A recent study[1] of the behaviour of companies in the US, UK and Scandinavia during the Covid pandemic showed that among the 300 CEOs and company directors of large businesses interviewed, many still had some appetite for risk. While overall investment in innovation decreased from March to April and beyond, a third of companies in the study said they still plan to spend at least one million pounds on innovation in 2020, despite the current crisis. But how do UK manufacturers figure in this study? And do they need to invest millions of pounds to generate greater production efficiencies?