Ulster Business - June 2013 by Ulster Business

ULSTER BUSINESS

JUNE 2013 Price £2.30 (23.75)

TECH CITY: Can we meet the demand for IT jobs? EXPORT NERVES: Why not enough NI firms are exporting READ MY LIPS: The next big thing in cyber security

Better, Faster, Stronger Capita’s John Chambers outlines how the company plans to grow its Northern Ireland business after acquiring Northgate Managed Services.

JUNE 2013

ISSN 1363-2507

9 771363 250005

CONTENTS

What’s inside... 60

Volume 25 No.6

JUNE 2013

features

16 - Cover Story – Capita 22 - Economic Analysis 60 - John Simpson 64 - Ernst & Young on Tax 76 - Interview – Sir Tim Smit 78 - Women In Business 79 - BITC Awards

ICT QUARTERLY 28 - Profile – Liopa 30 - Export Technologies 32 - Analysis – IT Skills

64 32

MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP 42 - Replacing a great leader 44 - Learning with Lego 46 - Interview – Nesta 48 - Interview – Belfast Met 50 - David Meade

EXPORTS 54 - Encouraging Exports 56 - Quintin Oliver 58 - Selling to China 62 - Aerospace Opportunities

CORPORATE LAW 68 - Changes to Libel Law 70 - M&A Update 72 - Mediation

REGULARS

6 - News 83 - Motoring 90 - Appointments 92 - Photocall 98 - Gadget Guide 100 - Business Traveller 106 - People In Business

JUNE 2013 3

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EDITOR’S COMMENT

Always switched on

he June issue of Ulster Business has, in years gone by, signalled the traditional lull that descends on Northern Ireland over the summer months. A lot of families take time off in July and many factories and engineering works would have completely shut down for several weeks over the 12th holiday. While I still expect my email inbox to be less clogged up with press releases over the summer, the time when the local economy could afford to just shut up shop are long gone. We now live in a global business world that operates, in a lot of sectors, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s particularly true in the fast-growing technology and IT sector, where those working for international companies answer to bosses in different time zones and indigenous firms are increasingly employed by clients elsewhere in the world. Apple’s Steve Wozniak recently told a

conference in Derry that the computers he developed – and most technological advances – are supposed to make life easier for people but have tended to result in us all working for longer. There is a technology theme running through this issue that reflects the growing importance of the sector to the future prosperity of Northern Ireland. Our cover story features the team at Capita Managed IT Solutions, who explain why it bought the former Northgate Managed Services business and how it plans to expand in future. We also feature interviews with some of the other big employers in the IT sector to gauge the progress that has been made to ensure there are enough talented and qualified programmers coming through to fill the raft of IT jobs that Invest NI is helping bring to the province. With the G8 in Fermanagh this month,

the eyes of the world will be focused on Northern Ireland for a short time. What better opportunity to showcase how the Northern Ireland economy has moved on, from ships and shirts to a region with the potential to be one of Europe’s leading technology hubs. The spread of digital innovation into consumer technology, the rise of social media, and the fact that most of us have a smartphone in our pocket all of the time, means we are far more attuned to technology than we once were. Maybe, to some degree, we all work in IT now!

Editor: Symon Ross Manager: Sonia Armstrong Deputy Manager: Sylvie Brando Advertising Executive: Stuart Hackney Art Editor: Stuart Gray Production Manager: Stuart Gray Cover Photography: Richard Trainor Publisher: James & Gladys Greer

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JUNE 2013 5

NEWS

Apple co-founder calls for “fair tax”

he co-founder of technology giant Apple believes criticism of his former company’s tax policy is absolutely warranted and called for large corporations to be taxed the same as the man on the street. Speaking at the EBN Congress in Derry, organised by the Northern Ireland business innovation centre Noribic, Steve Wozniak (pictured) said Apple should be treated “the same as the little guy” when asked about the company using its Irish subsidiaries to lower its tax bill. Wozniak, who set-up the company in the mid-1970s with the late Steve Jobs before leaving in 1987, was responding to criticism that Apple had paid just 2 per cent of tax on $74bn (£49bn) in overseas income, largely by using a loophole in its Irish subsidiary. “People are not taxed on profit, they are taxed on income. Corporations should be taxed the same as people in my mind, that is how it should be, that would make things fair and right,” the computer entrepreneur told journalists. “That means corporations pay taxes on all of their revenues or people only pay it on a tiny amount called profit and until we rectify that the whole problem will be with us forever. “That is why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I am always for the individual... that’s the reason I created the Apple computer at the start, it was to empower the little guy,” he said. The two Steves set up Apple in 1976, with Wozniak the technical driving force and inventor of the Apple 2 computer, which revolutionised the personal computer and made them affordable to the masses. Wozniak said that because corporations did not have “personal ethics” and were driven by the need to maximise profits for shareholders they would look for any opportunities afforded by tax codes. “They are just obeying the system, the big companies are all obeying the system of taxation, they are all doing the same things and you can say the system is bad to allow these things that people do not consider ethical. “(But) the system is that way because those with the power and the money, large corporations particularly, make sure that politicians create a system that will enhance the corporations.”

Entrepreneurs retreat to the Second City

ntrepreneurs from six Northern Ireland companies are this month jetting off to the 2013 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year CEO Retreat, taking place between Chicago, Notre Dame University and New York. Over 110 of Ireland’s leading entrepreneurs will attend the retreat between June 12 and 18, including the 24 finalists from this year’s programme. Considered one of the ultimate international gatherings for Ireland’s top business minds, the week-long CEO Retreat will be geared towards challenging and inspiring Ireland’s entrepreneurs to enhance their strategy towards growth on both a domestic and international level and maximise their potential to compete and win against global market leaders, said Ernst & Young. World-class academics and prominent global business advisors have worked with Entrepreneur Of The Year to devise a bespoke business syllabus of executive education sessions as well as high level speaker and networking events with American entrepreneurs, political leaders and senior executives from Fortune 500 companies The heads of the Northern Ireland-based companies attending the retreat are: Mark Godfrey & Simon Cole from technology firm Automated Intelligence; Colin Williams from children’s television producer Sixteen South (pictured); Peter Dixon from Kellen Investments, owners of Phoenix Gas; Seamus McKeague of Creagh Concrete Products; Martin Hamilton from food company Mash Direct; and Eleanor McEvoy of Budget Energy.

6 JUNE 2013

NEWS

SPREADING SUCCESS: Students from a Lisburn school have been crowned winners of the overall Company award at the Young Enterprise Annual Awards. Wallace High School pupils, through their company Twist ‘N’ Spread, beat stiff competition from across Northern Ireland by manufacturing, marketing and selling the ‘Butter Finger’ – a twistable tube filled with butter which is a mess-free alternative to conventional spreading. Having clinched the top spot, the firm will now go on to represent Northern Ireland at the national awards in London, which will take place in July. Prizes were also presented to Tor Bank School, Dundonald, as the winners of the Team Programme – a competition for students with learning challenges – and Matthew Gibson, from St Malachy’s College, Belfast, as Young Entrepreneur of the Future. Pictured are Michael Hall of Ernst & Young; Chris Robinson of Twist ‘N’ Spread; Michael Mercieca of Young Enterprise UK and Carol Fitzsimons of Young Enterprise NI.

JUNE 2013 7

NEWS

Agri-sector targets creation News in Brief of 15,000 new jobs by 2020 Galgorm Castle Estates has announced an £8m investment that will see it create over 60 fulland part-time jobs in Ballymena. The estate, which consists of Galgorm Castle, a courtyard housing twenty businesses and a championship golf course, is to expand in three phases, which will include the development of a garden centre, a new business centre and essential restoration of the Castle itself. CDEnviro in Cookstown has secured its first major contract in Brazil after participating on a trade mission organised by Invest Northern Ireland. The project will see CDEnviro supply equipment to be applied to the washing of tomatoes post harvesting and the subsequent removal of soil from the water used for washing. This will allow the water to be reused and it will introduce significant efficiencies to the production process. Ultra Plant International, the Dungannonbased manufacturer of recycling machinery, has won business worth around £500,000 in France. The contract is to supply 12 compact Trommel machines for recycling waste and other materials to Mecasoud in Paris, one of France’s leading equipment distributors. Universal Pictures’ Dracula will be the next large-scale Hollywood production to film in Northern Ireland. Dracula, directed by Gary Shore and produced by Michael De Luca, will commence pre-production immediately with a three-month shoot that will last from August to November. Production will be based in Belfast with filming across various other local locations. NI Screen has awarded the film £1.65m in funding, which is expected to deliver £15m expenditure of goods and services. The Councils of the North West Region Waste Management Group (NWRWMG) have agreed to appoint a consortium consisting of Shanks, Brickkiln and Sisk as its preferred bidder in a £500m procurement exercise to deliver modern waste facilities. The consortium, known as SBS Waste Partnership, will now enter a final period of fine tuning with the NWRWMG in preparation for the signature of the contract to deliver a mix of Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) and gasification technologies.

8 JUNE 2013

s many as 15,000 additional jobs could be created in the Agri-food sector, according to a Strategic Action Plan launched by the sector at the Balmoral Show. The Strategic Action Plan has been developed by the Agri-Food Strategy Board following extensive engagement with the Agri-Food industry and other stakeholders. It includes more than 100 recommendations aimed at accelerating the growth of farming, fishing and food and drink processing in Northern Ireland to 2020 and beyond. Key targets in the Strategic Action Plan to 2020 include: • 60% growth in sales to £7bn; • 15% increase in employment to over 115,000; • 75% growth in sales outside Northern Ireland to £4.5bn; • 60% increase to £1bn in total added value of products and services from local companies. First Minister Peter Robinson said: “Agri-Food has immense potential to contribute to economic recovery and longer term prosperity in Northern Ireland. The Agri-Food Strategy Board has identified a wide range of challenging recommendations which could lead to much needed additional employment for around 15,000 people.” The plan was presented by Tony O’Neill, Chair of the Agri-Food Strategy Board, who said: “The aim of the Board in developing the Strategic Action Plan has been to support the development of fully integrated supply chains which are focused on the needs of customers at home and in our international markets. Our primary producers and processors must work more closely than ever if we are to deliver sustainable profitability across the supply chain. “We are confident that implementation of the recommendations in the Plan will enable us to harness the huge global opportunities for our produce, as the provision of wholesome, healthy and safe agri-food products offers enormous potential in terms of feeding an ever more demanding global population.” The plan was released as Dungannon-based meat processor Linden Foods announced a £5m investment in its business, which will create 179 new jobs.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX: Greiner Packaging in Dungannon has announced a £2.2m expansion that will see it also create 10 new jobs.The Austrian-owned company is investing in state-of-the-art In-Mould Labelling technology to meet demand for its packaging.The site saw over 17% growth in 2012. Pictured are Lord Morrow; Darryl McShane, Operations Manager at Greiner; Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster and Jarek Zasadzinski, CEO of Greiner Packaging UK

NEWS

CHURCH BUSINESS: One of Northern Ireland’s most architecturally stunning buildings – and headquarters of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland – Assembly Buildings is developing an additional aspect to its life as it opens a major conference venue that’s set to bring “new business and commerce to the city” of Belfast. Following an extensive £8m refurbishment and restoration programme, a major new conference venue capable of accommodating up to 1150 people has been officially unveiled at the Presbyterian Church headquarters today. The new conference centre, while initially established to meet the needs of the Church, is expected to attract high-profile national and international organisations as well as local business groups. Attending the official opening event of the conference centre were First Minister Peter Robinson, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland Dr Roy Patton.

JUNE 2013 9

NEWS

The BIG Numbers £40m

The value of the economic boost which Northern Ireland could receive from the G8 meeting in Fermanagh, according to research from Barclays. percentage increase which 17.8% The both Power NI and Airtricity

will impose on customers from July 1 as a result of rising wholesale energy costs. number of additional jobs 15,000 The the Agri-Food Strategy Board

thinks could be created in the agri-food sector.

amount a new Dracula film £15m The is expected to generate for the

local economy over the course of filming.

300

The number of jobs secured by the sale of six Botanic Inns pubs and bars to the Horatio Group, run by the its former MD Stephen Magorrian.

Momentum launch digital summit

omentum, the voice of the digital sector which represents over 300 companies, has announced it will hold a ‘Digital Summit’ on September 25 2013. The Summit, which is a key element of the Momentum Manifesto document launched in January, aims to discuss the issues of access to skills, access to funding and access to markets leading to the creation of 20,000 new jobs in the sector in the next five to ten years. Invest NI has highlighted its support for the summit; as well as Queen’s University, the University of Ulster and Belfast Metropolitan College. Speaking as Momentum launched the Summit, Chairman Rob McConnell (pictured with Employment Minister Stephen Farry) said: “We’re delighted to announce that our Digital Summit will take place in September, and to say with real confidence that our prediction of how we can create 20,000 jobs in this sector within five to ten years is no idle suggestion. The recent fantastic announcements from Deloitte and Allstate show what can be achieved, but what we are talking about here is a step change in Northern Ireland’s ability to cope with, and benefit from, the massive opportunity which exists to create substantial new employment in the sector. The fact that there are over 1,000 unfilled posts in Northern Ireland right now shows that while there’s great work going on within and across government, we have some way to go yet.”

consumer prices index grew 2.4% The by 2.4% in the year to April, down from an inflation rate of 2.8% in March due to lower transport costs.

number of new high value 177 The jobs that Deloitte is to create at its Technology Studio in Belfast, adding to the recent IT boom.

FTSE 100 hit highs last seen 6,755 The in at the height of the dotcom boom nearly 13 years ago.

65%

Retailers have seen the amount of tax they have to pay rocket by almost two-thirds in less than a decade, says a report by PwC.

number of premium 898,000 The bond holders who National Savings & Investments says are owed a combined £44m in unclaimed prizes dating back to 1957.

10 JUNE 2013

Inspiring Leader: Principal and Chief Executive of Belfast Metropolitan College, Marie-Thérèse McGivern, has been named ‘Inspiring Leader 2013’ at a national awards ceremony in London.The Women’s Leadership Network (WLN) award is presented annually to an individual from the learning and skills sector who has displayed exceptional leadership capability and who has actively and effectively encouraged other women to follow their lead. Described by the judges as having “the ability to galvanise support and embed a sense of collective ambition in those around her,” Ms McGivern was commended for her role in steering Belfast Met through a period of unprecedented organisational change.

Making a show of agri-exports By John Henning, Head of Agricultural Relations, Danske Bank

Hotel industry’s 2012 performance offers hope

otel occupancy increased by 15% in 2012, boosted by the NI 2012 Our Time Our Place campaign, according to the annual NI Hotel Industry Survey published by ASM Chartered Accountants. Based on the survey returns, ASM estimates that there were an additional 270,000 hotel bedrooms occupied in 2012, a 15% increase over 2011, while bedroom occupancy rates across Northern Ireland averaged 73.2% during the year, as against 64.7% in 2011. Spending in Northern Ireland hotels is estimated to have totalled £315m, net of VAT. Commenting on the survey results Michael Williamson, Director of Consulting at ASM said: “It is clear that in those regions where major events or openings occurred, that there was a significant and welcome boost to visitor numbers and overnight stays. For instance, of the 270,000 additional rooms occupied during the year around 150,000 relate to Belfast, which recorded an average bedroom occupancy rate of 78.4% for 2012. This is no surprise given the programme of events associated with the Titanic Centenary and the huge success of Titanic Belfast in attracting around 800,000 visitors in its first year.” ASM noted that 2012 saw Northern Ireland stage a series of other events, including the Irish Open, and the opening of new attractions such as the Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre. While the bedroom occupancy rate increased overall, hotels located in rural areas recorded relatively small increases in demand compared to Belfast and Derry/Londonderry. The average rate per room sold (net of VAT) across the country was £65.50, a relatively small increase on the £62.74 recorded in the previous year given the large increase in bedroom demand – suggesting widespread discounting. And although income from room sales increased by an average of 18.4%, total revenues across the hotels were only up 6.3%, reflecting weak trading in food and beverage operations and the conference market. Overall profits increased by an average of almost 9%. There was also an increase in the number of out of state visitors, rising from 64% to 67%.

his year’s Balmoral Show, hosted for the first time at the Maze site, was an exciting new chapter in the history of the event. After a long stay at the King’s Hall, organisers were looking to expand, innovate and do things differently. The same could be said of those in the sector who are now looking to increase their exports. Export activity in the agri-sector isn’t new, of course. But it’s clear among the major players in the sector that there is a fresh desire to look at new techniques and new targets to encourage sustainable, export-led growth. The Agri Food Strategy Board has recently produced a report called ‘Going for Growth’ which outlines a set of key targets and recommendations to help maintain and enhance the ability of Northern Ireland’s agri-food sector to contribute to economic recovery. The goals laid out in the document – which run up to 2020 – are challenging but achievable. They include growing sales outside Northern Ireland by 75 per cent to £4.5bn and growing employment by 15 per cent to 115,000. What’s important is that these goals are accompanied by suggestions on how the Board hopes to achieve them, such as removing barriers to export in the form of charges for Export Health Certificates (EHCs). There is also a call to those involved in the sector to strive for innovation as a way of generating overseas sales in a sector where product is often perishable. This takes the form of product innovation, including shelf-life, to help deliver greater export opportunities to access markets even further across the globe. Such development is to be married to process innovation to develop more efficient and co-operative product distribution models. Although the UK and Ireland are sometimes seen as smaller players in the agri-food sector, the presence of some significant TNCs and the entrepreneurship within local companies enables us to punch above our weight on the world stage. We need to take advantage of that reputation and build on the economic fundamentals to grow this significant export opportunity.

