M&N Business Leader Magazine: Issue 12

e' iv f ot e o S: m r U to u tu PL s Au e f stry h e s g t du in in in us ss e 'B sse th a

Midlands & North Edition

Jan - Feb 2020

Business in the fast lane BLM talks to Christian Horner OBE – Team Principal of Red Bull Racing on leading an 800-strong team to global success

Would workers on the board increase productivity?

Page 40

How is VR & AR changing the face of business?

Page 54

'I've had to fight for my money.' BLM talks to boxer Luke Campbell Page 66

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9 – 12 JULY

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IN THIS ISSUE

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10 66

24 18

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Contents IN THIS EDITION 2

Latest News Breaking business news from around the region and UK

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Agenda: Gig Economy Law changes loom for UK's Gig Economy

10 Cover Story: Christian Horner OBE

BLM visits Red Bull Racing HQ in Milton Keynes to talk to Team Principal Christian Horner OBE

GROWTH 18 Report: Scaling Up

What is stopping UK Scale-Up businesses?

BUSINESS LEADER VISION: INSPIRE 36 Report: International Trade How to launch your business in Romania

LEADERSHIP 40 Feature: On the Board

Does the workers on the board model have a future in Britain?

44 Interview: CEO in Focus BLM talks to Lucy Franklin of Accordance about her ambitions and innovative staff wellbeing initiatives

CONNECT

TECHNOLOGY 54 Debate: Future of AR & VR How can businesses harness the potential of AR & VR?

REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT 58 Feature: Leeds A northern economic powerhouse with a wealth of unique strengths

HR

24 Fast-Track: Warners Gin Meet the British innovators of one of the largest global drink trends

46 Feature: Working with further education providers

BLM looks at how education providers can work more effectively with businesses

30 Debate: Future of the region What does the future hold for the South West?

52 Report: Mental Health Why mental health care must become a business priority

Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

INFORM

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LATEST NEWS

Inspire • Inform • Connect EDITORIAL Simon Angear - Editor E: simon.angear@businessleader.co.uk Barney Cotton - Digital Editor E: barney.cotton@businessleader.co.uk DESIGN/PRODUCTION Adam Whittaker - Senior Designer E: adam.whittaker@businessleader.co.uk Melissa Larkin - Website Development E: melissa.larkin@businessleader.co.uk

Connecting and inspiring

entrepreneurs

Ben Matthews - Digital Communications E: ben.matthews@businessleader.co.uk SALES Sam Clark - Business Development Manager E: sam.clark@businessleader.co.uk Emma Filby - Business Development Manager E: emma.filby@businessleader.co.uk CIRCULATION Adrian Warburton - Circulation Manager E: adrian.warburton@businessleader.co.uk ACCOUNTS Jo Meredith - Finance Manager E: joanne.meredith@businessleader.co.uk DIRECTORS Oli Ballard - Publishing Director E: oli.ballard@businessleader.co.uk Andrew Scott - Managing Director E: andrew@businessleader.co.uk No part of Business Leader Magazine may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the editor.

Business Leader magazine will make every effort to return picture material, but this is at the owner’s risk. Due to the nature of the print process, images can be subject to colour variation of up to 15%, therefore Business Leader Magazine cannot be held responsible for such variations.

If you would like to get involved or have any news you would like to share, please contact us on 020 3096 0020 or email: editor@businessleader.co.uk.

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New scale-up conference announced for entrepreneurs Business Leader Magazine has confirmed the much-anticipated ScaleUp UK conference will take place in June 2020 in Central London.

have vast experience in building and advising scale-ups, from product development and funding to international expansion.”

Announced at the official launch event of the Amazon ScaleUp Awards in November 2019, ScaleUp UK aims to build on the success of the ScaleUp Awards by bringing together the UK’s most ambitious and talented scaleup entrepreneurs with some of the world’s leading experts in scale-up strategy.

In addition to keynote talks and panel debates, delegates will be able to meet the speakers at a special networking session in the afternoon.

Andrew Scott, CEO of Business Leader Magazine, said: “Scale-up entrepreneurs are a unique breed of visionaries with relentless focus on growing their companies and building products that have real impact at scale. ”ScaleUp UK is a powerful one-day summit with expert speakers who

Scott said: “This is an incredible opportunity for investors and advisors to meet Britain’s most ambitious companies while giving entrepreneurs fast-track access to invaluable contacts and the opportunity to connect with like-minded founders."

The ScaleUp UK conference includes refreshments and a buffet networking lunch, but places are strictly limited for the exclusive event.

Visit www.scaleupuk.com to book your tickets.

£20m consultancy business becomes employee-owned An engineering consultancy with 170 staff has become employee-owned. Otto Simon Holdings, is a £20m-turnover business with its headquarters in Cheadle, Greater Manchester.

Steve Haywood, the group’s co-founder and chairman, said: “My view has been that 2

employee ownership would be the best way of preserving our culture and ethos when the time came for me to step down.

“We have created a great team to ensure that the business has strong foundations for future growth and I know it is in safe hands.”

Issue 12: January - February 2020

LATEST NEWS

Amazon to create 600 jobs at first Manchester office Tech giant Amazon has opened a new 90,000 sq ft office in Manchester – the first time it has invested in corporate UK premises outside of London.

Amazon.com Inc plans to fill six floors of the 1907-built Hanover Building with 600 new jobs, including software developers, scientists and branding specialists.

The firm has already begun hiring, with a first wave of 19 roles now being advertised at the Grade II-listed building, located in a trendy bar district close to Manchester Arena.

Additionally, Amazon pledged to celebrate its arrival in Manchester by launching a new Future Engineer Bursary to support undergraduates from lowincome backgrounds studying computer

science at the University of Manchester.

Doug Gurr, UK Country Manager for Amazon, said: “I am delighted we’re opening our first corporate office in the North of England.

“Manchester offers an incredible talent pool, a thriving hub of fast-growing UK tech start-ups and is a centre of academic and intellectual excellence.

“We are already actively hiring from a range of skill-sets for our new Manchester office, so if you’ve always wanted to build the future, come build it with us.”

Amazon now employs around 29,500 people in the UK, and says it has invested £18bn in the nation’s economy since 2010.

OakNorth Bank provides funding to facilitate equity deal for Aptus Utilities

Manchester City star partners with new fashion brand

OakNorth Bank has completed a debt finance loan as part of the equity deal for Aptus Utilities, a provider of multi-utility services.

Founded in March 2010 by Andrew Reay, Jonathan Holden and Fred Story, Aptus has established a reputation for providing a multi-utility solution that streamlines and expedites building processes for UK construction companies.

Based in Bolton, Aptus has supported construction companies based across Northern England, the Scottish Borders, the Midlands and Wales. The equity funding will see OakNorth Bank join forces with WestBridge to assist with the delivery of future plans.

Jonathan Holden, Founder of Aptus, said: “Myself, Andrew and Fred are very excited and keen to see the business continue its mission to provide vital support to the UK’s construction industry.”

Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

Global men’s retail brand UNTUCKit, and Manchester City’s star midfielder Kevin De Bruyne, have officially partnered as the company enters the UK market.

De Bruyne will serve as the face of the brand across the UK. The partnership between himself and UNTUCKit was facilitated by Roc Nation Sports International.

De Bruyne said: “I’m so excited to be working with UNTUCKit as they launch in the UK. I’m not a guy that often tucks my shirts in, so it’s great having an untucked shirt that looks and fits great. For me, it’s the fit. The shirts are never too baggy or too short, and they never bunch up in the arms.”

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LATEST NEWS

Bentley starts work on state-of-theart engineering test centre

IQBlade acquired in job-saving deal Bentley Motors has announced that work has begun on a state-of-theart engineering test facility at the company’s expanding headquarters in Crewe. The new centre is the latest phase in ongoing development at the Pyms Lane site where all Bentley cars are hand-built.

With completion due this autumn, the new building will cover more than 4,600 sq m over two storeys. Included in this figure will be 773 sq m of office space and 1550 sq m designed for the installation of a single climatecontrolled chassis dynamometer,

operating across a range of temperatures from -10°C to +40°C. There will also be a dedicated laboratory to run Real Driving Emissions (RDE) using the latest state-of-the-art portable emissions measurement systems.

The centre will allow Bentley to meet increased consumer demand for its current range of ultra-luxury vehicles, including the all-new, performanceorientated Flying Spur, the Continental GT and the new Bentayga Hybrid SUV, which marks Bentley’s first step towards electrification.

Liverpool-based data-driven intelligence platform IQBlade, has been acquired in a deal which has saved jobs and enables it to continue serving some of the biggest brands in the tech sector.

The company, based at Liverpool Science Park, works with clients including Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Ingram Micro. It originally secured growth capital in 2017 and rapidly grew the business.

Cash flow issues were identified in the third quarter of 2019 and advice was sought from restructuring experts from Begbies Traynor, based in Liverpool. Following a short period of marketing the business and its assets were successfully sold.

Host unveiled for the 2020 Amazon ScaleUp Awards The host for the Amazon ScaleUp Awards brought to you by Business Leader Magazine has been announced.

Comedian and television personality Tom Allen will be the host for the event, which is taking place at London Hilton on Park Lane on Friday 20 March.

Over 400 businesses have entered this year's awards and judging is currently underway, with the shortlist set to be announced in January.

The awards will highlight the leading companies and individuals that are driving growth in the UK and will provide a platform for scale-up entrepreneurs, SMEs and corporates to celebrate their success.

Andrew Scott, Business Leader founder, comments: "The awards will celebrate the success of scale-up and high-growth companies. It's going to be an evening to remember and we expect Tom to be thoroughly entertaining as host."

Visit www.scaleup-awards.co.uk to book your ticket 4

Issue 12: January - February 2020

Employment lawyers fighting your corner and protecting your business Our team of employment law solicitors are independently recognised as leaders in the field who will support and guide your business.

We’ll help you deal with personnel and HR challenges from the outset and minimise

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any risk to your business. Our advice is underpinned by comprehensive knowledge and commercial awareness, with our clients’ best interests at its core.

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LATEST NEWS

ADVERTORIAL:

WHY 2020 MAY OFFER OPPORTUNITY TO AMBITIOUS EXPORTERS Praetura Ventures leads XR Games’ £1.5m investment round

Whether they voted to remain in the EU or to leave, the big question for businesses this year is whether the government will manage to seal the Brexit deal once and for all by the end of 2020? Experts are already saying that it’s going to be a tall order, so the economic uncertainty that has dogged industry for the past few years isn’t quite over yet.

However, entrepreneurs are used to uncertainty – and the best of them tend to use times of change to push themselves in directions that others may not have even considered. We are, without doubt, approaching a time when the old rules of international trade will be giving way to new ones, and businesses that start this year with a flexible approach can seize the advantage when it comes to exporting.

Of course, new customers in new markets often bring with them some fresh challenges. Payment terms may be more onerous, or potential contracts may be considerable in value, but may seem out of reach because of the pressure the lag between your investment and payment puts on your cashflow.

“One of the most established ways of funding is Invoice Finance – which releases the cash tied up in your invoices rather than having to wait to get paid. An additional product, Trade Finance, has been developed specifically for those companies who use Invoice Finance but now want to stretch their wings further afield.

“For clients who do import or export, Castle’s Trade Finance facility is an attractive offer,” he says. “It’s a cash facility that allows clients to bridge the cashflow gap between paying suppliers and being paid by customers for up to 90 days, and can be provided in multiple currencies.

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XR Games has collaborated with big-name brands including Sony and Rovio for console VR games, and has recently released The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure.

This investment will enable XR Games to continue to invest in development and expand its games portfolio through new projects with Hollywood film studios, and world-famous media and entertainment companies.

“Trade Finance is particularly reassuring to suppliers, and also gives scope to negotiate great rates and early settlement discounts.

“Our many years of experience in business finance means we are able to keep down the costs of borrowing for our clients. Whilst your competitors wait, early 2020 could be exactly the right time to make the step-change you want.”

Amazon to create 1,000 new jobs in Darlington Metro Mayor for Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, has announced that Amazon will be bringing its latest fulfilment centre to the region.

Darlington will be Amazon’s first fulfilment centre in the North East. This opening will create 1,000 permanent jobs and will help meet growing customer demand and support more third-party sellers.

Jeremy Coombes, Chief Executive of Castle Business Finance, says his firm focuses on developing specific products to help more businesses build their own futures, whether working with customers inside the UK or beyond it.

“We know from long experience that having affordable access to the cash needed to make that next business step is critical, particularly if you don’t have large reserves to draw from,” says Jeremy.

Independent games studio and virtual reality developer XR Games has secured a £1.5m funding round, led by Praetura Ventures alongside existing investor ACT Capital Partners.

Headquartered in Leeds, XR Games specialises in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) games.

To find out more about invoice and trade finance, visit Castle’s new website at www.castlebusinessfinance.com or call 01275 390 665

The site will be equipped with advanced Amazon Robotics technology, which will be used on a daily basis to fulfil customer orders and support employees.

Mayor Houchen said: “This is yet another real sign that the Tees Valley is on the move. Good quality, well-paid jobs open for application now.”

Issue 12: January - February 2020

ADVERTORIAL BARCLAYS

How is Barclays supporting Sativa Group PLC? BLM recently sat down with Henry Lees-Buckley (CEO) and Joseph Colliver (CFO) from Sativa Group PLC to talk about the medical cannabis movement, being the first company of its kind in the UK and how Barclays has helped the business.

Can you give an overview of the company?

JC – We are a leading UK-based CBD wellness and medicinal cannabis company.

Our CBD wellness business is called Goodbody Botanicals and we distribute CBD products to independent pharmacies, wellness businesses and health food shops across the UK. We also have three Goodbody wellness retail stores across the South West, and we are looking to roll that out further across the country through a franchise model. We also have Tessellate Collective, which is a direct selling business.

All three businesses are underpinned by PhytoVista Laboratories, which is our own commercial customer-facing laboratory, which tests the CBD and cannabinoid content for manufactures of CBD across the UK and Europe, as well as our own products. Looking to the future, we have a medicinal cannabis business where we are doing a lot of research and development through our partners at King’s College London.

Was the goal to always be the UK’s first listed medical cannabis company?

JC – Yes, it was always our intention to be listed. Geremy Thomas, the founder of the company, has a strong entrepreneurial background – he saw a gap in the market which others had filled in North America, but not in the UK. He then wanted to take advantage of the relative immaturity of the marketplace that was present two years ago.

Has being the first company of its kind in the UK provided many advantages to grow?

JC – It has on the ‘city’ front, as we are publicly listed on the NEX Exchange. We have had more opportunities when it comes to speaking to potential shareholders and investors, as well as regulators, lobbying groups and partners like King’s College. It has given us an elevated credibility as we are the first to market. It has also boosted our brand from a commercial standpoint.

HLB – As a PLC, we are held to the standards of the public markets, which is significantly higher than someone operating out of their own home. As this is a new industry, and being a leader in the marketplace, we are going to continue taking this high road into the future. By sticking to this, we will produce and sell the highest quality products and maintain that position in the marketplace. This is why we have the relationship with Barclays. They are a top tier financial firm, and we want to be associated with top tier firms.

What does the future hold for the company?

HLB – It is simply to be the market leader in the UK with the highest quality CBD products. That means leading on the high street pharmacies and grocers with our Goodbody Botanicals brand. It means providing a premium shopping experience with our company-owned and future franchised Goodbody Wellness shops.

T: 01373 486595 El: enquiries@sativagroup.co.uk

It means being the market leader in the direct selling channel with our Tessellate Collective brand. These are all brands we have in the market today and we will continue to expand the product offer within these brands. The future is equally exciting as we bring to market new veterinarian and human medicinal products after all the necessary regulatory approvals.

Additionally, we want to be on the London AIM Stock Exchange Market – something we are actively engaging on. Assuming we will be successful, we will be the first CBD wellness and medical cannabis company to be listed on the market. That is a stamp of quality, and shows our level of compliance is very high. This opens up our market to a broader range of investors.

How has Barclays helped the business?

JC – We joined Barclays as we wanted to upgrade the level of software and back office support, and it has been great for us.

Their security systems and user control, in terms of providing a governance structure, has been incredible. It has enhanced our operation.

What comes with that is the relationship management – having access to that wealth of knowledge and expertise on tap provides a commercial advantage. They have experts in treasury, FX, day-to-day banking, corporate banking and we also have access to their network. Having that credibility of Barclays associated with the brand is important – people respect that.

To find out more about how we can help your business success, please contact Stuart Rowland, Relationship Director: Mobile: +44(0)7920 267685 Email: stuart.rowland@barclays.com

www.barclayscorporate.com

Barclays Bank PLC is registered in England (Company No. 1026167) with its registered office at 1 Churchill Place, London E14 5HP. Barclays Bank PLC is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority, and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Financial Services Register No. 122702) and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Barclays is a trading name and trade mark of Barclays PLC and its subsidiaries January 2020. + Please note: this is a mobile phone number and calls will be charged in accordance with your mobile tariff.

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AGENDA

'A BALANCE MUST BE STRUCK' –

LAW CHANGES LOOM FOR UK’S GIG ECONOMY

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hampioned for empowering contemporary workers, yet simultaneously criticised as precarious and exploitative – what does the future hold for the UK’s gig economy and zerohours contract workers?

Arguments in favour of the gig economy appear at first glance to be both plentiful and convincing. Proponents praise its flexibility and versatility, the opportunities it creates for companies, and the freedom it offers to workers.

Some predictions even suggest these models will take over as the prevalent form of employment, with more firms eschewing a full-time workforce in favour of a permanent leadership core supported by gig workers on short-term contracts.

The statistics seemingly speak for themselves. An estimated five million people in the UK currently maintain freelance – or ‘gig’ – careers across a multitude of sectors, while nearly 900,000 people work on a zero hours contract basis. The latter figure has grown by 358% since 2012, and now amounts to 2.7% of the nation’s workforce.

So, why do zero-hours contracts and gig employment continue to prove so divisive?

That growth is due in large part to the rise of app-based platforms like Deliveroo and Uber, which have opened up the gig economy on an unprecedented scale by effectively making work available to all, regardless of skills or experience.

It could stem from high-profile news stories and court rulings where firms have effectively been accused of withholding employment rights – like paid holiday or sick pay – from workers through manipulation of legal loopholes.

It could also be a consequence of frequent smears evident in politics and popular culture. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has attacked zero-hours contracts as ‘exploitation’, while film director Ken Loach – whose latest film Sorry We Missed You

highlights the risks of zero hours working – has slammed the practice as ‘modern slavery’.

‘Increasingly one-sided’ Susie Al-Qassab, Head Of Employment Law with Londonbased Hodge Jones & Allen Solicitors, believes the system can work – but concedes it is often exploited.

She said: “Ostensibly, gig work is a good thing for both employees and employers – but the advantages seem to be increasingly one-sided.

“The criticism that the gig economy is exploitative is easy to understand – they are labelled ‘self-employed contractors’, but are often being treated as workers, without the benefits and protections.

"THE PROBLEM WITH THE SO-CALLED GIG-ECONOMY IS IT HAS BECOME A CATCH-ALL TERM FOR CONTRACTED EMPLOYMENT, WHICH HAS TARRED SOME GOOD COMPANIES WITH THE SAME BRUSH AS THOSE CONSTANTLY UNDER MEDIA SCRUTINY FOR POOR PRACTICES."

Scott Mullins

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Issue 12: January - February 2020

GIG ECONOMY

“In many cases, it seems employers are taking advantage of the weak position of such workers, as there will always be someone else to do the job. The balance has tipped too far on the side of businesses.”

tradespeople are not dependent at all, even if they are contracting solely to one company, as they can easily take their skills elsewhere should they feel they are not getting a fair deal.

This can, Al-Qassab believes, mean workers can put themselves at risk.

“It is a model that has worked exceptionally well for Pimlico, and we have a very loyal and dedicated workforce of self-employed contractors. They have the choice to go elsewhere if they wish, because their skills are always in demand, but they know they will get consistent, high-quality jobs from us as well as many benefits from being part of the Pimlico family.”

She continued: “The paradox of gig work is the flexibility and apparent autonomy which makes it so appealing is also its biggest flaw.

“A gig worker will not necessarily know how much they will be able to earn month on month and this uncertainty can lead to stress.

