation is taking root in other parts of the UK. For example, BABCNE is hosting an innovation trade delegation from the northeast city of Newcastle in early December.
As a director and former president of BABCNE, I may admit to some positive bias toward the UK-New England connection, but the fact is that there is an ever-growing knowledge- and business-exchange between London and Boston/Cambridge, which complements the historically strong trade ties between New and “Old” England. Mayor Boris Johnson is planning to visit Boston early next year, both to learn and to promote trade and innovation links between our cities. A smart move, I’d say, considering that, Boston and Cambridge are jointly claiming the title of the Best City in the World for Innovation, too. Meanwhile, Boston’s own groundbreaking innovation incubator, Mass Challenge, is opening a spin-off “colony” in London, which in something of a parody of our nations’ shared history, might one day outshine its colonial progenitor!
Cisco’s John Chambers may well have been correct in his assertion that there will be winners and losers in the coming economic battles between cities and regions. I would suggest that initiatives like MIT REAP, and the burgeoning trade in innovation, ideas and talent across the North Atlantic, reveal a deeper truth. Collaboration and partnership between the world’s great hubs of innovation are an opportunity to forge and renew alliances that can serve to benefit not only those fortunate enough to live in these places, but our whole planet. Will London become the world’s greatest city for innovation? I’m not sure. But I am very sure it will be part of it.
Peter Hirst is Executive Director of Executive Education at MIT Sloan School of Management.