To talk to us about how we might support your exporting ambitions, you can email me on john.henning@danskebank.co.uk or telephone 028 9004 5000

JUNE 2013 11

NEWS

Disappointment over 18% News in Brief rise in electricity prices Newtownabbey-based Capita Managed IT Solutions has been awarded new multi-site schools information and communication technology contracts worth £11.6m. Working in partnership with the Leicester Miller Education Company and Leicester City Council, Capita will design and implement a new ICT infrastructure which will enable learning from a range of mobile devices.

Mivan has secured a number of major cruise ship outfitting contracts worth around £8m. The majority of the contracts are with current customers, Crystal Cruises, Princess Cruises and Carnival Australia. The work aboard the Pacific Jewel for Carnival Australia starts in August of this year, however design development, procurement and manufacturing has commenced. The re-fit will take place in Sydney, Australia over a three week period. The £4m contract to deliver the first phase of the Connswater Community Greenway project has been awarded to Maghera-based BSG Civil Engineering Ltd. The total project is worth £35m, with the second £23m phase due to begin next Spring, and the rest of the funding to cover public art, land purchase, employment and future management and maintenance of the Greenway. Construction work will be completed by Spring 2014. Belfast-based CEM Systems, part of Tyco Security Products, has secured the prestigious Khalifa Port & Industrial Zone in Abu Dhabi with its CEM AC2000 SE system. Khalifa Port is crucial to the ADPC (Abu Dhabi Ports Company) megaproject which includes Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad). Featuring the latest technology and designed to accommodate the world’s largest ships, Khalifa Port will become one of the biggest ports in the world. Firebrand Digital Strategies, a Belfast-based technology start-up specialising in digital marketing, has won a six-figure deal with a global manufacturer. The company has secured its first export business with Suominen Nonwovens, part of Finland’s Suominen Corporation, to provide an innovative digital marketing campaign that is designed to extend its engagement with its global consumer base.

12 JUNE 2013

he Assembly’s Enterprise Committee is to quiz power company bosses after the two main electricity suppliers in Northern Ireland both announced plans to hike up prices by almost 18%. Power NI, Northern Ireland’s dominant energy company with almost 80% of the domestic and nearly 50% of the business market, announced that from July 1, prices would go up by 17.8% as a result of significant increases in the costs of purchasing wholesale electricity. Airtricity, which has around 19% of the domestic market and 28% of business customers, quickly followed suit and also announced a 17.8% hike citing similar reasons. The announcements will add an extra £90 to the typical household bills, the companies estimated. The Consumer Council’s chief executive, Antoinette McKeown, the announcements were “very unwelcome” for struggling consumers and businesses. “The biggest savings can be made by switching supplier and switching your method of payment,” she said. Chairperson of Stormont’s Enterprise Committee, Patsy McGlone MLA added: “There is a very fine balance in ensuring competition in the market, sustainability for our businesses and providing a fair price for consumers. However, we are very concerned about the price increase announcement – an increase of 18% for household electricity is quite considerable, especially given our current economic circumstances.”

Accountants pessimistic about outlook

hartered accountants are overwhelmingly pessimistic about Northern Ireland’s economic prospects in the year ahead, with the majority of the 400 polled in a new survey believing the region is still firmly in recession. The Chartered Accountants Ulster Society found that 56% of those surveyed view prospects as poor or worse over the coming year and only 6% are optimistic about the year ahead with 38% uncertain as to how the economy might perform. Of the 400 Chartered Accountants in practice, industry and the public sector, 83% said Northern Ireland was still in a period of recession. The survey also showed that the timescale for economic recovery has slipped. In 2011 most members thought there would be economic recovery towards the end of 2012. Now half of those surveyed say that it will be beyond 2014 before Northern Ireland returns to positive growth. Only 5% of Chartered Accountants Ulster members believe that there will be a return to growth this year. The top issues that respondents felt are contributing to uncertainty over the economy are political stability and a range of finance issues including availability of finance and a lack of working capital. Darren McDowell (pictured), Chairman of Chartered Accountants Ulster Society which represents over 3,600 Chartered Accountants in Northern Ireland, said: “This survey shows that Northern Ireland’s economic recovery has still some considerable way to go. Our members feel it may be 2014 or beyond before we see some positive growth. While there may be somewhat positive signs in IT, agriculture and for exporters, it looks as though the year ahead will continue to be challenging for local business.”

NEWS

TECH AWARDS FAST APPROACHING: Deloitte is urging local businesses to look out for the launch of the 2013 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards later this month, to be in with a chance of joining NI’s leading technology businesses including Rehabstudio, Novosco and Texthelp on the prestigious ranking. The awards, now in their 14th year, recognise and rank indigenous technology companies – from all over Ireland – with exceptional growth in turnover over the last five years. Fifteen Northern Ireland companies were included in the main list last year with Belfast based Rehabstudio leading the local charge. David Crawford, Partner with Deloitte Belfast (pictured with rehabstudio’s Jurgen Prause), said: “Last year’s Fast 50 showed that our indigenous companies are really holding their own against the global businesses based here, as well as proving the breadth of the sector within NI. I urge all local tech businesses to look out for the launch of the Technology Fast 50 Programme for 2013 this month.”

JUNE 2013 13

NEWS

Aepona in Belfast will become an Intel centre of excellence B elfast-based mobile telecoms software firm Aepona will play an integral role in Intel’s Software & Services Group following its acquisition by the global chip giant and is set to expand after securing several large contracts, according to one of the company’s senior management team. Intel confirmed in April that it had bought Aepona for an undisclosed sum, reported to be in the region of £80m. Michael Crossey, Aepona’s vice president of marketing, said the deal was “not just a typical technology acquisition” so Intel could get hold of Aepona’s intellectual property. “Intel acquired Aepona for its market presence, its skills, its knowledge and its customer base. We are now part of the Network Products and Service divisions within Intel, reporting into the Software & Services Group. This site here in Belfast is a centre of excellence for that part of the business and a route into Europe. It’s definitely not an IP or a technology acquisition,” he told Ulster Business. While globally recognised as a chip business, Intel also has a very large software business, which if it were a stand alone company would be one of the largest in the world. Its biggest software business is McAfee, the internet security software leader. Crossey highlighted the recent appointment of Renee James, previously head of the software business of Intel and chair[person] of McAfee to the position of President of Intel as being a clear signal that software was clearly very strategic for Intel. “Intel saw value in Aepona’s relationships with some of the biggest mobile players in the world. We already work with the likes of Vodafone, Orange, Vimpelcom in Russia, Rogers in Canada and Sprint in the US,” he added. “For both sides this was the right deal at the right time. This was very much a positive alignment of what we were doing with Intel’s larger plans. For investors it was the right opportunity and for our staff we are now the experts in a particular area for Intel.” With its core PC market flat, Intel is making a push into network and mobile software. Aepona is an industry leader in API exposure and monetization platforms for service providers around the world. Its solution allows Communications Service Providers to

14 JUNE 2013

Michael Crossey

securely grant access to their network resources to Independent Software Vendors, network providers, enterprises and OEMs while achieving monetization opportunities. Intel also recently bought San Francisco-based Mashery, a business similar to Aepona but operating at the enterprise end of the market. “It is an area that Intel are very interested in developing. At the end of the day we’re helping operators to stay relevant and stay valuable in a world of Over-the-Top services where Google and Facebook and Amazon are taking the value. The operators are building the networks but not getting the revenues,” he said. Crossey said the company will keep the Aepona brand for the foreseeable future and noted there is continuity in the business, with its Belfast management and US heads of operations and sales all still in place. Before the acquisition Aepona had won a countrywide deal with Vodafone in India and

is on the verge of announcing another large contract in the country which Crossey says will require it to bring more software engineers on board – both in Belfast and Sri Lanka. “We have to build a distributed system that will serve the whole of the Indian market. The deployment and delivery of that project in the next 6-12 months is key for us and we’ll be hiring to help us deliver that. Right now we have open positions and we need to raise our profile as a place for skilled people to come and work,” he said. “IT skills are in demand but we have some leading edge technologies, we’re part of one of the world’s most attractive brands and our projects are international, which will hopefully attract people. The convergence of enterprise and mobile technologies is a good place to be and hopefully people will be attracted to the quality of the work. Belfast could just be a starting point for a career in a global organisation.”

COVER STORY

Business as usual Ulster Business meets the leadership team at Capita Managed IT Solutions in Newtownabbey to find out about the new owner’s plans for the managed service IT business.

here is always a risk when a locally based company is acquired by a larger corporation that the identity of that organisation and the strengths that led to its success can be watered down and lost. Not so with Capita plc’s acquisition of Northgate Managed Services. Northgate was well known both in Northern Ireland and Great Britain for providing cloud based and infrastructure services to public, private and third sector organisations, as well as specialist managed IT services in the education,

16 JUNE 2013

government, utilities and charities sectors. Capita agreed to acquire the business from its GB-based parent Northgate Information Solutions for an enterprise value of £65m in February this year. While the transaction only closed in March it is clear when I visit the company’s office in Newtownabbey in late May that the transition to becoming Capita Managed IT Solutions has been a smooth one. John Chambers, director of Capita Managed IT Solutions, says that is largely because Capita

had no intention of making radical changes when it bought the company. “We’re not fundamentally changing how the operation works because it does work and we’re very pleased with how it performs. We have plans and ideas around how we can compete better, but we’re in a good place,” he told Ulster Business. “Service excellence is core and the first thing we had to do was reassure clients that things are not changing. Our high standards will be maintained.”

COVER STORY

Mr Chambers, who has 25 years of experience in the IT industry, the last three with Capita, explains that Capita was interested in Northgate for a number of reasons – the strength of its client base, its service delivery track record and its technical capability, not to mention the local delivery capability that the Newtownabbey delivery centre offers to the company. Northgate’s strengths were viewed as complementary to other divisions of Capita plc, a stock market listed provider of BPO and integrated professional support service solutions

with over 50,000 staff at more than 350 sites, including 70 business centres across the UK, Europe, India and South Africa. Already, Capita is working out how best to utilise the expertise in Northern Ireland, while teams from the wider Capita group are collaborating with the leaders of the former Northgate business to identify opportunities to offer additional services to existing clients. “There are projects that maybe Northgate wouldn’t have gone for previously because they were outside of its core areas of expertise which,

following the acquisition, they are going for. That’s an immediate benefit. There are areas which the rest of Capita is strong in which are already complementing what we do here,” said Chambers. “Capita as a wider organisation is growing rapidly. There is demand in the marketplace. The confidence the acquisition gives to the team here in terms of certainty means that we’re now developing the pipeline of work quite aggressively.” While he lives in England, Chambers >>>

JUNE 2013 17

COVER STORY

is originally from Newtownards and will be spending at least three days a week in Northern Ireland in his new role, while also overseeing the business’s offices in Scotland and England. “We have a very strong team here, which is why there hasn’t been a truck load of people from Capita who have showed up to take over. It is more about getting the connections going to see what we can achieve,” he said. “My role is to drive that collaboration and look at how we can accelerate the growth of the business. Having that knowledge of Capita and the team here and in GB is the primary objective at this stage.” POSITIVE REACTION Ed Brown, Service Delivery Director at Capita Managed IT Solutions and a long term Northgate employee, says that both his colleagues and customers have welcomed the alliance with Capita. “We spent a lot of time talking to our customers and the response has been overwhelmingly positive towards the acquisition. Many of them see the added value that Capita brings to the table as being very good for them as well,” he said. “It has been incredibly refreshing to see that collaboration is not just something that’s talked about, it is something which is executed on. Not only have we seen the benefits of the complementary skills sets and been able to bring that to existing customers, but it is a two way street. Capita have brought us to the table with their customer base to work on projects already. We hope it is going to be really beneficial for us both,” he adds. It’s a sentiment that Marketing Director Eleanor Lee agrees with, noting the communication with both staff and clients has been a priority. “We spent that first eight weeks communicating with staff and customers around what Capita is all about and giving them a chance to ask questions here and in all the other offices. The response has been good. A lot of people are still doing the same things and working with the same clients. But the leaders in the business are very comfortable with where we go next as part of Capita,” she said.

organisation which Capita recognised and they plan to really leverage those skills in areas we’re good at,” says Ed Brown. “A lot of contracts will come up for renewal and I think being part of the larger Capita organisation puts us in a position of strength to renew those contracts and also make more services available to those customers. We can bring many different services into play as part of Capita that we never had ourselves as Northgate.” He notes that with every organisation striving to be more efficient, reduce costs and at the same time deliver better service to their own customers, there are plenty of opportunities to provide additional services to both new and existing customers. “Increasingly customers are really evaluating when they go to tender whether a company is going to have the financial strength to deliver for the lifespan of a contract,” he adds.

GROWTH AREAS Northgate Managed Services made a pro-forma operating profit for its financial year to April 2012 of £10m on turnover of £141.6m. Geographically, business is split almost 50/50 between Northern Ireland and Great Britain and Capita’s directors aim to maintain that balance to keep the business competitive. The business is also set to remain focused on its core areas, namely the public sector (it has renewed a number of large public sector contracts since the acquisition); utilities; education; and increasingly the mid-market commercial sector. “I think it is very much a case of more of the same – hopefully much more of the same. We have real capabilities and skills in our

CHALLENGES That organisations are striving for ever greater efficiencies also means Capita’s market is a competitive one. “For everyone in this industry the market is quite tough at the moment. Customers are demanding an awful lot more for what they spend, which has not increased,” says Brown. “That drives us to be more efficient in what we do and we have to add a lot more value to demonstrate what we bring to them. For the next little while the market is going to remain tough so value for money is going to be incredibly important.” Brown says that while there are organisations which compete purely on cost, most of the firm’s customers put an emphasis on quality of

18 JUNE 2013

service, so going to the lowest cost provider isn’t an option for them. Far from just having the components in place, the best managed services providers are the ones who can extract the most value from the technology, he notes. Capita is also at the forefront of helping its clients deal with changes in the way organisations and their people use technology – for example the increasing trend towards mobile computing and Bring Your Own Device. Ed Brown explains: “What you end up with is multiple interfaces with the system – users may have a laptop and desktop computer, ipad, some form of android device, and they are using all of them to interface with their core enterprise system. That’s a huge challenge for internal IT departments and one of the areas we can help them with.” THE FUTURE Capita Managed IT Solutions has approximately 1,000 employees, more than half of which are in Northern Ireland. It has a low staff attrition rate and, having invested significantly in apprenticeships, remains a key player in developing the pool of IT talent in the province. Chambers says it is Capita’s intention to grow the business further in Northern Ireland and, while it is early days, the initial signs bode well. “Part of why we acquired the organisation is the centre that’s here and the ability to leverage it into other opportunities,” says Chambers. “We have ambitions of growing the business but we will go about that in a way that is sustainable. Having that core team that has worked for the organisation for a long time gives us real strength and technical skills that will allow us to onboard additional resource and have those people be productive very quickly.”