“As they are often ‘self-employed contactors’, they receive none of the benefits of with employee status – national minimum wage, holiday pay, sick leave.

“If a delivery driver becomes sick and unable to work, they will have no income.

This can lead to scenarios where people are continuing to work despite health risks – they simply cannot afford to not.”

‘Good companies have been tarred’ Employers insist the system offers as many pluses to workers as companies, and argue it benefits all when implemented responsibly.

Scott Mullins, Managing Director at Pimlico – a firm which lost out in the Supreme Court in 2018 in a dispute over workers’ rights for its freelance plumbers – said: “The problem with the so-called gig-economy is it has become a catch-all term for contracted employment, which has tarred some good companies with the same brush as those constantly under media scrutiny for poor practices.

“The public’s impression of the gig-economy is that employers are exploiting people’s desire for flexible working, paying low wages and also not offering good working conditions.

“However, in some sectors, such as the home services and construction industries, where the responsible use of self-employed contractors is the norm, the situation is very much different.

“For those in jobs such as food delivery, the workers are dependent on the employer. It’s not the same in sectors like mine. Skilled Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

Deliveroo is one of the UK’s most high-profile gig employers; it has more than 25,000 riders on its books, and fields ‘thousands’ of fresh enquiries every week. The firm says 85% of its riders treasure their flexible terms.

A spokesman told Business Leader: “Deliveroo’s flexible model is giving riders greater controls around how they work.

“Riders can choose to work for Deliveroo while working with other companies; there is no other type of work which allows you to work when you want or allows you to work for a competitor at the same time.

entitled to, what they are earning and how they are earning it.

“There are various things in the next wave of changes which may help – but equally, I think it’s going to be an ongoing dialogue for some time.”

Scott Mullins agrees the law needs to change, but says it needs to do so in a way which is fair to both employer and worker.

He said: “The law has to evolve to reflect the changing culture of work and employment.

It needs to understand there is a legitimate class of self-employed contractor, who may work predominantly for one employer – they may even wear a uniform, carry an ID badge – but they are more of a contractor than a worker.

“I’m all for the government finding changes in the law to protect the poorly paid, poorly treated and poorly appreciated workers – but there needs to be clarity on how it will relate to the highly-skilled self-employed contractors in industries like ours.”

“Unlike a zero-hours contract, riders decide for themselves when they ride and how much they ride, by simply logging in and choosing whether to accept orders. This is genuinely two-way flexibility.”

What next?

Gareth Edwards, Head of the Employment team at law firm VWV, says legislation changes due in April 2020’s Good Work Plan could make a difference.

He said: “I can see there is a place for zero hours contracts, or for being able to contract on a job-by-job basis; I don’t think those two components of people’s working lives are going away. But I think the regulation around it will probably increase.

“From an individual’s point of view, I think sometimes there’s a concern they are not making an informed choice.

“Part of the reforms talked about includes giving people a statement of terms from day one, and itemised pay statements so they understand more about what they are

And Susie Al-Qassab believes workers will gain more control over their status.

She added: “There may be more deals such as that between the GMB Union and the delivery company Hermes, which allows gig workers the choice as to whether they want to be self-employed or ‘self-employed plus’. The latter offers union representation, minimum wage and holiday pay.

“What is clear, is that as the gig economy continues to grow, there needs to be more of a balance struck between work that is flexible and work that is simply insecure.”  9

COVER STORY

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Issue 12: January - February 2020

CHRISTIAN HORNER OBE

DRIVEN TO SUCCESS

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LM visited Red Bull Racing HQ in Milton Keynes, to talk with Team Principal Christian Horner OBE. He opened up about his ‘non-confirmist’ team culture, managing ‘pop star’ drivers, and the highs of winning four Constructors’ World Championships.

CAN YOU GIVE US AN OVERVIEW OF YOUR CAREER? I started racing go-karts at the age of 12, went through the various categories, and won a scholarship from Renault in 1991 to move from karts into car racing.

I was relatively successful in the junior formula, but the higher you went the harder it got.

Of course, motor racing is an expensive business, and unlike other sports, drivers are expected to bring funding with them in the lower categories. Part of the challenge was raising sponsorship. By the time I reached Formula 2, I didn’t have a budget to go to a good team, so I decided to buy a single car and become an entrant.

I created the Arden team in 1997. I raced on my own that year and brought in a teammate in 1998, and then decided I had gone as far as my talent and funding was going to take me, so decided to step out of the cockpit and focus on building the team.

We went on to win three consecutive championships in that category. One of our drivers was also a young Red Bull driver, and I guess that put me on the radar of Red Bull, so when they acquired what was then the Jaguar team at the end of 2004, they approached me to run the team.

WAS IT ALWAYS YOUR AMBITION TO MOVE INTO TEAM MANAGEMENT? I never envisaged a career in management, my focus was on driving. I left school at 18, I didn’t go to university, my focus was very much on racing and forging a career as a driver.

Cont.  Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

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COVER STORY

WHEN DID YOU FIRST CONSIDER THAT TEAM MANAGEMENT MIGHT BE A CAREER FOR YOU? At the beginning of the 1998 season we were testing at Estoril. There was a very fast right-hander, and a driver called Juan Pablo Montoya came past me into the turn.

It was a sixth-gear corner, and the angle his car was at, the commitment he had, was one I knew my brain and foot just wouldn’t be able to do. I recognised that I wasn’t prepared to take that risk. Once you start thinking like that… it was pretty early on in that season that I knew.

It was then about establishing the team, getting the right engineers and mechanics in place, and then I could focus on running the team. I had to hustle and go and find commercial sponsorship, I was booking hotels, I was doing the VAT returns, even cleaning the truck on some occasions; it was a tremendous education from a grass roots level, getting into the nuts and bolts of how a race team operates.

HAVE YOUR COUNTERPARTS IN OTHER FORMULA 1 TEAMS PROGRESSED IN THAT SAME WAY? No, I think others are from far more managerial or corporate backgrounds.

When I look around there are not many what I would call old-school racers.

WHEN DID YOUR AMBITIONS BEGIN TO CRYSTALISE AROUND FORMULA 1?

Formula 1 was always the pinnacle, always the goal, to get there as a driver or to get there as a team. It was always something I wanted to be involved in.

WHEN YOU JOINED RED BULL, WAS IT THE AMBITION FROM DAY ONE TO BE CHAMPIONS? It was a very young team. I was 31. Red Bull had ambitious aspirations, they did not just want to be a mid-field runner, and (Red Bull Co-Founder) Dietrich Mateschitz wanted to have a competitive team to promote his brand on a global platform. That meant winning. He’s a competitive guy.

Of course, there were so many manufacturers out there when we came into the sport, huge teams. Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Toyota, Honda, Renault; we were a minnow in comparison in those early days.

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BECAUSE IT WAS SUCH A YOUNG TEAM, DID THAT GIVE YOU GREATER OPPORTUNITY TO SHAPE IT HOW YOU WANTED? It was a question of looking at where the strengths and the weaknesses were. There were real pockets of talent within the team.

What it needed was clear direction – we had lots of subsets of departments that weren’t working in unity – and getting the right people established in the right places.

WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN THOSE EARLY DAYS? Establishing credibility. I’d come into the sport very young and nobody really knew who I was, and this is a team that wants to achieve, it wants to win. My peers were the likes of Ron Dennis, Jean Todt, Flavio Briatore, Frank Williams, Eddie Jordan, big names and entrepreneurs in many respects.

DID YOU HAVE A TIMEFRAME FOR HOW LONG YOU FELT IT MIGHT TAKE TO GET TO WHERE YOU WANTED TO BE? You can come in with a five-year plan,

all that jazz, but everybody in this sport is impatient, so there was no definitive time-scale. We wanted to get there, and we wanted to get there as quickly as we could.

CAN YOU PINPOINT A MOMENT WHEN YOU FIRST REALISED THE CHAMPIONSHIP WAS GENUINELY WITHIN REACH? I think there were a few factors, but first and most significant was the recruitment of Adrian Newey at the end of the first year. He was the world’s best Formula 1 designer, so attracting him and getting him to join the team, that signified serious intent, because people thought ‘wow, if Adrian Newey’s going there, these guys are serious’. Then it was a matter of building a team around him.

WAS IT DOWN TO YOU TO SELL YOUR VISION TO ADRIAN? I could see Adrian was restless where he was at McLaren, and I’d always been a fan of his and his cars from before I’d arrived in Formula 1. I got to know him, we became friends, and then I introduced him to the Red Bull world. I think the less Issue 12: January - February 2020

CHRISTIAN HORNER OBE

Actor Daniel Craig gets a tour around the Red Bull Racing garage

Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner OBE talks with Max Verstappen

corporate structure of Red Bull appealed to his creativity and freedom. What you don’t do with an Adrian Newey is tell him how to do his job, and I think we have provided an environment for him which has fed that creativity.

YOU WON THE TITLE FOUR YEARS IN A ROW. HOW DO YOU KEEP YOURSELF MOTIVATED DURING SUSTAINED SUCCESS? When you’re on top, if you win a race, you enjoy it for the evening, but by the time you’re back in the office on Monday morning, it’s about the next event and wanting to build on that performance. It’s so fast-moving, this sport, that you’re always focused on the next target, you never

get the chance to look backwards. There almost becomes a fear of losing, and there becomes an atmosphere of expectancy going into a race.

YOURS IS A HIGH-PRESSURE ROLE, WITH HUGE EXPECTATIONS ON YOUR SHOULDERS. HOW DO YOU COPE WITH THAT? What experience has taught me is to focus on the things you can control, rather than worrying about the things you can’t. It’s prioritising, it’s about keeping the group focused on their objectives, and just taking things one at a time, day-by-day, because I think if you project too far forward, you lose sight of what’s going on today. For me, that’s incredibly important.

"RED BULL HAD AMBITIOUS ASPIRATIONS, THEY DID NOT JUST WANT TO BE A MID-FIELD RUNNER, AND (RED BULL CO-FOUNDER) DIETRICH MATESCHITZ WANTED TO HAVE A COMPETITIVE TEAM TO PROMOTE HIS BRAND ON A GLOBAL PLATFORM." Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

WHAT SORT OF TRAITS DO YOU LOOK FOR TO BUILD YOUR LEADERSHIP TEAM? Very much team players, not individuals.

Adrian Newey is quite unique because he has a unique skill-set, but when you look at the management team, it’s very much people with a can-do attitude, a glass-halffull mindset. It’s about working with people, this business, so they have got to have the skills of interaction and communication.

It’s not just an email culture; if there is an issue, it’s a case of sitting in a room, discussing it, and coming up with solutions.

DO YOU SET YOURSELF TARGETS? Of course you set yourself targets, but you’ve got to be prepared to move them as well. Our target certainly for next year is to be the challenger team to Mercedes. We don’t know what the opposition will do, we can only focus on ourselves, so it’s head down and do the best job you can to come out in February with your new car in the best shape you can be.

Cont.  13

COVER STORY YOU SOUND OPTIMISTIC FOR 2020 – DO YOU THINK A BREAKTHROUGH YEAR COULD BE ON THE CARDS? In the past 10 years there have only been two constructors who have won the championship, which is Mercedes and ourselves, but sport is always cyclical, and at some point Mercedes will stop winning.

We have to make sure we’re the team there ready to pick up the baton again.

AND YOU’RE CONFIDENT YOU WILL BE? I think we have the right people, the right team, the right structure, the right tools and facilities, the right drivers, to do that.

HOW MUCH CAN YOU PERSONALLY INFLUENCE? IS IT ABOUT BUILDING A CULTURE, OR EXERTING A DIRECT INFLUENCE? It’s many, many things. It’s setting a tempo, common goals and objectives, and having the right team around you. I am fortunate to have a very good team of men and women around me. Formula 1 is the biggest team sport in the world; there are over 800 people in this business to produce two Grand Prix cars. The technology involved in these cars is so advanced, and the pace of development is so intense, that those are the sort of numbers of personnel required to feed the machine.

WITH 800 PEOPLE IN THE TEAM, INCLUDING WORLD-LEADING EXPERTS AND BIG PERSONALITIES, HOW DO YOU BIND THE TEAM TOGETHER? Communication is vitally important. After every Grand Prix we get the entire business together to talk about what went well, what our immediate targets are, and having the right communication channels to my direct reports, and being accessible, is the most important thing. We have a team culture where there is no room for individuals’ egos. There is no vanity; it is very much the team that wins here. We have a culture of each department supporting each other, because when we do win a Grand Prix it’s a realisation of all those 22 departments coming together and having delivered.

IS THAT CULTURE SET BY YOU? Ultimately yes. There’s obviously Red Bull DNA in there as well, the style that we are, the slightly non-conformist values of Red Bull. You’ll see more people here in jeans and T-shirts than you would at McLaren or Mercedes for example, so it’s creating that culture, that ethos. We invest in our employees and we look after them, and they respond to that. There’s nobody 14

Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner OBE, FIA President Jean Todt and actor Daniel Craig talk on the grid

watching the clock here, because we’re not making standard components, it’s a competition.

DO YOU CELEBRATE TOGETHER WHEN THINGS GO WELL? Absolutely. It’s important to enjoy and embrace success, and to celebrate success.

HOW IS TEAM MORALE RIGHT NOW? It’s very good. Everybody is going into this winter with their tail up because we’ve had a great first year with Honda, it’s been a transitionary year for the team, and we’ve learned an awful lot of lessons. I think you sense within the business a sense of confidence and ambition. We’ve made great progress, and it just feels that we’re on the cusp of being a real challenger to Mercedes in 2020.

HOW WILL THE BUDGET CAP, SET TO BE INTRODUCED IN 2021, IMPACT UPON RED BULL RACING? It’ll force efficiencies within the business. It will encourage us to look at cost-effective design. We will bring more production inhouse. We’re still evaluating, but we feel we can cope with the cap responsibly by making ourselves more efficient. It’ll be a mindset change, but we believe we can take that on.

HOW DOES A CHANGE OF DRIVER INFLUENCE THE TEAM CULTURE? The drivers are the pop stars, but they are one element of the team. They have the

privilege of driving the cars people here produce, so of course the driver is the most visual element, but they also have a huge responsibility as they are carrying the hopes and dreams of those 800 people.

DRIVERS CAN, IN THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT, BE OUTSPOKEN. HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR THAT? That again is part of the Red Bull ethos; we want the drivers’ personalities to shine through, we don’t want to constrain them, so as long as they are not being offensive in any way, we want people to see their character. You see with Max Verstappen that he’s very much a free spirit, and that enables us to get the best out of him.

HOW BIG HAS THE RED BULL INFLUENCE BEEN ON THE BRAND? From a marketing perspective it’s been pretty strong, but Dietrich has been very good in just saying ‘build the best team that you can’ so there’s no insistence things have to be done in a certain way.

YOU’VE ENJOYED MUCH SUCCESS – BUT DO YOU STILL HAVE UNFULFILLED AMBITIONS? Yeah, absolutely. We want to make sure we are challenging and beating Mercedes in the years ahead. We would like to have the youngest world champion, and we have that opportunity with Max next year. Red Bull is still a young team. We have a cabinet full of trophies, but we’d like to make some more cabinets.  Issue 12: January - February 2020

CORPORATE PENSION AND EMPLOYEE BENEFIT SPECIALISTS Quantum Advisory is a national, independent financial services consultancy with a strong commitment to quality and value for money. As an industry-leading firm we offer a wide range of employee benefit services to employers, scheme trustees and members.

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LATEST NEWS

McLaren announces global partnership with TUMI LDC supports Global Autocare’s growth drive with significant investment Leeds-based fleet management firm Global Autocare has won investment from midmarket private equity firm LDC to support its growth strategy. Global is an independent corporate mobility and fleet management provider.

The business has consistently delivered organic growth by over 20% year-on-year since 2010.

LDC’s support will help the business to accelerate its national growth plans, building on its strong relationships with some of the world’s leading car manufacturers.

LDC will take a significant minority stake in the business, and is backing the existing management team, which will continue to be led by Founder and Managing Director Geoff Bloore, Finance Director David Sadler, Commercial Director Stephen Chater, Fleet Director Joe Bloore and Company Secretary Joanne Duncan.

As part of the deal, John Walker will join the board as Non-Executive Chairman. He is a former private equity investor and has specific experience with fleet management firms.

Dale Alderson, Director at LDC, added: “Global Autocare is a fantastic example of a dynamic, homegrown business. It has used an innovative approach and an exceptional reputation for client service to become one of the region’s most exciting success stories.”

16

McLaren and TUMI, the international travel and lifestyle brand, has announced a new partnership which will see TUMI become the official luggage partner of McLaren, including the race team McLaren Racing and luxury supercar company McLaren Automotive.

TUMI will provide McLaren with business and travel essentials and the pair plan to release a luggage collection in late 2020 which brings together the shared values of both brands.

Mike Flewitt, Chief Executive Officer, McLaren Automotive, said: “McLaren supercar owners the world-over value the experience of travel with a clear emphasis on performance, luxury and style.

“We see that echoed by TUMI who, like McLaren, pursue a like-minded focus on the innovative use of lightweight materials and optimised performance all brought together by a holistic design-led approach.”

Christmas boost for Midlandsbased export businesses Following a busy Christmas period, recent data has revealed growing international demand for British greeting cards.

Exports of greeting cards from the UK rose by 1.5% last year to a total value of nearly £63m. Key destinations include the US, where sales grew by 87.8% (£3.9m) between 2015 and 2018, while exports to Australia doubled in the same period.

One Midlands firm tapping into this global demand is Stamford-based Old English Company. The stationery and giftware company was initially established in 2012, and has since become a successful global e-commerce brand.

For Old English Company, exports to the US alone have increased by nearly 100% since 2016. The company has also recently signed a three-year contract with American card giant Papyrus, which will see them design an array of greeting cards for the retailer.

As the largest consumer market on the globe, the US presents huge opportunities for Midlands businesses. In 2018, goods exports from the West Midlands to the US alone totalled £6.6m.

Issue 12: January - February 2020

Business Leader launches

Connecting and inspiring

entrepreneurs

New scale-up conference announced for entrepreneurs

To find out more about this one day summit call 020 3096 0020 or email editor@businessleader.co.uk

WWW.SCALEUPUK.COM

GROWTH

WHAT IS

STOPPING UK SCALE-UP BUSINESSES?

F

or the UK economy to thrive, scaleup businesses must thrive.

As part of its scaling up series Business Leader asks – what are the barriers that scaleup businesses are facing? A scaleup business is one that has achieved year-on-year growth of at least 20% for three years and has more than twenty staff.

Mike Dias is the founder of ScaleUp Valley, an influential community that supports businesses in the UK that are looking to scale-up.

On what he feels are the critical ingredients needed for businesses looking to scale, he says: “World class leadership across all layers, radical focus and a bold culture of lifelong learning that inspires execution are key. And the most common barriers to growth are the opposite of these values.

They are leadership development, having a complex strategy where you are always chasing the next big thing and a culture of excuses that leads to sloppy execution.”

On what differentiates the winners and 18

losers in the scale-up space, Mike goes on to say: “The teams who win are the ones who don’t get distracted with the next big thing and stay loyal to a clear strategy with radical focus. Look at Zoom. Videoconference solutions were not the next big thing. Yes, but they are on their way to $1bn after IPO this year.”

Access to capital Christine Hockley, Director of British Patient Capital believes that access to funding is also one of the main reasons that stop businesses from scaling up.

She comments: “Britain has a proud tradition of being among the best places in the world for entrepreneurs and innovators to start their own business. However, once those businesses become established

many are unable to fulfil their high growth potential, due to a lack of patient capital.

“They might have an innovative idea they want to prove through investment in R&D, or a new product to bring to market, but struggle to obtain the larger amounts of long-term, venture and growth capital required to scale their businesses. It often means too many high-growth potential businesses are forced to grow at a slower rate or look abroad when they want to scale-up.

“With £2.5bn of funds to invest into venture and venture growth capital funds over the next decade, we’re working alongside institutional investors with the aim of attracting a further £5bn of patient capital investment, unlocking £7.5bn of finance.”

Issue 12: January - February 2020

SCALING UP

Mentorship Rob Perks, who is the CEO of Inspire, agrees that access to capital is a major barrier to growth alongside access to good mentors.

