BT Pembroke Lecture 2019 - From purposeful innovation to delivering commercial advantage

One of Pembroke's unique features is its Corporate Partnership Programme (PCPP). Established in 1996, the PCPP works to connect external organisations with the intellectual and academic network in Cambridge. BT has been a member of the PCPP since 2003 and this longstanding and mutually beneficial partnership is celebrated annually at the BT-Pembroke Lecture in November.

The 2019 lecture was delivered by John Beswick, Chief Finance Officer for BT Technology, and entitled ‘From purposeful innovation to delivering commercial advantage’.

In his welcome to John Beswick, the Master of Pembroke College, Lord Chris Smith, emphasised and celebrated the College’s deeply valued relationship with BT. In his introduction, Beswick compared the common purposes of the two organisations and BT’s aim to use the power of communications to make a better world.

Purposeful innovation is a hybridisation of science, engineering and purpose. Beswick spoke about both the importance of companies marrying technology with commerce in an enterprise organisation to drive value. He emphasised the need for companies to employ people who have the skills to provide insights to produce technology that people will use. Beswick pointed to mathematician George Gabriel Stokes, engineer Tommy Flowers and typist Bette Nesmith Graham as people who were able to grasp practical applications for scientific breakthroughs.

Practically, this means employing hybrids, or ‘purple’ people who combine multiple skill sets, rather than just one speciality. Beswick gave examples such as a psychologist with data science skills or a marketing manager with experience of software engineering. He also used his own career as an example, that of an accountant with an engineering background.

With a skills half-life of approximately five years, lifelong learning is now more critical than ever. Beswick suggested that companies need to actively invest in their employees’ professional development over time to increase the number of purple people they employ.