Start Me Up

SME innovation is the lifeblood of an economy, and each January offers two high profile showcases of that talent. On the 23rd and 24th IoT Global brings together buyers, sellers, manufacturers and investors over two days that will help shape our understanding of the IoT ecosystem. And we’ve already had our appetites whetted at CES 2017 in Las Vegas.

Gary Shapiro, the President of the Consumer Technology Association and driving force behind CES raised a few eyebrows when he criticised the UK government for failing to help British start-ups make an impact. He noted that five times more French companies were exhibiting at CES than British. Is this a fair criticism? And what does a start-up need to prosper?

The UK Department for International Trade (DIT) says it provided targeted support at CES, and there’s plenty of evidence of that support elsewhere. Just two months ago we saw Innovate 2016 celebrate British business ingenuity, and in May 2017 Going Global will feature the DIT as a co-sponsor.

And at IoT we’ll see game-changing innovation at every turn from entrepreneurs who understand that creating an internal culture of support is more important than anything that can be offered from outside.

For business to flourish we need investment in people, their ideas and potential. When we inspire employees at all levels to leave their comfort zones and behave like entrepreneurs, we create conditions for positive change. Successful leaders often assume the role of mentor or coach rather than “manager”, encouraging individual voices and allowing the freedom to experiment and even fail while working towards ultimate success. That’s a brave strategy for the SME, but any strategy carries risk. Tech research specialist Gartner has forecast that while three quarters of all businesses are implementing digital strategies, only three out of ten will succeed.

In other words, a large majority of the companies active today will fall by the wayside through lack of focus, preparation and innovation. That’s a sobering thought for all of us, and particularly for the 700,000 businesses that started up in 2016 in the UK alone.

Want to buck the trend and succeed? Then take your example from the ingenuity on show at IoT this week.

Advantech was founded in 1983, two years before Britain’s first mobile phone call. Constantly innovating for three decades, the company is now a standard bearer for Smart City and IoT solutions and earlier this month signed up to the LoRa Alliance.

Autodesk is another child of the early 80s that has stayed on the cutting edge. Initially a vehicle for AutoCAD, the company now leads the way with software for clients across the design, engineering, and entertainment sectors.

And moving to the younger generation, 30MHz, founded in 2014, is fuelling sustainability and profit for clients as diverse as shipping and farming through smart use of wireless sensor data.

Absolute Translations was founded in 2001, along with 245,000 other new companies in Britain that year. Most of the 245,000 didn’t make it this far, and we take pride in the innovation that’s kept us not only trading but growing and thriving. Next week we’ll be catching up with our partners at IoT and giving them our assurance that the fine details of their innovation and quality will be just as clear to their global audience as they are in their native language. Because there’s one more thing a tech start-up needs to make the leap into international trade: a specialist translation service.