He comments: “In a recent survey conducted across the UK, two of the biggest barriers raised by entrepreneurs for scale-ups to break through nationally are access to capital and access to mentors with practical experience in growing businesses.

“Access to appropriate finance and growth capital is often necessary to scale a business at a pace that can keep you ahead of the competition. When businesses are scaling up, it is often difficult to find funders who understand their challenges and are prepared to come on the journey with them. Often, this stunts their growth and can cause huge frustration.

“Getting the right expertise, help and advice, into a business is also difficult. Where do you find successful businesspeople and entrepreneurs who are willing to devote time to helping you grow?

Demand for opportunities to network with peers, to recruit non-executive directors and receive mentoring is high and increasing, particularly the ability to access them easily and locally.”

Looking into the crystal ball On what the future holds for scale-up companies and what trends we can expect, Christine says: “The UK equity ecosystem has developed over the last decade and is now better able to support companies at all stages of their development. Since 2016, the UK has been ahead of the US in terms of GDP-weighted VC deal numbers, and the UK now has a similar proportion of companies receiving follow on funding at each stage as the US. “But the amount of capital received at each Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

Mike Dias

Christine Hockley

funding round is larger in the US than in the UK – ranging from 1.5 times at earlier rounds to 2.4 times at the fifth funding round. This means UK companies receive less funding and so are less capitalised compared to their US counterparts.

“Over the next 10 years, it is vital that more institutional capital is brought into the venture and venture growth industry to enable long-term investment in innovative companies across the UK. “While much of venture capital is still focused on areas like enterprise software and fintech, there are significant market opportunities in areas that tackle global issues like efficient energy, sustainable consumption and health and social care.

Not only are there social positives from investing in these types of companies, there are also potentially very large commercial returns for investors.”

Exporting for growth Rob Perks says that exporting is a trend that is also taking hold amongst scale-up companies.

He comments: “For the first time, all regions of the UK are experiencing a growth rate of greater than one additional scale-up per

Rob Perks

100,000 of population, according to the most current data (2017). There are now 36,510 scale-ups – a rise of 34% on the previous year.

“We are entering a time of economic challenge and unpredictability. This is underlined by the overwhelming perception among scale-up leaders that Brexit will have a negative impact on their businesses.

“Scale-up companies are hungry to export and to collaborate with government and large corporates, but 80% tell us that market access – particularly in the UK – is a major issue and rates of collaboration are low.

“The barriers are time-consuming and complex procurement processes, as well as a lack of identifiable opportunities. We need to pull down these barriers.

“Access to talent and skills remains another stubborn barrier to continued growth. It is the factor cited by the greatest number of scale-up leaders when asked to name their top three barriers. Almost seven in ten scale-up leaders say it is important to bring in talent from the EU.” Cont.  19

REPORT BUSINESS LEADER COLUMNIST

GETTING INVESTOR READY John Stapleton is an entrepreneur, angel investor, business leader and speaker with over 30 years’ experience in pioneering new FMCG categories and growing successful consumerled businesses in the UK and USA.

The business perspective So what is it like to run a scale-up business and what are the main challenges? Pat Lynes is the CEO and founder of Sullivan & Stanley.

He comments: “In the last year, Sullivan & Stanley has transitioned from a start-up into a scale-up, so I’ve experienced first-hand just how hard it is to cross the desert. One of the biggest barriers I’ve noticed is access to talent - you need A players to grow. This is because people issues hold scale-ups back. While the right people, with the right mindset, drive the organisation forward, as you trust them to make the best decisions.

“I’ve also seen personally, and through the leaders and associates I work with, how the wrong leadership team can be a barrier in itself. As a leader, you can’t do everything - who and what may have worked before, may no longer have a place in this new phase.

Too many businesses find it hard to let go. However, bringing in an executive team, with different strengths to navigate this growth is key.

"TOO MANY BUSINESSES FIND IT HARD TO LET GO. HOWEVER, BRINGING IN AN EXECUTIVE TEAM, WITH DIFFERENT STRENGTHS TO NAVIGATE THIS GROWTH IS KEY."

“An ongoing journey up and down the change curve. This is because the culture and essence of the original business changes. The desert is a dry, horrible place between 15 and 50 Pat Lynes people. Businesses have the legacy people, who want to try to keep the startup vibe, but with layers of governance and new hires bringing, there is always going to be a shift. The old ways of working are no longer fit for purpose, so change has to be continuous. However, if businesses hold true to their vision, including people honestly and openly on the ride, they’ll come out the other side.”  20

One area I’m often asked for help is, 'How do I get my business investor-ready'? Many start-up entrepreneurs are keen to get in shape to face this significant step with confidence (and also secure a strong valuation).

Others ask: “Why do I even need investment? I can build my business on my own.”

That can be true, but it absolutely depends on your growth ambition.

In the FMCG world (where there’s been a recent explosion in start-up brands), you really need to invest ahead of the curve to build brand awareness and attract consumers. If your product is good enough, they’ll buy it again.

Almost always, you need external investment because your brandbuilding will result in a loss-making venture over the initial years. So long as you can demonstrate a progression to break-even within a sensible timeframe, based on reasonable assumptions, you should be able to find investors to back you. The key is to build alignment between you and your investors. To do that you need a strong business plan and a shared exit plan.

But it’s not so much about a smart document – rather it’s more about the work, research and judgement used to generate the plan. This is what investors are really interested in; that you have considered all angles, figured out the likely challenges and setbacks and come up with a well-considered plan to implement your business vision.

Once you’ve raised the cash you’ll want to spend it wisely and not throw it at numerous initiatives (many won’t work and those that do will often be confused with those that don’t). That means you don’t just need to attract money, but you need ‘smart money’. You will need advice to spend the investment appropriately. This will also be something investors will want to see evidence of (unless they are bringing the smarts themselves).

Getting investor-ready means you have figured out most key issues relating to product; commercials; brand; manufacturing; marketing; your team… and much more besides. Ultimately, if you have these issues covered and can demonstrate ambition, your business is scaleable and you really understand your target market, then you stand a good chance of convincing investors to back you (and achieve a healthy valuation to boot).

Meeting entrepreneurs who have figured this out is always a joy. They are prepared, realistic and understand their plan. Valuing start-ups is notoriously difficult and can be quite subjective. The benefit a good plan brings, is the confidence that this team might just be capable of delivering it!

Issue 12: January - February 2020

T

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BY CTO ED A N ST & E HO IAN LL ED A M M CO O

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INTERVIEW

NICK GOODE

A COMPANY WITH INCREDIBLE STRENGTH, BREADTH AND DEPTH OF PRODUCT PORTFOLIO those types of customers has complex and bespoke needs, so you need a solution that can adapt quickly and extremely flexibly to suit. What we see over and over again is the ability for partners to extend and customise the applications in the way that customers need. That’s extremely powerful.

Nick Goode, EVP

N

ick Goode is EVP of Sage X3, a global market leader in cloud-based business solutions. He lives in the UK, and works with Sage customers around the world to drive the business forward.

CAN YOU RUN US THROUGH YOUR CAREER HISTORY? I’ve been at Sage just shy of 10 years, but have been in the software industry for 25 years.

Over the years I’ve held different roles at Sage; I led the Sage business cloud accounting product, I’ve led product management, also product marketing worldwide, and I was recently leader of marketing for the UK, Sage’s home region.

Since the beginning of this fiscal year I’ve been the global leader of Sage X3, which is Sage’s medium segment financial and ERP solutions.

CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT SAGE X3?

One of the key strengths of Sage X3 is its flexibility; we are very strong in what we call product-centric organisations. Companies that make, build, ship, service products – be that in food and beverage, hard goods, chemicals, just as some examples – each of 22

WHEN YOU MOVED INTO YOUR CURRENT ROLE, WHAT WAS THE BRIEF? We have a global operation with Sage X3; through partners we have deployment in over 80 countries. We have been on a strong growth trajectory, so moving the business to a recurring revenue model is a priority. That’s a big part of the brief, alongside continuous innovation in the technology itself and driving cloud adoption of the solutions.

RECURRING REVENUE SAW BIG GROWTH LAST YEAR. IS THAT A BIG FOCUS? Very much so. In plain terms, this is moving away from the old school perpetual licence, big payment up front and then renewal, to a monthly subscription.

This is what our investors are looking for, and what our customers are looking for, and something we’ve adopted very successfully across the business.

"WHAT WE SEE OVER AND OVER AGAIN IS THE ABILITY FOR PARTNERS TO EXTEND AND CUSTOMISE THE APPLICATIONS IN THE WAY THAT CUSTOMERS NEED. THAT’S EXTREMELY POWERFUL."

WHAT’S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE YOU’VE FACED AT SAGE? Sage is a company with incredible strength, breadth and depth of product portfolio, and we trade in many, many countries through hundreds of partners as well as direct sales force. Moving a company of that size,

from what used to be a perpetual desktop business to a cloud subscription business, is a journey that we’re on, and it’s going really well – all the metrics are going in the right direction. There are few companies who have made that transition.

YOU MENTIONED THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTINUOUS INNOVATION. HOW DOES SAGE STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE? We’ve made a strategic, significant investment in technology over the past few years and that will continue. Steve Hare, our CEO, announced a £60m investment in R&D and we’re really spending that extremely wisely.

SAGE DOES A LOT OF PHILANTHROPIC WORK. HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT TO THE COMPANY? The Sage Foundation was built on the notion that Sage is a company with very strong ethical standards. Many of our customers are small businesses and really what we consider to be the heroes of the economy, and we wanted to find a way to give back to communities in which we work in a way which is not just giving money, but giving time and expertise. This has really snowballed in a positive way into an absolute force for good.

People say time and time again that Sage Foundation is one of the key reasons they love working at Sage. It is a win-win, because it helps a lot of people, but also helps us attract and retain talent. It’s a real differentiator.

WHAT ARE YOUR AMBITIONS GOING FORWARD? Sage’s ambition is to become a great SaaS company; that’s our stated aim and we’re very much on that journey. With Sage X3… full subscription, high revenue growth, high adoption of the latest technology, working closely with our partners, and being a fully modern platform able to integrate fully with anything our customers need… I think if we can achieve all of that we’ll be in a good place.  Issue 12: January - February 2020

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN. RIGHT DOWN TO THE LAST DETAIL. Platinum Sage X3 Partner Northgate House, Bath 0122 561 4470 www.synergerp.com

BLM FAST TRACK

LEADING THE

‘GINAISSANCE’ The Warner’s story

I

n each edition of Business Leader Magazine, we profile a UK business experiencing exponential growth in a feature called BLM FastTracks. This time, we looked into Warner’s, one of the UK’s leading gin brands.

Over the past decade in the UK, there has been a resurgence in the popularity of gin, with the market in the UK now worth in excess of £3bn a year.

In the past five years alone, the number of distilleries has risen from 140 to over 500, sales have doubled, and over 50% of spirit sales can be attributed to gin. Year-on-year sales have increased by 41%, and Brits now buy 76 million bottles a year.

But, who is leading this gin revolution? And will the UK remain in high spirits over its favourite tipple?

Leading a movement Founded in 2012 and led by husband-and-wife team Tom Warner and Tina Warner-Keogh, Warner’s has risen to become the UK’s leading ‘superpremium’ flavoured gin brand. It currently owns 23.5% of the UK's superpremium gin market.

24

The company recently reported annual revenues of £10.9m, a figure that is the end result of a 142.58% increase in annual sales over the past three years. It is also now selling to 17 international markets in five different continents.

The farm-born company creates its nine gins on-site in a 200-year-old barn on Falls Farm in Harrington, Northamptonshire, which has been in the family for generations and is still operational as a cattle farm run

by Tom’s father. The Warner’s team has risen to 50 people – double the number of employees compared to two years ago.

So, how has Warner’s risen to prominence in this crowded market?

Tom explains: “When we started out, the gin category wasn’t what it is today; it wasn’t as trendy with consumers, so it wasn’t crowded. We’ve benefitted from an early starter advantage and were hungry from the outset. We have always been hard-working and innovative, with a clear vision and goal of creating something extraordinary and building a social, emotional connection.

“As we didn’t have the big budgets or contacts to begin with, we got inventive – realising from the get-go that our strengths came from authenticity and innovation, particularly with flavour. You can trace our flavoured gins back to my mother.

She had picked elderflower from the farm hedgerows, so we added it to the gin as we enjoyed it with family. This then inspired our elderflower gin, the first modern day flavoured gin and the first of that flavour at the time.”

He continues: “Despite being the UK’s largest independent gin brand, we are still very much a nimble, small, farmbased craft distillery: we’re able to try new things and stay ahead of the curve.”

"WHEN WE STARTED OUT, THE GIN CATEGORY WASN’T WHAT IT IS TODAY; IT WASN’T AS TRENDY WITH CONSUMERS, SO IT WASN’T CROWDED. WE’VE BENEFITTED FROM AN EARLY STARTER ADVANTAGE AND WERE HUNGRY FROM THE OUTSET." Tom Warner

Issue 12: January - February 2020

WARNERS GIN

Innovating an industry That ability to be able to manoeuvre in such a fast-moving industry has been primarily driven by its family values and the desire to constantly evolve its products.

Warner said: “We’ve always been inspired by nature’s bounty and what we could source from and grow on the farm. My background is in produce. I worked in the fruit and coffee businesses for ten years, whereas Tina assisted her family to diversify the potato farm in Ireland to a crisp brand. We married our experience together, with the ambition to diversify the family cattle farm here in Harrington.

As a result, we’ve continued to innovate and evolve, looking to the land for natural ingredients and flavour inspiration.”

The mix of family-driven innovation and being an early market leader has led to Warner’s being able to rise above the competition to dominate the market. This has largely been down to the company introducing many industry ‘firsts’.

Tom explains: “We’ve been doing a lot of firsts, and if anything, have become more authentic and farm-grown as we’ve matured, and solidified what we stand for.

This is probably due to being more selfcritical as time goes on, but also thinking about what truly matters – which is where biodiversity and our botanical gardens come in.”

Authenticity and innovation come hand-inhand for market leaders, and Warner’s is no exception. The brand is legally confirmed as inventors of rhubarb gin and for creating the modern ‘pink gin’ craze, which continues to grow. Currently 68.6% of the industry’s gin sales growth is accounted for by pink gin.

Founders Tom Warner & Tina Warner-Keogh

"DESPITE BEING THE UK’S LARGEST INDEPENDENT GIN BRAND, WE ARE STILL VERY MUCH A NIMBLE, SMALL, FARM-BASED CRAFT DISTILLERY: WE’RE ABLE TO TRY NEW THINGS AND STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE." Falls Farm, Harrington

Tom continued: “We triggered the current pink gin craze when the company launched the world’s first all-encompassing ‘pink gin’ with Warner’s Rhubarb Gin in 2014.

"The soft pink colour of the liquid is because a third of every bottle is pure rhubarb juice, with no synthetics, and nothing artificial – it’s as nature intended.

This has subsequently led to a plethora of copycat products – including rhubarbinspired drinks across the board.”

Cont.  Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

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BLM FAST TRACK "We’ve seen firsthand the positive consumer response to authenticity and a brand story they connect with.

We’ve found that audiences want to keep things real and choose brands that are honest and doing something for the planet, which is what we’re all about.”

Where next for the ‘ginaissance’?

The past ten years have seen gin become the nation’s go-to alcoholic drink, with Warner’s leading the way – however, where will the industry go next?

Falls Farm, Harrington

Exponential growth It is clear to see that Warner’s has not only risen to become market leaders, but is very well aware that in such a competitive and growing market, the need to constantly improve is crucial to achieving major growth.

But, how did Tom and his wife achieve this and maintain the company’s success?

He explains: “The growth of the gin industry has been stratospheric. In the first five years we saw 30% compound growth – which is huge. The category has since tripled and has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Our growth has predominantly been down to passion, innovation and experimenting with flavour.

Tom comments: “There’s a lot of talk around non-alcoholic beverages, as well as ready-to-drink cans and a focus on packaging becoming more recycled and sustainable.

“For us at Warner’s, as well as keeping an eye on these trends, we’re championing natural ingredients and biodiversity.

"Beginning as a farm diversification project, Warner’s gin is crafted with water drawn from our own spring on Falls Farm, where we grow many of our own botanicals and harvest honey from 20 beehives. Our goal is to become as self-sufficient in as many botanicals as possible.”

The company plans on leveraging this to continue its growth by doubling the size of its operations over the next three years through an increase in UK distribution, increasing its e-commerce offerings and international expansion.

Tom concludes: “Our immediate future is all about international expansion. We have grown export from seven to 17 markets across five continents. We have just gone live in Australia in their largest off-trade retailer and are launching into the US next year.

"We’d love to become one of the most loved drinks brands in the world, connecting people to what’s real and truly matters with authentic, British farm-grown gin.” 

"For consumers, there’s an element of gin becoming social currency. From a business perspective, there’s an opportunity: consumers are wanting to connect with authentic brands and are happy to go for a premium option if the quality is there.

"FOR CONSUMERS, THERE’S AN ELEMENT OF GIN BECOMING SOCIAL CURRENCY. FROM A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE, THERE’S AN OPPORTUNITY: CONSUMERS ARE WANTING TO CONNECT WITH AUTHENTIC BRANDS AND ARE HAPPY TO GO FOR A PREMIUM OPTION IF THE QUALITY IS THERE."

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Issue 12: January - February 2020

MIX BUSINESS AND PLEASURE

Get work done and brew up team spirit in a unique meeting space

• 8,500 sq ft Destination Brewery and Taproom • • 20 taps offering award-winning craft beer and traditional ales • • Full service catering, brewery tours & interactive workshops •

Book now

Visit us

- info@ascotbrewing.co.uk

- 4 Lawrence Way, Camberley,

- 01276 686696

GU15 3DL

INTERVIEW

"BLOOD, SWEAT AND BEERS"

B

usiness Leader recently sat down with Chris Davies, Managing Director of multi-award winning brewery, Ascot Brewing Company, to talk about the company’s incredible decade, its future plans, and the company’s new Tap Room – a new 8,500 sq ft event space and brewery that is open as a new premium business venue for the South East.

CAN YOU GIVE US AN OVERVIEW OF THE COMPANY? Ascot Brewing Company is a producer of exciting, award-winning real ales and experimental, hop forward craft beers.

By brewing with unbridled passion and unbounded enthusiasm, our mission is to deliver supreme customer satisfaction through remarkable beverages and memorable brewery experiences.

We have been brewing in Camberley, Surrey for more than ten years and recently moved the brewery to an 8,500 sq ft unit. Our 20 tap, elevated tap room is located on a 2,500 sq ft mezzanine floor where you can see all the brewing action unfold whilst drinking delicious tasting beer.

WHAT SEPARATES ASCOT BREWING FROM THE COMPETITION? A successful brewery isn’t just about making great beer – it needs great people. That’s why we recruited an elite brewer, John Willatts, a former CAMRA Champion Brewer of Britain (2016). Since he’s joined the team, he’s successfully refined the original 28

Ascot recipes and developed new batches to elevate the entire Ascot stable.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE GROWTH OF THE COMPANY? The recent and very promising growth of the brewery has been down to blood, sweat and beers. Doubling revenues each of the last two years has been achieved by concentrating on our strengths – brewing great tasting beers and strengthening our loyal customer base through pubs, bars, clubs and our original in-house Tap Room, The Black Horse.

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE COMPANY’S NEW TAP ROOM? When looking to relocate the brewery we wrote up a wish list. Over 7,500 sq ft, plenty of head room, easily accessible with multiple transport links.

Amazingly just half a mile away we found 4 Lawrence Way. And even more remarkable was the fact the previous business had built a 2,500 sq ft mezzanine floor. After persuading the landlord to let us keep the mezzanine floor, we embarked on building what we hoped would be a truly immersive beer drinking experience.

A Tap Room high up in the brewery, where you can stand against the balustrade and see all the brewing processes take place whilst you taste all the amazing flavours and aromas that culminate in a truly elevated feeling.

WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE PLANS? We wouldn’t be where we are without our very supportive 700+ shareholders. Ascot

Brewing Company has run two successful crowdfunding campaigns. In our first raise we overfunded by 35% and then the Ascot 2 raise by 23%.

Raising over £500,000 in total we have used the money wisely to get where we are today.

