INTRODUCTION

Hello! Welcome to our new edition of our Lamwyk Journal, packed with challenging and interesting articles to tempt your curiosity and shed light across a wide range of topics.

Our mantra is “reach and range”, sharing information and insight to make business more informed. We hope you will dip in and enjoy our curated articles.

The Lamwyk Journal is born out of the value of our roundtable thinktank sessions that we held in person before the ills of Covid struck us all. The long reaching consequence of that has changed work patterns so we have now bottled up the themes and talents to produce this new bi-monthly commonplace journal. We hope you enjoy it and my particular thanks to the team under Tom O’Brien’s editorial leadership for producing this inaugural edition.

Edward Goodchild Publisher

A Word From Tom

It gives me immense pleasure to edit the first edition of our Lamwyk Journal since January 2021. This would not have been possible without the support of our brilliant Lamwyk team. In an increasingly fraught global context, our journal seeks to celebrate problem-solvers, innovators and change-makers. Let’s help each other to solve society’s greatest challenges.

Tom O’Brien Editor

Might the Internet Splinter?

How many times have you cracked your phone screen? Fortunately, those cracks are easy to repair. The internet further fracturing, however, would cause irreparable damage to the global economy.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres estimates that global GDP would fall by $1.4 trillion if the current tensions around global tech standards escalated and the web separated into different geopolitical blocs. What might this separation look like and how can the world avoid it?

What is the Splinternet?

The Splinternet refers to the end of the globally connected internet we all enjoy today. The world would experience multiple, competing internets. Networks would be owned by governments, restricting access to digital products, websites and services to those businesses based domestically or in an allied state.

China’s ‘Great Firewall’ already vasty restricts what you see when logging-on from Beijing.

Blogging about current affairs from Moscow is an increasingly perilous task. Countries developing their internet connections or seeking digital reserve currencies may be forced to choose between competing networks.

Equally, westerners’ access to information, technology and digital products from China and other countries may become significantly restricted. Imagining such a splintering of the internet as we currently know it is bad enough.

Adding in the prospective walling off of virtual cities and experiences in the metaverse demonstrates just how much a fractured internet would cost humanity.

Is this splintering inevitable?

The internet’s raison d’ȇtre involves facilitating the free flow of information and global connectivity. As internet usage evolves from online shopping, browsing and streaming to owning digital products

(those arty non-fungible tokens for example) and digital currencies (also known as fungible tokens), the public needs globally agreed tech standards to protect their digital property, assets and privacy.

A corporation buying a network and charging for access is also a possibility in a Splinternet. Imagine having to pay whenever you Googled something - do you even want to imagine those invoices?

Cooperation is key to keeping the internet open and freely accessible in philosophical and monetary senses. The problem is that certain countries refuse to regulate emerging digital markets appropriately. Worse still, they are widely accused of building those industries domestically off the back of stolen intellectual property (both points particularly relate to tokens).

Unless those countries are willing to commit to an international rules-based system keeping the internet free and open to everyone, there is a significant risk that it will splinter into separate networks. The future openness of global internet usage will not be determined in American valleys or British countryside, but 1,000s of miles away in Asia.

Get exploring METATUT....

From cruising the Nile to admiring the phenomenal Pyramids of Giza, tourists have gloried in Egypt’s wonders for generations. How you visit Egypt may be about to change forever. Egypt enthusiasts can now experience the country’s wonders virtually with a trip to METATUT CITY.

METATUT brings historic sites to life with mesmerising tours of monuments that stood millennia ago. You’ve never seen the Valley of the Kings like this. Other sites that can be toured immediately include; The Sun Chamber, the Magic Melody Chamber and the Akhenaten Palace. This palace allows visitors to experience the famous Pharaoh’s life through multiple themed attractions. By the end of this year Nefertiti Palace, the Enchanted Melody Hall, the Avenue of the Kings and much more will be available to explore in METATUT.

Anyone can access the world’s first city in the metaverse through compatible mobile phones, tablets, laptops and virtual headsets. METATUT was created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb.

As well as attractions, visitors can discover historical commentaries and videos demonstrating how life was lived all those years ago. No queues, no tolerance of searing heat and no long plane journeys are required. Just visit metatut.tutera.co from a compatible device and get exploring.

Why do Saturn’s rings smudge?

‘Spoke season’ on Saturn has caused major scientific enquiry for over 40 years. What causes seasonal smudges on Saturn’s rings? More importantly, what do these spoke-like smudges tell us about the planet’s magnetic field?

