Entrepreneur Mark Mason, CEO of corporate smartphone app developer Mubaloo, called on Government to provide SME’s with tax breaks for IT development as a precursor to Global Entrepreneurship Week.
Global Entrepreneurship Week runs from 15th-21st November and aims to convert to reality the dreams of half the young people in the UK who say that they want to start their own business.
“Here in the UK we have the opportunity to offer a ‘digital future for everybody’ and this will have a huge impact on all future business,” said Mason.
“Britain leads the world in terms of embracing the new digital technologies, well ahead of the USA,” explained Mason. “We have an opportunity to seize the lead in the business techniques of the future and the Coalition Government must make it possible for companies to invest in their IT development.”
“IT investment is being relegated to the subs bench by many companies at the moment but the new digital revolution will affect everyone and we must ensure that Britain and Britain’s next generation of young entrepreneurs are ready to capitalise upon it,” he said.
“The old business models are beginning to fall by the wayside. Smartphone applications that provide access for both employees and customers to a company’s online resources will define the future of business practice.”
Mason predicts a business environment that will see both a company’s staff and customers communicating exclusively by smartphone.
“Obviously, it will be difficult during the most severe spending cuts for three decades but if businesses aren’t given some sort of financial incentive to invest in IT our business growth will be hampered when the recession does eventually start to recede,” he said.
The price of smartphones will inevitably drop as more manufacturers compete in the market place and their power and capability will be constantly improving. Companies will be issuing ‘Star Trek style’ hand-held communicators to their entire staff regardless of whether they employ five or five thousand.
“Fewer of the work-force of the future will be confined to an office,” said Mason. “Our working lives will become increasingly flexible as smartphone ‘apps’ create virtual workspaces and allow us to work where and when we want to.”
Mark Mason
CEO
Mubaloo
www.mubaloo.com