In our last raise we said we would double our revenue, move the brewery and buy new larger brewing equipment. We achieved all three and more than that we successfully launched our craft beer brand, Disruption is Brewing, and built ‘probably’ the largest brewery tap room in the South East.

We plan more of the same and now with three revenue streams (Ascot Brewing, Disruption is Brewing® and the Tap Room) in place we can really start galloping to even greater success.

We are actively developing our latest crowdfunding pitch (Ascot 3) and will use Crowdcube once more. We will use the money to grow our sales and marketing team, promote the Tap Room and push forward into the export market.

Finally, we will maximise the assets we have using the uniqueness of our Tap Room to attract corporate events by giving clients something different by way of a meeting experience. Most companies I have worked for use the same old hotel groups, reception halls and bland buildings with no heart or rememberability. With the Ascot Brewing Tap Room as an option, no longer can management be accused of not being able to organise a p*ss up in a brewery! 

Issue 12: January - February 2020

Considered Longleat as a corporate venue?

• Conferences, parties, dinners, exhibitions, fun days, and so much more • 12 – 10,000 delegates

longleat.co.uk/business

Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

29

GROWTH FUTURE OF THE SOUTH WEST SPONSORED BY BRISTOL AIRPORT CONNECTING SOUTH WEST BUSINESSES WITH THE WORLD T: 0371 334 4444 | E: ENQUIRIES@BRISTOLAIRPORT.COM | WWW.BRISTOLAIRPORT.CO.UK

What does the future hold for the South West?

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or each edition of Business Leader Magazine, we look at the future of a key region in the UK. For this edition we teamed up with Bristol Airport to provide analysis around the future of the South West.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN BARRIERS TO GROWTH BUSINESSES IN THE SOUTH WEST? AND WHAT ARE THE POSITIVES TO BEING BASED IN THE REGION AND UK? Dave Crew: "Weston College has grown substantially in past ten years; from a £9m to £60m turnover. Regarding the challenges we have faced it always comes back to recruiting and retaining good people, not only for us but also for the 2,000 partner businesses that we work with.

cautious. But despite that there has been many positive developments and signs that people are making significant decisions.

Visually you can see it in the centre of Bristol, as there is a plethora of cranes, which is an indicator of activity."

Andrew Scott: "We look at the challenges from a regional, national and international perspective. Regionally, our challenge is around talent acquisition, as our business is heavily reliant on technology and specialist skills. Our office is in Westonsuper-Mare, so that does bring challenges around accessing the skills we require.

"Another challenge is around office space, as we are constantly hitting a point where we’re outgrowing our premises. Nationally, our challenges lie around operations and transport links across the UK can be a challenge. Internationally, we’re looking to expand to other territories, so political instability can play its part."

"There isn’t anybody around the table that hasn’t had to think about how they find talent. Interestingly, this period of uncertainty we’re going through has prompted many businesses to look inwardly at their workforces and culture, and ask the question – is it fit for the future?"

Nick Taplin: "As a country we’re loved all over the world, but the impact of Brexit is worldwide, and people are looking at us and saying that they consider us to be dynamic, but are surprised by how poorly we have dealt with the referendum decision to leave the European Union (EU). Hopefully, now we have a majority government, this will happen.

James Durie: "The pretty turbulent environment that we have had in the last few years has held back investment and made businesses and investors more

"Fundamentally though, people love the products we produce and buy into ‘Brand Britain’ and we do things a lot faster in the UK than many other countries do.

30

"Regionally our business is doing very well, and we’ve also expanded internationally into Dubai and the Middle East."

John Turner: "In the UK we can tell stories about our myths, legends and history and from a tourism perspective it’s something we’re capitalising on as a region.

"Visit Britain is reporting a 40% decline in people coming to the UK on holiday from Europe, but from a China and international perspective demand from tour operators wanting to find out about the region and the UK is growing. In the South West, Bath is the honeypot, but they are now pulling down into rest of the county."

Rebecca Bozeat Manzi: "There is a huge question mark around Brexit that is affecting hospitality and that won’t go away until Brexit goes away – whatever the decision. England is always going to be a desirable place to come to though.

"From a groups and tours perspective, our Asian market is growing, but it is very rates driven and prices are being pushed down Issue 12: January - February 2020

DEBATE FUTURE OF THE SOUTH WEST SPONSORED BY BRISTOL AIRPORT CONNECTING SOUTH WEST BUSINESSES WITH THE WORLD T: 0371 334 4444 | E: ENQUIRIES@BRISTOLAIRPORT.COM | WWW.BRISTOLAIRPORT.CO.UK

The Panel James Durie – Business West Mandy Summers – Alliance Homes Group Martin Boddy – UWE Simon Earles – Bristol Airport Chris Walford – Albert Goodman Vanessa Moon – Moon Executive Search John Turner – Visit Somerset Andrew Scott – The Ascot Group Dave Lees – Bristol Airport Ben Sanders – Holiday Inn Bristol Rebecca Bozeat Manzi – Holiday Inn Bristol Nick Taplin – Black and White Hospitality John Chaplin – Bristol Port Dave Crew – Weston College Toni Riddiford – Stride Treglown/ Women in Property (WIP) Jenny Hutchinson – Ashton Gate/Bristol Sport Artists impression of the proposed Bristol Airport forecourt and footbridge

as competition grows and everybody wants a slice of the pie.

"Bristol is also now becoming a destination.

You could argue that it wasn’t before and didn’t have an identity like Manchester and Liverpool."

IT’S INTERESTING YOU MENTION THAT BRISTOL HAS CREATED AN IDENTITY. SPORT CAN PLAY A ROLE IN THAT. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR PLANS AT ASHTON GATE? Jenny Hutchinson: "Four years ago, Ashton Gate underwent major refurb which allowed us to roll out a hugely successful concert series, in which we welcomed 120k people through the gates. The economic impact of this has been significant.

"The next phase of development is underway and hopefully by 2022/23 we will have a convention centre with a capacity of Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

four or five thousand. This will allow us to accommodate big international events and compete with Manchester and Liverpool in this space."

"THERE IS A HUGE QUESTION MARK AROUND BREXIT THAT IS AFFECTING HOSPITALITY AND THAT WON’T GO AWAY UNTIL BREXIT GOES AWAY – WHATEVER THE DECISION. ENGLAND IS ALWAYS GOING TO BE A DESIRABLE PLACE TO COME TO THOUGH." Rebecca Bozeat Manzi

Rebecca Hacker – Soap Creative

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE THE MAIN BARRIERS TO GROWTH BUSINESSES IN THE REGION FACE? AND WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE OPPORTUNITIES? John Chaplin: "At Bristol Port, we have been closely involved with government since Brexit became announced and ready to advantage of the opportunities this will bring. Interestingly, Brexit has highlighted how important ports are to the UK regions.

"There are major opportunities for growth – the largest export of grain that we’ve ever seen came through Bristol to Saudi Arabia for example.

"We have a huge export market for materials like this and cars, for example.

We employ 550 but across dock estate there are 10k and 20k people across the UK are dependent on the port for their living."

Cont.  31

GROWTH FUTURE OF THE SOUTH WEST SPONSORED BY BRISTOL AIRPORT CONNECTING SOUTH WEST BUSINESSES WITH THE WORLD T: 0371 334 4444 | E: ENQUIRIES@BRISTOLAIRPORT.COM | WWW.BRISTOLAIRPORT.CO.UK Vanessa Moon: "We’re 20 years old this year and one thing that has stood out to us is how much the importance of values and culture has really come through for businesses. Organisations really need to think about their image.

Martin Boddy: "The main challenge we face is making sure we’re connecting with business needs – not just in the region but for the whole of the UK.

"Interestingly, we’re also seeing companies coming to the region to set up offices post-Brexit from outside of the UK. The two most recent companies operate in the manufacturing and financial services sectors.

"We haven’t grown in terms of student numbers in the last year but this mirrors the country as a whole and other universities."

"We also need to continue to champion our links with China, and in 2020 we’re leading a delegation to Guangzhou to support this effort."

Mandy Summers: "I’m coming from a different perspective – looking at things from the people side. There is a misrepresentation when we look at areas like Weston-super-Mare. We have got relatively low unemployment, but the problem we have is that we have low-skilled jobs and zero-hour contracts. There is a mismatch between the people that live in North Somerset and the opportunities that are available. How do we bring our customers closer to the labour market?"

"We have around 8,000 students every year that graduate and 97% of them get jobs in the region, but we need to continue working with industry to ensure these students have the required skills.

Chris Walford: "The challenges we’re facing as a business and typically our customers too are predominantly around finding the talent and office space needed to grow. We have excellent transport infrastructure here in the South West, but it’s far too challenging to find suitable office space for expanding companies.

"Also, in Weston-super-Mare, every morning you drive in you see a skills migration heading out of the town and this isn’t good for work/life balance and it’s not good for the environment."

HOW DO WE SOLVE THIS ISSUE AROUND SPACE? James Durie: "There is a lack of less expensive space for businesses looking to scale-up and move to bigger premises.

"We’re in discussions with a raft of businesses that are telling us this. We need to make sure the public and private sector is working in tandem to try and solve this issue."

CAN YOU TELL READERS ABOUT THE PLANS FOR THE AIRPORT AND ITS EXPANSION? Dave Lees: "I have been impressed by growth aspirations from business leaders in the region, and our vision for the airport is to service the needs of the people. If you look around the world regions and sub regions that are successful are reliant onair connectivity.

"We’re absolutely committed to that and we see air travel as a fundamental force for good to support business, education and inbound tourism and the broader socioeconomic benefits you get from flying.

"The biggest challenge we have looking forward is our level of capacity, as we are currently at 90% of planned capacity. We want to go beyond our current cap of ten million passengers, but we want to do that in a phased manner.

"The first phase is to take us to 12 million.

So many people currently use the airport in the London region which exacerbates the issue and has a carbon impact. The expansion will help to offset this."

"WE’RE ABSOLUTELY COMMITTED TO THAT AND WE SEE AIR TRAVEL AS A FUNDAMENTAL FORCE FOR GOOD TO SUPPORT BUSINESS, EDUCATION AND INBOUND TOURISM AND THE BROADER SOCIO-ECONOMIC BENEFITS YOU GET FROM FLYING." Artists impression of the proposed Bristol Arena

32

Dave Lees

Issue 12: January - February 2020

DEBATE FUTURE OF THE SOUTH WEST SPONSORED BY BRISTOL AIRPORT CONNECTING SOUTH WEST BUSINESSES WITH THE WORLD T: 0371 334 4444 | E: ENQUIRIES@BRISTOLAIRPORT.COM | WWW.BRISTOLAIRPORT.CO.UK HOW ARE YOU DEALING WITH THE PRESSURE ON THE AVIATION INDUSTRY TO REDUCE EMISSIONS? Dave Lees: "Aviation is targeted as people are asking - do we really need to travel by air?

"It seems to be an easy target and I can assure you that aviation is absolutely focused in this space and using technology to improve efficiency and decrease our carbon footprint.

"For example, we’re committed to being carbon neutral by 2025 and we’re doing this by increasing our use of solar, and from January and will be carbon offsetting all the journeys from the airport. "easyJet is the first airline in the world to be carbon offsetting all the journeys by their aircraft at a cost to them of £25m per annum. People want to travel, but they want to have a cleaner conscience and the aviation industry is laser-focused on delivering this."

WHAT WOULD BE THE IMPACT TO NOT DELIVERING THE AIRPORT’S EXPANSION PLANS? Dave Lees: "If growth beyond the current cap is not possible, it would ultimately degrade the gateway status of the airport and this would have a negative impact on the region by degrading its competitiveness.

People would have to continue to travel to and from London for many journeys as we would not be able to reverse this trend.

"There is significant jeopardy to doing that as it would hurt the growth of the region. 4k people are employed by the airport and you also need to consider the broader 20k that are employed in the supply chains."

Simon Earles: "There is a naïve view that the airport can happily just stop at ten million passengers per year and if you spoke to our airlines, their interest is in growth. If we have a cap, some Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

"WE HAVE EXCELLENT TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE HERE IN THE SOUTH WEST BUT IT’S FAR TOO CHALLENGING TO FIND SUITABLE OFFICE SPACE FOR EXPANDING COMPANIES." Chris Walford

Panel in the new Bristol Airport Administration Building

of the business we currently have will be taken elsewhere.

frustrated by our capacity limit they will look elsewhere."

"We want to tell a positive story about the growth and the benefits the airport expansion will have. Our purpose is to help the region realise its full potential and there will be dire implications to capping the ongoing growth of the business. The demand is there, and the population is growing.

James Durie: "Flying is often put up there as a worst evil and a tall poppy that people are looking to cut down, but when you look at the carbon emissions it’s a large chunk, but all the investment from aerospace and companies like Airbus and GKN are going in to reduce this and we’re moving into hybrid and electric aircraft.

"Airlines also want to take up capacity at Bristol airport as they see it as a growing region. We have higher-than-average wage levels and fantastic talent pool here."

WHAT WILL 12 MILLION PASSENGERS LOOK LIKE AS AN OFFER? Dave Lee: "Seven million passengers currently go to London and Birmingham, but why do people go to London to fly? A small number may go for brand reasons, but the main issue is around flight frequency and destinations. Our key aspiration is to increase flight frequency and add in some new destinations.

"We want to add destinations such as New York and Dubai. The question is - do you want to invest for the future? Airlines don’t just want to put in one flight per day, they want to put in multiple, so if that’s

"There is a need for that narrative to be talked about. Business needs to be the solution and not the problem. Flying is just seen as something which is bad and should be reduced, but that’s not necessarily the case when you look at the future."

Dave Lees: "The technology improvements being made by aviation are incredible and many of the airlines are becoming more efficient. Having said that though, achieving electric aircraft does have some significant challenges, because getting 70,000 tonnes at 30k feet needs a huge amount of power.

"The best brains are working on this, but it will be a phase in programme. I expect us to be fully electric by 2030 for short haul, but long haul is much further away because it’s hard to sustain an aircraft in the air for that long."  33

GROWTH

America Made Easy NEWABLE /

The majority of UK SMEs want to expand overseas – but many lack the in-house knowhow.

SMEs are currently considering establishing their businesses overseas as a way to drive growth. The major concern was that many lack the in-house know how to make this become a reality.

Chris Manson, Chief Executive

The prevailing news narrative in 2019 was all about a UK economy being in a state of frozen uncertainty. Newable works with over 20,000 companies each year, and at a firm level, we did not think that the news was telling the whole story.

In the world of Newable Private Investing, we continue to see new cohorts of ambitious, emerging businesses. In the world of America Made Easy, our events have been sold out, full of companies wishing to learn about how to establish their business in the world’s largest economy. In the world of the Department for International Trade, our International Trade Advisers continue to support companies in London and the South East looking to export, and our Going Global events have seen incredible interest from businesses.

This was the inspiration behind Newable’s inaugural Overseas Expansion Barometer which surveyed over 300 companies.

A key finding was that nearly six in ten UK

34

In terms of markets, almost one-third (27%) of respondents selected the US as their preferred market destination. This was perhaps unsurprising given that the US is the world’s largest economy and the UK’s single largest trading partner. The US was significantly ahead of France (6%), China (4%), Australia and New Zealand (2%), and India (1%).

Despite 58% stating they are open to launching overseas, 41% of respondents admit to a general lack of confidence in how to go about it. An overwhelming 68% expressed unfamiliarity with the regulatory risks associated with overseas expansion for example.

General enthusiasm to expand was tempered by a number of concerns. Brexit remains the prevailing fear according to 22%. Unknown costs associated with establishing a business overseas was the second biggest worry for 21% of respondents. Other topics worrying SMEs included regulation (15%), risk of failure (10%), lack of in-house expertise (8%) with economic uncertainty, management time and commitment, access to finance, and recruitment challenges also featuring.

Legal advice was overwhelmingly identified as the most useful form of advice when setting up overseas, with 46% selecting it as its first choice. Market and finance advice were identified by 19% and 16% of respondents respectively, followed by

industry advice, employment advice and other.

Importantly, SMEs recognise that help is at hand: 45% stated that Government organisations (Gov UK or the Department for International Trade – DiT) represented the best form of advice.

Chris Manson, Chief Executive of Newable, comments: “With an important Brexit milestone now approaching, attention will turn to how UK companies are placed to expand their business overseas. Our survey shows that many SMEs harbour the ambition and many have identified the US as the land of opportunity.

"Equally, many SMEs do see it as a ‘leap into the unknown’. The good news for SMEs is that help is out there. Newable, for example, is proud to support the excellent work that government organisations, namely the DIT, are doing. America Made Easy is a service that, precisely, is designed to de-risk overseas expansion for SMEs." 303 SME professionals took part in the inaugural edition of Newable’s Overseas Expansion Barometer. 74% of respondents were senior figures at their organisations which is defined as director or above.

The barometer was produced by Newable, the leading provider of space, money and advice to businesses working at the heart of the economy. The Barometer temperature checks attitudes towards key issues surrounding overseas expansion including geography, regulation, finance, management, legal factors, recruitment and more.

Issue 12: January - February 2020

EXPORT SURVEY

DO YOU HAVE A CLEAR IDEA ON WHICH COUNTRY YOU’D LIKE TO TARGET FOR EXPANSION?

United States - 27.06%

DO YOU CONSIDER ESTABLISHING YOUR BUSINESS OVERSEAS AS A WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS?

Sample Size: 303 SME professionals. 74% defined as director or above.

No - 41.91%

France - 5.94%

Yes - 58.90%

Other - 14.52%

No Clear Idea - 45.54% China - 3.63% Australia/NZ - 2.31% India - 0.99%

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR WHEN IT COMES TO EXPANDING YOUR BUSINESS BEYOND THE UK?

IN THE PERIOD SINCE THE BREXIT REFERENDUM HAVE YOU BECOME MORE OR LESS LIKELY TO EXPAND OVERSEAS?

Recruitment - 1.32% Access to advice - 2.31%

Less likely

58.28%

Access to finance - 5.61%

More likely

42.38% ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE REGULATORY RISKS THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH OVERSEAS EXPANSION?

No - 68.23% Yes - 32.34% Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

Management time and commitment - 7.26% Economic uncertainty - 7.59% Lack of in-house expertise - 7.92% Risk of failure - 9.90% Regulation - 15.18% Unknown costs - 20.79% Brexit - 22.11%

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HOW TO LAUNCH YOUR BUSINESS IN

M A NIA

REPORT

appr

BU

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oved NE

S S T RIP

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ROMANIA

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or our latest business trip feature, where we look at the UK’s most interesting export markets, Business Leader gives you an indepth look into everything you need to know about doing business in the country of Romania.

Since joining the European Union (EU) in 2007, Romania has steadily shrugged off its reputation as one of Europe’s poorest economies and export nations. In recent years especially, the country has seen impressive year-on-year growth in GDP value as well as an increased number of international trade deals.

The country’s economic growth has been one of the highest in Europe with an average of 3% each year between 2010 and 2018.

The result of this has made Romania the world’s 40th largest economy, 41st largest export nation (valued at £53.8bn), and 39th import nation (valued at £62.1bn) – a far cry from its time in the early 1990s following the collapse of the USSR. With a population just shy of 20 million (seventh most populous in the EU), and being positioned at a strategic crossroads between Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the county has seen an influx of more than 5,500 UK companies having an 36

operation in the country. So, is now the time to expand your operations into this evergrowing European country?

What makes it an attractive location for British companies?

In recent years, Britain has become one of Romania’s leading business partners despite the fact that it is a relatively new market. Britain is now the 10th biggest direct investor in the country, up from 14th just six years ago. This shows that there is a precedent and clear pathway for British companies to make a mark in Romania.

Britain is also one of the top five countries with business activities in Romania, according to the Romanian National Statistics Institute.

So, what is behind this recent surge in British interest in Romania?

Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Europe, Andrew Mitchell CMG explains: “The new government in Bucharest is committed to attracting foreign investment and to creating a more predictable and dependable business environment. The new Prime Minister and the Ministers of the Economy, Finance and Health have made it clear that a business-friendly environment is right at the top of their agenda.”

This new approach to international business has created several favourable benefits for British companies looking at expanding operations into Romania.

