Prompted by debates about British Values and reports of racial intolerance, we have written a reminder of the the significance of ish.
Read the full story – ‘The Joy of ish‘ – and embrace the future whatever.
Toronto Triumphs as 2014 Intelligent Community awarded at ICF in New York
8 Jun
Intelligent Community Forum
The climax of the 2014 Intelligent Community Forum’s annual summit came as the ICF Top7 communities, their leaders and mayors from around the world gathered on Thursday night for dinner in New York.
The gathering also heard from Suneet Singh Tuli – Founder of DataWind and ICF’s ‘Visionary of the Year’.
In one sense all of the Top7 Communities were winners simply by taking part in the intensive ICF process but ultimately there could only be one winner – and it was Toronto that triumphed.
But the Summit was far more than just the award of the ultimate accolade. Throughout the week Mayors and Civic Leaders from Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and North America have shared their experiences and gained great insights in economic and societal development.
Full story here
Leadership is a Support Role says Prof.
30 May
Speaking in India last week, Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas defined his ‘New Leadership’ as a support role. ‘It’s not about attributes’ he explained, ‘It’s about service to others – to customers, employees, business partners and to a cause’
For India’s business leaders at their World Congress, basking in the post-election afterglow of a new government, the speech was a timely reminder that their primary role was to listen and support their people.
To headline our report of Colin’s leadership speech we’ve referenced Carly Simon’s epic line of 1972, ‘I bet you think this song is about you. Don’t you.’
Full story here
Growth – Who Needs It?
20 May
Adam Lusby, Founder of CE-optimal, writing as a guest contributor for Groupe Intellex, tackles a common concern – the addiction of our economic systems to growth.
He argues that the debate should not be between a choice of growth or decline but should more about the way we achieve growth.
Very much in line with the thinking behind the Circular Economy he argues for a more ‘restorative’ economy – and cites natural systems as the best guide.
Full Story here
Tackling Brick Walls – the challenges of Circular Economies
19 May
From our observations following a recent discussion on Sustainability, we suggest that tackling the challenges head on is not an effective use of resources.
Given time and the natural inventiveness of citizens and enterprises, today’s brick walls will rot through their own irrelevance – a process that is being accelerated within digitalised economies.
Full Story here
Suneet Singh Tuli – ICF’s ‘Visionary of the Year’
11 MayFew may have heard of Suneet Singh Tuli but the accolades keep coming. Few readers will be aware of his company’s ultra low cost tablet range but, at less than $40, they make a huge difference to deprived communities.
Suneet’s latest accolade – Visionary of the Year from the Intelligent Community Forum – is yet another reminder that, in a world of easily accessible information, our perceptions and awareness are still limited by the boundaries of the daily diet served up by ‘news’ organisations.
Our everyday awareness of the digitally disconnected (‘the other 4 billion’) is brought into sharp focus by this award.
Full Story here
Evidently we don’t know where we are heading – so let’s not go there?
4 Apr‘Evidence-based’ may sound like a fine disciplinary principle for Regulators and Policy Developers.
It may perhaps be mightily convenient that it will take some time to gather the evidence but no-one, surely, can object to careful consideration and debate about proposed changes in the way we do things.
Big brands are always quick to point out that their investors desire forward certainty and less risk. If their pleas fail to impress they can try delaying some inevitable change by actual or threatened (and expensive) litigation. So ‘evidence-based’ suits the suits very nicely: it will take time and then they can take more time arguing about the validity of the evidence. Time enough to put Plans B or C into operation.
But ‘evidence-based’ has one major snag. It looks backwards, not forward. It is perhaps a wonderful excuse for not focussing on a few major principles that will guide us in the future.
And when that future is expected to be radically different from the past, when progress and innovation is running ahead of of legislators’ ability to keep up, the evidence of how we did things in the past is not much help.
Nor is it much help when the evidence is hard to find, when activity has not been measured, when Policy and Regulatory priorities are diverted, perhaps by the blandishments of big brands, and not fully cognisant of real world experience.
In our essay on Municipal Enterprise we make the point that for proper recognition of cultural activities we need to deploy new local platforms that will aid societal and economic development – and this newfound awareness would add context and form to the headlong rush towards Smart Cities.
Adapt or Mitigate or Rethink? Creating an environment for fresh thinking
31 MarOn the day when a report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has prompted headline writers to debate Adaptation versus Mitigation we highlight an altogether different approach – one that demands that we rethink the way economies work.
In ‘A few words about a Circular Economy‘ we consider the challenges of communicating fresh ideas in an environment where words like ‘green’ are no longer helpful. New digitally-enabled capabilities are hastening the end of mechanistic ‘linear’ economics but expertise in understanding Whole Systems’ and ‘Ordered Complexity’ is only just emerging.
Our editorial gives just a glimpse of the potential for fresh thinking being pioneered by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and comments on how we must also rethink our choice of words to describe the journey.
The footnotes include a link to ‘Booms and Boomerangs’ – our January review of ‘A New Dynamic’ (the set text for MBA students at the Bradford University School of Management) and other material from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Cutting Red Tape – lengthways?
8 Mar
Our editorial – ‘Unbalanced Economies‘ – considers the dilemma of would be devolutionists as they grope for government policies that might ease the woeful inequalities of local economies across the UK.
There’s no lack of awareness of the growing gap between the growth of London and the UK’s other major cities. It’s not just about jobs. The impacts are evident in health, education, culture, innovation, and umpteen aspects of society – and there’s no denying the dependence of local economies on centralised purse strings with stringent controls on spending anywhere that seems electorally risky. Nor would the Whitehall wizards deny the export potential for technologies that claim to make cities smarter – though they shrink away from encouraging innovative aspirations in the underlying digital infrastructure investment.
But solutions are not to be found in more top-down initiatives. If pushed the Whitehall policy police might perhaps concede that fostering maybe two provincial city hubs might be sustainable but such half-hearted measures fall way short of the natural aspirations bubbling up in places large and small across the country.
Enter the RSA’s City Growth Commission. No debate better captures the red tape that ties central policy development in knots and exposes how the digital economy is delightfully disruptive. Cutting the red tape lengthways is simply not good enough.
Full story here
And the last word goes to – Vodafone and a British Engineer – for Fibre
20 Feb
FTTH Council Europe today honoured both Vodafone and British-educated Sir Charles Kao for their great achievements in fibre.
Full story here
Groupe Intellex 
