BUSINESS FIRST INNER 39-82:Layout 1 9/6/08 16:54 Page 65
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Mike Herd
The word ‘Innovation’ is bandied around as if it is
some kind of universal panacea. If only we would
innovate enough, then UK plc might have a more
prosperous future, or so we are told. The reality
is somewhat different. There is no shortage of
innovators in this country. It’s getting their ideas
to market that counts.
In the innovation game, it helps to think laterally. Many great ideas
are after all the product of lateral thinking. So it was brave, unusual
and even counterintuitive for the founders of the Sussex Innovation
Centre (SINC) to have appointed Mike Herd as its MD in 1996, even
though his entire background was in multinational business and his
future was going to be dealing with small, buzzing companies.
V
A
TION MAN
Like all great decisions, it only appears so in hindsight. As Mike
himself is the first to admit, the number of things that could have
gone wrong, and often did, is scary.
“I had absolutely no knowledge about small business,” Mike says. “I
suppose the key factor was that I had some experience helping
scientists make money out of their technology in the oil business,
but beyond that…”
Mike was hired by the consortium that built SINC, namely the
universities of Sussex and Brighton, Brighton and Hove College and
City College, and East Sussex County Council. Their aim was to
produce a magnet that would channel the most innovative
academic thinking into viable businesses, help retain gifted
graduates in the area and, by providing affordable office space
for companies who needed a head’s start in an atmosphere
conducive to innovation and growth, develop some hot local
INNO
businesses.
Actually SINC itself was the hottest business around in its own right.
Some bright spark had built the centre on the University of Sussex
campus at Falmer with vast glass windows but no air conditioning.
So much for lateral thinking.
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