Gabriel Sincu, General Manager for Romania at TMF Group comments: “Romania has a very attractive tax system when it comes to the personal income of expatriates. In addition, if these people are expatriates from an EU country, no social charges are due in Romania, as according to EU rules, these are paid in the home country. In terms of legislation, the Romanian labour code is harmonised with EU law meaning its provisions are balanced between the employee and the employer.

In addition, for entrepreneurs wanting to start a business in Romania, it is possible to set-up a freelancing structure, or a micro-enterprise, offering both a reduced administrative burden and low tax rate.”

Romania has clearly made itself open to entrepreneurial expansion from outside its borders. This, accompanied by the world’s fifth best broadband speed, has made the country an appealing location for businesses looking to expand.

"THE NEW GOVERNMENT IN BUCHAREST IS COMMITTED TO ATTRACTING FOREIGN INVESTMENT AND TO CREATING A MORE PREDICTABLE AND DEPENDABLE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT." Andrew Mitchell CMG

Issue 12: January - February 2020

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Andrew Mitchell

What sectors are most prevalent in Romania?

Due to the incredible broadband capabilities, there has been a surge in tech and IT companies moving into Romania.

Sincu comments: “IT is seen as ‘the star’ of the Romanian business environment, due to several factors including a skilled labour force, tax, some state aid schemes implemented by the government and the large number of multinational IT companies investing in Romania. At the same time, more and more Romanian entrepreneurs are starting their own businesses – the most famous being UiPath which was a business process automation start-up which is now a unicorn, valued at $10bn (£7.7bn).”

UiPath is a global software company that develops a platform for robotic process automation. The company has more than 50 offices in 25 countries around the world.

Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

Vargha Moayed, Chief Strategy Officer, said: “The IT sector has seen an extraordinary growth during the past 10-15 years. It has been for years the star sector of Romanian economy, contributing a large proportion to the national GDP. Witness to this growth are the large number of IT companies that have set a foothold here even since the 1990s, and, why not, our very own existence, as the first tech unicorn to emerge out of Romania.”

However, the success of British companies looking to move into Romania shouldn’t be limited to tech – as the country has seen a boom in many other sectors including, agriculture, aerospace, automotive, transport infrastructure, energy, professional services and manufacturing. Sectors that align with the success Britain has had on the international stage.

According to the Trade Commissioner, there

Gabriel Sincu

Vargha Moayed

are five main sectors that UK PLCs have had particular success with in Romania; infrastructure, energy, automotive, healthcare and life sciences, and defence.

Does Britain has a positive relationship with Romania businesses?

The respective nations have been building a strong commercial bond across a wide range of sectors in recent years, and this looks set to continue.

Mitchell said: “British expertise is highly regarded and valued in Romania, and the British Embassy in Bucharest is also on hand a ready to assist businesses across all sectors. Transport links to the country have also significantly improved with direct flights daily into Cluj, Iasi, Timisoara and Brasov.

Strong transport ties are a significant facilitator of trade, and this is true in the case of Romania and the UK.” Cont.  37

REPORT

INTERNATIONAL TRADE products which bring significantly more added value to the economy.

“The UK customer is faced with topclass services, so they have very high standards. We see this as a great opportunity to understand what it takes to develop a world class product.”

Calin Huma

Tamas Vasile

This proves that the British-Romania relationship – despite being relatively new – has had a lot of attention from businesses and entrepreneurs who are looking at expanding their businesses.

Calin Huma, Head of the Romanian Honorary Consulate in Winchester, comments: “The business relationship between the UK and Romania is still in its infancy and can be greatly improved.

“There is a platform called BRIDGE that helps companies in Britain and Romania cooperate on trade or investments. It is a regional approach, county-to-county, with Hampshire having a number of offices in Romania through which it promote its interests. Romanian companies have the opportunity to use the Hampshire Chamber of Commerce as an entry point into Hampshire and also use the Winchester Business Centre to open up LTD companies here in the UK.

"IT IS SEEN AS ‘THE STAR’ OF THE ROMANIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT, DUE TO SEVERAL FACTORS INCLUDING A SKILLED LABOUR FORCE, TAX, SOME STATE AID SCHEMES IMPLEMENTED

BY THE GOVERNMENT AND THE LARGE NUMBER OF MULTINATIONAL IT COMPANIES INVESTING IN ROMANIA. " Gabriel Sincu

38

This proves that Romania provides opportunities to gain commercial success and take advantage of Romania’s highly skilled workforce as well as the tax benefits. It also shows that Romanian market is open to British influence and market knowledge.

What are the challenges?

However, despite the embracing nature of Romanians towards British businesses, there are certain issues any company looking to move into the country need to be aware of.

Fortunately, due to British success in the country, there is help available for new companies to the Romanian market.

“With clarity on the process of delivering Mitchell comments: “In Romania, the big bilateral negotiations after Brexit, there projects in infrastructure, energy, defence will be a lot of interest from companies and security are managed by interested in each other’s the state. As an EU member markets. Romanian "THE BUSINESS state, Romania applies EU businesses are seeing the UK rules on public procurement. market as abundant, stable RELATIONSHIP and accessible.”

BETWEEN THE UK AND ROMANIA IT IS STILL IN ITS INFANCY AND CAN BE GREATLY IMPROVED."

One Romanian company that has had success through partnerships with UK companies is Beez – a fintech firm which saves e-commerce shoppers money through its app.

"Our advice is either to sign a partnership with a Romanian company as it can overcome language barriers, or to use local knowledge and consider opening an office. It is always Calin Huma advisable to consult and even hire one of the international law firms based in Romania.

The Embassy team of course are more than happy not only to set the scene for Romania, both politically and economically for any British company considering the country, but also to give you advice on how to proceed.”

Tamas Vasile, CEO of Beez, comments: “Looking at the UK market we see a more mature ecosystem, a big market with better access to capital, and well-developed business ecosystems, but with expensive resources. On the other hand, Romania is a much smaller market, with a growing economy, but still, an incipient business ecosystem which remains focused on a short economic cycle with less added value.

Oriented to outsourcing raw materials and human resources to more advanced markets that incorporate resources in

Moayed echoes this: “Foreign companies doing business in Romania need to be aware that the uncertainties in the political climate have an impact on legislation – laws change frequently, and you need to rely heavily on external counsel or on outsourcing parts of your activity to companies that know how to navigate this.

Laws are fast to change, but slow to be implemented – that is another factor. And there is a certain level of bureaucracy and lack of digital transformation of the public sector that are very frustrating.” 

Romanian view of British businesses With major political and trade changes on the horizon in the UK, it could be argued that this consistent growth of business between the two countries could slow.

Issue 12: January - February 2020

ADVERTORIAL

New Year’s Resolution –

COMMUNICATE LIKE NEVER BEFORE

W

elcome to 2020 and hopefully a resolution to Brexit. Even if Boris hits all his deadlines, the process will not be plain sailing and your customers are going to face new challenges and uncertainties, so you are going to need to communicate with them more than ever before.

That is, of course, easier said than done, but one organisation which is proving a massive asset to UK companies in these interesting times is Konnexx.

The Lincolnshire-based company built its reputation on a system known as Virtual Territorial Management – VTM – which for years has been proven to save costs and increase sales.

Some of its clients read like a who’s who of global blue chip conglomerates including Pepsico, Johnson & Johnson, AkzoNobel and Mars to name but a few, plus a string of much smaller organisations.

Konnexx is the brainchild of Managing Director Simon Morris who said: “Our job is to increase sales and distribution, to be a more cost-effective route to market and to build long-term, profitable relationships for companies of all sizes.

“In essence VTM does what a rep does without a visit, so it is a very cost-effective route to market. We keep and develop the customer relationship much better than a face-to-face meeting with a rep would do.

“There is a new reality about the whole sales environment and, generally, sales people are much more efficient when they are working Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

from inside than outside. Also, customers don’t really want a salesperson to arrive on their doorstep unless they think a face to face visit is critical, which they rarely do.”

Konnexx has also recently launched a new package – Brexit Customer Communication Service (BCCS) aimed at safeguarding a company’s business during the Brexit process.

“Even after the resounding Tory election success, companies of all sizes are still apprehensive as to what lays ahead but the one certainty is that communication is vital, and that is where our Brexit service comes in,” said Mr Morris.

customers whether the target is to sell more products or help them through the Brexit process."

Konnexx’s core service, VTM, builds a long-term customer relationship, creating intelligence on buying habits and building in-depth data sets around an individual customer.

He continued: “Back in the 60s, field sales were key. They were providers of information and added value by ferrying information backwards and forwards. If a business wanted to sell something, it had to send salespeople to the customer.

“Modern technology has broken down the divide and a customer can get all the detail he or she wants via social media or many online platforms.”

“Trade agreements will change, regulations will change and the way a lot of us operate will have to change, but all this will take time and during the transition companies will need to adopt strategies on how they communicate with their customers.

“That communication must be through professional, high-level interaction which is a service at the core of Konnexx. This is what we do. Our role is to look after our client’s

To find out more please call Konnex on 01780 483310

www.konnexx.co.uk 39

LEADERSHIP

TIME FOR FRESH FACES IN THE BOARDROOM?

I

t’s a system employed by the majority of European countries, but one which has so far failed to gain any legislative traction in the UK – so does the Workers On The Board model have a future in Britain? BLM investigates.

A company’s board exists for one fundamental reason – to make the business profitable for shareholders. Add employees to the boardroom makeup, and can it do that job as effectively?

The current picture Back in 2016, Theresa May pledged to make employee representation mandatory in major UK boardrooms – before backtracking just months later.

Such appointments were one of three options made available to companies in the Corporate Governance Code in 2019, along with the appointment of a workforce director or a workforce advisory panel.

There will be many who say it can; indeed, they may even argue that worker representation – and the fresh perspective it can offer – can actually improve a company’s performance.

Her earlier argument that Non-Executive Directors provide ineffective scrutiny because they largely come from within ‘the same narrow social and professional circles’ as other board members was abandoned; watered-down replacement proposals instead approved designated Non-Executive Directors as a valid alternative to the system she had previously espoused.

However, there was in effect a fourth option.

Companies were given the option to ‘comply or explain’, meaning they could decide not to adhere to the code if they outlined why.

But do the statistics support this view?

Would British companies back such a move? And what would be the challenges – or even barriers – to introducing a Workers On The Board model for UK industry?

Tom McPhail - Hargreave Lansdown

For those pushing to see workforce boardroom representation formalised in legislation – and there are many – the code was one of half-measures.

The arguments in favour Workforce board representation is the norm across much of Europe. Some 19 out of 28 EU member states include statute to that effect, while for 13 of those countries, such rights apply in the bulk of the private sector.

The particulars vary from nation to nation, but the principles remain broadly similar.

The idea is that input from the shop floor keeps senior management in touch with their workforce and customers, and boosts staff morale and commitment.

Janet Williamson - TUC

40

That theory seems to be borne out by data which shows countries with high levels of worker participation score highly in other areas too – including employment rates, R&D expenditure, and employee engagement. The latter, especially, is an area where the UK traditionally scores poorly, lagging well behind global economic Issue 12: January - February 2020

ON THE BOARD

powerhouses like the US, China and India.

Indeed, workers’ rights in general is not a UK strength. A 2019 global study by the ITUC rates the UK behind the likes of Togo, Malawi and the Republic of Congo for its respect of employee rights.

On British soil, the TUC has long campaigned for boardlevel worker representation, arguing it can go a long way to giving workers a meaningful voice in conditions, terms and working practices.

Crucially, however, the body’s All Aboard report – written

by Senior Policy Office Janet Williamson – says companies would benefit as much as staff from such an arrangement, not least because happy workers are proven to be productive workers.

a concrete difference to the culture and priorities of company decision-making and the lives of working people.”

The TUC is not alone in believing deeper governance review could have a meaningful impact. Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England, has argued that limited diversity "CHANGE HAS TO in boardrooms can stifle START SOMEWHERE, growth both for companies and the wider economy.

AND WE BELIEVE

THAT INTRODUCING WORKERS’ VOICE AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF THE COMPANY WOULD BRING REAL BUSINESS BENEFITS"

It said: “Given the contribution of workers to company success, and the proven link between staff motivation and performance, measures to boost the voice of the workforce in company decision-making look like good, old-fashioned common sense and economic justice rolled into one.

“Change has to start somewhere, and we believe that introducing workers’ voice at the highest level of the company would bring real business benefits and make Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

Janet Williamson

He said: “If power resides in the hands of one set of stakeholders, and they are short-termist, then we might expect high distribution of profits to this cohort, at the expense of ploughing back these profits (as increased investment) or distributing them to workers (as increased real wages).

“To some extent, this matches the stylised facts on rising inequality – rising executive and shareholder compensation and faltering real wage growth.

“One avenue worth considering further is corporate governance reform. A set of corporate incentives which had as its fulcrum long-term company value and which more fully reflected the interests of a wider set of stakeholders might help rebalance the scales – for example,

towards investing rather than distributing.”

Workers on the board in operation A handful of UK firms are ahead of the curve on worker representation, though.

Transport firm FirstGroup, for example, has blazed something of a trail by reserving a boardroom seat for an Employee Director since its inception in 1989.

A spokesman told Business Leader: “In our experience, the perspectives and input of Employee Directors aids decision-making and demonstrates the company’s desire to hear from our workforce. Directors and workers alike find Employee Directors invaluable in providing a closer link between the depot and the boardroom.”

FirstGroup remains the only publicly-listed UK firm to integrate workers in company governance in this way, and says it believes ‘a considerable part of its overall success is attributable to such involvement’.

But is there data to prove worker board members increase the odds of success?

In short, it’s difficult to draw any causal conclusion – an extensive review of the impact on company performance, conducted largely in Germany where such models are considered well-evolved, can pinpoint no direct correlation between employee-level boardroom representation and financial performance.

Cont. 

41

FEATURE

ON THE BOARD

Nor does it guarantee transparency or ethical conduct, it seems, as the 2015 Volkswagen emissions scandal played out amid allegations of selective blindness in the boardroom from both sides of the executive/worker divide.

The arguments against Quite simply, UK companies don’t want workers in their boardrooms.

Research by the Chartered Governance Institute – a UK body for governance professionals with 14,000 members – reveals overwhelming opposition, with 70% of member respondents saying ‘no’ when asked whether they believed having workers on their boards would be a good idea.

Confidentiality issues were cited as a major concern, along with doubts over whether workers with the right skillset could be found to make a meaningful boardroom contribution. Practicality issues were flagged too, especially for larger firms, where it would be impossible for a single voice to effectively represent thousands of staff working in a wide variety of functions, locations and pay grades.

There are also likely to be times when a board faces tough decisions that could leave a worker representative unable to reconcile their responsibilities to both their colleagues and the collective good.

Julian Hemming, Partner at law firm Osborne Clarke and co-chair of the firm’s employment law group, agrees that could be a challenge. He said: “All directors have duties under the Companies Act 2006 which include: to promote the success of

the company; to exercise reasonable care, skill and judgment; to avoid conflicts of interest.

“Complying with these duties can sometimes involve the board in making decisions that are not always approved of by employees and can put the employee representative in conflict with the employees and fellow board members.”

Rigorous selection criteria is applied to UK board appointments too – something Hemming says would be difficult to enforce when electing employee board members.

He said: “In the UK, the Financial Reporting Council sets the UK Corporate Governance codes for listed companies, which requires that all appointments to the board should be subject to a rigorous procedures and should be based on merit and objective criteria and should promote ‘diversity of gender, social and ethnic backgrounds, cognitive and personal strength’.

“Similar care will need to be taken to ensure a breadth of potential candidates stand for the board, to avoid the selection of the one candidate who stands and who otherwise may not fulfil the above criteria.”

What next?

Further government-led reform on boardroom composition seems unlikely, at least in the short term – not least after Boris Johnson stripped a workers’ rights clause from the UK’s EU Withdrawal Deal.

Julian Hemming - Osborne Clarke

42

A wave of voluntary private sector employee boardroom appointments should not be expected either, after the Chartered Governance Institute's study showed 91% of

firms have no current plans to do so.

However, with more and more firms waking up to the need to do more to engage and retain staff, a middle ground could emerge.

Financial services company Hargreaves Lansdown is one firm with a clear policy of valuing worker input – albeit outside of the formal boardroom.

Head of Policy Tom McPhail said: “The broad principle of managing a business on a collaborative basis between board and workers is a good one, with the board both taking input from employees and sharing key insights regarding its decision-making.

This not only enables the board to take into consideration input from a critical group of stakeholders, it also strengthens employee buy-in to corporate strategy.

“Hargreaves Lansdown has adopted the approach of a colleague forum, which draws on structured input from a broad representative sample of employees.

Views are sought in a structured format, with a briefing ahead of the meetings, an anonymised report submitted to the board (so employees feel free to speak openly) and with a board response returned to the colleague forum after the board meeting.

“We believe this strikes the right balance of engagement between employees and the management of the company. Ultimate accountability to stakeholders should reside with board members who have been recruited and paid to run the company." 

Issue 12: January - February 2020

Make it your pond.

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Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

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Talk to PureComms today. www.purecomms.co.uk info@purecomms.co.uk 01275 812 500 43

INTERVIEW

CEO IN FOCUS:

LUCY FRANKLIN Lucy Franklin is CEO of Brighton-based Accordance, a company aiming to become Europe’s leading VAT provider.

She talks to BLM about her ambitions and her innovative staff wellbeing initiatives.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT ACCORDANCE AND WHAT IT DOES? Accordance is an international tech-enabled compliance and consulting firm. We ease the burden that cross-border VAT creates by offering clarity from complexity. We have been established for 13 years, and I have been in the CEO position for one year.

Culturally it’s a very diverse and intellectually-stimulating environment. We care about the people here, and we want them to prosper.

44

CAN YOU ALSO TALK US THROUGH YOUR PATH TO THIS ROLE? I’ve been in this profession for about 20 years, essentially driving growth for sales functions in other industries. I started as a Sales and Marketing Director here about eight years ago, and moved my way into the Managing Director role, and more recently the Chief Executive Officer position.

My background is around strategic growth, how to maximise people’s potential through their empowerment. I think businesses

often fall into the loophole of focusing their strategy on building a plan without their people at the heart of it. Plans don't work if people are not motivated to fulfil them.

"I STARTED AS A SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR HERE ABOUT EIGHT YEARS AGO, AND MOVED MY WAY INTO THE MANAGING DIRECTOR ROLE, AND MORE RECENTLY THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER POSITION." Issue 12: January - February 2020

CEO IN FOCUS

to make sure it’s still frictionless. That is the most we can hope for. It’s a case of making sure Europe is still prospering, whether we are inside the European Union (EU) or out.

For me, the deal we already have – being part of the European Union – is the best we can have, and that is the deal we should be sticking to. I am absolutely a Remainer, and anything outside of that is not a good deal for me.

Economies thrive because of trade. It’s that basic. If you put a blocker in the way, we’re not going to thrive to the same degree.

YOU’VE DONE A LOT OF WORK AT ACCORDANCE AROUND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING, INCLUDING TRIALLING A FOUR-DAY WORKING WEEK – CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THAT? I think, ultimately, if you have people’s wellbeing front and centre of any business, those people will be happier and therefore more efficient. If I can make sure people have the right work/life balance, what should follow is that when they are at work they’re more engaged, they are more productive, and the result is that we grow as a business through people’s empowerment, rather than by pushing them up a hill.

A four-day week is part and parcel of people’s wellbeing, and I’m really passionate about it. We’ve run two trials; we increased productivity, people are feeling happier, they’re doing more in their private life, everything you would expect, really. The next step will be a company-wide trial for a three-month period.

WHAT TRENDS ARE YOU SEEING AROUND INTERNATIONAL TRADE AT THE MOMENT? We are in a challenging period as being prepared for Brexit has been difficult given the uncertainty; for us and for the businesses we help to trade confidently. In some instances businesses have stopped trading, or re-routed their supply chains.

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE POST-BREXIT FUTURE MIGHT HOLD? I think all we can ask for is that we get a deal which allows us to continue trade and

Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

It’s categorically not about compressed hours. I’m looking for them to do four days for the same salary. It’s a genuine four-day week, a 30-hour week. On the whole it’s been received extremely positively, but there’s also a thought process about ‘What does that mean for me? What does that mean for my pay? What does it mean for our clients?’ There have also been concerns about whether such a progressive change could affect our professional credibility within the sector.