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Counting the Cost? How business costs are hampering business Professor Neil Gibson and Richard Johnston from the NI Centre for Economic Policy find there is more to the access to finance question than first meets the eye.

he perilous state of the Northern Ireland economy is well known given that it has been this way for half a decade. But rather than focusing only on the problems, the more relevant question is what to do in response? The challenging economic conditions have led to a number of policy responses in Northern Ireland including a new economic strategy focussing heavily on exports, a major push to increase access to finance and Invest NIâ€™s jobs fund. Of these policy areas access to finance has been the most high profile because it is an emotive subject and also that the banks remain a popular â€˜villainâ€™ to blame for our current economic woes. However, as is almost always the case, the real issues are much more complex. Many businesses face a fundamental lack of demand as a result of consumers reining in their spending and businesses scaling back or postponing investment. It is questionable whether in the face of this lack of demand, bank money, which is after all our money, should be lent to cure this ill. Only if it is to open up new markets or there is a genuine case to say that a pick-up in demand is imminent would lending of this type seem justified. Ensuring we have a functioning banking system that is willing and able to lend to good businesses is important, but there is a danger that access to finance may dominate the policy debate and cause us to miss other important areas in which policy could make a difference. The rising cost of doing business in Northern Ireland is one such issue that may be in danger of not getting the level of policy attention it deserves. If we know which costs are rising and by how much, it would be possible to consider policy interventions that could help to mitigate these cost increases that are pushing more and more firms into a position of non-profitability. The excellent quarterly IntertradeIreland survey (carried out by a local company, Perceptive Insights) asks some detailed questions of Northern Ireland businesses regarding costs in its latest edition. The results are revealing and suggest some areas in which policy makers could play a role. The harsh reality for business The most alarming figure contained within the IntertradeIreland survey is the proportion of

22 JUNE 2013

Chart 1: Which of the following best describes the current position of your business?

Source: Perceptive Insights survey for IntertradeIreland Business Monitor Survey, Q1 2013. Notes: NI Firms only

businesses in Northern Ireland that are in winddown, contraction or survival mode (41%). Fortunately, the numbers in contraction mode have eased in recent quarters but the figures demonstrate just how precarious the economic situation is and suggests that the rising numbers of insolvencies and bankruptcies in Northern Ireland are, sadly, likely to continue (see Chart 1). When we delve into the sectoral results, we can see that there are challenges across the whole of the economy, with a proportion of firms in all sectors reporting an unprofitable year. Predictably, a larger proportion of construction firms were struggling with two out of every five firms surveyed unable to remain profitable, which is twice the Northern Ireland average for all firms. Leisure, hotels & catering also had a significant proportion of firms (one in five) reporting an unprofitable year. One in five agricultural firms were also unprofitable and the survey reveals that rising energy and input costs are key factors. It is interesting that a much smaller proportion of manufacturers were unprofitable, given that they are also energy intensive and require significant non-labour inputs to the production process, but this may be suggestive of higher margins and better ability to absorb the increases in the cost base (see Chart 2).

Business costs a key issue When asked the extent to which different factors are an issue for business, overhead and energy costs are, by some margin, the most significant issues. Cash-flow and the interrelated issue of lack of demand are the next most significant issues. Former high priorities such as access to skills have slipped right down the list and the behaviour of competitors in the sector has also faded relative to rising costs (see Chart 3). Rising overhead costs and energy costs were a significant issue for all sectors, but as would be expected, sectors with significant material inputs and energy requirements (such as agriculture and manufacturing and leisure, hotels and catering) recorded relatively high levels of concern). Drilling down into specific business costs, energy and transport (which are related given the high energy content in transportation) stand out as the two areas that have had to absorb the most significant increase with 38% of firms recording an increase of more than 10% in energy cost over the last 12 months and 30% of firms reporting the same for transport costs. Notable in the analysis is the more mixed picture in terms of staff costs, showing that employers are, in some cases driving down this element of cost to compensate for rises elsewhere. Telecoms and insurance are the other areas in which there is some evidence of price reductions. Rental

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Chart 2: During the past 12 months, has your business managed to remain profitable?

Source: Perceptive Insights survey for IntertradeIreland Business Monitor Survey, Q1 2013. Notes: NI Firms only

and property ownership costs have risen only marginally and this is reflective of the level of demand in the property market. Strikingly finance and credit costs have risen in less than one in five firms. Are businesses responding? In response to these rising costs, the obvious question to ask is – how are businesses in Northern Ireland reacting? The survey shows that the majority of firms are taking action to reduce costs; but it is both surprising and worrying to find that the proportion is not higher, as a significant minority of firms have not taken any action at all. More than half the firms suggested they had taken steps to reduce energy costs but less than one in five had done the same with transport. This partly reflects the challenge in avoiding transport costs with no obvious ‘switching

supplier’ route open to most firms. There is a sizeable proportion of Northern Ireland firms who have reported significant increases in their cost base, but have not taken any action to reduce these costs either by switching supplier, considering alternative sources or technologies or simply by cutting out any unnecessary consumption. Therefore, there are a number of companies in Northern Ireland that are likely to be suffering the pain of lower profits than they may necessarily have to (assuming identifying cost savings can be done and lower cost options exist). ROI firms much more proactive The IntertradeIreland survey has the advantage of being an all island survey, allowing for comparison of firms’ behaviours to be made. On the issue of business costs the results are striking. There is a significant difference between the

Chart 3: To what extent is each of the following an issue for your business currently?

Source: Perceptive Insights survey for IntertradeIreland Business Monitor Survey, Q1 2013. Notes: NI Firms only

behaviour of ROI firms and their Northern Ireland peers, with 38% of firms taking no action in Northern Ireland, compared to just 25% in the ROI. Negotiating better rates for insurance, energy, telecoms and suppliers was much more prevalent behaviour in the ROI. In the case of energy costs, this perhaps reflects much greater market choice than currently exists in Northern Ireland and thus the threat of supplier switching may have been more significant (though numbers on actual switching show little ROI/NI difference). But even allowing for greater choice in the market there is clearly a more proactive approach within the ROI business base than in Northern Ireland. The responses to questions on the cost of finance are very revealing and also quite surprising in that incredibly small numbers of businesses in ROI (8%) or Northern Ireland (2%) are doing anything about the issue, reflecting the more modest incidence of cost inflation in this area. This finding does, however, jar with the fact that finance is an area of great political interest at this point in time. Could the government help? The research clearly demonstrates the significant impact that rising costs are having on businesses in Northern Ireland (and the ROI) and this begs the question – can policy do anything to help? Clearly there are longer term strategies in place to look at the energy market and options surrounding alternative production, which is to be welcomed, but the immediate pressures suggest a more urgent look at the underlying issues may be required. Whilst much of the pressure comes from international fuel prices, which are beyond the control of local policymakers, there are ways that policy could make a difference. Clearly the role of Regulator is key in understanding what is driving bills and determining the extent to which any taxation adjustments are possible or how government might help with capital investment programmes. Helping to ensure a competitive and level playing field in areas such as insurance and professional services is also key. At a more basic level there is a need to ensure that firms get guidance and assistance on how to drive down costs via supplier switching or negotiation. In certain cases government could help to group smaller businesses into a consortium, where they would effectively become ‘single buyers’ for certain products to drive better prices (consumables or insurance for example). DETI are considering taking forward an update to previous research to understand business costs – this is commendable and should be accelerated given its prominence as an issue. The narrow focus on access to finance as the key business issue is clearly misplaced looking at this evidence and there is a clear need to consider ways to mitigate rising business costs – otherwise the ‘cost’ will be the loss of more businesses.

JUNE 2013 23

Why insolvency doesn’t always have to end in tears

hilst business failures have fallen sharply in the first three months of 2013, and are now at their lowest point since the third quarter of 2009, that doesn’t mean the wintry downturn is promising a summer of recovery. That’s the assessment of PwC Business Recovery Partner Stephen Cave, who says not only was 2012 the worst year on record for business failures in Northern Ireland, a comparison with the rest of the UK suggests a worrying level of distress still haunts the local economy: “Overall in 2012, there were 3,344 redundancies, twice the total of 2011. “What’s more, R3, the professional recovery and insolvency body says that up to 16% of Northern Ireland companies are so called zombie firms, whose trading position is untenable and where survival is reliant on the current low interest rates and a bank reluctance to precipitate action. As interest rates increase, many of these companies could fail, contributing to further increases in unemployment. “Coupled with the decline in the property market across Ireland, north and south, which is unlikely to recover in the short to medium term,

these statistics do not make pretty reading for many local businesses.” But despite the see-saw of insolvency data, Stephen Cave says the outcome of an insolvency process does not always end in tears: “We’ve managed many insolvency appointments where the business has been saved and most of the jobs retained with the main change being in ownership and the level of debt. Insolvency may be traumatic, but it is not necessarily fatal.” He points to one particular case as not just a textbook case in business recovery, but one where an insolvency process has led to a successful result for all stakeholders: “For 270 local workers in Thermomax, the Bangor-based solar heating business, 23 August 2007 was a day to remember – it was the day they didn’t lose their jobs after the company entered Administration.” Stephen recalls that just days previously, financial and cash flow difficulties had Thermomax teetering on the brink of collapse. Having secured funding and the support of key creditors, customers, suppliers and employees, the Administrators traded the business as a going concern whilst seeking a buyer and in less than 40 days the internationally-renowned, awardwinning company was successfully restructured and sold to the Environmental & Renewables Division of Irish building products giant, Kingspan Group plc, with the promise of further investment from its new owners. Since that day, with the funds realised from the sale of the business, the Administrators have not only been able to pay back the secured lender in full, but have paid back the company’s unsecured creditors in full together with statutory interest, a rarity in today’s recession hit economy and a significant boost to local business. “Creditors who stood to lose significant sums not only kept ongoing trading relationships with Thermomax but recovered their outstanding debt in full plus interest. Shareholders who had invested their time and resources into the business over many years, and who stood to lose everything, will be receiving a significant return on their shareholding,” he says He points to Thermomax as being less about the skills of turning around an ailing business and more about a new approach to an

age-old insolvency process: “Since the industrial revolution, businesses have been founded, built, expanded – and failed. But all too often failures tended to mean closure, break-up and forced sale disposal of assets with a reduced return to secured creditors only. Jobs are lost, local economies suffer and valuable intellectual property and patents often go overseas. “Thermomax was somewhat of a watershed in local insolvency practice through use of reforms brought in by the UK Enterprise Act focusing the minds of insolvency practitioners on creating solutions to save businesses, rather than simply implementing strategies to sell assets. Restructuring Thermomax with the support of the management, workforce, local development agency, its bank and suppliers, and successfully selling the restructured business with preservation of jobs was a win for everyone”, he says. There is little doubt that helping directors and shareholders to avoid business failure is more productive than liquidation, which comes at the expense of the business, the workers, the creditors and the wider economy. On the whole, and when possible, this ‘trade, restructure, and sell’ model has worked well for stakeholders in Northern Ireland. Even where jobs have been lost and payouts to creditors have not delivered 100 per cent of the debt due, many more businesses are still trading than would have survived under the old regulations and old approach. Stephen Cave points to the steady increase in insolvencies as a compelling reason why endeavouring to replicate the Thermomax model is important: “In 2007, the year Thermomax collapsed, there were 164 corporate liquidations, the highest for a decade; by 2012 that had risen to 410 and that’s a trend we need to halt. “A creative, empathetic and timely approach to business recovery won’t save them all, but as the various Thermomax stakeholders have discovered, this approach can lead to a good result all-round.”

Stephen Cave is a Business Recovery Partner at PwC and can be contacted on tel (direct): 028 9041 5096 or email: stephen.a.cave@uk.pwc.com

“We’ve managed many insolvency appointments where the business has been saved and most of the jobs retained with the main change being in ownership and the level of debt. Insolvency may be traumatic, but it is not necessarily fatal.”

nijobs.com a fresh look heralds a new approach At nijobs.com the desire to sustain a top quality service is resulting in a new look for one of the countryâ€™s best known and highly regarded online recruitment websites. Things are changing in recruitment. People still want to find jobs but research tells us that beyond 2013 they will be using mobile access and new communications channels on a regular basis. This means that recruitment sites must deliver fast, simple, streamlined, cross-platform services and a cost effective solution that delivers quality applicants. The team at nijobs.com is constantly adapting to new challenges. They have been in the sector a long time. Since 2000 they have been learning and modifying their approach. It takes best practice and customer insight to hone what the site does. They have a simple belief - the harder you work, the more opportunities come your way. For nijobs.com this means ensuring that the best people are recruited for all the jobs they advertise. To achieve this, success is required in three key areas of the recruitment site.

Appeal From their first contact with the site, users will feel that they are dealing with attitudes and information that are contemporary, relevant and dynamic. The rebrand of nijobs.com is focused on attracting and retaining jobseekers through clear, inviting graphics, an intuitive interface and a coherent and consistent message.

the site efficiently. The nijobs.com site is a fount of information, tips and resources for jobseekers and a fantastic opportunity for employers to establish an excellent means of access to the highest quality jobseekers. With added functionality in the next phase it will be even better!

Effectiveness Ultimately, by rebranding and restructuring their site nijobs.com are reaffirming their commitment to getting the best possible results from the recruitment process. The outcome of this has to be more satisfied jobseekers, more satisfied employers and more successful job applications. They are confident that this will happen. The nijobs.com rebrand will set a new standard for recruitment here and the ensuing extra functionality will be supported by an attitude that is human, personable, friendly and straight talking. It is the understanding and intuition of the people behind nijobs.com that results in a dynamic, pioneering and expert on-line facility.

Whoever chooses to use nijobs.com for their recruitment will discover that finding good people doesnâ€™t have to be hard work.

Functionality The next step will be to ensure that users have easy access to all the information they need and the ability to interact with

LOUISE Environmental Engineer Armagh

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30/05/2013 12:06

TECHNOLOGY

Enable BYOD without increasing IT infrastructure By Kyle Johnston, Sales Manager, Leaf Consultancy

eaf ’s clients have adopted a new user work style which means that PCs and mobile devices are no longer located primarily on company premises. In fact, Leaf clients are now working from anywhere, on multiple devices, and may seldom find themselves within the company firewall. BYOD (bring your own device) work styles may historically have challenged Leaf who are accountable to ensure that all devices touching our clients’ corporate data resources are well maintained and secure. Providing assistance for remote and user-owned devices can sometimes create added financial challenges. This challenge becomes greater when remote users have multiple devices. For those of you who are new to Windows Intune, it is a cloud-based solution that can offer a variety of benefits to businesses of all sizes, including: • Unified Infrastructure: Manage PCs and multiple types of mobile devices in one unified solution, either through the cloud or by extending your existing on-premises infrastructure. • Integrated Management: Support multiple devices with Windows Intune – including Windows RT, Windows Phone 8, iOS, and Android platforms – without adding infrastructure. • Enhance Security: Whether using corporate or employee-owned devices, Windows Intune helps provide a security-enhanced environment with comprehensive update and policy management. • BYOD Enabled: Use Windows Intune to give employees access to the resources and applications they need on the devices they choose without increasing complexity. Because Windows Intune is a cloud solution, you eliminate the server and software licensing costs normally associated with on premise solutions. You can also manage up to five devices (Windows PCs, Windows RT, Windows Phone 8, Android, and iOS) per user. As your organization grows, you can choose to implement System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 and create a hybrid solution able to manage up to 100k devices. Windows Intune £3.90 per user per month Windows Intune simplifies how businesses manage and secure devices. Buy a monthly subscription and get cloud services enabling your users to operate at peak performance, from virtually anywhere. Windows Intune SA £7.20 per user per month Get all the benefits of Windows Intune with the addition of upgrade rights to Windows Enterprise and rights to purchase the Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack (MDOP). Please note: Current Windows Software Assurance customers are eligible to get Windows Intune at a reduced price. To discuss how Windows intune could benefit your business please contact kyle@leafconsultancy.com or tel: 028 9089 7650.

