I am very pleased to be here to launch the Foresight Training Toolkit called "Your Future in Business".
In the last round of Foresight I believe that not enough attention was given to how SMEs could benefit from Foresight. So I am particularly pleased to see that the needs of SMEs are being placed at the forefront of this round of Foresight. I very much hope this Toolkit will help UK businesses to become leaders in the take up of new technology.
As well as helping business to get to grips with technological change, the Toolkit is about helping firms to understand the wider challenges facing them: the social, environmental, economic and political changes which might affect their business over the coming decades. It is about a culture change for UK business, where strategic planning is about the application of creative thinking to shape the future, rather than a fire-fighting exercise responding to change as it happens.
We have invited you to this event, because you all have an interest in supporting a creative, dynamic business environment which takes full advantage of science and innovation, whether from the perspective of government, business, academe or the voluntary sector. We want this event to convince inspire you about the Toolkit, inform you and give you the chance to talk to us about how you can get involved in 'rolling it out'.
Some work has already been done in this respect and there are two initiatives which I am particularly pleased to announce this afternoon. Firstly, the Foresight team is working closely with the Small Business Service on a training programme for Business Link Personal Business Advisors, so they can facilitate Foresight training events with their SME clients. This is a good example of 'joined up government' and links two major programmes together in a way which will greatly simplify the link between the firm/company/enterprise and new knowledge and understanding about the future.
Secondly, new funding has been allocated to the Foresight Programme, so that its network of Regional Foresight Coordinators can be completed. These posts are enormously important in terms of spreading the word about Foresight to business and in linking the Foresight Panel recommendations into the Regional economic and innovation strategies.
The Foresight Coordinators across the English regions and devolved administrations will be working closely with the national Panels and the Small Business Service. Together, they will take forward a two year strategy for using this Toolkit with business. Our questions to you this afternoon will be:
How can you help in this exciting task?; and
How could the Toolkit benefit your organisation in shaping its future?
Thank you very much, and have a good flight!
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