Many excuses will be trotted out, ranging from poor management, poor team selection to injuries and player indiscipline. I could go on. So, I will.
Whilst England just squeaked through, there’s the suggestion that the team is too nice compared to the nastiness displayed by other footballing nations. It hints at a collective human trait in that the English are generally, too polite and too posh to push when it comes getting any credit - assuming we deserve it of course.
The UK’s withdrawal from the EU means its influence on a shifting world stage requires new methods of exercising power by replacing the use of force (hard power) with ‘soft power’, which is defined as getting what we want by influencing other countries we do business with to want the same thing through the forces of attraction, persuasion and co-option.
Increasing digitalisation, via Industry 4.0 means the nature of the UK’s relationship with the EU, the US and new rising powers needs to evolve. The dynamic will need long-term strategic analysis to ensure we make full benefit of the advantages of these soft power methods, within the new international milieu that is developing in this digital age.
In the same way that the goalkeeper protects their goal, the effects of an increasingly digitalised industry mean that we must work harder to protect our manufacturing assets by doing a better job of helping our OEMs, primes and SMEs tell their success stories to the world. Previewed in this issue, where better to start than at Advanced Engineering 2017, NEC Birmingham next month?
Mike Richardson, editor