26 JUNE 2013

Can I pay in Bitcoins?

n an increasingly digital world it is perhaps no surprise that digital currency is starting to make inroads into the world of finance, with Bitcoin the first off the blocks.

What are Bitcoins? Bitcoin is an open source peer-to-peer currency that can be traded like any other currency. It is the first form of cryptocurrency, money which uses cryptography to control its creation and management. The software behind it allows instant transactions, worldwide payments and low processing fees. How does it actually work? Managing transactions and the issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively by the network rather than a central authority. A user can have one or more bitcoin addresses from which bitcoins are sent or received using either a website or downloaded software often called a wallet, like a digital wallet. Can I buy things in the shops using Bitcoin? Bitcoin is accepted in trade by merchants and individuals in many parts of the world although it is yet to come into widespread use. Prices for transactions are negotiated by users. So it is more of an investment? Although the Bitcoin Project describes bitcoin as an experimental digital currency, bitcoins are often traded as an investment. Bitcoins have been described as lacking intrinsic value as an investment because their value depends only on the willingness of users to accept it. However, reports have suggested that 1% of all Bitcoins are owned by Winklevoss twins, who famously sued Mark Zuckerberg over the creation of Facebook. It is still pretty risky then? Many commentators have criticised the bitcoin’s volatile exchange rate, relatively inflexible supply, and minimal use in trade. The USD price of a Bitcoin increased in 2013 from $13 on 1 January to $190 on 9 April, then fell back to around $50 before stabilising near $100 for several weeks.

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MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

Follow the leader The retirement of football manager Sir Alex Ferguson highlighted the tricky situation facing organisations that must replace a great leader, as well as the huge expectations that rest on the shoulders of the person chosen to fill their shoes.

hen the Manchester United football manager sir Alex Ferguson retired there was, among the glowing tributes, a hefty amount of commentary about the pressures of following the great man. Having amassed a haul of 49 trophies in 26 years in charge at what is – love them or loathe them – one of the biggest football clubs in the world and a truly global brand, the man to step into Sir Alex’s shoes was always going to be under pressure from day one. That the Everton manager David Moyes was announced immediately as the club’s new boss showed that the retirement had been in the works for some time and that a succession plan was in place. Rather than promote from within, United chose to appoint an up and coming manager who had enjoyed some success – but won no trophies – at a smaller club and who, as a no nonsense Scot, is very much in the mould of

42 JUNE 2013

Ferguson (remember the hairdryer). Moyes was Sir Alex’s choice as his successor, which raised some questions about the sort of power the outgoing manager would retain in his new role as a director. But in all, the transition was managed smoothly and with everyone at the club seemingly on board. David Moyes now has the summer to prepare before the real scrutiny of his credentials to take on one of the toughest jobs in football begins. Many businesses here in Northern Ireland are family owned and operated, often with their founder still at the helm. That creates a very real challenge when that person reaches an age where they need to hand the reins over to ensure the business survives. Decisions must be made as to whether the next generation of the same family is capable of running the business as well as their parent, is another candidate from within the company the better choice, or does outside expertise and

experience need to be brought in. Andre Spicer, Professor of Organisational Behaviour from Cass Business School says the retirement of great leaders usually results in great uncertainty for organisations. “Typically, the retiring leader casts a shadow over the whole organisation for many years. Losing a great leader is like enduring a death. Typically followers experience feeling of profound loss and emptiness – similar to when you lose a family member,” he said. “They also idealise the achievements of the leader, and the more negative part of their tenure airbrushed out of the picture. The result is it becomes impossible for a successor to fill the old leader’s shoes. Often they try by simply imitating what the great leader had done in the past or pushing through radical change to signal a break from the past. Often these two strategies are bound to fail. Instead a new leader needs to accept the old leader’s legacy but at the same

MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP

time slowly and steadily build their own style.” Neal Lucas, managing director of executive search company Neal Lucas Recruitment, notes that beyond winning trophies, David Moyes’ biggest challenge is to emerge from the shadow of the former Manchester United number one. This, he says, is a tough ask in any organisation – be it in sport or business – but says there are ways the new leader can avoid failure and ensure they make their own mark. “The first task when you step up to the role is to audit what the organisation does well. Understanding how the success to date has been

achieved and what the current and emerging changes which need to be addressed are, is vital to making future decisions,” he said. “Identifying the strengths of the business and enhancing those positives is key but covering weaknesses on a temporary basis until a remedial solution can be applied is just as crucial. “The new leader usually has the advantage of perspective and fresh ideas but this needs to be tempered and challenged through rigorous analysis and injections of expert advice.” In replacing a strong leader it is also important to reflect honestly on your own strengths and development needs, which makes the selection of your management team crucial, says the recruitment expert. “As it is highly unlikely that you will be an identical character to the person you are replacing you need to ensure that complementary skills are in place. This will inevitably mean having to let people go and bring in other new blood to the team for the good of the organisation. This process will further highlight the need to have a focus with clear targets and a robust deployment monitor,” he said. The importance of never being satisfied with current performance or success is also vital. “Good is the enemy of great. This is a maxim I think applies to a lot of people and businesses in Northern Ireland. We boast of our education system and talented workforce and it is true

that we have a lot of good businesses here and talented people, but the vast majority lack the real drive, passion and commitment necessary that ensure sustained success and growth are achieved,” said Lucas. “It is of course inevitable that you will have to accept some short term losses and make do with circumstance not of your choosing for a period, but always having a plan for excellence in all areas and striving for continuous improvement is essential to making your mark in a new role. “When the time comes to act in your new role it is the decisions you make that will define your tenure.” Neal Lucas advises that while you should ensure that a decision is based on thorough analysis and you have garnered all the facts and opinions of those around you, it is up to you to use your judgement and be ruthless in its implementation. “A lot of people struggle with making decisions, particularly when they are new to a role, however as long as your judgement is holistic, strategic and does not compromise your core values or is deflected by emotion then it will inevitably take the organisation in the right direction,” he said. It is important that any personal or team development is done in the context of trying to close a perceived skills gap. Successfully blending the old and new team, processes or cultures to constantly refresh the organisation is the real magic, he adds. “Accepted wisdom would suggest that Sir Alex Ferguson’s greatest skill was his ability to continually create new teams, which in truth evolved from one and other. Nothing from the old regime is sacred, so it was for Ferguson so it will continue to be,” says Neal. “With strong bonds and emotional relationships solidified by success and meeting challenges together, replacing people and changing the way things are done is the real acid test for all leaders.”

“A lot of people struggle with making decisions, particularly when they are new to a role.” NEAL LUCAS JUNE 2013 43

MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP

Pictured at the Lego Serious Play (LSP) workshop are Andy Rebbeck, Team Manager, Allstate NI; Doug Safford, VP Architecture, Allstate; Alan Branagh, owner of The Insight Factory and Opal Perry, VP Enterprise Testing and Release Management, Allstate.

Another brick in the wall l

ego may be best known as the building bricks beloved of children across the world, but it is now making a move into the workplace. That’s because major international companies, such as Allstate, are engaging in the Lego Serious Play (LSP) programme to help change the culture within their organisations. LSP is an innovative, experiential process designed to enhance innovation and business performance through team building exercises that require creative thinking. It is based on research which has shown that hands-on, minds-on learning produces a deeper, more meaningful understanding of the world, as well as supporting effective dialogue for everyone in an organisation. Workshops are carried out in Belfast by The Insight Factory, which has more than ten years’ experience in the discipline and is one of only three accredited LSP partners in the UK and Ireland. Alan Branagh, owner of The Insight Factory, explained: “LSP is designed to encourage maximum performance from all employees and enable a behavioural and cultural transformation through an imaginative

44 JUNE 2013

interactive, learning process. “There’s a myriad of skills that businessmen and women can develop from LSP. Lego is an excellent medium with multiple applications from which we can learn in a business environment. Allstate Northern Ireland employees are already prototyping, modelling and trialling products virtually so bringing them together to do it with a tool such as Lego makes bonds even stronger and skills even more finely-tuned.” The Insight Factory’s aim is that through Inner Game Coaching, LEGO SERIOUS PLAY® and High Performance Management it helps individuals, teams and organisations to develop their full potential. Alan adds: “When our hands are used in thinking, such as when we use Lego, a process takes place that generates a powerful, emotional charge. As a result, thoughts and ideas that are built with our hands tend to be expressed in greater detail. They are more easily understood and better remembered and the process can be applied to enhance performance areas within a business, such as innovation and collaboration. Cultures can often vary from team to team and when we are looking at divisions spread

over the globe, this can become even more significant.” Andy Rebbeck, team leader in Allstate in Northern Ireland, said that with offices in Belfast, Strabane and Londonderry, as well as headquarters in Chicago and sites across America, Allstate teams work together virtually on a frequent basis. “Our overarching goal from the LSP experience is to encourage and promote a spirit of collaborative skills across the company so that teams can work even more productively and efficiently. Through this experience we should be able to take dialogues to deeper levels and we see LSP as a catalyst which can enable us to progress and impart a change in ethos within our company on a multi-site basis,” he said. “When you look at what collaboration can achieve with Lego, the opportunities are endless. You may see a car; someone else may see a rocket – put these two people together and they may just create something beyond what they could have imagined when working individually. We realise what collaboration can do for our business and our biggest assets – our staff, and this is an excellent, fun way to develop skills, understanding and stronger teams.”

Supporting Ulster businesses for over 40 years The Ulster Business School offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes which are delivered on a part-time, full-time or distance learning basis. Expertise can be developed for individuals or business in areas such as: • • • • • • • •

Accounting Business Administration Business Improvement Corporate Governance Entrepreneurship Events Management Financial Services Hospitality Management

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Human Resource Management Innovation International Business Leadership Marketing Sports Management Tourism Management

We invite you to drop into our Part-time Study Information Events to meet staff and discuss your options. Tuesday 18 June; 4pm - 7pm Martha Magee’s, Magee campus Thursday 27 June; 12pm - 7pm Foyer, Belfast campus www.ulster.ac.uk/up

We also design and deliver programmes for organisations to meet a specific training and development need.

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www.business.ulster.ac.uk

20/05/2013 14:47

MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP

Business leaders must drive innovation

orthern Ireland’s economy has strengths that other regions “would give their right arm for” but risks falling behind if it doesn’t invest in innovation. That was the warning issued by Geoff Mulgan, CEO of the UK’s innovation foundation Nesta, at a recent event staged by the organisation in Belfast. Mr Mulgan said that at a time when global spend on research and development was going up, particularly in powerhouse economies like China, India and Brazil, it was worrying that UK spend on innovation is shrinking. “In some ways the last 20-30 years has gone well in many industries. The UK has remained at the cutting edge in industries like pharmaceuticals, aerospace, the creative economy,” he told Ulster Business. “We are starting with many strengths and most nations would give their right arm for the capabilities we’ve got, but we will only retain what we have if we make the investment and value the future as much as the present. Our biggest risk is that our horizons shrink in because of economic and fiscal crises and people live more hand to mouth and don’t take actions now that will pay off in 5, 10, 20 years time.” A recent Nesta survey found more than half of Northern Ireland businesses are investing less than one per cent of revenue in innovation. Of 220 business leaders surveyed, 18 per cent said they had invested nothing and 38% invested less than one per cent of their business revenue in innovation in the last financial year. Just over a fifth (22 per cent) of business leaders said they

46 JUNE 2013

invested between one to five per cent of their revenue in innovation. The survey also showed that public sector contracts are not providing much of an incentive to innovate, with half of Northern Ireland’s business leaders saying these contracts do not encourage businesses to be innovative. “Even before the financial crisis a lot of UK businesses were investing more in cash and concrete. They were hoarding cash and investing in buildings rather than investing in services and technologies and new ideas. I think that is partly the fault of our finance system, which has never sufficiently recognised the value of innovation by comparison with perhaps Japan or Germany or Silicon Valley,” said Mulgan. “Since the crisis there’s been a further squeeze which is partly about uncertainty and a lack of confidence. But I fear that financial markets still don’t value long term investment in innovation. Investing in innovation doesn’t guarantee you’ll grow but it is almost certainly a necessary condition for growth. When I go to countries like South Korea, which is dramatically increasing its investment in R&D, you sense we just can’t afford complacency.” The Nesta CEO said he had been impressed by the innovation being shown in Northern Ireland’s farming and food sectors – industries that don’t immediately jump to mind as being at the cutting edge of innovation. But Nesta’s poll showed that the majority of business leaders here (62 per cent) think that the Northern Ireland Executive is doing too little to give businesses the confidence to invest in new

products, services and ways of working. Mulgan said that there’s a need to educate our politicians that innovation no longer has to be centred on big expensive labs and that other types of incentives and rewards can be used to tap into creativity wherever it is. “There is a need for big science projects that are global and take big pools of knowledge. Northern Ireland is pretty well placed on those. But it is in addition to those that we need the quicker, leaner methods like challenge prizes, accelerators, crowd-sourcing platforms. We’d like more places to be consciously offering themselves as laboratories. Why can’t a medium sized town position itself as such, why can’t a school test out new educational technology? The more you can imbed that innovative spirit in everything, the better,” he said. “In an ideal world everything in the economy would be market driven, it would all be done by angel investors and banks, but when that doesn’t happen government has no choice but to act. What you want to happen is government doing more as an investor rather than a revenue funder. The problem with Northern Ireland, with its public sector dependence, is that it is dependent on year on year payments rather than on investment,” he added. “It is a bigger issue for the UK and western countries which have often tended to cut investment budgets in order to keep services afloat. You can understand why that makes political sense in the short term but you have to ask what the next generation will say looking back.”

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• Role of the Director and the Board • Strategy and Marketing • Finance • Leadership and Change • Developing Board Performance Our programme leads to the IoD Certificate (“Cert IoD”) and Diploma (“Dip IoD”) – afterwards we help many go on to become Chartered Directors – the “gold standard” for professional directors in the UK and Ireland and increasingly adopted worldwide. We draw upon the IoD’s unrivalled resources – approved facilitators who work internationally and understand the implementation issues rather than simply the theory, state-of-the-art programme materials and highly accessible online support. The modules are delivered in an engaging, enjoyable style. Aimed at busy people there are no tedious assignments or dissertations. There are however two exams, for which our delegates are well-prepared, consistently excelling in terms of both pass-rate and number of Distinctions. The opportunities for networking and peer learning, during the programme and in our local Alumni group, feature highly in delegate feedback. The next NI programme starts on 25/26 Sept 2013 and finishes in June 2014. If the local dates for a particular session do not suit we have alternatives in Dublin. Some financial support towards fees may be available.

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MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP

Damian Duffy, Director of Development and Learner Services

Skills with a purpose Less than a year after opening Belfast Met’s e3 building has already become a thriving shared space for learners, businesses and community groups. Ulster Business went to find out more.

here has been a lot of talk in recent years about the need for our further and higher education institutions to listen to what businesses want and be attuned to their skills requirements. It is a conversation that the province’s largest FE college, Belfast Met, has been at the forefront of, and having made a huge investment in its physical infrastructure and technical capabilities, it is clearly also prepared to walk the walk. The completion of its flagship £44m Titanic Quarter campus in 2011 was followed last year by the opening of the £18m e3 economic development building on its Springvale campus in West Belfast. Designed to accommodate up to 500 users on a daily basis, the high-spec, high-tech e3 building houses specialist zones dedicated to digital media, manufacturing technology, catering, business incubation, SME training and renewable technologies. The name e3 stands for employability, enterprise and economic development – the site’s primary goals being to enhance the employability skills of its students, to stimulate enterprise through business incubation and the delivery of innovative development programmes, and to foster enhanced approaches to economic development. On all counts e3 has got off to a flying start in

48 JUNE 2013

its first nine months, says Damien Duffy, Belfast Met’s Head of Business Development. “The building has proved very successful because it is a shared space which enables learners, businesses and community groups to come together,” he told Ulster Business. The location of e3 within Belfast Met’s Springvale campus and adjacent to the College’s Community Learning Centre, placing it on the Peace Line, is deliberate. Damian Duffy says that opening the doors of e3 last September has enabled the college to have a “very positive community conversation,” and helped it deliver new solutions to assist young people Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETS) through a DEL-supported programme called Threshold. “There’s a very positive vibe here because you have people coming here with different levels of ability. We are covering the full range of educational training from essential skills to degree level qualifications,” says Duffy. “We aim to get our students to understand the benefits of life-long learning. If we can do that, organisations will become more capable and that feeds into Northern Ireland being more innovative and competitive. Jobs and growth follow on from that. It is about trying to get that virtuous circle of skills and employment, skills with a purpose.”

