Thursday, August 06, 2009 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
Categories:
Environment
| Tags: innovation,
statistics,
numbers | Total Views: 3487
Are you a fan of numbers? Or do you prefer to leave all that to your accountant?
Thursday, August 13, 2009 | Posted by: Brian Maguire
Categories:
Environment,
Technology
| Tags: innovation,
technology,
renewable energy,
energy,
engineering,
science,
car,
car industry,
eco,
fuel,
airport,
General Motors,
heathrow,
hydrogen | Total Views: 3478
“Wanted: silent taxi driver - no jip, no ranting, no dodgy fare charges; must run on hydrogen.” Coming to a terminal near you, this sci-fi reality of urban transport is no false dawn.
For a generation, General Motors and Volkswagen have been focused on manufacturing autonomous vehicles for everyday public use. An initiative which began as a defence sector project to provide self-guided battle craft, has become a marketable public transport solution. If the auto-cabs we see on our streets within five years have a voice, they will smoothly declare: “This isn’t just innovation, this is marvellously spectacular innovation.”
Friday, May 29, 2009 | Posted by: Brian Maguire
Categories:
Business,
Environment
| Tags: innovation,
entrepreneurs,
government,
renewable energy,
energy,
europe,
science | Total Views: 3470
OPEC has delayed 35 of 150 scheduled oil production projects. Oil prices have swirled between $147 a barrel last July, to $32 per barrel in February. China has announced investment of $400bn in solar energy production.
Monday, July 20, 2009 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
Categories:
Environment
| Tags: innovation,
technology,
government,
renewable energy,
energy,
science,
car,
eco,
desalination,
gas,
bio fuel | Total Views: 3462
When Big Oil claims its going green, seasoned market watchers sigh deeply and trade a few million barrels before lunch. More generous observers will consider Big Oil’s alternative energy ventures part R&D, part PR. But, what if the numbers really do stack up and the technology really can get beyond drilling holes in the ground?
Friday, March 27, 2009 | Posted by: Brian Maguire
| Tags: india,
car industry,
sir roger bone,
boeing uk,
nano,
biofuels,
ryanair,
aerodynamics,
tata,
federal reserve | Total Views: 3398
Small, is the new big. Tata Motors is combusting old car industry models with the launch of its petite Nano – a car so small you can put it on your credit card. News of the Nano got analysts engines running a little faster, which was a surprise, given that the Nano is to be made in India. Its tiny price point, at about $2000, is the spark set to revolutionise our concept of value – this will be the most important product pitch in a generation.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
Categories:
Business
| Tags: innovation,
financial,
international,
emerging markets,
talent | Total Views: 3397
“We need to reinvent ourselves and invest in innovation to compete in the emerging markets”, writes Gerard Lyons in the Sunday Times 31 May 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
Categories:
Business
| Tags: innovation | Total Views: 3369
Don Elgie, Chief Executive Officer of Creston PLC gives his view on promoting innovation in the UK, what the obstacles are and how the economic downturn will affect the UK's position on the world stage.
Friday, February 12, 2010 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
Categories:
Business
| Tags: innovation,
Business Week,
Mars | Total Views: 3319
A Mars A Day, Helps You, Hmm… Make Money
“It was still a real skunkworks operation—we had one small printer, and we hand-bagged everything,” said Jim Cass, General Manager of Mars Direct. He told Business Week: “But the strategy was, ‘make a little, learn a little; make some more, learn some more.”
Wednesday, April 01, 2009 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
Categories:
Business
| Tags: innovation | Total Views: 3311
“Are we really hiring the irritants? Because it’s the irritants that are the risk takers, and it’s the risk takers that contribute to the culture of innovation.” Jonathan Kestenbaum, CEO,
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
Categories:
Business | Total Views: 3308
Friday, March 20, 2009 | Posted by: Brian Maguire
| Tags: innovation,
desalination,
open innovation,
nuclear fusion,
professor john beddington,
jet,
manhattan project | Total Views: 3280
Kennedy began the US space race. Obama is going to cure cancer. And the United Kingdom, is, er, um, going to – make the trains run on time, maybe. Personally, that seems a little too mission impossible for my kind of optimism. How about? “This generation of Britons will harness controlled nuclear fusion for civilian use.”
