Mark Casci: Businesses who fail to embrace technology are doomed to fail

This is not due to any lack of understanding or cultural awareness on our part. It is more due to the fact that, as has been true for hundreds of years, we were forced to read the texts of Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet.

The great bard wrote some of the most compelling and visionary stories ever written. His use of language has had more impact on the written word than anyone.

But the reason few of us felt this genius as we sat reading through his texts is that we were being subjected to the wrong medium for his work.

Virtually all of Shakespeare’s audience was illiterate. His plays were designed to be performed. Few will realise that there are some 40 songs that appear in his works.

Take any young person to a theatre to watch Shakespeare delivered as it should be and their engagement will instantly snap into life. As a 14-year-old I will never forget the light bulb moment that came from seeing the Royal Shakespeare Company deliver Macbeth in Stratford.

Reading the bare text is akin to reading the script of your favourite film or lyrics to your favourite song. The message is just not there.

And so it is with technology.

In just a few days it will have been an entire year since I assumed the position of Business Editor at The Yorkshire Post. During those 12 months I have heard on a daily basis about how much the skills gap is hampering our potential.

The current disruptive factor of technology in modern economics and business is without parallel in the history of modern commerce.

It cuts across all sectors, from public services to SMEs. The name of the game now is 100 per cent digital and anyone failing to recognise this is set to get left behind in a no-man’s land that there will be no escaping from.

The tech sector will increasingly lose meaning as an expression as it will consume all businesses to make the tech sector the only sector.

We cannot blame the education sector for this skills shortage. Most of the relevant cutting edge technologies that are common place did not exist when we left school. The onus must be on us as managers and employees to collectively upskill ourselves.

Staff at companies should be falling over themselves to be upskilled. There are few jobs now where some sort of ability in computer programming or social media would not improve you as an employee.

Our education system is also evolving so rapidly that we will be in danger of becoming out of date very soon.

My three-year-old daughter has already been taught some basic computer programming at her nursery. For her technology will underpin virtually everything she does in life. It is realistic that within a few years programming will be given the same priority as English and Maths.

Our network of professional services, top class universities and more affordable overhead costs make Yorkshire and the north ideal for the starting and flourishing of a tech ecosystem, But without the skills and personnel to underpin this we will fail to live up to this potential.

Our colleges and universities are already starting to provide a steady supply chain of innovators to our business. We need to make sure that the great men and women we already have are supported and guided sufficiently so that they can innovate too.

We cannot excite our economy about the benefits of tech if we keep reading the bare texts. And firms that cannot open their eyes to its potential are doomed to wander the battlefield offering their kingdom for a horse.