Like many commentators on business issues, Iain Macwhirter mistakenly blames the credit crunch for an event which, for once, was not the fault of the banks -- in this case, the collapse of MicroEmissive Displays, the Edinburgh-based manufacturer of tiny display screens which went into receivership in November 2008 (“Small wonder the Scottish economy is lying in tatters”, The Herald, January 4).
While MED’s final demise may have been due to the reluctance of banks to keep basket cases going, in truth the company sowed the seeds of its fate some years before when it went down the path trodden by so many Scottish tech ventures: launching a clever product into a world for which there was, at the time, little or no demand. As a result MED struggled for sales: it took the company seven years from its launch in 1999 to secure its first orders. So despite the brilliance of its technology, despite its success in achieving a flotation on the AIM market, and raising significant equity capital, it was inevitable that it would run out of money.
What is significant about the MED case is that its failure was caused by the same institutional, endemic issues that lie at the heart of our failure to create a technology sector worthy of the remarkable intellectual property that pours out of our universities and research institutions. Time and again, Scottish spinout companies launch exciting products into a vacuum where no sustainable, global markets exist. Strive as they might, they cannot create such markets: only customers do that. So they fail to secure healthy sales, and as a result die or reach a level beyond which they cannot grow -- typically £1m-£2m of sales.
This issue is caused by a national lack of awareness of a technology marketing process called product management -- defined as building only products that meet the proven needs of active markets. Inevitably, product management originated in the US and it is no coincidence that time and again US companies with inferior technology to that of Scottish companies succeed in grabbing and keeping market leadership. Scotland has very few professional product managers, and most are employed by the global corporations. It’s worth pointing out that the undisputed leader of Scotland’s
small technology sector is Wolfson Microelectronics, with £122m revenues in its last full year. Wolfson embraced product management in the late 1990s, which then powered its tremendous decade of growth to become Scotland’s first £100m homegrowth tech company.
It is imperative we create a new professional class of product managers in Scotland so that the next generation of tech ventures does not fall into the same trap as MED. However, the only place where you can learn product management is Dundee University’s School of Computing, where my company has for three years been teaching a module in this skill.
Finally, in his column Mr Macwhirter persists in mixing debt with equity in his case for making more “cash” available to small businesses. Technology companies need equity, and lots of it, if they are to grow; you cannot create a tech success story on the domestic or, indeed, European markets alone. Another critical issue bedevilling our tech sector is lack of local equity investors capable of putting anything from £5m-£50m into ventures with the right products at the right time for the right markets. Banks are pretty much irrelevant here: they won’t lend until a company has sales, and they don’t like backing expensive development of technology -- only its exploitation through the provision of working capital to fulfil orders.
No matter how wonderful the technology we create, we won’t build a significant tech sector in Scotland until managements and investors alike learn to build only what a market needs.
Alastair Balfour,Chairman, 2in10 Ltd, Suite 4.4, Queens House, 29 St Vincent Place, Glasgow.
Wind farms will continue to defile and despoil our landscape
Katharine Huggett (Letters, January 5) is full of the usual disingenuous cliches used by the pro-wind farm lobby, particularly the reference to nimbys and having to choose between a nuclear power station and a wind farm on your doorstep. I would have hoped the debate had laid these ghosts to rest by now.
What Ms Huggett doesn’t address is the failure of wind energy to produce electricity in conditions similar to those we are experiencing at the moment.
There has been very little wind over the past two weeks and we have experienced some of the lowest temperatures in decades, just the time when we need extra energy. I wonder where she thinks the electricity will come from when the turbines don’t turn?
And she is wrong to suggest that our landscapes will be returned to normal when and if we dump onshore wind turbines in 25 years. Will the power companies remove the thousands of tons of concrete that holds the turbines in place? Will they remove the hundreds of miles of bulldozed tracks? Will the pylons come down? Profit margins will dictate that our precious landscape is left as it is -- defiled and despoiled.