AND WHAT’S YOUR ANSWER TO THAT? Absolutely. This is the way in which the professional world needs to be moving, and

I think most companies will do well to put in these types of initiatives for wellbeing themselves.

DO YOU THINK THIS IS SOMETHING WHICH COULD WORK IN ALL INDUSTRIES, AND FOR BUSINESSES OF ALL SIZES? I think it can absolutely work, but it needs commitment, it needs thought, and it needs a change management approach.

But ultimately it goes back to simple things for me; if people are happier and healthier, the natural next step is that there will be the production of better work, your sickness rates will decrease, all the research suggests your retention rates will increase, and you will be able to attract talent in a way which perhaps you were not before. There are huge amounts of benefits to businesses. It comes back to boardroom mentality, and not being afraid to step outside of the norm – I really believe this will be the norm eventually, though.

HOW HAVE YOU FOUND BEING A FEMALE LEADER IN A TYPICALLY MALEDOMINATED INDUSTRY? Honestly? Hard. I think predominantly women tend to dominate support functions in finance and professional services, and those obviously are really important roles, but there are not enough women in senior positions in this industry at all. As a result of that it has been a challenge for me and, I imagine, other women. I think there’s scepticism about whether or not I’m going to be able to do as good a job as my male counterparts. That’s disappointing in 2019, really disappointing.

WHAT ARE YOUR AMBITIONS FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS? I would like Accordance to be Europe’s leading specialist VAT services provider. I think we’re well on our way. Since I came into post in January 2018, I have put in a lot of change in terms of putting people at the heart of the business, making sure our technology offering is positive, that our service offering is at the forefront, and expanding our European footprint. For all of those reasons, I think we’ve got a really, really good shot at doing that, and I intend for that to be my legacy. 

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HR WORKING WITH FURTHER EDUCATION PROVIDERS SPONSORED BY UWE BRISTOL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FOR YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS 0117 965 6261 | INFOPOINT@UWE.AC.UK | WWW.UWE.AC.UK

Working with education providers

For its first HR feature of 2020, BLM looks at how education providers can work more effectively with businesses.

D

o graduates leave further education ready for work? Are company expectations too high?

What can be done to enhance relations between business and education? BLM investigates.

HOW CAN BUSINESSES BEST INTEGRATE COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY LEAVERS AND APPRENTICES INTO THEIR BUSINESS? Ana Bakshi, Director of Saïd Business School’s Oxford Foundry, Oxford University’s entrepreneurship centre, said: “Through collaborative partnerships, and engaging early with student societies and student groups.

“The Foundry is led by a Student Advisory 46

Board and entrepreneurial Advisory Board, which includes world-leading entrepreneurs such as Reid Hoffman CBE, Co-founder of LinkedIn and Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter, and our Academic Steering Committee which includes academic Heads of Division and innovation leads from across the University and Oxford colleges.

“Businesses are able to engage with our multi-disciplinary community of students and share invaluable knowledge and expertise. They also have access to talent pools, creativity and ideas and building entrepreneurial mindsets.”

Dave Crew, Head of Growth and Employer Partnership at Weston College, said: “Having a talent strategy is important for all

businesses, especially in a time of record low levels of unemployment, creating a candidate-driven market. A talent strategy is an essential part of business growth plans and the simple answer is engagement with education providers.

“There are plenty of opportunities to integrate college/university leavers into a business but it all starts with a conversation.

At Weston College, we’ve seen employers offer placements to students, integrate them into their teams, and offer apprenticeships when learners finish their course; an example being digital technology students who progress from an industry placement alongside their course, to a degree-level apprenticeship with Weston College, with Issue 12: January - February 2020

FEATURE WORKING WITH FURTHER EDUCATION PROVIDERS SPONSORED BY UWE BRISTOL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FOR YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS 0117 965 6261 | INFOPOINT@UWE.AC.UK | WWW.UWE.AC.UK

“It’s also important that businesses take opportunities to raise the profile of their business within the student population, so they’re seen as an employer of choice.

Guest lectures are a simple way to begin a relationship.”

Ana Bakshi

HOW DO YOU ENSURE EDUCATION LEAVERS HAVE THE SKILLS NEEDED FOR THE WORLD OF BUSINESS? Crew: “We have placed an emphasis on recruiting staff from industry, with many of our lecturers still running their own business, and each member of staff spends time with employers as part of our professional development programme.

“There is a strong focus not only on teaching technical skills, but also wider business skills such as communication, digital skills and teamwork. Employers regularly visit classrooms to talk about the reality of life in business and expectations of graduates.

“In addition, our course content is designed around the needs of industry and we’ve created the best training facilities in the region, working side by side with business every step of the way.”

Dave Crew

Bakshi: "We do this through the Oxford Foundry’s five-step model of learning: •

training funded by the apprenticeship levy providing an incredible return on investment for employers.

"THERE ARE PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITIES TO INTEGRATE COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY LEAVERS INTO A BUSINESS BUT IT ALL STARTS WITH A CONVERSATION...

GUEST LECTURES ARE A SIMPLE WAY TO BEGIN A RELATIONSHIP. " Dave Crew

Peer-to-peer – creating an environment for knowledge exchange between students and alumni;

•

The Zone of Proximal Development – the theory that learning is most effective from people a couple of steps ahead on their journey;

•

Through facilitators and our broad network of established industry experts and talented mentors;

•

Experts in residence and a strong network of academic champions;

•

Inspirational speakers.

“This focuses on creating an entrepreneurial mindset, plus critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving skills, tech skills and using tech for good, and the capability to innovate.

"This reflects on the changing skill sets needed for our future leaders, employees and entrepreneurs to succeed in the wake of accelerating technology development and globalisation.”

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT A SUCCESSFUL PARTNERSHIP YOU HAVE ESTABLISHED WITH A BUSINESS, AND ITS IMPACT? Crew: “Weston College works with over 2,000 businesses of various size in all industry sectors, regionally and nationally.

"There are so many examples of successful partnerships, and the word partnership is so important, as creating a bespoke programme for a business does require both parties to invest time, and understand culture and ethos, and what we’re trying to achieve. One example is our partnership with Thatchers Cider who created a Young Talent Programme reaching thousands of young people in schools to raise awareness of careers at Thatchers.

"This included the creation of a bespoke business apprenticeship programme with Weston College that won regional and national awards in the past two years. If both parties invest the time to build that relationship, the results can not only see incredible business benefits but also change lives.”

Bakshi: “We work at the intersection of industry, academia and student talent. We leverage on Oxford’s research, innovation and talent and look at commercial and market needs and gaps to identify and solve some of society’s biggest problems.

“It’s important students are exposed to real societal and commercial challenges.

To this end, we run an AI Impact Weekend in collaboration with EY. The AI Impact Weekend brings together 100 students from all divisions and colleges to work together to solve a challenge. In 2020 it will be about how AI can be used to tackle climate change.

Cont.  Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

47

HR

FEATURE

WORKING WITH FURTHER EDUCATION PROVIDERS SPONSORED BY UWE BRISTOL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FOR YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS 0117 965 6261 | INFOPOINT@UWE.AC.UK | WWW.UWE.AC.UK

"This challenge was chosen by our student thought-leadership roundtable and we know there’s potential for big impact here.”

WHAT MORE COULD BUSINESS LEADERS DO TO SUPPORT EDUCATION PROVIDERS? Bakshi: “Businesses could build new collaborations with Higher Education. This would focus on innovating and building solutions to some of the most pressing challenges we face in society today, together, whether that be in healthcare, education, or climate change.

“Beyond skills and training, we are witnessing a growing trend in students and education leavers starting up their own businesses. At the Oxford Foundry

alone we have accelerated more than 19 ventures who have gone on to raise £8m in investment and create over 70 jobs in less than 20 months.

“Students increasingly want to work for themselves and grow ventures, so business leaders need to evolve with this trend and find new ways to attract talent and show best practices in diversity, inclusion and creating the environments and culture students are looking for.”

Crew: “It’s a simple answer and that is engaging with education providers. Like any business partnership, building trusted relationships is key.

“Further education colleges like Weston have so much to offer businesses, and collectively across the South West of England alone, there are thousands of students that will move into the workforce with technical skills.

That is the future workforce. However, it’s important that education providers listen to business leaders and embrace their input.

“The business benefits are fantastic for employers. From accessing free recruitment services, offering student placements, to students delivering live business projects as part of their courses, apprenticeships and upskilling existing staff, the opportunities are endless but always start with a conversation.” 

An employer’s perspective to-date yearly salary surveys for free. These can be used to educate and prepare the candidates for their next step.

Practical skills are also useful; skills such as CV and application writing. It can take a few months to get your first job after university. A better prepared candidate pool would help.

Steve Preston is Managing Director of Heat Recruitment, a specialist recruitment consultancy operating in financial services, legal, IT, insurance and engineering.

He spoke to Business Leader about how further education providers can ensure graduates are work-place ready when they enter the jobs market.

WHAT COULD COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES DO DIFFERENTLY? Although universities and colleges have great career hub functions, it would be good to see graduates better prepared for the working world. This would start with realistic salary expectations for roles and regions. Many recruitment agencies, including us, offer up48

Universities and colleges should also work closely with recruitment agencies. We are always seeking top-tier, graduate talent, and this can help build pipelines and encourage graduates into employment faster.

DO YOU USE APPRENTICES? We do hire apprentices. They typically come in on an entry-level resource role, overseen by team managers. All apprentices are given on-the-job training and support to enable them to grow into the role gradually – the last thing we want is to overwhelm them.

Due to our effective training and positive culture we see many progress into senior or even consultant roles. Apprenticeships are a positive talent source for us.

DO GRADUATES HAVE THE SKILLS YOU REQUIRE? All newcomers require a fair amount of

training to get them up to speed. This is simply because they haven’t worked in the industry. Recruitment has many different elements; once we break these down and teach them, and it is then down to the candidate to execute them effectively.

Graduates certainly have the aptitude and mental ability to do the job at hand, and so long as they have the motivation and drive, they can absolutely succeed.

HAVE YOU RUN ANY INITIATIVES WITH EDUCATION PROVIDERS TO HELP BRING TRAINED RECRUITS INTO YOUR BUSINESS? We have partnered with a variety of schools, universities and colleges to boost awareness around a career in recruitment. We have hosted business days, talks about the industry and Q&A sessions to educate young people on the career benefits on offer.

When you consider the recruitment sector is worth almost £36bn a year, the earning potential really is huge, and the key is making young talent aware of this. Our biggest lesson though, is that resilience and drive will get you far in a career in recruitment. 

Issue 12: January - February 2020

ADVERTORIAL

WORKING WITH EDUCATION PROVIDERS

By Adrian Grove, Business Development Director, Qube Learning As we move into 2020, business owners should be open to the idea of re-badging existing and future employment vacancies as Traineeship or Apprenticeship vacancies, in an effort to attract young talent with fresh ideas and enthusiasm. By offering these programmes, the recruitment process can focus more on a candidate’s potential and will allow for opportunities to learn new skills and knowledge outside of the basic employed role.

For example, at entry-level, a traineeship is a great way of introducing young people to a particular business sector. This work placement programme is aimed at 1624-year olds who may not yet have some desired workplace skills and experience; they gain these skills during the programme and learn how to apply them at work, with progression routes including employment or an apprenticeship.

When businesses and training providers collaborate, it ensures that there is better

understanding of which skills are required in the modern world of work. Many employers believe that soft skills are often lacking when they interview candidates for roles within their business, but with the introduction of T-Levels in September 2020, students can now be offered a mixture of classes and ‘on-the-job’ experience within an industry placement of at least 315 hours. This provides the knowledge and experience needed to move into skilled employment, further study, or a higher apprenticeship, with all the required skills, knowledge and behaviours.

It’s also important to remember that often businesses can access government funding and incentives to enable them to recruit an apprentice into their organisation. This is an effective way to recruit new staff and there is clear evidence that employees who join a business through an apprenticeship stay loyal to that business longer than those employees who do not.

Alongside these government-funded programmes, many providers now offer smaller bitesize development programmes that can be delivered remotely through e-learning. Qube Learning has recently launched its ‘Vision’ platform, which features a range of short courses that have been developed to complement more traditional training programmes and are ideal to upskill employees. This is of great benefit since Qube has seen increased demand from employers for leadership and management programmes, primarily due to the rise of the ‘accidental manager’ who has found themselves promoted into a more senior role but without the necessary skillset to manage their teams.

For more information on how introducing Traineeships, Apprenticeships and eLearning could benefit your team and business, please visit www.qube-learning.co.uk or email tellmemore@qube-learning.co.uk

With over twenty years’ experience in the education sector, we are an Ofsted grade 2 training provider that specialises in vocational courses, short courses and e-learning.

Awarded numerous contracts by the Education Skills Funding Agency, we provide programmes which are focused on employed positions and therefore take place within a work environment.

vision NEW for 2020!

Upskill Your Workforce With an Apprenticeship from Qube Learning

Qube Vision is an online course catalogue offering a choice of online training courses in Leadership & Management, Health & Social Care and Transport & Logistics. Upskill your team via self-paced online learning today!

For more information visit www.qube-learning.co.uk Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

49

ADVERTORIAL

PLANTFORCE BENEFITS FROM WESTON COLLEGE SUPPORT CAN YOU GIVE US A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF PLANTFORCE? Plantforce is a leading plant machinery hire company based in Weston-super-Mare with national coverage and strategic depots in Cornwall, Exeter and the Midlands, supported by satellite depots in Warrington and Inverness.

Plus Health and Safety Awareness course, quick hitch and lifting operation training, guidance systems operation training, height and slew restriction training, and efficiency dynamics.

Having just been ranked number 75 in the Sunday Times top 100 companies in the UK, we are very successful on major projects around the UK such as Hinkley Point C and HS2.

We feel only a collaboration with Weston College gives the expertise needed for such an advanced training program.

WHAT’S THE THINKING BEHIND THE PARTNERSHIP WITH WESTON COLLEGE? Plantforce has always been at the forefront of technology and innovation; we feel that a fleet of top grade machinery combined with highly-advanced plant operators sets us apart within the construction industry.

WHAT OUTCOMES ARE YOU TARGETING? We want to be the first partnership in the UK to deliver an advanced simulation-based, technology-focused training program fit for 2020. With HS2 due to start very soon, not only will there be a demand for modern machinery but also for technology-advanced operators, and we feel we will be perfectly placed to deliver the required training at requested numbers.

With the new Weston College Construction Training Centre only situated a mile down the road, we felt we had to be involved from the start. We already had an established in-house training arm which focused on simulation-based GPS training for our own operators helping meet the new high standards set for the UK’s major tier one projects, but wanted to partner with a training provider who shared our outlook to embrace the future technologies.

The new Ofsted Outstanding Site Ready Programme is a collaboration of Weston College’s training experience, combined with our plant machinery and technology expertise.

The course focuses on taking new and experienced plant operators and building a bespoke profile, supporting them to become a safe and efficient operator. The course consists of an induction, a full medical, including a toxicology report, CITB Site Safety 50

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION ARE IMPORTANT FEATURES OF THIS COLLABORATION – CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THIS? No longer do engineers use paper drawings and spray paint to mark out a road formation on the ground, or a stick to measure the fuel level in an excavator; it’s all about fuel efficiency and communication systems. The excavators use telematics systems to report on fuel economy, engineers are designing buildings in cloud-based 3D CAD software which is then loaded on to the machine remotely. In the very same way a satnav tells you where to go, the same tech is used to guide an excavator to grade, manage materials and plan work flows.

This is all well and good but nobody has

focused on the guy who is driving the machine. Traditionally these guys are aged between 45-65, and through no fault of their own, they have missed the tech revolution and need specialist training programs to bring them up to date on advancements in construction technology.

This is something that has not been done anywhere in the UK. HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THIS PARTNERSHIP PROVING TO BE? So far, the courses are proving to be a great addition to the already successful training schedule at Weston College. Currently we run at least one course a week.

WHAT ARE YOUR LONG-TERM AMBITIONS FOR THIS INITIATIVE AND YOUR INVOLVEMENT WITH THE WESTON COLLEGE CONSTRUCTION TRAINING CENTRE? The overall plan is to develop the training, further invest into trending technology and work forward with major projects to establish a one-stop training location that covers all bases from inductions, medicals and sitespecific technology.

Issue 12: January - February 2020

SALFORD BUSINESS SCHOOL In partnership with industry

WORRIED ABOUT THE SKILLS GAP? / Take a student on work placement (3, 6 or 12 months) / Be a named industry partner to ensure we are teaching the skills you need / Become a guest speaker / Give our students live briefs and projects to look at your business problems / Host an industry visit / Commission academic research into your business challenges

OUR STUDENTS GAIN REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE; YOU ACCESS HIGH-QUALITY, BRIGHT AND ENTHUSIASTIC STUDENTS Find out more about your opportunities to work with us www.salford.ac.uk/business-school +44 (0)161 295 2222 sbs-admin@salford.ac.uk

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BECOME UNSTOPPABLE51

HR

WHY MENTAL HEALTH CARE MUST BECOME A BUSINESS PRIORITY

M

ental ill-health is costing UK employers up to £43bn year – but the business world is only now waking up to the need to take the issue seriously.

It’s difficult to think of any single issue which could be allowed to undermine every worker’s worth to their employer by £1,500 each year without prompting urgent action – yet that is the impact of mental ill-health on UK businesses.

New data shows absenteeism, presenteeism and staff turnover are costing employers £33-43bn a year, a sum which amounts to between £1,205 and £1,560 per worker.

Stress, depression, anxiety and burnout all contribute to these staggering numbers, yet typically go unaddressed, with few companies offering support for those affected, and fewer still offering preventative 52

help to halt problems before they take root.

That could, however, be about to change.

Mental health has made headlines on an unprecedented scale in recent years, as a number of celebrities have campaigned or spoken out on their own experiences.

This has helped break down taboos and encouraged others to seek help – Google trends reveals ‘mental health support’ has shown fourfold growth as a UK search term over the past five years – yet despite this, mental health as a workplace issue commonly remains overlooked.

“I think the stigma is an enormously important aspect,” says Ry Morgan, Co-Founder of workplace mental health platform Unmind.

“All the stats suggest 9 in 10 employees

wouldn’t feel comfortable speaking to their employer about a mental health condition; that speaks enormously to the stigma. If they don’t feel they are in a culture where they can broach it, they’re just going to sweep it under the rug and fail to pro-actively seek help.

“Then things get worse, and then, when they do finally get to breaking point, it’s far harder to tackle because so many issues become much more deeply ingrained.”

‘A dark rabbit hole’ Morgan knows the subject well. He grew up with a parent who suffered from clinical depression, and his own career has twice been interrupted by the same condition.

During one ‘really dark’ time he was rated a suicide risk, and knows his professional life was a big contributing factor.

He said: “Workplace pressure can absolutely contribute to someone’s overall mental health. It’s a huge factor. Start-up folk and ambitious people can be guilty of being their Issue 12: January - February 2020

MENTAL HEALTH own biggest critic, feeling you’re not doing well enough, and that can create a negative cycle that drives you into a bit of a dark rabbit hole.”

Since those difficult days, Morgan has teamed up with two other experts to launch Unmind, a platform delivering preventative mental health care in the workplace.

Clinical psychologist Dr Nick Taylor and wellbeing coach Steve Peralta joined Morgan in creating Unmind in 2016, and the platform has since grown to win clients like John Lewis, British Airways, Just Eat and William Hill. Its services enable employees to confidentially track, measure and understand their mental health through practical exercises, while also allowing employers to understand trends, support their teams and mitigate against stressors.

The ambition, Morgan told Business Leader, is to help ‘build happier and healthier workforces’ worldwide – and it is well on the way, with recent funding of £3m helping to grow a London-based brand now operating in 30 countries and supporting more than 250,000 people.

Morgan continued: “Within the workplace there’s been little focus on preventative initiatives to help individuals that aren’t really dealing with a clinical condition but just want to bolster their everyday health and be more focused and productive.

“The best intervention is early intervention.

If you break your leg, you want to get to the doctor as soon as possible, not wait three months to get it fixed, but the equivalent when it comes to mental health isn’t nearly as clear. People don’t know where to turn.”

