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The Libralato Engine, Anti-Business Culture & A Country Struggling To Make It

There’s a guy in Manchester who is trying to commercialise a radical type of engine.

Wow – what a crazy thing to be trying to do! Is he a crank?

Well, no, actually he’s not; although most people passionate about invention tend to be labelled cranks until and unless they have a decisive breakthrough – and only then do they become heroes. So, yes, perhaps he is – if that’s what it takes on the road to possibly becoming a hero.

The media is full of stories at the moment about anti-business sentiment, as our excessive hoards of over-paid and largely idle politicians vie to condemn bankers’ bonuses.

It’s an easy diversionary target for our pampered politicos at a time when swathes of their over-governed but under-led constituents experience real hardship.

But it’s the tip of an enterprise-chilling iceberg which goes much deeper, should any other of those of you who may have tried to commercialise a radical engine design recently will have experienced.

This is the first in a series of profiles of rapidly emerging technology companies in the NW. Author Malcolm Evans is a leading business angels specialist and a commentator on several sectors, including IT and advanced manufacturing. He says, "We are sharing company profiles as the scalability of bright ideas into real companies is absolutely key for economic recovery. This first profile is a fantastic company which will change the face of online marketing."

CANDDi is one of only two early stage companies in the Manchester area which we believe is currently creating significant and fundamental breakthrough technology within the commercial enterprise.

As such it is part of the new infrastructure, a key part of the jigsaw.

The company has just launched its first commercial offering into a major marketplace hotspot, instantly leveraging its software breakthrough with the raw commercial desire for its product.

By Malcolm Evans & John Lewis

The business and economic case for HS2 has been in some quarters taken for granted from day one. This last week saw the announcement that an incredibly expensive fast train track from London to Birmingham will open some time quite a long way into the future. At some date even further away than that, it may or may not be extended to Manchester and Leeds.

This, we have been told repeatedly this week, is cause for major joy in Manchester.

We are far from sure that the business and economic case has been established and for the avoidance of doubt we summarise these concerns here. We welcome a similarly clear exposition of the case in support.

These, then, are the main reasons why we feel HS2 is dubious as a value proposition:

John Lewis has been one of my high-tech sounding boards throughout 2011 in establishing the foundations of a self-supporting and productive software startup hub in the NW. His work is part of Funding Enterprise’s commitment to creating relevant and effective Hi Tech business support. Here he reviews the chief IT message he takes from 2011:

Looking back at the technologies that I saw in 2011, the one that has been of greatest interest was the development of Google+.

I was a relatively early user of Google+ and immediately liked some of the features such as “circles” and the relative cleanness of the design. I then saw how additional features requested by early users were rapidly developed and released: continuous development – this is how software should be produced!

Continuous development needs a sophisticated set of tools and processes that allow changes to complex software applications to be “made live” in a very short period – much more fundamental than, say, a change to a website.

Business Funding specialist and Hi Tech growth researcher Malcolm Evans identifies "Eradicals" as the hottest area for emegent UK IT/Digital-led superstars in 2012. Written from a North West perspective (Evans is Manchester-based), the lessons hold true for the whole country:

It’s pronounced “E-radicals”, not that you were to know – this is the first time it has been written about as a model of superior commercial value creation.

It’s like E-tailer, before that simply became Etailer.

Eradicals are, though, so widespread and so important, that we will move straight to the confidently mature version, without the explanatory internal hyphen. We will describe exactly what they do and what they do so well.

This is a discussion about key areas of value within certain web-driven companies.

There isn’t an easy existing phrase or word for it.