I also want to pass on to my children and grandchildren an environment that is fit to live in, and not one that is dominated by spinning lumps of metal the effectiveness of which is highly dubious. I also want to pass on an energy source that is reliable all the year round, be it hydro, wave and tide power, or even, dammit, nuclear.
Cameron McNeish, Inverness-shire.
The Picture of the Day (January 5) prompts me to ponder just what contribution to the national grid has been made by our much-vaunted wind farms in these windless days. Is this image not the perfect illustration of the worth of Hunterston and Torness electricity generating stations.
James Robertson, Wishaw.
“If we want to continue to use all those gadgets everyone received at Christmas, we need a power source,” writes Katharine Huggett. “If we don’t act now, we will not have the energy we need in 20 years.”
How true. It is obvious what action has to be taken: we have to stop giving and receiving gadgets.
Resources are not infinite. Therefore, we have to address need. How many of these gadgets, one must ask, were actually needed? Our behaviour is wasteful and senseless and bodes ill for future generations.
Morag McKinlay, Falkirk.
I fully endorse the WWF’s call for every house in Scotland to be given free loft and wall insulation to help meet the ambitious targets for cutting carbon emissions laid down in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act.
The Scottish Government’s own figures show that for Scotland’s housing stock to achieve the intended 42% cut in emissions by 2020 will cost £1.6bn per year.
In this context, the £544m price tag for insulating lofts and walls in Scotland’s 2.3 million homes over the next 10 years seems a relatively modest price for the Scottish Government to pay.
Indeed, I would like to see the Scottish Government go a step further and offer realistic incentives for businesses to improve the energy efficiency of office and commercial premises across Scotland as well.
As our own submission to the energy efficiency action plan consultation highlights, this would not just be a big win for the environment. It will help to sustain many construction jobs and apprenticeships, and equip our industry with the green skills needed to make the transition to the low-carbon economy of the future.
Michael Levack, Chief Executive, Scottish Building Federation, Crichton House, 4 Crichton’s Close, Holyrood, Edinburgh.
Humiliated by airport security
Following the latest attempt to blow up an American plane by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, everyone in the UK is now going to be subjected to more security measures before travelling.
As someone who used to travel by plane at least twice a week, I can only express my pleasure that I will no longer have to be subjected to the new security measures Gordon Brown and his advisers have devised.
Recently my father-in-law (who has rheumatoid arthritis and in his late 70s) travelled by plane from Glasgow to see members of his family in England. Despite being an ex-member of the armed forces and a retired headmaster, he was made to remove his shoes at check-in -- something he cannot do himself, so this had to be done by someone else. He then had to have help in putting his shoes back on following his successful clearance through check-in, a humiliating experience.
Why, having checked his passport, and accessed the massive amounts of personal data held on file on the people who have lived and worked in peace in the UK all of their lives, could he not be identified as a good guy and be allowed to progress with minimum fuss to his departure lounge?
J G McWilliams, Coatbridge.
The recent correspondence regarding the airports that serve our communities reminded me of my graduation in 1968 when a certain Raymond Miquel, of Bell’s Whisky fame at that time, presented the bits of paper and, of course, made a speech.
I clearly remember him making a case for closing Glasgow and Edinburgh (Turnhouse and Abbotsinch) airports and building a brand new airport at in the Skinflats area near Falkirk. He cited the very good and planned transport infrastructure by road and rail that existed. I also remember him becoming cynical and thinking that pigs might fly before such an idea would find favour. Such an idea, had it been followed up at that time, would have been the answer for today’s mess.
The only kind of location that might still work would, I think, be between Airdrie and Bathgate, using the new electric service that is due to open in the next few months. Then there would be no need for Garl and the cancelled Edinburgh rail link.
