Leadership, vision and the bravery to be bold are attributes critical to future success in our industry. The aim is to challenge existing conventions which were initially brought about in a totally different time and place; none more than in the area of machinery maintenance, where we rely upon redundancy of plant and 24 hour availability of engineering staff. Where we slavishly perform tasks deemed appropriate by the equipment manufacturer, and yet do not consider the context of its installation and the function that is required. Where we apply Hull and Machinery indemnities to protect ourselves form our own in ability to manage assests, and where we still require perfectly good systems to be opened up to meet the idea that to ‘survey and credit’ means to ‘strip and inspect’.

We can already offer very robust alternatives to this without withdrawal and can offer significant differentiation between our rivals whilst meeting our regulatory requirements and applying existing rules. The GTC will nurture the spirit of innovation and I hope disassemble the over-protectionist attitude we have in continuing to do what we always have, because we always did.