Until now, answers to these questions were a mystery, but thanks to NASA’s Hubble Telescope, that is about to change. Data provided by this remarkable telescope furnishes astronomers with more precise data about the spokes than ever before.

They knew that the spokes appeared and disappeared during certain seasons but were unsure of the exact start and end dates. The new data will provide them with more information than ever before about ‘spoke season’s’ duration.

Over the coming years, Hubble’s discoveries will demonstrate why the spokes appear and disappear when they do. This will shine an unprecedented light on Saturn’s innerworkings.

The telescope has provided generational insight into space, studying more than 40,000 cosmic objects. As we enter a new technological generation, countries with the most advanced space data may well be able to secure themselves lucrative commercial opportunities orbiting planets and stars not so far away.

What’s the algorithm for nuance?

As the old saying used to go ‘money makes the world go round’. In 2023, perhaps an appropriate update to this saying is ‘data makes the world go round.’ Those who have access to big data and can manage this informational treasure trove through algorithms regularly unlock unprecedented influence and wealth.

Most of the public became aware of algorithms through their internet usage. Algorithms show them the posts they most want to see on social media. They help them to buy everything from eggs to electric scooters online in just a few clicks. In January 2023, nearly 27% of all shopping in the UK happened online. A friendly algorithm was also there to replace those clunky paper address books and diaries that their parents carried around. While they thought they knew algorithms, they may not have been aware of some of their other uses at all.

This world-transforming use of data is at the centre of global research and debate surrounding dual-use technologies.

Dual-use algorithms can be used for civilian purposes like commercial cybersec, but also for military purposes involving dangerous cyber operations.

Bad actors in cyber-space could deploy certain algorithms to cause untold damage to infrastructure and financial markets around the world.

“We thought we knew algorithms”

As a result, governments around the world are introducing numerous measures to protect algorithms produced domestically. They want to ensure that states they deem hostile can’t finance or influence the production of potentially damaging dual-use AI.

They also want to ensure that their own financial markets are not unwittingly bankrolling the development of AI that could be used against them abroad. At the moment, companies implementing algorithms are bought and sold but in future, it’s possible that markets for algorithms themselves will emerge.

A deep not broad approach is key to global stability here. Given how much of our lives revolve around algorithms and the artificial intelligence they manifest, competition over their production could lead to massive global trade conflicts if mismanaged. Nuance will prevent sensible security policies from negatively impacting wider trade.

It is important to clearly distinguish between restrictions over defence and security priorities, and wider trading priorities.

Given that the UK alone imported over £60 billion of goods from China in a single year in 2021, a lack of nuance regarding tensions over dual-use algorithms could cost us many jobs and worsen the cost of living crisis.

Billions of people around the world live in countries without or with only very limited internet access. As connectivity in these countries improves and Web3 innovations allow lower-cost opportunities for impressive growth, they will want to secure crucial digital IP without limiting their international trade.

Do You Fear Failure?

Failure. It’s one of the few words you won’t see plastered across LinkedIn. Society celebrates winners and social media channels often become digital trophy cabinets. However, failure is not all bad. It can often become an unwelcome but essential stage on your road to success in both your professional and personal life.

Business history is littered with stories of successes that were preceded by seemingly perennial failures. Angry Birds is one of the most popular mobile games of all-time, but its designer brought 51 games to market in the preceding six years without achieving any commercial success. Those endearingly irritable creatures saved what is now Rovio from bankruptcy.

“Failure is not all bad”

Established businesses fail too. Household-name brand Virgin illustrated this perfectly when they sent a tank to fire bottles of their cola drink at the CocaCola logo in New York’s Times Square. Coca-Cola then quietly contacted all of their retail partners to ensure that nobody stocked Virgin’s competing drink.

The result - Virgin Cola flopped in the US. Nonetheless, Sir Richard Branson is justifiably one of the UK’s most celebrated entrepreneurs.

The importance of any failure is in learning from it. Just because your idea didn’t work doesn’t make it a bad idea.

By reviewing what went wrong you can work on creating the necessary conditions for your idea to succeed.

Innovators are some of society’s biggest risk-takers. They put their reputations (and very often their life savings) on the line every day in the pursuit of a better tomorrow. It’s better to innovate and fail than to never try to improve anything at all.

Sometimes even the greatest innovators don’t live the lives that their huge social contributions deserve.

Nikola Tesla - a global pioneer in electricity and other fields - died impoverished.