Ian Gray, Glasgow.
removing the rail subsidy enjoyed by Prestwick Airport may or may not be a good idea but what is certain is that Prestwick is not fit for purpose. Far from being “pure dead brilliant”, it is a dismal, expensive and tacky dump, only tolerated because it is the Scottish hub for cheap air travel. If the Scottish Government is subsidising Prestwick, it should demand higher standards and insist upon a makeover. It is a “pure dead-in-the-water disgrace”.
David Roche, Blairgowrie.
MoD in denial
With reference to the Chinook disaster, the Ministry of Defence needs to get itself sorted out fast if it is not to become known as the Ministry of Denial. A well-known search engine will find you 188,000 UK hits on Ministry of Defence denial. Or will the Ministry of Defence deny this too?
Major Michael Hamilton, Kelso.
Pride in our workers
I applaud Dr Niall G MacKenzie (Letters, December 27) in respect of the Johnnie Walker plant closure by Diageo. Taking the director of the CBI, Iain McMillan, to task for his comments on the Diageo debate is not before time.
This is the same man who criticised the Johnnie Walker workers for daring to protest at the plant closure.
Is it too much to assume that even prospective investors have a sense of proportion and justice? Let’s have some semblance of character and pride, rather than go under without a whimper.
Andrew V Brady, Glasgow.
Criminals need even harsher treatment
I agree with Colette Douglas Home that juries should be aware of an accused person’s criminal record (“Previous convictions should be revealed to juries at trials”, The Herald, January 5). However, I would even go further and suggest that it should be taken into account in sentencing policy.
In her article, she quotes Lord McCluskey’s opinion: “If we start hanging dogs just because they have a bad name, we undermine justice itself.”
That simply does not stand up to scrutiny when one witnesses the acknowledged pattern of repeat offending
exhibited by a minor section of the population. All evidence is that the bad dogs are already there and that society catches them only to release them to bite again.
I would suggest that if known criminals were locked up and kept locked up for longer rather than shorter periods, then serial offenders would at least have the frequency of their criminal activities reduced, producing substantial benefits for society as a whole, and the police and courts would be spared the Groundhog Day experience of repeatedly dealing with the usual suspects.
David J Crawford, Glasgow.
Why Britain is viewed as a ‘busted flush’
Before this truly decrepit government -- London Labour, not the SNP -- is finally evicted from office, could it please spare us further humiliation by refraining from trying to hector and lecture important nations such as China and Iran?
The Chinese authorities, backed by the vast majority of the population, makes no secret of the fact that it executes convicted criminals, especially drug smugglers with enough heroin to kill thousands.
Many share the view that drug smugglers and dealers should be exterminated and we would love to live in a country where majority wishes are paramount over the views of an effete liberal minority.
Likewise, Iran will not tolerate politically motivated mass protests. It cannot understand why we allow professional agitators and happy-clappy students to bring mayhem to our streets.
China and Iran quite rightly regard Britain as a toothless busted flush, on the verge of bankruptcy, beset by social problems, suffering moral decline and boasting more quangos than warships.
Thanks to stultifying political correctness which keeps us in denial of where threats abound we are regarded as a hotbed of international terrorism.
M C Harrigan, Glasgow.
Councils slow to deal with icy conditions
I must express my disappointment at the failure of our local authorities to respond quickly enough to the icy conditions on our roads and pavements.
Like many others, I hope to see more salt and grit made available in bins on Glasgow’s streets. Hopefully, this problem of cost, delivery, dispatch, communication or transportation will be fixed before more people are needlessly admitted to hospital. Ignoring walkways and the surroundings of public buildings, such as Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, should not be an option if the public are to be allowed to travel safely.
This unusually long cold spell may well pose difficulties in terms of responding, but there can be no excuses from our councils for their slow action in treating the icy roads and pavements.
Jill Ferguson, Glasgow.
Now that South Lanarkshire Council has decided it cannot justify gritting residential roads and pavements, I assume that it will not be too surprised to find that residents have decided that payment of their council tax similarly cannot be justified.
Tom Prestly, Lanarkshire.