Companies ‘must work harder’ Dr Mitesh Patel, Medical Director at global health benefits provider Aetna International, agrees companies must take a more proactive stance on mental health to protect their reputation as a caring and progressive employer.

Dr Patel said: “As we enter a new decade, the expectations surrounding physical and mental health provision at work will undoubtedly increase.

“This means businesses will need to work harder to understand and reflect the needs and priorities of their workforce, implementing health and well-being support Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

and workplace policies that are relevant to contemporary working culture.

“Companies need to treat mental health care as a priority if they want to remain competitive. They can start by encouraging openness and acceptance to overcome mental health stigma in the workplace.”

More employers now recognise mental health issues as the biggest cause of workplace absenteeism – and awareness is growing, says Morgan. However, a key step towards Unmind’s goal of making mental health ‘universally understood, nurtured and celebrated’ will be ensuring people devote time to the issue – which will mean undoing a lifetime of past learning.

"ALL THE STATS SUGGEST 9 IN 10 EMPLOYEES WOULDN’T FEEL COMFORTABLE SPEAKING TO THEIR EMPLOYER ABOUT A MENTAL HEALTH CONDITION; THAT SPEAKS ENORMOUSLY TO THE STIGMA." Ry Morgan

Morgan said: “If we think of something like dental health, we are all brought up as kids to focus six minutes a day working on our teeth to avoid trips to the dentist, but when it comes to our brains, we don’t do that.

“Our teeth are one of the most basic parts of our physiological makeup, yet we spend daily time working on them; our brains are one of the most complex things in the known universe, so it’s bananas that we educate and create a cultural narrative on the importance of preventative dental care, and yet not on mental care.

“Mental health is the coolest thing about being a human being; it’s literally what differentiates us as a species from everything else on the planet. So how has it ended up as a less sexy subject than a toothbrush? That seems really backwards.

“Our mission is to help people live happier, healthier, more human lives. Fundamentally, we want to be the de facto category leader of workplace mental health.

“When someone talks about this subject, we want Unmind to be what they talk about, because we’re providing services that are absolutely clinically valid – it’s not jazz hands, it’s not snake oil, it’s with the utmost academic vigour, and it’s improving the mental health of everyday people.” 

MENTAL HEALTH IN THE WORKPLACE

91%

OF WORKERS SAY STRESS NEGATIVELY IMPACTS THE QUALITY OF THEIR WORK

87% 70% ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT THEIR WORK, YET 64% STILL EXPERIENCE ‘FREQUENT’ STRESS

OF WORKERS SAY THEIR EMPLOYER IS NOT DOING ENOUGH TO PREVENT BURNOUT

84%

OF MILLENNIAL'S HAVE EXPERIENCED BURNOUT AT WORK AND HALF HAVE QUIT BECAUSE OF IT

80%

OF WORKERS ARE WORRIED MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES COULD IMPACT THEIR ABILITY TO WORK

68% 33% WOULD NOT JOIN A COMPANY WHICH LACKS A CLEAR POLICY OF MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT

SAY THE SUPPORT ON OFFER FROM THEIR EMPLOYER TO HELP MINIMISE STRESS IS ‘POOR’

12.8M

WORKING DAYS WERE LOST TO STRESS IN THE UK LAST YEAR ALONE 53

DEBATE

TECHNOLOGY

GLOBAL #1 UNIVERSITY BUSINESS INCUBATOR

HELPING GROWING COMPANIES ACCESS R&D FUNDING, INVESTMENT AND TALENT

SCALEUP@SETSQUARED.CO.UK | SETSQUARED.CO.UK/PROGRAMME/SCALE-UP-PROGRAMME

HOW CAN BUSINESSES HARNESS THE POTENTIAL OF AR & VR?

F

or this technology feature Business Leader has teamed up with SETsquared to give readers an insight into how different technology advances are changing the way business is being carried out.

WHAT TRENDS ARE HAPPENING AROUND VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) AND AUGMENTED REALITY (AR) IN A BUSINESS CONTEXT? John Collomosse: "We work on new technologies that will be applied to the creative industries such as Performance Capture Technology - which can be used in the film sector. This new technology will allow you to capture a 3D model of a performance and use that as a digital asset in a computer game or virtual reality experience.

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"It’s an exciting time to explore immersive technology like AR and VR, as you have equipment like the headsets, but there is very little content, and we see this as a way that you can bridge that content gap and create highly immersive experiences.

"We’re also doing lots of work in blockchain, which is something people typically associate with cryptocurrencies, but has applications beyond finance such as tracking IP rights and content. This will allow you to trace content back to its origins

so you can make better decisions about whether you trust the content.

"Fundamentally, immersive technology is a new way of storytelling,and there are real world applications already in fields such as training and the heritage sector.

"It’s also worth noting that one of the features of being based in Guildford, is that it’s the centre of the UK games industry, and you could say the industry was born here with Peter Molyneaux and Bullfrog.

Issue 12: January - February 2020

FUTURE OF AR & VR

GLOBAL #1 UNIVERSITY BUSINESS INCUBATOR

HELPING GROWING COMPANIES ACCESS R&D FUNDING, INVESTMENT AND TALENT

SCALEUP@SETSQUARED.CO.UK | SETSQUARED.CO.UK/PROGRAMME/SCALE-UP-PROGRAMME

The Panel Stephen Mayers SETsquared Chris Pett SETsquared Prof. John Collomosse Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing.

Dr Haiyue Yuan University of Surrey Rupert Howe Watch and Replay Steve McCarthy Brandwidth Dominic Deane The Leadership Network Janosch Amstutz Holo Me Charlotte Randall Stats Bomb Jeremy Brassington Note Taking Express Stavros Paschalakis Visual Atoms

entertainment and using it for enterprise instead – museums, health and training for example."

Dominic Deane: "Our story is interesting because we are using AR and VR as a tool in our business. We have been around for eight years and provide in-house for Fortune 500 companies around the world. Primarily this is for presidents and vice presidents in large global companies.

environment where they can be put on a production line or a process and be hands on with the training and immersed in it.

"FUNDAMENTALLY, IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY IS A NEW WAY OF STORYTELLING AND THERE IS REAL WORLD APPLICATIONS ALREADY IN FIELDS SUCH AS TRAINING AND THE HERITAGE SECTOR."

"It also answers the problem of how you convey the knowledge that a handful of people have in a company to their hundreds of thousands of staff. VR and AR allows you do to that quickly and effectively.

"You often hear about this technology being a fad, but it isn’t if it is actually "The training we provide responding to a problem or is intensive and covers challenge that a business subjects like innovation and has. I believe we’re a way Industry 4.0 – these are off from it being used in a transformative ideas that personal capacity because businesses need to adopt if putting on a headset is they are to stay relevant in intrusive, but in a business John Collomosse this fast-changing world. space – where you are often trying to find space for clarity "The challenge has always been how do and focus – it allows you to do this. The you deliver that training most effectively direction of this technology is towards the and also how do you scale-up and scale-out enterprise space." their learning? We’ve done this by utilising AR and VR through a produce called Cont.  GEMBA. It puts users in an immersive

"There are huge companies involved in the sector based here like EA and Epic, and lots of SMEs too."

Rupert Howe: "Our application is a writing and delivery tool for producers and writers so they can map out non-linear stories.

"There is potential for an explosion in nonlinear stories, but they are very hard to create, and this tool helps to do that. It is similar in its impact to what WordPress did for websites.

"People come with great ideas but can’t see an output, and they go through a horrible technical experience, and what they get out the other end isn’t what they expected. VR and AR and new technology can change this and transform content creation.

"In a broader sense, I would say that people are giving up on immersive for Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

55

DEBATE

GLOBAL #1 UNIVERSITY BUSINESS INCUBATOR

HELPING GROWING COMPANIES ACCESS R&D FUNDING, INVESTMENT AND TALENT

SCALEUP@SETSQUARED.CO.UK | SETSQUARED.CO.UK/PROGRAMME/SCALE-UP-PROGRAMME

Rupert Howe: "I saw a very good example of this at the national gallery. It was busy room at a conference but with a headset on you can shut out and have the curator talk about the painting or a monk talk about the religious significance. It’s about being in a busy space and being able to immerse yourself in the moment."

Janosch Amstutz: "We work in multiple sectors and we create content for creatives and license our products to them. What we’ve seen in the last five years is a fundamental issue with AR and VR at an early stage.

"This is because companies were overpromising and underdelivering on experiences because of three major barriers to mass adoption of this technology, which is that content creation is very tedious, the data sizes required to created good content, and the hardware required to deliver it.

"In last two years, many companies in the sector have been addressing those pain points, unlike the Silicon Valley model, where you try and create the most futuristic experience as possible and one day hope it is adopted.

"We’ve seen a few earlier companies have failed due to that reason. BLIPPAR, for example, failed because they created a solution that the market hadn’t caught up with yet. It’s good to see that these pain points being addressed, and people are taking a step back and looking at how this technology can solve business problems."

YOU MENTIONED BLIPPAR, WHICH IS VALUED AS A UNICORN, AND RECEIVED LOTS OF FUNDING. HAS ITS FAILURE MADE INVESTORS MORE CAUTIOUS ABOUT THIS SECTOR? Janosch Amstutz: "There is definitely more discussion around this now as lots of money was invested, but it didn’t yield any results. Attracting investment in this sector was still an issue last year, but people are starting to see more deployments that are sticking now, so they are willing to invest in them again.

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"Niche industries like education, health and training are the ones where you are seeing how it works and working with the tech long-term."

heavily on ourselves and angel funding. We have a built a web-based app programme that helps students who have learning disabilities to make notes.

Charlotte Randall: "I would say that "Our biggest problem is how do we scale investors backing away from technology this up. Now we are finding that institutions businesses. We have are coming to us and we want a system for seen a slowdown in the every student." levels of investment "IN LAST TWO YEARS MANY that are available.

COMPANIES IN THE SECTOR Steve McCarthy: "We The success of failure are a digital innovation HAVE BEEN ADDRESSING happens in the last agency, and if you THOSE PAIN POINTS UNLIKE 10% and is around the look at the idea of accuracy part, and this THE SILICON VALLEY MODEL Martec’s Law and means that as well as WHERE YOU TRY AND CREATE believe technology is great technology you also changing exponentially THE MOST FUTURISTIC need the people element but organisations are EXPERIENCE AS POSSIBLE in place and it needs to changing much slower, solve a market problem."

AND ONE DAY HOPE IT IS then we try to bridge ADOPTED" the gap in between.

Jeremy Brassington: "There is a lot of talk Rupert Howe "We work with big blueabout content and chip companies such technology, but how as Toyota, and we look at what problem many people are thinking about the they have and come up with a technologyaccessibility of that content with people based solution to try and solve it. with disabilities? I believe that is important.

"On the funding question we’re raising in a difficult market which is EdTech. We rely

"We’re tech agnostic and the word 'need' is very important for us. We start with the

Issue 12: January - February 2020

FUTURE OF AR & VR

GLOBAL #1 UNIVERSITY BUSINESS INCUBATOR

HELPING GROWING COMPANIES ACCESS R&D FUNDING, INVESTMENT AND TALENT

SCALEUP@SETSQUARED.CO.UK | SETSQUARED.CO.UK/PROGRAMME/SCALE-UP-PROGRAMME

customer and user pain first, and then build the tech around this. It sounds obvious, but this can often be overlooked when there are lots of nice shiny technologies that are available on the market.

"This is where the future for this technology lies, and it means that any industry is up for grabs in regard to its deployment."

DO YOU FIND IT EASY TO ATTRACT THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO GROW YOUR BUSINESSES? Dominic Deane: "We have had challenges in London because you’re fighting everyone for development talent.

"To counter this, we have leveraged a group up in the North East as there is a VR and gaming hub. We have built a team up there around the higher education centres as in

London it’s a financial fight to get specific talent you need. For us, it’s about working with universities and ecosystems."

Stavros Paschalakis: "Getting the right development talent is always a challenge, but having links with universities helps a lot. Brexit does worry me slightly though, as more than half of people that worked in visual atoms were in Europe.

"I do hope we can still find the talent and can retain the talent without subjecting them to months of waiting times and paperwork."

HOW CAN INCUBATORS AND SUPPORT GROUPS HELP EMERGING TECH BUSINESSES? Stephen Mayers: “SETsquared is a partnership with five research intensive

"COMPANIES WERE OVERPROMISING AND UNDERDELIVERING ON EXPERIENCES BECAUSE OF THREE MAJOR BARRIERS TO MASS ADOPTION OF THIS TECHNOLOGY WHICH IS THAT CONTENT CREATION IS VERY TEDIOUS, THE DATA SIZES REQUIRED TO CREATED GOOD CONTENT AND THE HARDWARE REQUIRED TO DELIVER IT." Dominic Dean

universities, and is the world’s leading University business incubator. We have raised over £2bn of investment for our companies and to date we have supported more than 4,000 companies and created thousands of jobs. We have business acceleration centres at each of our universities and I run the Scale-Up programme which provides investment support for companies developing their R&D growth strategies.“ Chris Pett: "I am an Entrepreneur in Residence for SETsquared at the University of Surrey and I work with a dozen startups. They are all at different stages of development. Currently we have 60 start-ups being incubated, a mixture of residential and virtual members.

"My role is to help them see the bigger picture and opportunities they have, and form networks with business partners and to also find niche areas where they can build their company.

"Ultimately, we boil it all down most important thing, which is helping them to distinguish between investors and customers and help them learn the difference. It’s about telling the right story about their product and idea in the right context." 

67 tech firms represent UK at world's biggest trade show A 67-strong delegation of UK businesses promoted the UK’s technology sector to international buyers and investors at CES, the world’s largest consumer technology trade show in Las Vegas to kick off 2020.

DiT at CES 2020, Las Vegas

Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

British companies in the technology and automotive sectors, as well as the Department for International Trade, are expected to sign millions of pounds of deals following the event.

57

REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT

Leeds: A northern economic powerhouse with ‘a wealth of unique strengths’

T

he Leeds City Region is a UK leader in financial and professional services, digital technologies, manufacturing, healthcare and innovation – so why doesn’t the city ‘shout loudly enough about how great it is’?

In the first of a new series of city spotlight features, Business Leader spoke to a trio of the city’s leading authorities to learn more about the area’s strengths, challenges and future ambitions.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the region from a business perspective?

Professor Julia Bennell, Executive Dean of Leeds University Business School, said: “Leeds is a great place to work, study or run a business. The standard of living is fantastic – there’s a vibrant social and cultural life, property is affordable, the city is surrounded by beautiful countryside and the economy is strong and diverse.

“Leeds is the largest centre for financial and legal services in the UK outside London 58

and has one of the largest concentrations of higher education institutions in Europe.”

City regeneration specialist Richard Bicker, Integrated Planning Lead – North of England, Arup, said: “The Leeds City Region has a wealth of unique strengths.

With its large population, great career opportunities, good transport links, vibrant city centres and fantastic countryside surrounding it, the region offers fantastic opportunities rarely found elsewhere in the UK. These assets make Leeds a desirable

place to live and work, as the region equips its people to live a brilliant quality of life while excelling both professionally and personally.”

Mark Goldstone, Head Of Policy at West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “We’ve got is a very diverse economy.

People know us for financial and legal services, and we are the largest centre of certainly legal, and probably financial as well, outside of London. The reason a lot of that is here, is because there are so many Issue 12: January - February 2020

LEEDS

Professor Julia Bennell

Richard Bicker

growing in specialist areas. There are two other emerging sectors. fintech – it has been recognised internationally that Leeds is a place where that is happening. There’s a lot of that, and more coming.

“The other is health tech; we’ve got the HQ of the NHS here, which sometimes goes unnoticed. NHS Digital has a very large presence here, and that’s been a fast-growing area for the NHS. 98% of patient records are managed by software developed by two companies in Leeds. They are significant employers who are acting as a magnet and bringing digital talent to the area.

“Leeds is also part of a much bigger city region, with pockets of expertise, particularly in technology, right across our region from York and Bradford, so there’s a big catchment area to draw people in.”

Bennell: “The city is very international. The University of Leeds has more than 9,000 international students who make a huge contribution to life here. other organisations and companies; we have a very strong manufacturing base, for example. Admittedly it’s not as strong as it was in the 1960s in terms of the number of people employed, but it’s still very strong.

“We have a large and growing cluster of digital businesses. We have some heavyweights here like Sky, Sky Bet, Trans Union, who employ many hundreds of people, and of course we have Channel 4 as well. We also have a massive swathe of often very small businesses, but fastBusiness Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

“Thousands of talented students graduate from the city’s universities each year, boosting the region’s skills base.”

Goldstone: “We have five universities in Leeds. People will have heard of the University of Leeds, but also Leeds Becket, but also smaller ones focusing on specialist areas including digital, but we have the Institute of Robotics in Leeds and the Institute of Data Analytics. That drives companies that want to be around that – they are real big assets in our universities

Mark Goldstone

that are increasingly engaging with the wider business community.”

And what about weaknesses?

Bennell: “One weakness is that we don’t shout loudly enough about how great Leeds is, although I think this is changing over time.

“And while Leeds is the nexus of northsouth and east-west transportation lines, the efficiency of the transportation network could be improved, both within the city and getting to and from Leeds.”

Goldstone: “Our biggest weakness is transport and public infrastructure. We are the largest city in Europe without a mass transit system, and that is a barrier in some cases. There is work afoot to try to develop one, and that has been going on for decades, but there is a new push. Boris Johnson’s government has said it needs to do more for infrastructure in the north, and this can certainly help.

“We are big advocates for HS2 and the proposed East-West Northern Powerhouse Rail, and if what we’ve asked for – and if what the local council is pushing for – happens, it puts about ten million people of working age within an hour’s commute of the city centre.

Cont.  59

REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT

LEEDS

"THE STANDARD OF LIVING IS FANTASTIC – THERE’S A VIBRANT SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE, PROPERTY IS AFFORDABLE, THE CITY IS SURROUNDED BY BEAUTIFUL COUNTRYSIDE AND THE ECONOMY IS STRONG AND DIVERSE." Professor Julia Bennell

Leeds Town Hall

“We have close to £1bn of investment either going through planning or on the ground now, so although the transport system is poor, there are plans afoot to make it better. However, it’s still not up to par compared to other cities and that’s the one big gripe.”

Bickers: “We can do more to continue accelerating the region’s growth as, without a Mayor, we are missing out on some government funding. With a new government seeking to invest in the North, we would benefit from another political voice strongly promoting our city region, helping to seek out new – and maximise on existing – opportunities.”

Goldstone: “Salaries are probably not as high as you might expect given the types of jobs here, but that’s changing. It’s certainly moving in the right direction.

“Leeds has an issue, like a lot of cities, with the loss of graduates to London, but we also attract a lot of graduates from other locations, so we lose a few but we gain more. For all sorts of reasons, with quality of life being one of them.”

How does the Leeds City Region compare to Manchester City region?

Bennell: “Manchester is known due to its rich political history and football teams,

while Leeds is more of a well-kept secret.

The Leeds City Region – Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale, Craven, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds, Selby, Wakefield and York – is the UK’s largest regional economy, with around 109,000 businesses and a GVA of more than £69bn. In pure financial terms, this places it above the Manchester Combined Authority – Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan – which has a GVA of £66.4bn.

“In terms of living in these cities, Leeds has lower consumer prices and higher average wages, giving an overall purchasing power advantage of 17.9% relative to Manchester.

Leeds and Manchester are two great city regions which should be working more closely together to mutual benefit. Improved transport links between the two would help a lot and help increase economic activity in the regions around Leeds.”

Goldstone: “It’s not about Leeds versus Manchester, it’s about Leeds and Manchester working with London to balance the economy. Leeds to Manchester is about 40 miles, which in a southern perspective is Reading to Paddington.

“I think we’re missing a massive opportunity by not having Leeds, Bradford, Manchester

“ONE OF THE THINGS THAT ATTRACTED CHANNEL 4 HERE WASN’T SHINY BUILDINGS, IT WAS ACCESS TO A DIVERSE TALENT BASE. YOU GET THAT IN OUR REGION.” Mark Goldstone

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connectivity. There’s some great job opportunities being created in all of those cities, and not everyone who should have access to them will have, because they’re not on a decent transport connection.”

