Innovation vital to UK's IT leadership

The latest meeting of Computing's Agenda Setters debated the topic of innovation, producing a series of recommendations for the UK to reclaim its world leadership in bringing new ideas to market.

The UK has to foster a culture of innovation, providing a range of incentives that attracts entrepreneurs and new ideas, while removing factors that penalise failure, says our panel of experts.

This week, the government acknowledged the problem in announcing a new initiative - the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship - to encourage students to take their ideas to market when they leave university.

One of the Agenda Setters' recommendations advises IT directors to allocate a nominal proportion of their budgets to unproven technologies from start-up firms, giving them a chance to break into the market with radical new products and ideas.

Paul Coby, chief information officer at British Airways, says small but highly-focused players can make a serious impact on a firm's productivity.

'I love small, innovative companies that are really going to be focused on us,' he said.

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