E-envoy candidates lock horns in public

Richard Barrington, currently director of industry within the Office of the E-Envoy, Rene Carayol, CEO of ebusiness consultancy Voodoo, and Thomas Power, founder and chief knowledge officer of the Ecademy, discussed issues such as skills and how well the government has nurtured the new economy.

Carayol emphasised the need for the e-envoy to provide leadership. Speaking at a Bathwick Group Land of the New Giants debate, he said: "It's not a political role and it's not about solving failed [government] IT delivery. It's about being an e-visionary for UK Plc."

Barrington - the hottest favourite for the vacant post - agreed in part with Carayol. "Successful companies are led not managed," he said.

However, in the context of being able to execute the ideas an e-envoy can help formulate, the former Sun Microsystems high-flyer and government insider added: "Without the followers, the leaders are irrelevant."

Barrington defended the government's approach to high-tech and ebusiness, putting forward Tony Blair's goal of making the UK the best environment in the world to do ecommerce as a common cause to rally behind.

However, Carayol and Power said the government isn't doing enough to work with industry and bring about change, and is failing to tackle issues such as the skills gap.

Power said: "The government has a vision but no cause. Vision with no action is an hallucination."

Barrington disagreed. "There is a huge amount we're doing, but it's received zero coverage," he said.

He also defended Blair's ability to encourage and lead in a tech-dependent economy while being far from an expert in this area.

However, Power responded: "Richard Barrington is wrong. It's inadequate that [political party leaders] Tony Blair, William Hague and Charles Kennedy can't use a PC. If they can't eat the dog food, they can't lead us to the promised land."

Carayol said the government should take a hands-off approach to the high-tech economy, but added there needs to be a greater risk-taking culture in the UK, where large firms don't feel "paralysed, unable to move for fear of failure".

The government has drawn up a short-list for the e-envoy position from over 100 initial applications.