Within its massive brief, which sees Belfast Met with over 37,000 student enrolments including full time learners and those undertaking professional development, many programmes have been designed to meet the specific needs of industry sectors and individual employers. “We are absolutely joined at the hip with business because we need to be responsive to the needs of business. It makes sense to listen if you have the chief technical officer of a company saying we employ 200 people but I could employ 90 more if I had these skills. We need to tune into those conversations,” says Duffy. “When we talk about Northern Ireland plc one of the strengths we have is human capital – a young, educated resource. If we’re going to be globally competitive we need to be creative and innovative about how we invest in that human capital.” In its drive to become a world class FE/ HE institution the college has invested in a dedicated business development team that talks to businesses to understand their needs and deliver training solutions to meet them. Solutions range from the Assured Skills programmes needed by Invest NI to support FDI investors, to INNOVATEUS, a knowledge transfer and mentoring programme and its award-winning creative thinking programme FRESH. “We can have a conversation with a business

MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP

and bring a qualification to the table for that business within six weeks. We can put together a foundation degree within six months when it would normally take two years to bring together a degree programme. That agile, flexible approach is key for us. You need to be able to respond to the needs of business,” explains Duffy. “We work with some of the biggest companies in the city – the likes of Citi, Bombardier, Delta Print & Packaging, Montupet – to deliver customised training programme and we’re developing a new training solution for SMEs to launch in September that has a bit more flexibility built in,” he adds. “The unique thing about Belfast Met is that most of our staff will have industry experience. We have people lecturing who are well connected, understand the needs of business and take a pragmatic, practical approach to it.” Throughout the history of Belfast Met the college has delivered on both academic and vocational solutions. It has been part of the fabric of the success of the city of Belfast and is taking responsibility for driving forward developments in key sectors. The priority areas for Belfast Met, as laid out in its Skills Matter Strategy, are energy and renewables; ICT; life & health sciences; and advanced engineering & materials. It has joined key groups such as the Energy Skills Network cluster and introduced IT programmes ranging from its Software Professionals Programme right down to the CoderDojo scheme designed to get children aged 6 to 16 interested in programming. The bright, airy, futuristic design of the e3 campus is certainly somewhere you can envisage innovation taking place. A quick tour shows the college’s investment in equipment that has created an industry leading composites autoclave, a renewable energy research hub and a cutting edge digital media technology suite – all with an eye on teaching skills students can use in the industries of the future. “We also have to be more entrepreneurial ourselves by diversifying and attracting new

Chris Corken, Business Lead for Energy and Sustainability with Foundation Degree in Sustainability students Saran Daly and Roisin O’Kane

revenue streams. We have to make the most of the funds we get from the Department and offer solutions to businesses that they are prepared to pay for, in part by offering them access to equipment they couldn’t afford themselves,” says Damian Duffy. Belfast Met is also working alongside the universities to help promote the broader innovation ecosystem in Northern Ireland. A collaborative approach between industry, academia and government will be absolutely crucial if the workforce in Northern Ireland is to gain the skills needed to drive the economy forward. Far from competing with Northern Ireland’s two universities that often means close collaboration with them, says Duffy. “Northern Ireland is too small a place for all the education and vocational training organisations to operate in isolation. We need to have more joined up, collaborative approaches. For example we’re using the Connected programme to work alongside the universities on

Belfast Met’s innovative and award-winning FRESH programme

areas like Connected Health to make sure what we’re doing is relevant,” he explains. The work taking place ar e3 is proof that what Belfast Met is doing is relevant and as it continues to refine its offering, the college believes it can export some of its expertise to other jurisdictions. “We have a world class capability here and we think there are opportunities for us to package that and bring it to other parts of the world. We’ve partnered with 20 other FE colleges in the UK to open an office in Delhi; we’re about to sign a collaborative agreement with Bombay Chamber of Commerce; we’ve a team in Saudi Arabia this week exploring the potential to support the development of technical colleges in Saudi; and we’re also increasingly talking about how we bring capability to overseas market as a cluster,” says Duffy. It is an approach that mirrors the goals for Northern Ireland’s economy to be more export-driven, less inward looking and more entrepreneurial. As the new economy takes shape, Duffy believes the rounded and practical skills gained by those who opt for the FE college route, will prove attractive in a Northern Ireland that has been fixated on academic outcomes for too long. “Historically people had a different impression of an FE college, it was just ‘the tech’. But it is not a second choice option now. In terms of enrolments they are increasing year on year and young people are making a positive decision to come through this route,” he says. “The economics of education and the increase in university fees has a lot of parents wondering how they are going to fund their kids’ higher education. That means many parents are not only considering the traditional route of university but also the employability chances offered by the FE college route. Some of the biggest employers in the region fully endorse that approach.” For further information, contact Belfast Met Business Development Team, Tel: (028) 9026 5069 or businessdevlopment@belfastmet.ac.uk

JUNE 2013 49

BUSINESS PSYCHOLOGY

Going for Goals What makes a customer ‘loyal’, and keeps them coming back for more? The secret to retaining customers seems to elude even the most successful organisations. David Meade explores how one simple technique can DOUBLE the likelihood of a customer returning to your business again and again.

ustomer Loyalty is one of those ubiquitous buzzwords that is bandied around every sales meeting and boardroom, yet most organisations fail to properly grasp how to generate, nurture, and cultivate this valuable source of revenue. The cheapest, and most valuable leads are the ones that are already in our address book, yet very little seems to be known about what makes a customer buy from us again and again. So misunderstood is this golden egg laying goose that many organisations have come to erroneously confuse constant contact with loyalty; they think if they continue to send out sales letters, make courtesy calls, and distribute email newsletters that their customers are engaged and are therefore more likely to prop up their balance sheets all year long. THE QUICK FIX When faced with the challenge of building loyalty, even the most experienced organisations tend to fall into the well trodden, and vastly ineffective, track of ‘the gimmick’.

50 JUNE 2013

Offering returning customers a discount for a second order, or an attractive bulk deal, or a BOGOF, or even a free gift all seem like viable options. In truth though, unless the customer specifically asked for some such incentive, they’re likely already fairly satisfied with your pricing model. Instead of encouraging a more engaged relationship with your clients, it may serve to debase the perceived value and quality of your product lineup and reduce the buying decision to ‘cheapest deal wins’. Even the term ‘loyal’ is misleading. Loyalty implies that customers need to be attracted and

seduced, at any cost, via some cleverly invented scheme when in truth loyalty is in more about ‘retention’ than ‘invention’. Retaining an already won client is less about the carrot and more about the likelihood that they’ll stick with your offering over any other when you’ve met their expectations. You can’t put a price on a promise, and the first step to retaining a client is keeping yours. According to Gartner, roughly 20% of your current client base are generating 80% of your profits, so the key for any businesses to survive and grow is to build sustainable sales stream from within your

“The key for any businesses to survive and grow is to build sustainable sales stream from within your existing base of customers.”

BUSINESS PSYCHOLOGY

existing base of customers. So how do we build and retain loyal customers that continue to buy from us again and again? According to recent research, it’s much simpler than you might have hoped. PUNCH ME, PLEASE Coffee and sandwich bars are my office, and when I’m not at an event I can most likely be found surfing the circuit of free wifi wielding coffee shops in the city. I’ve accumulated an embarrassingly large collection of heavily punctured loyalty cards to prove it. Every time I order a sandwich, I get a single ‘smiley’ shaped punch in my card, and the server explains that I get a free lunch after ten stamps. Looking at my card I see they’ve actually made three punches. The goal is ten punches, of course, but this progress of three could be seen in two distinct ways. I’m either already 30% of the way to getting my promised free meal, or I’ve got 70% to go. The question is, which of these two views is more likely to compel me to get that card filled with holes? Which view is more likely to make me return again and again to get that elusive free meal? The answer is clear, and might offer organisations like yours a useful clue as to how to make your loyalty schemes more effectual, and in fact increase your likelihood of persuading anyone – even yourself – to do anything.

NEARLY THERE Recent research has found that a person’s likelihood to successfully achieve a goal of any kind is dramatically enhanced if they focus on the small incremental progress they have achieved so far, rather than the large amount of effort that may be left. According to the Chicago School of Business, one possible explanation for why focusing on even a very small point of progress might increase motivation is because the marginal impact of each action can appear larger. An action that takes someone from 20% completion of a task to 40% is a doubling of progress. In contrast, moving from 60% completion to 80% represents just 33% progress. To test the phenomenon, nearly 1,000 customers were enrolled in a loyalty scheme where they would receive a complimentary lunch after they had bought ten. 50% of the subjects were given a card that was rubber stamped with a sushi symbol every time they made a purchase from the lunch menu, thereby purposefully drawing their attention to the incremental progress they were making towards the freebie. The remaining 50% were given a card that already had the sushi symbols printed on it, and every time they made a purchase a sushi symbol was removed using a hole-punch, thereby specifically drawing their attention to the amount of effort that remained before their bonus meal. So which goal/target system was more likely to instill loyalty? The

results were clear. The first group, who were focusing on their incremental progress, was twice as likely to be retained as a customer and return to get their card stamped when compared against the group whose cards were being punched. Not only were they more likely to come back, but more interestingly they returned sooner and more frequently – on average returning four days sooner than the ‘punched’ group. By focusing on what’s been done, and not what’s left to do, we can increase customer loyalty by almost double, leading to a more engaged client base, a more active sales team, and demonstrably better sales over time. Even line managers will find that emphasising the smaller steps that their team is taking towards performance targets is more effective than focusing on the finish line. BACK IN THE OFFICE The corporate implications of these findings are huge. Put simply, whether your goal is improve your organisations ability to retain existing customers, to increase the likelihood of your sales team reaching their monthly yield, or to simply motivate someone (including you) of finishing something they’ve started, remember to focus on what’s been done, NOT what’s left to do. You’ve already taken the first step on the road by reading this article, after all, so that’s probably 30% of the work done – right?

JUNE 2013 51

MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP

Playing catch up

Employment Minister Stephen Farry announces free management and leadership training with Linda Brown, divisional Director of the Institute of Directors in Northern Ireland, and Tim Devine, Head of Management and Leadership at DEL.

t is hoped that a new free Government programme will increase the uptake of management and leadership training courses in Northern Ireland. The Department for Employment and Learning will provide 100% financial support to SME businesses and social economy enterprises that utilise the Department’s leadership and management suite of programmes. The initiative will initially run to 31 March 2014 and will apply to the training costs of the DEL’s Management and Leadership Development Programme (MLDP), Management Analysis and Planning Programme (MAP) and INTRO Graduate Management Programme. Under the scheme companies can receive up to £7,000 with a maximum of £3,000 available per participant per calendar year. The scheme is necessary because not enough Northern Ireland businesses are investing in management training, according to DEL’s head of management and leadership, Tim Devine. “In terms of the UK we would be either the worst or second worst region, depending on what measure you are using, in terms of management competency. We’re not great in comparison with the rest of the UK, and internationally we are below average, when you compare us to the US, Europe or Japan,” he said. “We know that we need to drive up the competence of our managers and leaders. The

52 JUNE 2012

large organisations tend to have the architecture in house, it’s the SMEs and social enterprises that don’t. That’s where the government intervention adds value,” he added. “The Economic Strategy talks about rebalancing and rebuilding the economy. In order to do that you really need to have effective and competent leaders and managers, particularly in SMEs and social economy enterprises if they are to compete nationally and internationally.” Uptake of DEL’s suite of courses was down 70% last year and after consultation with business organisations, the department realised 100% funding was necessary in the current climate, says Devine. “Unfortunately we know from take up on our programmes that SMEs have really cut their cloth in the recession; they’ve downsized their staff numbers and that includes management. So we noticed last year that take up of our suite of programmes had really gone down and even with 50% funding the organisations we were talking to were telling us it was difficult for them to pay for the development of their managers, and even to release their managers,” he said. “Individual companies as well as the FSB, IoD and CBI were telling us their members couldn’t afford the cost, couldn’t afford to release them, and also that we needed to change the delivery mechanisms.” DEL has refreshed its suite to include 26

programmes, up from 14, and is putting more emphasis on blended learning that requires less time out of the office. In addition all MLDP programmes are now accredited, offering a full or part qualification. Courses will be flexible, with training relevant to first line managers through to board members, and all will measure business impact. “It is not our job to take the place of business schools and universities, they are offering full blown qualifications that take a lot of time. This is about us spotting a need for shorter interventions,” explained Devine. “People come on management development programmes because there is a business need so we are looking at how it has impacted the business three or four months later,” he added. It is expected that 500 managers will be trained up under the MLDP programme and about 200 will benefit from the Management Analysis Programme (MAP). Resarch from McKinsey in 2009 found that an increase of just 1% in productivity, achieved through better management, could add £200m in GDP to the Northern Ireland economy. “Research shows us that those businesses who invest in their management and leadership skills perform better than those who don’t,” said Devine. “In policy terms for the Department, it was clear we needed to focus our resources in this area.”

Exports

EXPORTS

Exports: get on board Statistics show that ten companies account for 50% of NI’s exports and that only 2% of registered companies here are actively exporting. What is being done to change the situation? Symon Ross reports.

he announcement by Mayor of London Boris Johnson last month of an order for 600 new buses from Ballymena manufacturer Wrightbus was rightly lauded as a major success for Northern Ireland exports. The investment of £200m will safeguard around 220 jobs over the next three years and will see Wrightbus create 50 more positions as production ramps up. It is the latest success for the bus maker following contracts in markets as far afield as the US, Singapore and Hong Kong. Boris said the London bus, with components made right across the UK, would send a signal of confidence around the world about what British manufacturing can achieve. He also told assembled local business leaders in Ballymena that their companies could achieve similar feats on the world stage if they believe absolutely in what they are doing. However, at the same event Wrightbus Managing Director Mark Nodder warned that for all the recent talk about the importance of exports, not enough companies are actually selling into overseas markets. Quoting figures from the Northern Ireland

54 JUNE 2013

Chamber of Commerce, of which he is current president, Mr Nodder said only 1,700 – or 2% – of the province’s registered businesses are actively exporting. In fact Government statistics for 2012 showed that just 10 companies account for 50% of Northern Ireland’s exports – a figure essentially unchanged from a decade ago. It is a situation the Wrightbus MD believes must be rectified urgently and with Government help. He joined a British Chambers of Commerce delegation to impress this upon Prime Minister David Cameron in May. The Wrightbus MD suggested that Government should introduce flexible support such as export vouchers to stimulate new exporters and provide an employment subsidy for those recruiting staff to develop international trade. Such measures would help smaller firms in particular to overcome the fear of making that first daunting move into new markets. Speaking to Ulster Business following the Mayor’s visit, Mr Nodder said: “99% of business in Northern Ireland are by definition SMEs and in fact most tend to be micro businesses, so often the fear of taking the first step is what

holds them back. We had a meeting with David Cameron with the British Chambers recently and made the same point – you need to help not just the bigger businesses but also the small businesses.” The Chamber of Commerce last year launched its Export First programme, sponsored by Danske Bank, to help provide knowledge to companies considering exporting. It aims to complement the work already done by Invest NI in terms of helping client companies identify markets and win business, by sharing the knowledge of experienced exporters and signposting where they can go for help. “A small business may not be on the radar of Invest NI let alone UKTI so we’re saying as a Chamber that has a lot of small companies as members, we should talk to one another. Big companies like mine have already hosted mentoring events, invited people in to talk about our sales and marketing plans, how we managed to win contracts in Hong Kong, how long it took, etc. Then we have assigned them business coaches to encourage them,” said Nodder. “Invest NI do super work for the slightly bigger companies in terms of targeting markets

EXPORTS

“You can’t do it by yourself. I’ve spent my life selling overseas and you can’t do it by yourself.”

