IoD Scotland Autumn 2021

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Leadership Interview: Professor Mark Logan Continued from page 13 To prove his point, he offers a lesson from history. “I’m from Clydebank. At one point a fifth of the world’s ships came from its shipyards; Clydebank built over 30,000 ships. An entire infrastructure was created around the area to support the shipyards. New businesses were set up to feed through what was needed – parts, services, people – and in the end these shipyards came to dominate the world of shipping. “Think of it in today’s language: Clydebank was a hi-tech start-up ecosystem. The only difference was that the raw material of that ecosystem was iron rather than software. Why can’t we repeat that? “Scotland is a start-up nation, always has been. We can turn our hand to anything as long as we have the right ecosystem in place to support it.” Creating such a system is a mammoth – but achievable – goal, and one that will be based on education. “The tech sector needs a pipeline of new talent. There are many things you need to create the perfect digital ecosystem but if we are to make Scotland a world leader in tech, it’s people with the right skills that we need first.” This starts with the schools and colleges. Young people need coding skills, says Mark, but he’s concerned that it’s going to take a huge sea-change in attitude to ensure this happens. “I’d say that we are facing an educational emergency. Everything we have planned for the future is underpinned by this pipeline of talent from our schools and colleges. However, there’s a worrying trend developing: we have fewer computer science teachers than a decade ago, fewer children taking computer science and an even greater gender imbalance in the subject. “It’s as if we’re moving away from a digital future, not towards it.” “We have to shift mindset. If maths was collapsing at schools, we would respond appropriately and put the necessary resources in, as people would say that it’s vital children leave school with good maths skills. I’d say, nowadays, having good computer science skills was as critical as good maths.” A lack of dedicated computer science teachers is often put down to more attractive opportunities being available in industry, but Mark says that this is too simplistic a view on what is happening. “Why not offer teachers in other disciplines the computer science skills we need? If you have a good maths or science teacher, you can give them the skills they need to teach computing. Or we can market more actively to science and engineering undergraduates about computing science teaching. We don’t do that. Let’s behave as if solving this problem greatly matters.” Mark feels that computer science is often sidelined in schools. “We need to make the syllabus exciting and dynamic, so we attract the brightest students and the best teachers. At the moment we have weakened the subject to accommodate teaching by non-sector specialists. Imagine if we did that to maths – made it easier, so non-maths teachers could teach it. We just wouldn’t tolerate that.” Scotland must look outside its borders to see how other countries teach technology. “If you look at Estonia, for example, they’ve done this really well. If you think it is important, you make it important. Until now, we haven’t.” Among many ideas to improve this situation, he has one simple idea which is straight from Silicon Valley: “Silicon Valley flourished by creating a pool of shared knowledge and excellence, a place where people could learn from and teach others. Do the same with teaching. Set up a learning network for computer science teachers, dedicating some of them to curating and propagating best teaching practice across the country, and hold an annual conference to further build identify and community.” Creating a pathway to develop skills would help, too. “Computing changes far more quickly than every other subject. For a teacher graduating 13 years ago, there was no mobile app development, for example. We need a micro-credentialised MSc and similar schemes for teachers to take over a period of time, allowing them to master the subject and then remain current.” But improving computer science in schools isn’t the only requirement. “We need more opportunities for older people to learn coding and other computing skills. There are plenty of talented people out there who possibly left school without the chance to gain tech skills but who would love to learn them now.” We also need to help our computing graduates. “Great, they’ve got the technological skills, but let’s help them gain the entrepreneurial skills they’ll need if they are to join or lead a start-up.” Access to funding is crucial too, but his main challenge is for Scotland “to be bold if it is to fulfill its vision of being a tech leader. We need to create space for start-ups in incubator units, where they can nurture new ideas. We need to see the cross-fertilisation of ideas, where companies are learning from each other via a network of tech hubs.” But Scotland also needs to import best practice. At Skyscanner, “we knew 14 iod.com Autumn 2021