What impact has Channel 4 moving to the region had?

Goldstone: “Channel 4 has been a massive coup for the region. It’s been absolutely phenomenal.

“They’re bringing 300 jobs here, but that’s not the big thing for me – the big thing is the all the companies that are moving here because they want to be in the orbit of Channel 4’s commissioning body.

“Our Local Enterprise Partnership has been working with businesses, and has set up a scheme of grants to help new start-ups or businesses relocate here. This is where the real benefit will come; those companies which come here, start-up, scale-up, create new opportunities, and we’re seeing that happening already, and Channel 4 is not even fully moved in yet.”

Bickers: “Channel 4’s decision to come to Leeds is a fantastic vote of confidence for our region. It signals confidence in our creative and digital industries which are growing rapidly. Already, the region is seeing spin-off development projects in new film studios and TV editing facilities which bodes well for the future.”

Bennell: “Channel 4’s decision to base its national HQ in Leeds is a big deal for the city and a huge boost for Yorkshire’s media and creative industries.

Cont.  Issue 12: January - February 2020

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61

REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT

“You could feel the sense of pride and optimism in the city when Channel 4 announced that it was moving to Leeds. The broadcaster’s new offices in the city centre are set to open in 2020 – this should help to galvanise the region’s existing media and creative industries, and serve as a base for collaboration with media and creative talent in Bradford, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield.

“Leeds City Council leader Judith Blake, has said that the move could bring 1,000 new jobs and £1bn in regional income within the next decade.”

Bickers: “I am particularly excited about Channel 4’s decision to move into the Majestic development.

Not only has this brought new life to one of the city’s landmark buildings, but its location immediately outside the train station positively affirms Channel 4’s role in the future of the city, along with reinforcing Leeds as a place to be.”

Goldstone: “One of the things that attracted Channel 4 here wasn’t shiny buildings, it was access to a diverse talent

base. You get that in our region. There’s a lot of cultural diversity, real people who aren’t in the Westminster bubble.”

What are the main challenges and opportunities when it comes to evolving Leeds from an economic perspective?

Bickers: “In ever-changing times, and with a government saying they want to invest more in the North and devolve decision-making, now is the time to create opportunities and demonstrate that we, as a region, can deliver excellence.

“We need to pitch and persuade for more investment, particularly in transport, housing and infrastructure, as these are vital to underpinning “CITIES WILL economic performance and CONTINUE TO help improve productivity. We also need to be quicker at GROW AND allocating funding and delivering BECOME MORE projects on the ground.”

IMPORTANT, AND LEEDS IS IN A GREAT PLACE TO CAPITALISE ON THIS EVOLUTION, AS IT HAS SUCH A POSITIVE FUTURE.”

Richard Bicker

Bennell: “Leeds is ideally placed, from a geographical perspective, to continue to grow. But to capitalise on its advantage, Leeds – and the North in general – needs better transport infrastructure.

“This will require significant investment. The government

University of Leeds

needs to spend the money, not just talk about it.”

Bickers: “We also need to focus on enhancing our city centre as this is the lifeblood of our region. Our city centre is changing, with reorganisation of retail, growing leisure markets, businesses moving back into the city and city centre living continuing to grow. Therefore, we must continue to improve the quality, safety, diversity and vitality of the city centre.”

Goldstone: “HS2 and rail; putting in that transport hub. We’re talking to companies that are investing heavily in Leeds city centre, a regeneration area about the size of Edinburgh new town, and we’re seeing those schemes coming forward now. That’s driven by rail mostly, and if we’re attracting all these companies to Leeds, they need to go somewhere.

“For example, the government has rationalised its property in Yorkshire, they have purchased what is going to be called the Government Hub, and there’s going to be about 5,000 people in that building.

I think it was the single biggest property investment in Leeds ever. There’s more of this coming. NHS Digital is rationalising into one. Sky is expanding in Leeds and looking for more space. So there’s quite a lot of big opportunities.

“However, you also need to create spaces for smaller businesses to set up and thrive, and there are plans for an innovation district in the north of the city centre, anchored by the universities and council.”

Bennell: “A real area of opportunity is collaboration between higher education and business. The University of Leeds has a strong track record in commercialising the amazing research being carried out on campus, but we want to do much more. The Nexus building is integral to this. Nexus is a state-of-the-art building on campus which acts as a hub for connecting business with our research and expertise.

“The University has created over 110 companies in the last 20 years, six of which are AIM market-listed with a combined value in excess of £500m. Anyone interested in working more closely with the University should come and look around

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Issue 12: January - February 2020

LEEDS

Leeds Corn Exchange

Nexus – it’s a stunning building.

“Leeds University Business School is working with Leeds City Council, West Yorkshire Combined Authority, and the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to use our expertise in economics and business analysis through work on the new local industrial strategy. We are also collaborating with these partners on the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (REAP), and Leeds City Council’s Our Spaces programme for Leeds city centre development.”

What does the future hold for the city?

What developments are planned and how will they impact the area?

Bennell: “The Leeds economy, and that of the wider region, is well positioned for the future. Leeds has traditionally been strong in areas such as manufacturing, chemicals, education, engineering, finance and law and we are now also sector-leading in the digital and creative industries, medical technology and business services. Looking ahead, fintech, data analytics and digital

Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

industries will be key areas of growth for the city.”

“The diversity of the economy is one of Leeds’s biggest strengths and that should be consolidated as new businesses emerge and grow.

“Cambridge Economic Associates’ forecast of growth for the Leeds city region sees a rate that is 69% higher in the 2015-30 timeframe compared with the 2000-15 timeframe, and projects this as a low-end estimate, due in part to the strength of the city’s growing financial sector.”

Bickers: “Cities will continue to grow and become more important, and Leeds is in a great place to capitalise on this evolution, as it has such a positive future.

“New transport links such as Northern Powerhouse Rail will help underpin this growth and will help to transform Southbank. Projects such as The Tetley, Tower Works and Granary Wharf have really made a difference, however we have not yet achieved a critical mass.

“The completion of Mustard Wharf and new projects by Vastint and CEG this year should help to move this area forward.”

Goldstone: “I’m hoping we’ll see improvements to the train station, bus services and infrastructure, a lot more focus on public realm in the city centre, and driving footfall into there. We’ve had quite a lot of investment in the retail quarter, and retail is probably more successful in Leeds than in other places.”

Bennell: “We need skilled people in good jobs with access to training and we need to support businesses to meet the challenges of the future economy. Leeds’s future has health at the heart of the region, and growth through technology and innovation.

Leeds, and the UK, needs to remain open to doing business globally and we must continue to welcome talented people from around the world.”

Goldstone: “In five years? We’ll have more purpose-built high-quality residential. We’ll have the beginnings of the Southbank encroachment as more companies look to move south of the river. We’ll have a lot more of the sites in the city centre filled in, and I’m hoping the world will know that we are a place to do fintech, and that Channel 4 will be fully embedded into the city, with a lot of good activity happening as a result.

It’s exciting times.” 

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REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT

Leeds – Four of the best

Members of the Impart team

Cities across the UK courted Channel 4 when it was looking for a new base for its national headquarters – but it was Leeds which proved to be the TV station’s destination.

Its arrival could prove to be a game-changer for a number of sectors within the city, delivering new opportunities for those working – or aspiring to work – in film, television, digital and other creative industries.

The new C4 HQ will have creative and digital departments at its heart, and be home to a host of commissioning departments covering areas from comedy and drama to sport and live events.

Some 300 jobs are expected to be created, ranging from onscreen talent to expert digital creatives, as well as commercial, continuity, production and diversity teams, all supporting the station’s investment and stated focus on young content and audiences.

These teams will be backed by a range of onsite business support and operations personnel, including experts in areas like finance, technology, publicity, data, research and HR. Sinead Rocks, Channel 4 Managing Director Nations and Regions, said: “It’s great to be in Leeds. More staff are joining us all the time, so the Channel 4 presence is growing each week and we’ve been given a fantastic welcome by everyone in Leeds and Yorkshire.”

64

Impart Ltd was formed in early 2013 and specialises in helping organisations win business (predominantly through tenders) and develop a more proactive, robust and strategic approach to their business development activities.

Seven years on, it has an extensive customer base, ranging from start-ups to global household names, across multiple sectors (including healthcare, professional services, finance, information technology, telecommunications, rail, construction, civil engineering and manufacturing), and work on opportunities ranging in value from £100k to £1bn.

A spokesman said: “It’s important that organisations acknowledge and embrace the ‘peaks and troughs’ nature of tendering, as the continual fluctuation in opportunity and workload requires a variable level of resource. To support this, Impart offers a very flexible and cost-effective portfolio of services, where our customers have access to a team specialists – only paying for the resources they actually utilise.

“Having worked with bid teams of all sizes, assemblies and skillsets, we recognise the need to tailor our services to complement customers’ in-house capabilities and capacities.

Whether it’s an SME looking for end-to-end bid management or a multi-national company juggling concurrent ‘mustwin’ tenders, we provide the necessary support to deliver sustainable, profitable business growth.”

Issue 12: January - February 2020

LEEDS

One of Europe’s largest business lenders, iwoca, is in the process of becoming the first major fintech firm to open an office in Leeds.

The company has chosen the city to host its latest expansion after winning a £10m grant from the Capability and Innovation Fund to improve lending and payment services to UK SMEs. Iwoca’s new Leeds base will eventually accommodate up to 100 developers, customer support officers and relationship managers.

Chief Operating Officer, Seema Desai, said: “Leeds has a strong heritage in financial services and banking, but we wanted to play a major role in the city’s fintech evolution. We looked at several cities, and Leeds stood out as a natural second home from where we could support even more small businesses across the UK. “We were particularly impressed with the size and quality of Leeds’ talent pool, its strong and improving infrastructure, as well as the city’s own distinctive culture and soul.”

The company was supported in its plans by the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Trade and Investment team.

LEP Chairman, Roger Marsh, said: “The region is the second centre for banking in the UK employing over 28,500 and home to over 30 national and international banks, which provides a very favourable ecosystem for fintechs to thrive.”

Seema Desai, COO at iwoca.

The NHS’s national information and technology partner is based in Leeds – and will this year become the latest tenant to move into the impressive Wellington Place office development.

NHS Digital says its mission ‘is to harness the power of information and technology to improve health and social care’ – and a key step will be its move into state-of-the-art new offices.

The 378,000 sq ft development will accommodate the 2,126 NHS Digital staff based in Leeds, alongside teams from HMRC as part of a Government Hubs programme designed to ‘transform the civil service into a truly modern employer’.

That means joining a host of other companies – including Sky Betting & Gaming, Equifax, Irwin Mitchell, Willis Towers Watson, Ward Hadaway, Mazars and Shulmans – in a development which will ultimately become home to 16,000 workers.

NHS Digital says the move is underpinned by a long-term strategy of base service in areas relevant both to service delivery and efficiency, but also where the body ‘can source the best talent’.

NHS Digital Chief Financial Officer, Carl Vincent, said: “As one of Leeds’ major digital employers, having the opportunity to consolidate our estate and have our people working collaboratively together under one roof that is designed for modern technology delivery, will provide big opportunities to transformational digital change for health and care.”

Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

65

INTERVIEW

so I know it doesn’t come easy…

H

e’s an Olympic, Commonwealth and European champion boxer – but Luke Campbell is also a commentator, motivational speaker, and owner of the Coolhand brand. He’s now a property investor, and rolling out a healthy eating chain and boutique gym. BLM learns more.

YOUR BOXING ACHIEVEMENTS ARE WELL DOCUMENTED, BUT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE OF THE RING? I've got a property business, where we own a number of properties which we rent out, and have a healthy eating business called Feast, that I am growing.

I also have a couple of other things I’m working on, like my own boutique gym, where I will be able to give back and help people. That’s important to me. I like to give back, help kids that need help, and try to put them on the right path.

CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT FEAST? Traditionally, the takeaways you get are curries, Chinese, pizza. People work all day, they’re tired, they’re hungry; they’re trying to be good, but they just want to order some food. But you eat it, and you feel guilty, you feel rubbish for eating it.

We’re offering healthy food as a takeaway. As a boxer, my whole life I’ve had to eat clean, live a strict life. So I have a passion behind eating well. It represents everything I’ve been doing for 20 years.

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Issue 12: January - February 2020

LUKE CAMPBELL HOW BIG CAN THIS GROW? CAN IT GO NATIONAL? That’s our ambition. We want to be able to franchise it and put it everywhere, and we’re putting 100% into this and have a lot of passion for it.

WHAT MADE YOU INVEST IN THIS WAY WHILE STILL FIGHTING? Boxing is one of those things where injuries mean your career could be over in a heartbeat, so the plan is to be smart with what we’ve got.

What I have today, I’d like it to last me a lifetime. I don’t want to give my life to boxing for 19-20 years and then come out of the sport and have to get a job. I’ve dedicated my life to boxing so I’ve got that luxury of not having to do anything if I don’t want to, and still living the life I want.

THAT SHOWS A WISE HEAD. DO YOU COME FROM A BUSINESS FAMILY? I’ve not come from a business background, but I’ve always been a little saver.

It started when relatives came over from Canada when I was 10 years old. They said to me, my brother and my sister, ‘why don’t you guys come over for the next summer… but, you’re going to have to save up. You’re got the whole year, and if you save enough money, you can come and spend the summer with us’.

I was the only one who saved the money.

I had to learn that if I wanted something, I couldn’t just live like the rest of them and have the sweets and go to the swimming baths. I learned I had to sacrifice.

YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN VERY DISCIPLINED, THEN? Definitely. I see some boxers who have been in one big fight, and then they’re driving round in a Rolls-Royce. But we’re trying to invest the money in a way that brings us a monthly income; that’s the key, and we’ll keep building.

But I’d be lying if I said I was the brains behind my businesses. What I have, I put down to my wife. She’s a successful woman, and was a business director with her own family business. It is her who has been investing it all. She’s the brains behind everything I’ve got.

WHICH OF THE ATTRIBUTES THAT MAKE YOU A TOP SPORTSMAN ALSO HELP YOU IN BUSINESS? I’ve learned a lot of lessons through sport. If you want something, you’ve got to work. You Business Leader - Inspire • Inform • Connect

Luke Campball with his wife Lynsey

have to put your hours in and sacrifice to get to the goal.

the world; that’s my bread and butter.

Everything else just works around it.

I’ve learned about being disciplined and dedicated, and that persistence pays off.

Having the right mindset too – not giving up at the first hurdle. If you fall over, if you’re down a little bit, you’ve got to keep going.

DO YOU HAVE AN AGE WHEN YOU PLAN TO RETIRE FROM FIGHTING? Obviously I love the sport, and I have got all the passion in the world to be the best, so once that desire goes, I’ll know it’s time for me to go.

DO PEOPLE UNDERESTIMATE YOU BECAUSE YOU’RE KNOWN FOR ACHIEVEMENTS IN SPORT RATHER THAN BUSINESS? When I’m getting prices, people might thing that ‘he’s alright, he’s well off’ or whatever, and they try to charge me over what it should be. They think they can do that because I’ve got it, but they don’t realise I’ve come from nothing.

They forget I’ve earned my money the hard way. I’ve had to fight for my money, so I know money doesn’t come easy – but I don’t let it go easy.

WHICH OF YOUR VARIED PORTFOLIO IS LIKELY TO PROVE YOUR MAIN FOCUS? My main aim is to be the best I can be at boxing, to put on the best fights and be the most exciting fighter in this country. That’s my ultimate aim. Putting on big, exciting fights for everybody in the country, if not

I don’t want to be getting punched in the face for the rest of my life; I have got a family. But I’ve still got goals and ambitions in boxing, and that includes being crowned world champion. I’ve still very much got a desire to be the best, and I’ll keep going until that goes.

TEN YEARS FROM NOW, WHAT FURTHER AMBITIONS WOULD YOU HOPE TO HAVE REALISED? I’d definitely be a world champion, and I’d also be one of the most exciting fighters. If you were to ask a boxing fan who they love to watch, then, within the top two names I’d love them to say my name – across the world.

Beyond boxing? More properties in the portfolio, a franchise of Feast – I think that’d be plenty. 

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FINAL WORD

PETER NIXON

How to self-disrupt a multi-billion dollar company Philip Morris International (PMI) is one of the world’s leading tobacco companies with revenues in excess of $80bn. However, five years ago the company made a global announcement that it wanted to stop selling cigarettes as fast as possible and focus instead on selling its smoke-free products. Business Leader spoke to Peter Nixon, the UK & Ireland Managing Director about the company’s radical plans and how it is changing smokers lives for the better.

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE COMPANY’S HISTORY AND ITS RECENT SELF-DISRUPTION? We are best known as the sellers of Marlboro – that is what our history is built on to become one of the biggest tobacco companies in the world. We originally started on Bond Street in London by a man called Philip Morris.

Five years ago, our CEO came out and announced that we were going to stop selling cigarettes, and we then put all of our focus into selling smoke-free products.

This included e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, like IQOS, and some new technologies. We are transforming the whole company. This created a shockwave around the world and within the company itself. When you have 80,000 employees and operate across 180 markets, to then announce that we aren’t going to sell those anymore one day was a surprise. However, if you think about it, it is a logical move.

New tech is now coming so fast, people will come up with the products that will replace cigarettes and reduce the harm associated with smoking. Our CEO had the vision, and decided that we would go all out to build a smoke-free future. Since 2008, we’ve invested more than £4bn into the science and research of developing smokefree products, and we employ more than 400 world-class scientists, engineers and technicians to help us.

IQOS itself now makes up 60% of the global Reduced Risk Products market with a £10bn retail value last year.

HOW HAS THE COMPANY CHANGED IN THOSE FIVE YEARS? My job is to lead the transformation here in the UK and Ireland. I have been with the company for 16 years, but when I came to the UK, we looked at transforming a 68

company that just sells cigarettes to one that is completely focused on alternatives.

The traditional business is a simple one.

You harvest the leaves, roll them up, package them and then sell them across the world. It is now completely different as we have electronics involved and we have a whole new division dedicated to this. They are constantly working on new designs and upgrades to our smoke-free portfolio.

The last five years have felt like I have been working at a completely different company. It is like being a start-up, but being a massive global company at the same time. Disruptive thinking but from within the business that leads the industry.

Companies normally react to outside disruption, but this is a unique business transition that we have gone through. We are trying to avoid our own Kodak moment.

We have the disrupter technology in house – so we are going to use it. This means there will be less smokers and cigarette sales – but that is the future of the industry.

The UK has around 7.2 million smokers.

They are looking for less harmful, yet satisfying, alternatives to smoking. We will give them that choice.

Peter Nixon, Managing Director at Philip Morris Limited

alternatives, like the heated tobacco that we offer, or the vaping solutions we have. Once we have more awareness, the interest will grow rapidly. Internally, we are very excited, and externally, when we meet people they understand the difference and why this solution that we offer makes sense.

If you can move people over to these less harmful alternatives, rather than them failing to quit, then it is better for everyone in the long run. There is a genuine drive for people to join us to make a difference for the smokers. The government have reached a point where they have increased taxation on cigarettes through the roof and have strict regulations, but they are unsure what to do next – they now understand that supporting alternatives is the best way to get people to stop smoking. That is a massive change from a decade ago, and something that they have actively changed their mindset on.

We have a 25% market share for our traditional conventional business. For the new marketplace, we control 60% of it.

However, in this new tech-focused world, the industry moves at incredible speed. The market share can shift in very short periods of time – that is the power of innovation.

We are moving from a stable marketplace to a volatile one, and that is why we have innovation at the heart of what we do.

WHAT DO THE NEXT FIVE YEARS HOLD FOR THE COMPANY? Our end goal is for there to be no cigarettes at all and so we are currently working towards that. The government has committed to end smoking in England by 2030. We want to get there as soon as possible by driving as much change as we can and helping people switch to alternative products. Our immediate goal is to sell more alternatives than cigarettes. Once that happens, we can talk about phasing out cigarettes from the business – that is our end goal.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR THE INDUSTRY? 60% of smokers want to quit and try every year, but only 2-3% will succeed. Most of the time as they are unaware of the

People view us as a dusty, old company – however, we are more like a new-age tech start-up with constant innovation and selfdisruption. We are still leading the industry, but in a completely different way.  Issue 12: January - February 2020

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