Prince Harry and David Cameron arrive on a Ballymena built bus at an event in New York

and running trade missions. We are saying, for the smaller end, can we not introduce export vouchers, similar to the business vouchers we’ve seen in the past. You could give companies a voucher for £25,000 or £50,000 but they have to spend it on getting export advice, or export market research, trade missions or hiring an overseas sales person for a year or two years. That would help overcome the trepidation over taking the first step.” Although Northern Ireland is trying to reduce its reliance on public sector funding, Nodder sees no reason a government backed voucher scheme shouldn’t be introduced, saying it will pay dividends over the long term. “I don’t think there is a magic bullet solution for this. But look at the economy in the South, it is export driven and it has been throughout their darkest days. They are still creating export jobs because they have an entrepreneurial culture and joined up thinking between government and business,” he said. “You’ve got to create an environment where enterprise can flourish, so we don’t think it is asking too much to ask the government to give a bit of judicial sprinkling of investment just to make the whole thing a little easier.” GLOBAL HEADWINDS The Wrightbus event came only a day after the release of Invest NI’s year-end results for 20122013. In an incredibly positive set of figures which showed the development agency promoting 7,400 new jobs and securing £608m of investment across jobs, R&D and skills, the one negative was exports. Manufacturing exports were down 2% to

around £5.58bn, reflecting the global slowdown and a general lack of confidence. “Exports continue to be a challenge,” Invest NI chairman Mark Ennis told journalists. “We still have a about a dozen companies doing the bulk of the heavy lifting. The way the global economy is at the moment means that companies are not replacing their tyres as regularly, they’re not buying new forklifts, they are holding off, and that is reflected in the figures.” The target set in the Programme for Government was for Invest NI to deliver 20% growth in the value of manufacturing exports from a baseline of £5.51bn – an increase of just over £1bn in monetary terms. A target of 6% growth was set for the first two years and 7% growth in year three and year four. Exports rose in the 2011/12 year to £5.74bn, up 4.3%, before the fall back to £5.58bn this year, putting the agency behind the 6% target. However, delving deeper into those figures, there is some evidence to suggest there is no need to panic just yet. The numbers don’t include sales to GB and don’t capture external sales attributable to services. In fact sales to GB rose to £7.64bn in Invest NI’s 2012/13 year from £7.3bn the previous year, and £7bn the year before that. “What’s happening at the moment, for example if you look at construction, those companies are automatically going into GB to make up the shortfall from ROI, but they don’t get caught in the numbers,” said Invest NI chief executive Alastair Hamilton. “Our exports to ROI are a third of our total exports (£5.5bn) – last year they went down by 6.6%. GB external sales went up 4.3% (to

£7.64bn) in that same time. So the sales to GB massively outweigh any downside, but they are not counted as exports,” he added. “Emerging markets are up 43% over the two year period, our target is 60% over the PfG period so we’re on track to meet that target... It is not just as gloomy a picture on external sales and exports as the export number suggests.” Chairman Mark Ennis said the agency is also likely to introduce a survey of client companies to help them quantify the level of service sector export activity, which are currently not captured. “Our manufacturing sector employs about 75,000 whereas services employs over 200,000,” he said. “So there is a major gap in knowledge.” Of course, it is harder for Invest NI to convert opportunities related to trade as closing deals ultimately comes down to the client company’s own ability to deliver a result. But it is not taking its foot off the gas in terms of helping companies prepare for export, with the number of trade missions and exhibitions to increase from 60 to 80 in its 2013/14 year and new people hired in key growth areas such as Asia-Pacific. While the cost of trade missions has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons recently, it is a strategy Mark Nodder says will be essential in getting more businesses exporting. “Using Invest NI is the ideal way to research a market and get some introductions to the market. The whole purpose of a well organised trade mission is that in advance the person gets some introductions to people on the ground,” he said. “It is about helping them take those first baby steps. You can’t do it by yourself. I’ve spent my life selling overseas and you can’t do it by yourself.”

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EXPORTS

G8 – Gr8, innov8, do not DV8

With all eyes on Northern Ireland during the G8 meeting in Fermanagh, Quintin Oliver says now is the time to grasp the opportunity and really make ourselves known on the global stage.

he text-speak of the modern age still grates (gr8s in txtSpk) on old-fashioned grumpy grammarians like me, for whom the ‘m’ of that ‘who’ is a necessity even in a 140-character Tweet! But herein lies the nub of our problem – the pace at which we are embracing change. Unless Northern Ireland innovates and excels in this globalised, competitive marketplace, we shall fail. Let me offer eight pointers: • The Welsh used to promote their folksy image of dragons, witches in black hats, with funny bread and quaint sheep-strewn pretty hillsides, until they found that an image of modernity, cutting edge technology and winning rugby players drew inward investment more quickly, for longer and at a higher value; the fewer century-old sunken liners, crazy-shaped hexagons and leprechaun fiddlers dancing in musical pubs the better, perhaps? • Why have Game of Thrones, Sesame Street and now Dracula been attracted here? Probably because the savvy NI Screen and our energetically-supportive politicians have emphasised the skills of the creatives here, from firework techies to set chippies, embroiderers to jewellers, rather than our (pretty non-existent) tax incentives! It’s about people, stupid. • People buy from people, not from countries

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nor from corporations – and certainly not from catalogues; that’s why we should be asking our politicians sometimes why are they here, and not there? Of course they must travel to Brazil and China; Arlene Foster must cover from Kesh to Kurdistan, as she does, and win the credit for so doing, not criticism. • Be honest about the challenges – everyone knows, worldwide, about our conflict – they ask us as soon as we land. When I was young it was George Best – but then the bombs, bullets and Bobby Sands overtook that flawed genius. So, let’s trumpet our past, warts and all, open that Maze Long Kesh Peace Centre and invite the worlds to share our progress. We cannot hide it, airbrush it or insist on our version of history. Deal with the past, sensitively, explain the present, honestly, and define the future, imaginatively. • Think enterprise – the way we teach careers (‘Teacher: your son has no future. Parent: Why? Teacher: he wants to do computer games’), the job market and post-school opportunity remains woeful; the poverty of ambition is extraordinary, the deadweight of bureaucracy oppressive. Procurement paralysis, audit arthritis and public appointment sclerosis are stifling our growth; none of this is incompatible with the equality and social justice agenda, either, by the way – the two can bring growth and development

together, of course they can. • Inequality and poverty are drags on the economy – and on society – not inevitable consequences of success for the few; similarly, supporting two main education systems is an economic madness (as well as political and moral madnesses), just as quaintly termed ‘peace walls’ are barriers to progress, not defenders of communities. Unless we deal with those horizontal and vertical divisions we will run ourselves to a standstill, not soar to growth. • When the Secretary of State and Tánaiste asked the children of Good Friday 1998 last month if they wanted to stay in Northern Ireland – and they declined – the two leaders were shocked; what a dreadful comment on their approach, not of the youngsters! Unless we are internationalists, we shall be parochialists. Why are there more direct flights to the escape of the Med than to China, Zurich or Frankfurt? Get on them, kids. Go learn. • And finally, back to language – we all must learn not only text and Twitter-speak, but also Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic. Can we celebr8 our diversity and demonstr8 to innov8? Let’s try. Quintin Oliver runs consultancy www.StratagemInt. com and Tweets @QuintinOliver

EXPORTS

Funding boost helps MSO export A n East Belfast-based designer and manufacturer of printed carton packaging and labels has secured an investment of £1.5m, which is says will help it develop its product offering and increase its export activity in foreign markets including China and India. The investment in MSO Group – which has been creating packaging for the food & drink and pharmaceutical sectors since 1876 and currently employs almost 200 people in Belfast – is made up of £1m from its shareholders, including Co-Fund NI, and a loan of £500,000 from the Northern Ireland Growth Loan Fund. According to MSO Group, the new funds will assist with the firm’s working capital requirements; maintain its investment in research and development for its portfolio of anti-counterfeiting, secure authentication and brand protection label and packaging solutions; and finance a sales drive into new export markets. Dominic Walsh, Managing Director of MSO said: “This combined cash injection of £1.5m into our business will be transformational in what we do and represents a high degree of confidence by the shareholders, the board of directors and third parties in our activities and plans.” David McCurley, Senior Investment Manager at WhiteRock Capital Partners, established to manage enquiries to the Growth Loan Fund in Northern Ireland, added: “The Programme for Government calls for Northern Ireland indigenous companies to focus on R&D and export in order to achieve sustainable economic growth and so it is very encouraging to note that this investment will enable MSO to further develop its product offering, which it will continue to export to foreign markets such as India and China.”

David McCurley, Senior Investment Officer, WhiteRock Capital Partners; Dominic Walsh, Managing Director, MSO; and Neil Simms, Finance Director, Clarendon Fund Managers, managers of Co-Fund NI.

JUNE 2013 57

EXPORTS

Burning a path to success in China

First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness recently met China’s commerce minister. China is worth in excess of £110m in terms of exports by Northern Ireland companies.

Kevin Kingston, Vice-President of Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Deputy Chief Executive at Danske Bank, looks at how one small company achieved success in China, the world’s most dynamic market.

hile its economy has slowed somewhat in recent months, China is still on target for a relatively healthy GDP growth of around seven per cent this year. Recognition of the opportunities presented for local companies by such growth has influenced the development of the successful Danske Bank Export First programme, a Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce initiative. A key objective of Export First is to help smaller companies in particular to develop the knowledge and capability to succeed in China and other high growth markets. Our programme is based on the recognition that exporting to such far-flung destinations is not always plain sailing. It seeks to prepare smaller exporters to benefit from participation in Invest NI missions and trade exhibitions in China. Our aim is to encourage smaller companies in particular to look for growth abroad by making expertise and resources, including financial guidance, readily available. We are doing so because we believe that smaller companies can, and indeed are, winning in markets such as China. And encouragingly the winners cover many sectors including engineering and food. Good examples include Fivemiletown Creamery, Whites and Crawford’s

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Food, the latter a husband and wife team in Portaferry who are supplying major supermarkets in Hong Kong. Asphalt Burner Services (ABS) in Magherafelt, a family business formed in 2005 and now employing eight people, also recently secured business worth around £400,000 in Shanghai. What has given ABS an edge in markets like China is the company’s extensive investment in R&D to produce an impressive range of asphalt burners that are much more fuel efficient and offer greater functionality than those of competitors. This small company also recognises that innovation is an ongoing journey required to ensure long-term success in its market... and is prepared to invest to maintain its market lead. The company’s Vulcan branded burners are based on the vast technical experience of Ian Lewis, an ABS founder. Recent innovations developed by the company include a system that can be retrofitted to an existing asphalt plant drying facility, eliminating the need to purchase a complete dryer. Like many Northern Ireland businesses, ABS has a track record of sales success in Britain, a solid platform for expansion into other markets. The success ABS is enjoying with major construction operators such as Cemex, Aggregate Industries and Eurovia Infrastructure

has provided tremendous endorsement of its innovative technology. And it’s easy to see why, because Eurovia, for instance, is reporting fuel savings of around 30 per cent. ABS has a flexible and responsive approach and is prepared to adapt its technology and sales approach to the specific needs of individual clients. Flexibility and customer focus are essential requirements for success in all markets. ABS is also prepared to market its technology aggressively and professionally at targeted trade exhibitions such as Intermat in Paris, Hillhead in Derbyshire and Bauma in Shanghai and has been quick to follow up inquiries from potential customers. Participation at trade events enabled ABS to identify a suitable representative with the right contacts in China. The support that’s now available for companies makes it easier than ever before to export to China. In addition, shipping products to China is probably easier because, as Britain is such a big importer of Chinese goods, many containers return there almost empty, so there is lots of spare capacity for manufactured goods being exported from the UK. Chamber members in transportation and logistics are very well placed to advise and assist companies on how best to access China and, indeed, other BRIC markets.

ANALYSIS

Northern Ireland needs to stay in the European Union As the debate about Europe rages in Westminster, John Simpson argues that leaving the EU would be detrimental for Northern Ireland and its ability to attract investment.

he arguments about the benefits and costs of UK membership of the European Union have become a major issue at Westminster. There is the worrying prospect of an uncertain four-year debate, until 2017, on whether the UK electorate can be offered renegotiated relationships within the EU in a choice on whether to remain part of the continuing EU. Northern Ireland will play a small part in the wider debate. Logically Northern Ireland has strong reasons for wanting to find an agreed renegotiation so that the UK remains in the EU. The debate about whether the UK should remain within the EU is much more complex than a straightforward ‘in-out’ choice. The least satisfactory prospect is of a four year debate that generates enhanced antagonism between

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the UK Government and the other European governments. The easier part of a renegotiated arrangement would be to maintain a full trading common market, for goods and services, linked to a framework that ensured that the trading arrangements functioned in a ‘level playing field’. Agreeing on the conditions for a level playing field, including competition rules for goods, services and people may be more difficult. The inherent contradiction in any renegotiation is the strain between (a) the UK government wishing to have authority to make its own decisions and avoid unwelcome EU decisions and (b) the need for an EU mechanism acceptable to 27 countries. If a decision by the UK to leave the EU lacked the degree of goodwill needed to minimise the

disruption of the decision this might create a fractious departure which would be the worst possible outcome. Despite any reservations, the status quo would be preferable to that outcome. Passive acceptance? There are many uncertainties influencing the debate. What are the features of EU membership that are most unacceptable? What EU legislation or rules are unnecessary and should be removed? The usual complaints tend to be generic by referring to undue Brussels interference, bureaucratic procedures and/or excessive costs of the EU mechanisms and the cost of the EU budget. To create a sensible debate, vague generic dislikes should not be allowed to dominate discussion. Specific identified concerns would help the debate and might, in their articulation,

ANALYSIS

help to reach an amicable renegotiation. Two critical assumptions might be made to narrow down the scope of the EU debate. First, there is no expectation that the UK will be asked to join the 17/18 countries that have adopted the Euro as a common currency. That prospect has gone. The Euro mechanisms have not yet been developed within a sufficiently developed monetary policy framework. Second, if the UK does vote to leave the EU, the current free trade (tariff free) access to the EU countries could be expected to remain in place. Even with an acrimonious UK departure, restoring tariff walls is not a likely option. These assumptions might encourage the response that, with the UK outside the EU, there could be minimal impact on the UK economy. That looks deceptive. The risks of such a passive attitude lie in the emerging perception of the UK as an outsider to the larger EU economies. The UK economy, outside the EU, would have a diminishing influence. If the UK was separated from the decision making Councils and Parliament, the UK influence would become similar to that of Norway or Switzerland. Renegotiation A critical feature for the UK Government is the way in which it intends to ask for a renegotiation of aspects of the EU Treaties. Is this a renegotiation solely from a UK perspective, in which only UK interests are identified? Alternatively, is this a renegotiation so that other Member States might see advantage for the whole EU in making agreed changes? In other words, is the UK bid an effort to make the EU function more acceptable for each Government? There are some signs that this more constructive approach might attract wider support, including the German Government. A constructive approach to renegotiation would reduce the impact of EU policies which are accepted as going beyond the logic of the original Treaty of Rome and the later Maastricht refinements. The renegotiation will have more chance of success if there continues to be agreement that the EU should ensure a well ordered common EU market. Selective opt-outs

“If the UK were to leave the EU, the UK, including Northern Ireland, would risk becoming less attractive as a location of inward investment.” to suit a small number of Member States but at the price of disadvantaging others would be unlikely to succeed. There are some EU policies which have Community-wide logic even when individual states disagree. Effective Common Fisheries Policies should offer collective benefit even when some countries wish otherwise. The (so-called) Social Chapter with its implications for working conditions has a core logic yet has dimensions that might be amended, including the Working Time Directive. The EU multinational trade negotiations are a form of mutual protection. The emerging Community patent legislation is a useful shared benefit. There is some misunderstanding of the relationship of the EU with the questions of Human Rights. The European Convention on Human Rights is separate and not affected by EU agreements. Northern Ireland interests Northern Ireland will take part in the EU debate with considerable direct and indirect interests. The direct interests include: • Arrangements that optimise the ability to attract foreign direct investment leading to increased employment and earnings. • Agreed rules and procedures to avoid unfair competition in State Aids with other EU regions. • Access and support for agriculture and the export of farming and food products. If the UK were to leave the EU, the UK, including Northern Ireland, would risk

becoming less attractive as a location of inward business investment. This could be particularly significant if the Republic of Ireland remains a full EU member. Although in Northern Ireland there are sometimes complaints that the EU rules on State Aid restrict the ability to compete with other regions (by imposing ceilings on the permitted levels of State Aid for new investment), if Northern Ireland was outside the EU and better able to offer higher State Aid, this poses the risk of a competitive bidding situation where taxpayers pay more in a less disciplined process. One of the largest concerns for Northern Ireland, if the UK leaves the EU, would be the consequence of the removal of, or substantial adjustment to, the Common Agriculture Policy. There is a risk that the interest of the UK Government to reduce the cost of the CAP would be contrary to the interests of local farming and food exports. From a Northern Ireland perspective, which would not be identical with the perspective in GB, the debate on EU membership has shortterm disadvantages and longer-term threats. In the short-term, the rebuilding of the local economy will be adversely affected by several years of uncertainty about the outcome of the renegotiation. In the longer-term, the emerging differences with the Republic of Ireland, if the UK leaves the EU, are likely to work to Northern Ireland’s disadvantage. Even more fundamental, if the UK moves to a marginal position with less influence on the wider European economies, that marginalisation would be to the disadvantage of the UK in general and Northern Ireland in particular.

