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“London 2012 delivery has shown UK THE BUSINESS OLYMPICS plc at its finest” Stuart Hill, BT The cauldron wasn’t the only London 2012 creation to highlight Britain’s strengths. Business Voice took time out from the sporting action to focus “The Olympic Park is a shop window on the effort to promote UK plc while the eyes of the world were upon it. for UK design and construction firms”

The opening ceremony of London 2012 Bond homage, brought the curtains up on further. Two-thirds of the special effects in Eric Pickles MP wowed the cynics and heralded a a creative masterpiece by Danny Boyle. At the early Harry Potter films had been successful Olympics. It also dramatically UKTI’s “Creative content” summit, created in the US, but by the final one, nine portrayed the UK’s commercial and panellists wondered whether the “Danny out of ten of the more advanced effects creative strengths. But, away from the Boyle effect” would encourage more were made in Britain. Their fellow panellist, “Individual efforts will make the main event, the messages of the country’s directors and producers to remain in the Ivan Dunleavy, CEO of Pinewood Studios, creative, industrial and technological UK rather than move to Hollywood. also highlighted the UK’s world-class business legacy of the games a success. expertise were reinforced to a global According to Tim Bevan, founder of facilities for film-makers. business audience as UK Trade & independent studio Working Title, there The director of London’s Design It’s down to all of us” Lord Bell Investment (UKTI) went into overdrive to are clear advantages to staying here. Museum, Deyan Sudjic, spoke of the design maximise the benefits to be gained expertise in this country that was by playing host. represented at the opening ceremony Investment ahoy? It held a series of summits at the The government not only by Thomas Heatherwick’s hopes that London “British business embassy”, set up at cauldron, but also by Boyle’s 2012 will be a golden Lancaster House in central London. opportunity for portrayal of the industrial revolution. British business. Covering the creative industries, “Design can be seen as frivolous, infrastructure, energy, life sciences, but the industrial revolution started education, technology, advanced with textiles and fabric,” he said. engineering and retail, these events Heatherwick himself commented offered a platform for a number of on London’s ability to attract many of British corporate success stories to the “top designers on the planet”, discuss what’s behind the country’s which Interbrand’s Rita Clifton put strength in these areas. down to the fluid boundaries At the same time, the Department between the different creative for Business, Innovation and Skills industries. “It makes London a great opened a public exhibition, “Make it place to develop a design philosophy, in Great Britain”, to showcase UK to study and to spot talent,” she said. manufacturers (see panel, page 38). But Howard Stringer, Sony’s It also hosted US venture-fund Welsh-born CEO, argued that, to managers and investors at a US/UK make the most of the opportunities, “Financing innovation” conference. the UK had to improve its ability to Lord Green, minister of state for commercialise its creativity. “We trade and investment, said: “We need to take risk and be disrupted were determined that this Olympics out of our complacency,” he argued. would be the best for business ever”. “We can make films cheaper in the UK, And it had to be, as the government had as the industry isn’t as unionised as it is in Health and efficiency set targets of signing £1bn-worth of the US,” he said. His business partner, Eric The decision to feature the National Health commercial deals during the summer, Fellner, added: “As an international market Service so prominently during the opening plus another £1bn in the years to follow, for film-making has emerged, we’ve turned ceremony might have raised a few as a direct result of the games. being in the UK into a positive.” eyebrows, but the organisation plays an David Heyman, producer of the Harry important role in the success of the UK life Creative content Potter movies, highlighted the fact that sciences industry – not only by spending The choreographed arrival of the Queen at each film employed 2,500 people in this about £20bn a year on goods and services, the opening ceremony, after her acting country and that each success played a but also as a research partner for debut alongside Daniel Craig in a James part in developing British capabilities developing medicines and clinical

36 BUSINESSVOICE I September 2012 Inward investment

technologies. At the life sciences summit, universities and science, David Willetts, said UKTI’s summit on ICT, Locog’s chief pioneering surgeon Lord Darzi said: “The that it was “a good example of everyone information officer, Gerry Pennell, said that NHS is a very strong brand and has a working together to drive development”. the technical challenges of the games gave wealth of experience of what works and those that worked on them “five years of what doesn’t.” He drew attention to the “This is for everyone” experience in one year, which they will take fact that Britain has been awarded 76 The commentators for US Olympic back into the UK’s digital workplaces”. Nobel prizes in science and technology, broadcaster NBC might not have known At the global investment summit, 39 of which were health-related. Tim Berners-Lee’s claim to fame, but the Google’s chairman, Eric Schmidt, and Of the top 50 global pharmaceutical appearance of the inventor of the Cisco’s CEO, John Chambers, explained companies, 37 have operations in the UK. worldwide web at the opening ceremony why the UK was a good place for them to These operations account for ten per cent highlighted the part the UK has played – invest. Chambers praised its “willingness of the world’s research and development and will continue to play – in the to rethink how it can be the best place for funding. Delegates at the summit heard development of telecommunications. business” over the past five years. about moves under way to support new In fact, London 2012 was known as the first Meanwhile, George Osborne highlighted medical breakthroughs, including the “Twitterlympics”, generating more than the cutting-edge research facilities that Francis Crick Institute, which will focus its 150 million tweets even before the were being developed at Tech City, the resources on the “next generation” of Paralympics got under way. There were technology cluster stretching from young scientists coming through. also 46.1 billion page views on the official Shoreditch to Stratford, as he announced Highlighting the productivity of the life website, www.london2012.com, peaking at new investments by Vodafone, Barclays sciences sector, the minister of state for 104,792 page views per second. And at and social gaming company GREE.

A manufacturing showcase » During the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, a special exhibition was held at the Science Museum to showcase the UK’s expertise in manufacturing. The 39 businesses on display included:

Johnson Matthey Evac+Chair Messier-Bugatti-Dowty Ultra Global PRT 1 Johnson Matthey’s plant in 2 The Birmingham firm has 3 Messier-Bugatti-Dowty’s 4 At Heathrow’s fifth Royston, Cambridgeshire, pioneered the development of Gloucester site has been at terminal, 800 passengers a manufactured the world’s first evacuation chairs since it was the cutting edge of landing- day use Ultra’s 21 small, autocatalyst in 1974. Since set up in 1989. It is the world’s gear technology for aircraft driverless electric vehicles to then the technology, based on leading supplier of the chairs, for more than 75 years. Part travel between the business platinum-group metals, has which enable people who are of the global Safran group, it car park and the terminal prevented millions of tons of mobility-impaired or injured to employs 945 people working itself along a 3.8km guideway. pollutants from entering the descend stairs in non-domestic in design, research and Rather than having to wait for atmosphere. Today the buildings in the event of an development, state-of-the-art timetabled services, company’s autocatalysts are emergency where lifts can’t be manufacturing, assembly, passengers on the £30m fitted to one in three cars used. They can be operated by testing and in-service support. system are transported on worldwide. And scientists at a single user, with no heavy It produces gears and other demand. The company, which Royston – one of 14 lifting required. The company critical components for emerged from an engineering manufacturing sites for its supplies more than 7,500 aeroplanes including several research project at the emissions-control business chairs a year to customers in Airbus airliners and is now University of Bristol in 1995, around the globe – continue more than 30 countries, from also supplying the main and has also won a contract to to respond to tightening hotels and sports venues to nose landing gear for the install a public transport environmental regulations. schools and hospitals. Boeing 787 Dreamliner. system in Amritsar, India.

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