25 May 2022
By Alison McRae, Senior Director of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce
Glasgow has demonstrable, distinctive and diverse strengths across emerging and enabling technologies from AI to advanced manufacturing, with inventions and innovations that can be applied to drive radical change.
According to Dr Susie Mitchell, Programme Director of Glasgow City of Science and Innovation, it doesn’t matter what sector you are in, you need to be across technology to help solve challenges in your business and ultimately stay relevant. These new technologies are providing particularly exciting opportunities for collaboration and potentially, market disruption like never before.
Indeed from advanced robotics and AV/VR to the Internet of Things and Blockchain, we are seeing the diffusion of new technologies across key industries from the arts and tourism to healthcare and finance. Combinations of these technologies could multiply impact and result in a new wave of unprecedented business innovation.
Glasgow and surrounding areas across central Scotland are hotbeds for the development of these technologies which is one of the most export-intensive sub-sectors for the economy as a whole.
Recently I have been inspired by Gayemarie Brown, CEO of Wintam Place Consulting and Forbes’ Top Tech Futurist, explaining that a whole host of new technologies, including cloud computing, blockchain, IoT, AI and robotics, are quickly becoming cheaper, digitised and more accessible. She outlines that business leaders need to wrap their heads around how these would impact their businesses – and what could they do cheaper, faster and smarter by leveraging these technologies so that they remain competitive and avoid obsolescence. Brown says that tech is moving fast and there will be no companies that are not, at least in some respects, a technology company in the future.
However, many leaders still struggle to adopt change. Often, businesses are put off by the emergence of new technology as they believe that it is a combination of too expensive and also difficult to navigate. But, at that point, a competitor will swoop in and scoop market share.
Let’s take Rocio as an example, which produces luxury bags with high aesthetic beauty but designed in a sustainable way from acacia wood. The brand was the first recipient of the circular economy Scottish Edge funding from Zero Waste Scotland to enable consistent and scalable design which was even more sustainable in its practices. Rocio collaborated with the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, part of the University of Strathclyde, to develop the inner structure of the bag using 3D printing, which can then be wrapped with leather from Scottish Leather Group or other vegan materials. It’s a fantastic example of a company adopting technology to improve business models and access sustainable practises.
In the next 20 years, there will probably be about 15 to 20 more technologies hitting that curve and we are already seeing cloud computing and solar and renewable energy there right now. Once they do, they become digitised and accessible to most.
It’s important that business leaders are beginning to understand how technology could impact their business. In reality if everyone in the room looks exactly like you, you are likely to fail because we all have access to the same digital world and more often than not, one of your competitors is already growing their business through technology. What dimensions of your business already use it? How is it affecting your supply chain? What can you do cheaper, faster, smarter by embracing these technologies?
Regulators and governments must move faster too – technology is moving at such a pace that there needs to be more support for businesses to make those moves. Gathering together relevant support from academia to venture capitalists will help with problem sharing and solving for business. We are on the brink of adopting a profoundly exciting digital world within the business community and there are endless opportunities available. In Glasgow, we are lucky to have access to academic institutions and networks to support the next step. The challenge is, what will you do with it?
This article was first published in The Herald on Wednesday 25 May 2022