JUNE 2013 61

New UK aerospace strategy paves the way for future success By Gavin Campbell, Director Engineering at Bombardier Aerospace and MATRIX Panel member

n my role in Bombardier Aerospace I’m lucky to be part of many of the exciting and innovative things that drive our company forward and help us to compete globally. Our success and our future prospects are based on developing innovative engineering solutions that provide attractive products and services for our customers. As we all know, however, a company coming up with innovative new technologies and products isn’t enough on its own. The key to success is collaboration and long-term commitment. That’s why I believe the launch in March this year of the UK Aerospace Industrial Strategy is a major step forward in securing the future of our industry, and provides an opportunity for local aerospace SMEs to get on board and play an active part in growing this hugely important sector. The industry employs some 8,000 people here and generates over £900m per year for the local economy. The strategy is the outcome of almost two years’ work by the Aerospace Growth Partnership – a unique collaboration between government and industry aimed at promoting long-term growth and boosting the number of high-value jobs in aerospace. This partnership, in which Bombardier is involved, has recognised the need to pick up the pace to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of world aerospace manufacturing and addresses the challenges of increasing global competition and changes in technology. ‘Lifting Off: Implementing the Strategic Vision for UK Aerospace’ seeks to ensure the UK is positioned at the leading edge of key technology areas – wings, engines, aerostructures and advanced systems. More importantly, it will ensure the UK supply chain wins the lion’s share of new aircraft work packages that will be up for grabs. For example, between now and 2031, there is a global requirement for over 27,000 new passenger aircraft worth approximately $3.7 trillion and an expected demand for in excess of 40,000 commercial helicopters worth approximately $165bn. Industry and Government have agreed commitments to enable the industry to foster innovative technologies through, for example, a new £2bn joint industry and Government Aerospace Technology Institute; develop new manufacturing processes and a robust supply chain; and ensure all companies have the right training and skills in place. The latter includes

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joint support for a new bursary scheme to fund a number of university Aerospace MSc places, aimed at generating high-level skills and expertise. Accredited courses within the scheme are available at our two local universities and I would encourage people to take up this opportunity. This spirit of cooperation and collaboration will help our industry – and the local supply chain – meet the challenges from global competitors. It will enable us to deliver stepchange technologies that are vital to developing a new range of efficient, more environmentallyresponsive aircraft. And it will help ensure we have the people with the right skills and expertise to do this. It has been said many times before that the benefits of investing in research and development, and the return on that investment, can’t be underestimated. And it should not be the sole charge of large companies. It’s vital that SMEs engage in research in their own right. This is why collaborative centres like the Northern Ireland Advanced Composites and Engineering (NIACE) centre are so important – and not just for the aerospace industry. Its importance lies in the active promotion, encouragement and sharing of industry-led innovation across a wide range of sectors in Northern Ireland.

The backing of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Invest Northern Ireland helped bring about NIACE, coupled with the support from the local universities. This kind of collaborative support network drew on the strategy set out by MATRIX – the Northern Ireland ScienceIndustry panel – another three way partnership between government, academia and industry. Bombardier is involved in NIACE and in MATRIX because we believe these approaches can help bring about a step change in the ability of Northern Ireland companies to compete on a world stage and ultimately help grow the local economy. I believe the new Aerospace Industrial Strategy is another major opportunity for local companies to step up to the mark. On June 10th, companies will hear how they can benefit from the strategy at an event being held in NIACE by the local trade organisation ADS NI. It’s crucial to the future success of the next century of aviation that companies are encouraged to extend engineering boundaries, and meet growing environmental challenges. By ensuring we take advantage of what this new aerospace strategy has to offer, I believe Northern Ireland can actively contribute to – and benefit from – a new world of aviation, in a sharing and collaborative environment.

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03/06/2013 10:50

TAX

Working with what we’ve got B

usinesses must not lose sight of the tax reliefs already available to them as they await next year’s decision on devolving corporation tax powers to Northern Ireland. That is the view of tax experts Rob Heron and Ian Edwards from the Belfast office of accountancy firm Ernst & Young (EY). In particular they highlight three tax reliefs which came into effect on April 1 2012 that could have substantial benefits for many eligible Northern Ireland businesses: the Patent Box, an improved R&D tax scheme and the Creative Sector tax relief. “In principle we remain supportive of the reduction in corporation tax and hopeful it will happen. At the very best corporation tax is two years down the line. So we have to look at what we can do now,” says Rob Heron, Tax Partner with the firm. “These measures mentioned above are

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government promoted. They are part of an overall strategy to make the UK the most attractive tax regime in the G20.” It is hoped that the new regime will be a huge boost for innovation and the ‘knowledge’ economy in Northern Ireland. This regime should not only attract high value Foreign Direct Investment to the province but also reduce the tax burden of innovative indigenous companies and create opportunities for reinvestment in their business. PATENT BOX Chancellor George Osborne confirmed in this year’s Budget, that the Patent Box effectively provides for a corporation tax rate of 10% on profits arising from patented products and processes. While it has started to be talked about in the local business community, Ian Edwards, Tax

Director at EY, says there are still companies that don’t know about it or have limited understanding of its application. He explains, for example, if a company has a product or component in a product that is patented, the entire profit from that product falls within the 10% rate band. Furthermore if a company has a patented element within a process, profit attributable to that process it can also fall within a 10% rate. “A lot of people thought the Patent Box would never happen or that it sounded too good to be true. But it is here now and companies need to be ready for it. It may take years to get a patent but the benefits of the patent box is that they can claim it from April 1 2013 even if their patent is not actually granted for several years, provided they’ve applied for it,” he said. “R&D came out in 2000, but it wasn’t until 2007 that most companies in Northern Ireland

TAX

started looking at R&D tax relief. It took seven years for companies to make any claims. If we wait until 2020 for any companies to start thinking about patent box that’s seven years they’ve missed, and they won’t have the ability to go back and claim it. The Northern Ireland economy can’t afford companies not to obtain what is essentially free cash.” Rob Heron further notes that the Patent box is widely applicable to innovative companies across most sectors. “Historically, not many Northern Ireland companies focused on patents because very few had a fully thought through IP strategy. I think there was a misunderstanding around patents, we weren’t aware of the protection they brought and there was a misconception about the cost. The patent box has brought patents to the fore because the tax benefits are very attractive. It is one of the most attractive patent box regimes in the world,” he said. R&D RELIEF The new above the line R&D scheme has been billed as a “game changer” for inward investment. Companies claiming relief under the large company scheme will now be entitled to payable cash credits equal to 10% (pre-tax) of qualifying expenditure. The new measure will be particularly beneficial to companies without tax liabilities who under the old super-deduction scheme could only carry forward their increased tax losses and who saw no immediate cash benefit. It is the first time those companies will be eligible for a cash rebate, and means that all companies undertaking R&D can now get a return on their investment regardless of their tax profile. Ian Edwards says that with the new Patent Box scheme in place, the government is hoping to encourage companies to invest in R&D and then stay to exploit it within the UK. “The two regimes are linked. There is legislation in the patent box to encourage companies to keep investing in R&D. The more R&D you do in the first four years of Patent

Box, the more of your profits you’ll get at the 10% rate. It aims to encourage continuous innovation,” he explains. “The government’s aim is to support companies that are involved in innovation and R&D. Those companies usually employ a highly skilled graduate workforce and for Northern Ireland the more we invest in innovation the more we grow exports.” Rob Heron confirms that his clients who have used the R&D relief are already looking to invest it in new staff or facilities. “The automatic reaction was not to take money out of the business. It was to reinvest it in the business. In my experience highly innovative companies automatically think ‘what can I do with this money to make my business bigger and better’,” he adds. Although companies in Northern Ireland are claiming R&D relief, Ian Edwards says most are not maximising the benefits. “A lot of companies continue to do the same thing over and over again, using the same methodology, looking at the same cost categories. But every year there has been guidance and legislative changes which could as much double the claim, but companies just haven’t caught on to that. The rate of relief has also gone up,” he said. And with the definition of R&D for tax purposes being quite wide, Heron says companies from sectors as diverse as agrifood, construction, manufacturing, IT and pharmaceuticals can benefit from the scheme. “It is not dependent on sector and a lot of businesses are involved in R&D even if they don’t classify themselves as being engaged in it. There’s this misconception that R&D is only done in labs by people in white coats. One of our biggest challenges is convincing business owners they are doing R&D,” he said. CREATIVE SECTOR The third strand of the new tax reliefs which the EY experts highlight is the new Creative Sector scheme. Under it, new tangible cash benefits have been introduced for companies involved in high end television, animation and video games. With productions such as Game of Thrones filming in Northern Ireland, as well as a growing number of animation companies such as Sixteen South bolstering the creative sector here, the new reliefs have been welcomed. The relief, which takes the form of a cash rebate, can be used by companies to assist with funding gaps and to invest in new productions. It is just as applicable to small start-up businesses as it is to international producers. Rob Heron says the measures will help with cashflow and future investment: “There is a funding gap for these sorts of companies in their early years so the vast majority of them will take the cash back options to help cover the losses they made in those early years. Companies can obtain an enhanced deduction of up to 80% of core costs and then up to 25% of any loss as a

Rob Heron Ian Edwards

cash back option. “It is similar to the film tax credit and it is common for such businesses to borrow on the back of that refund. It enables them to say to their bank that they will be getting a refund in 12 months time.” Heron says his firm has vast practical experience in R&D and patent box, which has read across with the Creative Sector relief, and given its strong relationships with HMRC, he believes EY is well placed to maximise what will qualify. “There is real cash on the table with these regimes,” he said. “A lot of people will automatically focus on the FDI investors who’ll benefit. Yes it will help them, but the Patent Box, R&D, and Creative Sector reliefs are here now to help local indigenous companies. We have many great businesses here and this will help them to invest and grow.”

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ENERGY

Gas to the west project picks up pace

hoenix Natural Gas, Northern Ireland’s largest gas distribution company, has been on the ground in Fermanagh as part of a process of assessing demand for gas across the geographic area that is included in the NI Executive’s ‘gas to the west’ plans. There was confirmation from the NI Executive in 2012 that the project would benefit from government subsidy to help with its cost, and construction work could start as early as next year. It is currently proposed that both gas transmission and distribution pipelines will be built across Mid-Ulster and into Fermanagh going as far as Enniskillen and Derrylin. The process for deciding how this will be done is currently being managed by the Utility Regulator and the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment. It is not yet known which companies will carry out the work, but Phoenix Natural Gas are one of the companies on record as having registered their interest in looking at the project. Phoenix hosted a seminar in Enniskillen for local business leaders and key stakeholders. Alastair Pollock, Phoenix Business Development Director, reflected: “We had met with political representatives at Stormont to discuss the project and together we believed

(L-R): Tom Elliott MLA (UUP), Alastair Pollock (Phoenix Natural Gas), Lord Maurice Morrow MLA (DUP) and Phil Flanagan MLA (Sinn Fein).

it was likely that many businesses in the west were not fully aware of the benefits natural gas availability in their areas would bring. We decided to be proactive and were very encouraged by the response we had from

businesses on the day. There was a clear demand for more fuel choice to be made available and ultimately everyone present seemed to understand natural gas’s key role in providing economic, social and environmental benefits”.

Utilities united in Northern Ireland

evere weather in March put to the test a mutual aid protocol set up among Northern Ireland’s main utility companies. It is believed this approach in Northern Ireland is the first of its kind across the United Kingdom. It has been over a year since new structures were put in place by the Chief Executives of BT, Northern Ireland Electricity, Northern Ireland Water and Phoenix Natural Gas to identify ways in which the companies could provide mutual support and aid to each other during periods of extreme weather or other unforeseen situations. Trevor Haslett, Chief Executive of NI Water, explained: “Although all

NIE’s Pat McDonagh works alongside Robert Linton from BT to restore telecoms customers affected by storms earlier this year.

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of our companies require specialist skills to repair our networks, we have been able to identify a number of areas where we can work together for the mutual benefit of our customers in Northern Ireland. In particular we have looked at shared resources such as people, materials, equipment, transportation vehicles or access to buildings.” Heavy snow and strong winds in March damaged utility networks across Northern Ireland and affected electricity, water and telecoms services to thousands of customers. Alex Crossan, BT Managing Director Networks, said: “Although we had carried out a simulation, March’s storm was the first time we used the mutual aid protocol for real. Our plans worked well and we were able to share equipment and manpower to speed up repairs to the overhead telecoms network in some of the worst affected areas”. Experts believe that extreme weather across the UK and Ireland is becoming more commonplace and local Northern Ireland Executive Ministers have commended the utility companies for progressing a more formal process for working together in such instances if appropriate. Energy Minister Arlene Foster commented: “I very much welcome this initiative as a pragmatic and practical approach to prepare for emergencies, no matter what may cause them. The combined breadth of expertise between these companies will ensure that the impact of disruption to the services they provide is minimised for customers, particularly those considered most vulnerable during an emergency. It is an interesting approach to mutual aid which other organisations may wish to consider.” Regional Development Minister Danny Kennedy added: “I commend the proactive efforts of the utilities companies in coming together to share their knowledge and resources to further improve the vital support they deliver to all of us, often in very severe weather conditions.”

Corporate Law

EXPORTS

Libel law: should we be worried? The Defamation Act 2013 received Royal Assent in April, but the Stormont Assembly hasn’t consented to having the act extended to Northern Ireland, despite a strong lobby in support of such a move.

fter years of political argument the Defamation Act 2013 finally received Royal Assent in April, signalling a major change in libel laws in England and Wales. The act, its supporters say, introduces the first substantial reform of defamation law since 1843 following smaller changes set out in the Defamation Act 1952 and the Defamation Act 1996. The changes made to the act are designed to simplify the very complex laws around defamation and to weed out spurious claims. However, the NI Assembly rejected the notion of passing a “legislative consent motion” which would have enabled the Act to extend to Northern Ireland. The local press has expressed concern, noting that while libel law in Scotland has always differed from the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland is in all relevant respects identical to England and Wales.

