Design or Die
November 23, 2004 | Levent OZLER
The new head of the Design Council tells Edward Simpkins about his mission to help British industry see off low-cost overseas rivals.
George Cox, who was last spotted in September departing from the Institute of Directors on Pall Mall amid a furious row over accusations that he had been cosying up to the Government during his four-year term as director general of the business lobby group, popped up again last month at the Design Council, which he is due to chair for the next three years.
Cox may have swapped the Regency elegance of St James's for trendy orange sofas in Covent Garden but he has brought with him a determination to fight the same battle: that of making British industry more competitive.
"In this world you have to ask how we are going to compete," he says. "We are never going to compete as an alternative supplier of cheap labour. The idea of getting goods made cheaper in the UK has no future. It has got to be based on innovation, the uptake of technology, flair, style, creativity, imagination and design.
"That is the only viable future if we are going to be a leading economy over the next 50 to 100 years. That's it. The alternative is to be a theme park, showing people round the Tower of London."
Cox says he was handed the role of leading the Design Council by the Department of Trade and Industry, wh
more: telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2004/1 (102)
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