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
Categories:
Business,
Education
| Tags: government,
intellectual property,
cambridge enterprise,
teri willey,
ip laws | Total Views: 3264
Turning great science concepts into commercial reality.
Monday, January 11, 2010 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
Categories:
Technology
| Tags: innovation,
media,
technology,
global,
economist,
eco,
Wallpaper,
augmented reality,
3-D,
Sensitive Object,
multiplatform,
Innovation Island Conference | Total Views: 3223
Aretha Franklin wanted us all to “reach out” and we thought it was a bit personal, but today, reaching out, touching, creates a new connection likely to integrate your finger tip with a remote control system based uniquely on acoustics.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 | Posted by: Brian Maguire
Categories:
Business
| Tags: innovation,
regulation,
financial innovation,
the ascent of money,
niall ferguson,
turner review,
derivatives,
alastair darling,
louisiana purchase | Total Views: 3215
Niall Ferguson, Scotland’s finest export since steel, recently wrote that the development of credit and debt is: “as important as any technological innovation in the rise of civilization, from ancient Babylon to present-day Hong Kong.” Glasgow born Ferguson, a financial historian and Harvard professor, has delighted television audiences with his pithy presentation of The Ascent of Money. Despite all the monumental fiscal calamities he details, a recurring message is “We never really learn”.
Thursday, September 03, 2009 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
Categories:
Business
| Tags: R&D, Tax, innovation, investment, government, funding | Total Views: 3192
The Grant Thornton team is aware of revised HMRC thinking in the following areas:
Production costs
Perhaps the most significant of changes relates to HMRC’s stance on costs which relate to the production of products and services for supply to customers. HMRC’s new approach appears to prohibit claims for any production costs where there is the prospect of producing goods or services to customers, even if as part of that production the company is seeking technological advancement through the resolution of technological uncertainty. This is understood to exclude claims in respect of prototypes and ‘first of classes’ that are subsequently sold for use rather than scrapped.
Monday, March 08, 2010 | Posted by: Brian Maguire
Categories:
Technology
| Tags: Design, Leaders, Jawbone, Headset, Audio Innovation, Wall Street Journal, apps | Total Views: 3149
This is the coolest piece of innovation I’ve seen so far this year… the Jawbone device
Monday, March 30, 2009 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
| Total Views: 3134
The McKinsey Quarterly asked Brad Bird from Pixar: what does stimulating the creativity of animators have in common with developing new product ideas or technology breakthroughs? This post on Gigaom.com extracted its 9 key lessons.
Friday, April 24, 2009 | Posted by: Brian Maguire
Categories:
Business,
Technology
| Tags: technology,
innovators,
broadband,
financial innovation,
starbucks,
telecoms,
voip,
mobile financial services,
3-d imaging,
global banking | Total Views: 3127
Data is about to drive some of the biggest mergers and acquisitions the global markets have ever seen. Some banks are preparing for a breathtaking integration of telecom delivery channels which will leave their competitors gasping for growth.
Friday, May 15, 2009 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
Categories:
Business,
Technology
| Tags: innovation,
media,
technology,
science,
amazon | Total Views: 3124
“Jeff Bezos is outpacing our expectations,” wrote an analyst of Amazon’s CEO…
His much-viewed appearance on ‘The Daily Show with John Stewart’ was classic Bezos, nerdy, smiley, hyperactive. Struggling, just a little, to convince Stewart we’ll all read from slim digital screens in the future, he rocked back and forwards with laughter, like Spock on a rollercoaster.
Friday, September 04, 2009 | Posted by: Brian Maguire
Categories:
Healthcare,
Technology
| Tags: Nano-science, Robots, science, innovation, medical, technology, healthcare | Total Views: 2996
Evolution and progress, they’re not always on the same page. This week, cute little simian features announced the arrival of the mammal with two mums. This is not smart science. Some years from now, teenage Cheetah will be confronting three biological parents. Married Cheetah will bring two mother-in-laws to the wedding. Researchers are considering this genetic modification for humans – they think it’s a good idea, but have they really thought it through? Spare a thought for the Yiddish kid from Brooklyn whose two mothers are disappointed he’s not a doctor or a pilot; life should not be this cruel or unusual.
We commissioned The Economist Intelligence Unit to survey UK executives on how assumptions on business models have changed, and how companies are planning to adapt over the next 18 months.
