Networks and mobile devices are in every aspect of our lives. It’s only natural that we wonder how deeply they are affecting our children’s development. I’ve seen pre-school children quite comfortable with a keyboard and mouse and research suggests that’s widespread. The arrival of touch interface has pushed the age at which children start interacting with technology even younger.

That slick touch-screen device in your pocket isn’t a phone, whatever we might call it. It can make calls, but it’s way more than that: it’s a platform for a huge range of connected, mobile digital behaviours.

We’ve only just started exploring the potential of music on mobile phones. That might seem like an odd statement as playing and discovering music is well established on the phone. That’s not what I’m talking about. No, I’m suggesting that there’s huge untapped potential in creating music on phones.

At work, I’m involved in one of the most exciting technology-driven changes to our societies ever. At home, I’m a mother of a three-year-old daughter. There is a surprising similarity between these two experiences. Small children and technology never stay still for long, and both surprise you every day. Some surprises are good, some are less so, but it’s amazing to watch both a child and technology develop at a break-neck speed.

Many large companies in all fields struggle with innovation, as Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble point out in their excellent book 'The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Executive Challenge’. Often for commercial reasons these companies have been built for efficiency, not constant change and experimentation. However, many board directors talk about the need for innovation within the company, while the middle-management are often more comfortable with – and often rewarded for – predictability and efficiency, rather than driving change.