Innovation or investment - the way forward?

1319935 — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:01:00 GMT

Or government bail out, which looks the most likely if you are a German or Irish bank. I suppose bleating about how big you are doesn’t help at this point, because what matters is public and private confidence in the business and stability of client relationships who will continue to look for better ways of getting and keeping consumer attention.

A little reassurance from the past. All across London, there are houses that were built in a mini boom in the early thirties. Think Chertsey Road. Twickenham. Hampstead Garden Suburb. The Holly Lodge Estate. (How can this be? I hear you cry, as the cold winds of the 1929 crash summon up images of the dustbowls of middle America). But the 1930s were in fact a golden age for British innovation. London expanded dramatically, as a trip to the Tranport Museum in Covent Garden will tell you. The cat’s eye was invented, to ease night time driving on the increasingly utilised road networks. That was when modern became post - modern. OK, so there weren’t so many people then, but clever media was just beginning, and modern typography and illustration blossomed.

It was a time of the first jet engine, the first nylon stocking, the first biro, the first parking meter and the first television. All great inventions, and developed at a time when the world was in crisis. I guess Sir Martin Sorrell and Rupert Murdoch have a point – that if you wait for the recession to bite you, it will. Mind you, they’re probably in a better position than most. But for everyone else, it’s not a time to panic. It’s a time to think. And to invest in innovation.

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Innovation or investment - the way forward?