Start to look at start-ups

Our start-of-term report card would no doubt be headlined, "Could do better". 2011 brought a slowly growing realisation among politicians and business leaders that research can and must play a key role in the UK's economic recovery, however IT is hardly at the top of the agenda.

Every time any major organisation talks about job cuts, IT is always one of the functions whose future is on the line. The use of innovation is becoming increasingly strategic, nevertheless the role of IT employees like as not less so. That has to change. IT cannot fully support economic growth if the country does not retain and develop its IT skills.

The UK cannot produce the then

We have wrung our hands for years about why the UK cannot produce the then and there Apple/Google/Facebook, nevertheless even with a growing government focus on tech start-ups, corporate IT decision-makers remain a risk-averse bunch in their attitude to selecting suppliers. That too must change, and here is where CIOs can play their part this year.