Last week, the VEC hosted Novel’s second chapter, on cultivating entrepreneurial excellence and transformative culture. Once again, we heard bold insights from our speakers and practical ideas from our cohort – yet one theme comes up, time and again: Liverpool City Region’s leaders must proactively shape the innovation ecosystem, not wait for external solutions. The impetus is in our own hands…
We also heard:
Steve Rotheram
- LCR is poised for innovation leadership, that leverages AI, digital connectivity and collaboration to drive future growth, said metro mayor Steve Rotheram in his welcome film.
- Metro mayor Steve Rotheram opened proceedings with a welcome film, telling us that government funding and industry partnerships will create jobs, boost the tech ecosystem and position LCR at the forefront of the next industrial revolution
Emma Degg
- Keynote speaker Emma Degg pointed out that leadership is everywhere – it’s not just CEOs. True leaders empower others, challenge assumptions and build trust, she told us.
- Degg focused on innovation and how to unlock it, including diversity and space – fresh perspectives, collaboration and time to think will drive real progress.
- Degg narrowed down her keynote speech on innovation leadership to the three ‘Fs’ –friendship – that all networks are friendships (and the potential pitfalls of building your walls too high); fearlessness – and making sure that we can all have the courage to fail and freedom and the importance of taking time out to think and recognise that innovation needs space…
Steven Drost
- Codebase’s Steven Drost talked about ecosystems, and how they’re about more than start-ups and funding – “talent, capital, corporates, government and academia must work together” he said. We need the state to kickstart things and make sure people respect contracts; corporates as customers – and academia to create the humans who’ll become a part of that.
- Drost also talked about the concept of being ‘Lindy’ – understanding how likely something is to persist into the future by looking at how old it is and how far it stretches into the past…
- Drost talked about ecosystems in terms of the ‘Graphic Equalizer Concept’ – the sliders that need to balance for an ecosystem to thrive. For bass, treble and midrange, swap in an ecosystem’s sliders: academia, the state, start-ups and SMEs. What does Liverpool’s equaliser look like, he asked.
Interactive session (I’ve also created another doc with the six group responses in)
- Codebase’s Jonathan Hope summarised an interactive session, with the cohort considering challenges and potential solutions for businesses in the region. He identified too much fragmentation across the region reducing effectiveness and impact; a resistance toward too much top-down direction; the need for coherent leadership from within; vision, ambition and scale; bottom-up community, the need for collaboration, not competition.
Rachel Dunscombe
- Healthcare innovator Rachel Dunscombe, CEO of openEHR, pointed to the richness and value of our data, particularly within the NHS. She described cities as “a mini version of the globe”, highlighting the diversity and volume of this data in comparison to scientific trials and the opportunity within that.
- “Fall in love with the problem” willed Rachel. Find the problem and innovate around it, she said, rather than use tech to cast around and look for a problem to solve.
- In the past, data has largely been created by accident, said healthcare innovator Rachel Dunscombe. Now, we need to engineer data and then create solutions from those insights.
Dr Rick Robinson
- Robinson highlighted the work of American-Canadian journalist Jane Jacobs, and her activism in New York in the 1960s. He highlighted her idea that a city is born of its creative people and that outcomes of a place are made up of the activities of people, demonstrating it with data maps that were not available to Jacobs.
- Businesses are limited by skills, warned Robinson, describing this as their greatest challenge. He used the example of Honda winning an F1 world championship with an innovation from its diversity programme. Data and AI can create a more diverse set of opinions than people who turn up for focus groups and market research, he noted.
- Robinson finished with advice from his father on the importance of place – and how significant it can be for Liverpool City Region. “The more technology allows you to do anything from anywhere, the more important the place you choose to do it in matters,” he insisted.
Mark Shayler
- A music-filled final talk from strategist Mark Shayler emphasised that creativity is the most powerful tool we have. “But with power you have responsibility; you have to create a world that is better, fairer and more sustainable,” he said.
- Strategist and creative thinker Mark Shayler identified the three most in-demand skills that businesses say they lack the most: emotional intelligence, problem-solving ability and creativity. He pointed to the value of observation in innovation and design – and the paucity of cultural archetypes for leadership, from The Apprentice to Dragon’s Den.
- “Your job is to move hearts and minds,” warned Mark Shayler – how you make things feel is what creates a culture of innovation, echoing the theme of many speakers. Fear doesn’t encourage a healthy attitude to innovation.
Novel’s third chapter takes place in Southport on Thursday 13th / Friday 14th March 2025.
Join us to think about the mechanics and impact of innovation – including some fresh insights on AI.
