Make something of your business - find out what The Open University Business School has to offer
How can Britain stay ahead of its competitors in the global economy? In the second part of his investigation into what we do and make in Britain, Evan Davis argues it's right for Britain to concentrate on excelling in the knowledge economy.
Industries such as pharmaceuticals and technology, which rely on innovation creativity and invention, can contribute greatly to the nation’s bank balance. He travels to “silicon fen” outside Cambridge to see the high tech company worth billions after designing chips for mobile phones and tells the story of how one invention transformed the fortunes of glass makers, Pilkington. He also visits China to investigate how British branding and marketing expertise is faring in this new and booming market.
This episode of Made In Britain is first broadcast on BBC Two at 9pm on Monday 27th June. For further broadcast details, and iPlayer links, visit bbc.co.uk.
You can contribute your stories on how the UK manufacturing can build a winning economy by commenting below.
Explore the UK's trade
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There's a changing pattern of trade in which services are being bought and sold across national boundaries. Leslie Budd explains. Read more : The Global Trade Trap: Goods or services?
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Find out more
'We don't make anything any more': Is it true that the UK is just a giant service centre?
Rainer Plendl | Dreamstime.com
Manufacturing is still a major part of the UK economy - and even financial service jobs depend on it remaining vibrant. So how do we... Read more : 'We don't make anything any more': Is it true that the UK is just a giant service centre?
Products, services and branding
Image by Shreyans Bhansali under CC-BY-NC-SA licence
In this free unit, learn how organisations manage their products and services, including how an existing portfolio of offerings is managed. Read more : Products, services and branding
More about Made in Britain
OU on the BBC: Made In Britain
BBC
Evan Davis takes on the belief that the UK doesn't make things any more, finding the evidence that we're still, in part, an industrialised nation. Read more : OU on the BBC: Made In Britain
![Polling Station signage [Image: kagey b under CC-BY-NC-ND licence]](/openlearn/files/ole/ole_images/places/general-urban-scenes/polling-station-sign/polling station sign_0_0.jpg)
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Made in Britain
Great program, the "look in the fridge" piece last night was just so perfect an illustration of why we will never catch up with the rest of the business world - "we" are largely just so outdated in our ability to do business in a real world - one outside of "the Empire", four years ago I was involved in business in China, and back then Germany & France were "doing the right business" and "in the right way", while UK business largely still viewed that market through its prehistoric and totally redundant "class tinted" eyes i.e. the entire country was looked down on, as if "we" were somehow "superior", with the consequent almost total lack of interest in taking appropriate goods INTO China, instead of just extracting cheap goods out of it.
Our export business attitudes are largely still based on offering a product that we believe is "good enough for them" "because "we" made it for "Johnny Foreigner" because "we" think "he's" now of a sufficient "standard" to have it - just like "we" did for the empire.
Sadly, the class system endemic to the UK will always be the biggest handicap to our ability to do manufactured goods business outside of the UK, we have brilliant engineers, designers, creators - all largely led by hopelessly remote management (the "old boy" club) ensconced in overblown un-dynamic companies with the resultant inability to actually see the world as it really is.
We jettisoned the only "market" we actually knew how to do business in at least 60 years ago - the Empire, and, by and large, we haven't woken up to that fact yet and now we have missed the boat as all the others have stolen the lead on us.