How long can the UK economy keep going, just doing the same old stuff?

Is the business case for doing something different beginning to stack up?

Restaurants are full, often with people shrieking with laughter. People are using their mobile phone tariff to the hilt, texting as they walk recklessly through the pelting traffic. And taxis with their yellow lights on are becoming increasingly rare.

That said, there's still not much evidence that pricing power is being restored. Although if you looked at the GBP price of imported BMW motorcycle components supplied as part of my recent annual service, your eyes would water.

So are people just flogging the same products and services, to the same customers through the same channels?

Most of the business cases for spending money that we've seen recently are about making more from what you've got already: releasing benefits from past investments; reducing costs; improving transparency & control (for example by getting better insight into the profit drivers, so that current spend can be better allocated)

How about doing something different? Would anyone actually be interested in finding new customers through new channels, entering new markets?

There's plenty of potential funding sitting on the sidelines.

But there's also a need to move carefully, de-risking any investment, and making change scaleable and modular.