that the internet was global so there was no point just trying to be the best tech business in Scotland. We had to compete with the best in the world – we had to match Google and be world-class at all levels. So we have to learn from the world, too.” The thought of sharing ideas with potential rivals is the type of idea that may horrify some CEOs, yet it’s a concept on which the tech sector has long thrived. “The reason Silicon Valley succeeded was because it attracted a critical mass of talent that created a virtuous network within which businesses flourish. If you are going to become a digital leader you need to get to that tipping point where you have more and more successful businesses that in turn attract more talented people. “When I started out at Atlantech it felt like we were the only people in the world doing what we were doing. We were on our own. It’s not like that now in Scotland; there are so many digital companies out there, it’s such an exciting and vibrant picture. I’ve never felt so excited about our digital future and when I talk to start-ups there’s a real belief that they can succeed.” Some of that belief stems from the success of Skyscanner, of course. “I’d be delighted if people said they were “Climate change has us locked in an enormous ‘tragedy of the commons’. We used to talk about it affecting our grandchildren but not any more; it’s affecting us, right now. We must act.” inspired by the Skyscanner story, proving that a tech firm could scale-up and succeed in Scotland. The great thing about that company was so many people joined us, developed and grew, then left and set up their own businesses. I always said my greatest ambition was for 100 new ‘Skyscanners’ to be born from Skyscanner. That’s how Silicon Valley started.” Can Scotland ’s latest tech start-ups scale-up in the same way? “Absolutely, as long as we get the ecosystem right. Make sure the talent is there, make sure we can share ideas, get the funding in… and anything is possible. As I said before, we are a start-up nation, we always have been. We need to remember that now.” There is something else Mark is keen to remind us: the aforementioned challenge of climate change. “It’s the biggest threat we’ve ever faced and yet we’re sleepwalking into a disaster,” he says ruefully. “It’s the modern equivalent of ’the tragedy of the commons’ ” – [the situation, first suggested in 1833 by British economist William Forster Lloyd, in which individual farmers with open access to common land for grazing act in their own self-interest and, contrary to the common good of all users, cause depletion of the resource – and its eventual collapse - through their uncoordinated action, to the detriment of all]. “When that happens we all starve in the end, and that’s exactly what’s threatening us now. It’s hard to break out of our current way of acting and thinking as it is seductive to receive the benefits of our carbon consumption in the shortterm and to think climate change won’t happen or won’t affect us – it will. We are locked as a species in an enormous tragedy of the commons. We used to talk about it affecting our grandchildren but not anymore; we are passing into the second half of the exponential, it’s affecting us, right now. We must act right now.” His desire for an immediate coherent response explains his frustration with the reaction to the release of the UN IPCC report in August. Its conclusion was that climate change was ‘widespread, rapid and intensifying’. “It was terrifying,” says Mark. “It was unequivocal on the science and provided the data to measure the impact. Yet we got no real response from governments; what is the wake-up call we need before it is too late, if that report wasn’t?” Mark is baffled by a lack of funding into new technology that could offer answers. “We showed that concerted efforts could move mountains during the pandemic, with the search for vaccines, and we need a similar response now. It’s a moon landing project. Government needs to fund and direct companies to solve the problems.” He cites a number of areas where central intervention is a necessity. “Where’s the comprehensive charging network for electric cars we need? Why isn’t that infrastructure in place yet? “Where is the funding for research into nascent technology such as green hydrogen and scaled carbon capture? AI has helped us make huge bounds in protein folding prediction; can we use similar techniques for investigating the possibilities of fusion modelling?” But the lead for such work has to come from the state. “In the USA, homes contribute 27 per cent of all the country’s carbon emissions. But it could decarbonise all its homes by directing just one per cent of the defence budget to do so. What’s stopping them?” It’s an example of what is possible but “it won’t happen without a dramatic shift in the government’s thinking; a wartime urgency is required.” Is he optimistic of success, starting from the COP26 Summit? “Honestly? No. I’m not without hope but one thing Covid has taught us is that we don’t do the exponentials well. Problems sneak up on us and we don’t respond quickly enough. “We need resolute action, not words; we have to act now otherwise this is a war we won’t win.” Autumn 2021 iod.com 15
Page 1: The official membership magazine fo
Page 4 and 5: News: IoD Scotland comment Net Zero
Page 6 and 7: News Clark launches tech PR boutiqu
Page 8 and 9: Downtime / IoD membership services
Page 10: Behind the desk: Jojo Mehta Let’s
Page 13: “At Skyscanner we proved you can
Page 17 and 18: Role of qualifications in enabling
Page 19 and 20: Developing teams capable of sustain
Page 21 and 22: What to do about burnout, how can y
Page 24 and 25: IoD Membership benefits IoD members
Page 28 and 29: IoD Scotland events: Global Confere
Page 38 and 39: Director of the Year Awards Awards
Page 40 and 41: Events Please note: All events on t
Page 42: IoD Events Welcome to IoD Director

IoD Scotland Autumn 2021

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