The success of someone’s innovations isn’t measured against public opinion of the inventor (or entrepreneur) during their lives. This success is determined by their innovation’s legacy.

If you’ve got an idea that can help solve a problem, take it to market. In the worstcase scenario, you were brave enough to add a piece to a complex jigsaw avoided by others. In the best-case scenario, you might just change the world forever.

How Can Firms Evidence Good Outcomes to the FCA?

The Financial Conduct Authority’s new Consumer Duty will require firms to ‘evidence the extent to which and how they are acting to deliver good outcomes.’ What does that mean for your business?

It’s crucial to note that the new Duty is not intended to wrap businesses up in yet more cumbersome paperwork. The FCA wants to work with businesses to ensure that their products and services are making their clients’ worlds better places.

Putting client feedback and feedbackbased team performance targets at the heart of your commercial offering is a great way to save time and money here.

“Save time and money with feedbackbased performance targets.”

There’s no better way to publicise your firm’s commitment to good outcomes than to create a public record of them online.

Publishing reviews is also a great way to demonstrate that clients fully understood what they were buying - another ‘good outcome’ sought by the FCA.

It’s immensely difficult for someone to give a product or service that they don’t understand a positive write-up. Other ‘good outcomes’ are ‘fair value’ and ‘suitability’. Was your product or service sold for a reasonable price? Did you make the client feel special? Was it the right product for them at that moment?

Again, asking them is an excellent way to find this out.

Once you’ve got a certain number of reviews you can play a leading role in setting service benchmarks for your sector. That will make the FCA enormously happy.

The new regulations imposed by the Consumer Duty don’t have to be cumbersome - if you take the lead first.

This is where an in-built reporting system tailored to the Consumer Duty’s requirements is really helpful. Having 24/7 access to a detailed analytics tool measuring your actions against the Consumer Duty’s criteria allows you to stay on top of all the new rules easily.

Vetted Adviser offers you all of this and more. Experience our growth tools and make compliance more convenient at the touch of a button. Then think of something fun for your team to do with all the time you’ve just saved.

What Does Levelling-Up Actually Mean?

‘Levelling-up’ has been the phrase on everyone’s lips in conversations about the UK’s regional growth. But how much devolution is it realistic to expect? Are major policies like ‘levelling-up’ more vague wordplay than workable strategies to improve people’s lives?

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street frustratedly referred to a ‘begging-bowl’ culture which involves multiple regions bidding for increasingly sparse resources.

There is little benefit in devolution unless it comes with real, long-term investment in a region’s infrastructure. It is that investment that will play a major role in creating the jobs of tomorrow for today’s children and young people.

Without this financial backing, the UK ends up with ambiguous regional growth slogans instead of regional growth.

Some of the wonderful projects to have received funding as part of the government’s commitment to ‘levelling-up’ include;

• A £50 million project for rail improvements in Cornwall.

• A £20 million regeneration project in Gateshead creating more than 1,000 jobs.

• The £50 million construction of an immersive educational space for the Eden Project North in Morecambe.

This is all excellent and will improve many lives. However, the awarding of funding to individual regional projects alone without wider long-term investment in those communities doesn’t render the issues surrounding regional inequality solved. Worse still, project-based bidding leaves many towns and cities missing out on crucial funds. The West Midlands’ new ‘trailblazer’ devolution deal announced on 15th March goes some way to addressing these issues.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) will get their own pot of money from the next Spending Review, setting an interesting precedent that could be rolled out more widely as an alternative to the controversial bidding process mentioned above.

While this is welcome, the deal does not address everything. Much of an additional £1.5 billion in funding devolved to the region will come from tax advantages or extensions of existing arrangements on business rates retention. It doesn’t represent a significant new cash injection for public services. A much needed £500 million for new homes will be spread over several years.

Conversations around increased public spending on local services often incite groans nationwide, as they are closely followed by suggestions of higher taxes. There is disappointingly little conversation around obtaining maximum value for taxes levied in support of regional spending.

Giving local politicians even greater responsibility for making decisions about spending public money would significantly increase value for taxpayers. These local leaders know what works best and where in their regions. Moreover, increasing spending in regional infrastructure gives taxpayers enormous long-term returns by enhancing world-leading businesses throughout the UK.

While all regional improvements are beneficial, the UK will have to challenge its funding status-quo even more than the WMCA’s deal outlines if the country wants to achieve genuine, long-term regional growth. This will have to involve Whitehall officials giving local authorities progressively more control over a wider range of purse strings.

Until then, ‘levelling-up’ remains just a catchphrase.