Jane Simms >Hang on to heritage when you revive a famous brand
Debate >Is market research a waste of money?
Cary Cooper >Bosses must be more resilient
Iqbal Wahhab >Why I changed my attitude towards customer service
Amid all the recriminations over the collapse of the financial markets, an unlikely villain has emerged: innovation. Commentators have lined up to point the finger at the banks and hedge funds for creating new products so complex few really understood them or how risky they were.
Even if we accept innovation is to blame—rather than the more likely candidate, greed—it's clear that innovation will play an essential part in any recovery. At some point people will have to stop moaning about being in a crisis and start looking for ways out of it. With financial services in the doldrums, the UK economy will need all its creativity and entrepreneurial energy to develop new, more sustainable, success stories.
This issue is dedicated to those people able to think differently, to see a recession as an opportunity and who are prepared to act. Our cover star, George Soros, has never been afraid to follow his instinct and go against the crowd. And it's worked. He's widely accepted as one of the few people to predict last year's crisis and act accordingly. As a result, he's shot up the Forbes Rich List. As an early backer of Barack Obama, he's likely to have a hand in shaping global finance markets of the future.
We've also lined up some UK innovation stories. "Silicon Fen", the area around Cambridge that's home to a concentration of high-tech, electronic and biotech firms, is branded as our equivalent to Silicon Valley (click here to read about its latest big idea, the Singularity University). It's easy to see this as more of the same blind optimism that led some to hail Cliff Richard as a "British Elvis", but there is something to the Cambridge cluster.
One sector that is particularly strong in the area is hi-fi. As a director of Huntingdon-based hi-fi innovators Meridian, put it: "This area is to hi-fi what Geneva is to watches." We also take a look at the UK's track record in exploiting ideas and glimpse at the future with some young innovators. As Jo Owen explains, innovation isn't easy for established firms, but brilliant ideas are all around us, if only we know where to look.
Richard Cree
Please note, the next issue of Director will be a combined July/August edition and will be published on 15 July.
Click here to read previous comments