Design chief backs Tees enterprise
ECONOMIC growth is not driven by banks, it's driven by enterprise, discovery and innovation - something Teesside has in spades, Sir George Cox, former head of the Design Council said yesterday.
Opening the University of Teesside’s £12m Phoenix Building, which houses the Institute for Digital Innovation and key research and development centres, Mr Cox told an audience from the region’s increasingly important creative industries: “There’s a danger that we think the world’s about to end, it’s not. Over the next 20-25 years the world economy will double.”
But he said there was still a danger that UK plc would be left behind by countries that were more successful in transforming the creative spark into money making businesses and could do so cheaper.
“The UK has a fantastic record in discovery, despite under-resourcing,” he said. “We designed the ipod and the UK was the first commercial producer of information technology. But where are our Microsofts and our Dells?”
But in the current climate, he said, Teesside had a distinct advantage. “Recession is when you need to innovate,” he said. And those countries and regions that had experienced the worst economic hardships were the ones whose sheer belief in themselves led to the most innovative ideas.
But he warned: “Many of our companies plateau out too early. I’ve done it myself - you start a business and when you get to a point where it’s done very well and you have got far more to lose, you think of exit routes.”
He heaped praise on the university for building essential partnerships between “thinkers and doers” - the creative minds in academic institutions and local businesses. He said it was a powerful combination that could transform economies.
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