Events
Missions and moonshots: rethinking innovation
How can we turn the talk about rethinking ‘purpose’ in business into a real moonshot?
A more purposeful capitalism requires more than just letters, speeches and goodwill gestures. Business, government and civil society must act together, courageously, to ensure that their walk is as good as their talk.
Mariana is a critic of mainstream thinking in economics which assumes policy can, at best, ‘fix’ market failures. She argues that a more dynamic approach is needed to co-create and shape markets: strategic public sector investment can catalyse economic activity, crowd-in the private sector, spark innovation, solve public problems, and lay the foundations for future economic growth.
In this process, there are important lessons that we can take from the ‘mission-oriented’ investments of the past, such as the Apollo space programme.
David Rowan, founding Editor of Wired-UK
Too often, companies think they can innovate through jargon: with talk of change agents and co-creation gurus, ideas portals and webinars, make-a-thons and hackfests, paradigm shifts and pilgrimages to Silicon Valley.
It’s mostly pointless innovation theatre — corporate nonsense that has little to do with delivering real change.
Traveling the globe in search of the most exciting and pioneering startups building the future, David Rowan has got to know the founders of WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Google, Spotify, Xiaomi, Didi, Nest, Twitter and countless other ambitious entrepreneurs. During his quest, he has also discovered some genuinely exciting and transformative approaches to innovation, often in places you’d least expect.
Make, think, imagine
Today’s unprecedented pace of change leaves many people wondering what new technologies are doing to our lives. Has social media robbed us of our privacy and fed us with false information? Will we all be terrorised by autonomous drones that can identify and kill us, one by one? And has our demand for energy driven the Earth’s climate to the edge of catastrophe?
In his latest book, John Browne argues that we need not and must not put the brakes on technological advance. Civilisation is founded on engineering innovation; all progress stems from the human urge to make things and to shape the world around us, resulting in greater freedom, health and wealth for all. He argues compellingly that the same spark that triggers each innovation can be used to counter its negative consequences.
Nudgeomics: A new paradigm for consumer healthtech
Hear about the breakthrough science taking place at Imperial College London from Professor Chris Toumazou with an introduction by Professor David Gann, Imperial’s Vice-President (Innovation) and Professor of Innovation and Technology Management.
This event will take place at Imperial’s South Kensington campus.
Past Events
Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief, Head of Economics and Politics, Contributing Editor, Global Business Columnist
What to expect from the US election and the new UK Government
Artist
Patricia Swannell: A Commemorative Exhibition
