It’s all about place
An industrial strategy needs clear objectives
Adam Marshall
For a lot of people in the business world, the phrase “Industrial Strategy” conjures up images of unsuccessful government efforts to direct the development of the economy, or grand sector-specific initiatives that rarely reach their goals.
The difficulty with previous attempts to develop an industrial strategy has been the adoption of a centralised, Whitehallknows- best approach, focused on highprofile, sectoral interventions, coupled with an inability to transform high-level strategic thinking into real change.
This time, things must be done differently. The UK faces a decade of challenges as the Brexit process unfolds. The latest effort at industrial strategy must be guided by a small number of clear and ambitious missions: a set of once-in-ageneration goals that bring the resources of government, business and the wider public together to deliver lasting growth.