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Olivia O’Kane, a solicitor specialising in libel and defamation at law firm Carson McDowell, says the decision leaves Northern Ireland with defamation laws based on a complex myriad of case law and statute, rather than an Act that provides a succinct guide. “It should not have been a flat refusal. The NI Assembly should at the very least reconsider halting the extension of libel reform to Northern Ireland without having a proper, open and public consultation on the issue. There must be an open debate in Northern Ireland about bringing it back into line with the rest of the UK,” she said. “The press are the eyes and ears of society and act as public watchdog. Chilling press freedom of speech damages the public community at large.” Ms O’Kane said that with the growth of online reporting, blogs and social media, there is a need to reform the laws to meet the needs of

modern society. “The recent reform of libel law does not only affect the traditional media outlets but affects citizens, corporations, human rights NGOs, website operators, bloggers, academics and scientists alike. The Act arguably strikes a careful balance of ensuring the protection of the right to a good reputation whilst acknowledging the right to freedom of expression,” she said. “The laws of defamation are a legal minefield, not just for journalists but for potential complainants. The Defamation Act 2013 provides legal clarity and simplifies the existing law defining the boundaries of free speech.” The solicitor says a two tier system within the UK could mean bloggers and tweeters here don’t have the same rights as online users in England. “Northern Ireland is being isolated and it must ensure that it keeps up to date with the modern world and that free and open investigative journalism is not censored

CORPORATE LAW

and protects a free press and public interest blogging,” she said. “Let’s hope the two tier approach will not encourage media organisations to exit Northern Ireland and curb economic growth and inward investment in Northern Ireland. We do not want to face a proposition that the UK media may have to sanitise news broadcast in Northern Ireland.” According to O’Kane the key changes to the defamation laws are: • The Act aims to assist in weeding out potential spurious claims with the introduction of a serious harm test which raises the bar for bringing a claim. A statement is not defamatory unless its publication has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to the reputation of the complainant. • The implication for corporate bodies is that the Act curtails the ability of organisations that trade for profit to sue for libel and provides protection to those that fairly or honestly opine on corporate products without fear of legal proceedings. Harm to the reputation of a company is not serious harm unless it has caused or is likely to cause the body serious financial loss. Companies are already prevented from

claiming damages for certain types of injury such as injury to feelings and were thus in practice likely to have shown actual or likely financial loss anyway. • The defences of truth and honest opinion replace the common law defences of justification and fair comment which broadly reflect the current law while simplifying and clarifying certain elements. • Introduction of the new defence of publication on a matter of public interest which is not intended to be a new departure from the current law but rather to be based on the existing common law defence. • Introduction of a new defence for the operators of websites where a defamation action is brought against them in respect of a statement posted on the website. It provides greater protection for website operators and content hosts. • Extension of qualified privilege to the publication of peer-reviewed statements in scientific or academic journals in print or electronic form. • Absolute and qualified privilege extends to fair and accurate contemporaneous reports of court proceedings or in public of a legislature for instance or press conferences or documents circulated by UK public companies.

• Under the new single publication rule claims must be brought within one year of their first publication. This replaces the multiple publication rule whereby each publication of defamatory material gives rise to a separate cause of action which is subject to its own limitation period. The change will benefit social media users and the online community. • Tighter controls on libel tourism, where cases with tenuous links to England have been brought in English courts. If a statement is published 100,000 times in Australia and only 5,000 times in England and Wales that should be good reason to prevent the action from proceeding in England and Wales. This provision aims to weed out trivial claims and prevent conflict with European jurisdictional rules. • Prohibition of an action for defamation being brought against someone who is not the primary publisher, author, editor of a statement complained of unless it is satisfied that it is not reasonably practicable for an action to be brought against the author, editor or publisher. • Removal of the presumption of a jury trial. • Courts have power to order a summary of its judgment to be published where parties cannot agree an apology or correction.

Opponents fear “open season” P aul Tweed (pictured), a libel lawyer well known for acting on behalf of journalists and celebrities, is against changing the system in Northern Ireland to bring it into line with England and Wales. Tweed, who works in Belfast, Dublin, London and the US, believes the changes will make it harder for ordinary people with a grievance against the press to go to court. “I’m opposed to it. I’ve been sitting on the Ministry of Justice panels in the UK and it was quite clear to me sitting through those meetings there was no need to reform. For all intents and purposes the Act has primarily been a sop to the press. There has been a very successful lobby campaign that’s the most successful since the tobacco industry campaign three decades ago,” said Tweed. Tweed said the jury system is the “last opportunity for the ordinary Belfast man” to express his displeasure at the media. “The politicians are depriving the electorate of the right to have their say. I am a massive fan of the UK and Irish media, they do a great job and that’s in no small part down to our libel laws. They have to give some credence to truth and that’s what makes them the excellent publications they are,” he added. “The ordinary man on the street has never had access to justice in Northern Ireland as far

as the libel courts are concerned. There is no legal aid here and while there’s no legal aid in England either what they have allowed is lawyers to work on a no win, no fee basis, which we’re not allowed to here. Also, and most importantly, in England there is a provision for recovery of after the event insurance premiums. That gives people who haven’t got a lot of money some protection.” Tweed believes claims Belfast will become a haven for libel tourism if its laws are out of step with England, are nonsense. “They keep talking about Russian oligarchs and Saudi business men. If you find any in Northern Ireland let me know,” he said.

“The judges are already asking us why so few defamation cases are being brought before the courts and the simple answer is that a lawyer can make more from a whiplash case. There will be no defamation cases in Belfast if the Act comes in.” Tweed also thinks changing the law could have negative implications for the Northern Ireland economy by making it “virtually impossible for a company to sue”. “A corporation under the new Act has to show evidence of serious financial damage. So if the publishers of a magazine made an allegation of bad practice, you couldn’t sue them unless you could show you are suffering significant financial loss as a result of that, which is very difficult to do,” he said. “It will make it much more appealing to set up in the Republic of Ireland rather than Northern Ireland because they will have much more protection there. They still have a jury and they don’t have to show financial loss.” With such a strong lobby in favour of extending the Act there is a strong chance it will happen, he believes. “It is going to be open season on the politicians if it does,” he said. “When they come to me looking for help I’m going to take great relish in reminding them they were the ones that changed the laws.”

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CORPORATE LAW

Confidence returning to M&A market The rise in the number of M&A deals completed in 2012 is set to continue in 2013, with the technology, agri-food and renewables sectors contributing most to the upward trajectory.

he first six months of 2013 have raised hopes that the number and value of M&A deals for the full year will surpass the improved performance in 2012, according to one leading corporate lawyer in the M&A space. Peter Stafford, chairman of A&L Goodbody in Northern Ireland, says there has been “a notable sense of confidence” returning to the market in recent months following an increase in activity in 2012. Figures from Experian suggest there were 52 M&A deals in the province in 2012, a 40% improvement on the year before, with the value of those deals topping £1.1bn, compared with £384m in 2011. “2012 was definitely much busier and I think I’m right in saying there’s a sense around town that that good level of activity has continued into 2013. People are optimistic deals which just weren’t happening 18 months to two years ago are likely to be transacted in 2013,” said Stafford. “There would be a sense of more confidence in the market that deals will be done now. We’ve probably hit the bottom of the market and it is all about confidence from here on in. The more deals get done the more people will look around, see things are happening and want to get involved – that’s banks, venture capitalists, family businesses that are thinking of succession

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planning, people who have put the brakes on over the last few years.” A&L Goodbody, which was involved in about a third of the 52 M&A deals last year, expects the most active sectors to be renewable energy, agri-food and technology. The tech sector in particular is likely to benefit from the launch of Invest NI’s two new venture capital funds later this year. Stafford also notes that deals such as Intel’s acquisition of Aepona and Proofpoint’s purchase of Maildistiller show there is also interest in Northern Ireland companies from global corporations, venture capitalists and private equity funds from outside the province. “We’ve noticed a real uplift in US interest in the island of Ireland generally. Partly that’s to do with exchange rates but I think the US sees Ireland as a good bridge-head into a couple of markets – the UK market and also Europe. We’re well placed in that being an all island firm,” he said. “There are businesses that have just been getting on with the day job over the last five or six years and in doing that they have made themselves very attractive propositions for people who are looking to get into new markets. They are coming to the market with a higher value proposition at a time when appetite is returning to the market,” he added.

While the tech companies in Northern Ireland are relatively well versed when it comes to equity investment, some work remains to be done in terms of educating companies in more traditional sectors such as manufacturing and agri-food, which have tended to rely on debt finance. “We as a professional advisory community have had to bring a little bit more to the table. As a group we’ve had to be more creative in terms of ideas we are bringing to companies and educating companies about other sources of finance,” said Stafford. “We’re working on a couple of EIS funding rounds where companies are going to high net worth individuals to help bridge a funding gap. As companies in Northern Ireland look at alternative sources of finance and they become more embedded in their DNA, I wouldn’t be surprised in the next three to five years if some of those companies are interested in going down the (stock market) listing route.” Ultimately, the corporate lawyer says that any significant uplift in activity in the local market will be driven by confidence. “More deals are being done and that inevitably drives confidence. It is confidence that will get us back to a normal market,” he said. “The difference this year is that people are talking about doing deals and then actually doing them, which is very positive.”

Leading legal advisers to the local and international business community The exceptional team at A&L Goodbody Northern Ireland is on top of the game, providing specialist advice with deep business acumen. Legal 500 UK, 2012

A&L Goodbody is the leading law firm across the island of Ireland with domestic and international reach and reputation. Our reach is thanks to partnerships with our clients. Our reputation is built on experience advising on legal issues in the ever-changing market. For further information contact: A&L Goodbody Northern Ireland 6th Floor, 42/46 Fountain Street Belfast BT1 5EF

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CORPORATE LAW

New mediation website launched Michael Robinson, President of Law Society, Minister Ford and Alan Hunter Chief Executive of the Law Society.

he growing importance of mediation as a means of resolving disputes in Northern Ireland has been highlighted with the launch of a new website. www.mediatorsni.com is a dedicated information portal which has been launched to provide parties involved in a dispute with the option of selecting a mediator via the website’s

new online directory. Over the last decade mediation has become a central part of an ever changing legal environment in which courts are encouraging parties to seek resolution before coming to court. Evidence continues to show that it is an effective means of resolving disputes often in a

SPORTING SUCCESS: Carson McDowell staff and clients enjoyed an evening celebrating success with Olympic Medal Winner Richard Chambers in the Merchant Hotel. The event celebrated the success of a great Northern Ireland duo, Olympic Medal winners Richard and Peter Chambers, with Richard Chambers “In conversation” with BBC sports presenter Gavin Campbell. The event also gave law firm Carson McDowell a chance to unveil its new branding to clients.

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simpler, cheaper, quicker and less stressful way that going to court. In response the new website, which is hosted by the Dispute Resolution Service and administered by the Law Society of Northern Ireland, has been designed to provide a ‘one stop shop’ for users showcasing the benefits of mediation as well as the contact details for qualified local lawyer mediators trained specifically to work with disputing parties. Whether it’s a family, divorce, commercial or conveyancing dispute the new website provides litigants and the general public with options for consideration to help them. Brian Speers, Law Society Council Member and Chairman of the Dispute Resolution Service Project Management Board, said: “The Law Society and the legal profession in Northern Ireland have shown that they are receptive to the needs of litigants and responsive to the changing legal landscape. The opportunity to resolve a dispute in a satisfactory way through use of a legally qualified mediator is increasingly encouraged by the courts. Mediation in many cases is effective, quick and involves less cost than a court hearing. “We are therefore delighted to launch www.mediatorsni.com which provides access to information and a directory of professionally trained lawyer mediators who can help parties in the resolution of their dispute”. David Ford, Minister of Justice, who attended the launch said: “I welcome the launch of the ‘dedicated information portal on mediation’. It is clearly beneficial to individuals involved in a dispute and to society in general that they are resolved as early as possible, and, where possible, without the emotional and financial cost of litigation.”

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CORPORATE LAW

Wayne is young leader of the pack T he 2013 Herbert Smith Freehills Young Leader Award was presented to Wayne Nickels of Cunningham Coates Stockbrokers at the second annual Northern Ireland Young Leaders’ Conference. Wayne is pictured receiving his award from event compère Graeme Little and Libby Jackson of Herbert Smith Freehills, who sponsored the event. The 2013 Young Leaders’ Conference hosted more than 220 delegates at The MAC, Belfast, giving young professionals the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and network with some of Northern Ireland’s top business people. A host of business leaders addressed delegates including Alyson Hogg, founder of Vita Liberata who judged the 2013 Young Leader Award. Winner Wayne Nickels was selected from a shortlist of five for his exceptional leadership throughout his business activities with Belfast-based Cunningham Coates Stockbrokers as well as charitable fundraising activities over the past year for the Prince’s Trust. Young Leaders NI is an organisation formed by the Institute of Directors’ Young Directors Forum, Belfast Junior Chamber (JCI Belfast), the Northern Ireland Young Solicitors’ Association, and the Chartered Accountants Ulster Society Young Professionals. This year’s Young Leaders’ Conference was sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehills in association with Abacus Professional Recruitment, PwC, Ulster Bank and Wesleyan for Lawyers.

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04/02/2013 09:47

SOCIAL ECONOMY

The age of social innovation Sir Tim Smit, the visionary behind the Eden Project, spoke to Symon Ross about the future of social enterprise on a recent visit to Northern Ireland.

ocial innovation has the potential to drive the most important change in corporate structures in history, according to the founder of the Eden Project, Sir Tim Smit. Speaking at the EBN Congress in Derry, organised by Noribic, Sir Tim used tales from his own experience of setting up the biodome project in Cornwall – which cost £141m to build and has since generated over £1bn in revenue for the local economy – to illustrate the potential power of social enterprises. “I think social enterprise has the potential to be one of the most important business innovations in the last 250 years,” he told Ulster Business after his speech. “A great business by its very nature should have great outcomes. But the best outcomes are reached by social enterprises because they are able to optimise their profits rather than maximise them. Limited companies are obligated to maximise their profits.” The Eden Project visionary said the old cliché that a social enterprise was an organisation with the heart of the public sector and the management of the private sector was a flawed way to look the concept because “the public sector doesn’t have a heart and some private sector companies are very badly run”. “Social innovation is often seen as a rather fuzzy concept because social enterprises have largely been hi-jacked by Government who see social enterprise as an arm of the third sector, which is not how I see it. As a result a lot of social enterprises are, almost paradoxically, not very enterprising,” he added. “Most people look at problems, for example

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the health service, and approach them in terms of changing what is there. What I would say is imagine there is no health service, how do you start again? That’s one of the things we need to foster, that sort of thinking.” Sir Tim said the biggest challenge facing social enterprise was getting more smart people to work for them, rather than going into investment banking and management consulting. “Social enterprises should be set up so that if people are successful it is possible not only to see social gain but actually benchmark their success against the stakeholder’s success. If someone sets up a social enterprise and is turning over £30m and making profit of £10m there’s no reason in my mind, if it is done in a transparent way, why they shouldn’t make £1m themselves,” he said. “There is an unhealthy desire to portray social enterprise as though you should be wearing a hairshirt. If you are effecting social change in a positive way, the more successful you are, the more you should be able to earn.” He believes partnerships between community organisations and the private sector will become increasingly important, citing the Cornwall Together project in which consumers have clubbed together to maximise their energy buying power. “The danger is that an opportunity of creating new alliances is being missed because they seem to think social enterprises should be not for profit. If they are going to be social enterprises they ought to be charging enough to enable them to invest for the future, rather than just breaking even all the time,” he said.

Eight simple rules

ir Tim Smit has eight flexible rules for people who work at the Eden Project and which he says are applicable to other organisations. • You cannot start your workday before saying “hello” to 20 other people. • Read two books a year outside your sphere of interest that you would not normally read. • Do the same with plays – particularly if you don’t like the theatre. • Do the same with movies – take recommendations from co-workers. • Do the same with concerts. The idea of all these points is to “take the blinkers off your eyes” and intentionally seek new ideas and inspiration. • Once a year, stand up and explain why you love to work for Eden. If you have to do this, he believes that you’ll deal with all the reasons you don’t love Eden before giving your talk. • Eden’s top 80 team members must all do one guerilla act of generosity for other people once a year, without them knowing about it. • Once a year prepare a meal for the 20 people who make it worthwhile coming into work. “People are different when the sun goes down – most of the great decisions we’ve taken at the Eden Project have been made by wine-light.” • Sir Tim’s 9th rule, for himself, is to accept every third invitation he receives. “Magic is created by meeting the people you didn’t know you were meant to meet,” he said.

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04/02/2013 09:47

EVENTS

Roseann Kelly, Chief Executive of Women in Business NI, is joined at the fifth annual conference by speakers Jo Fairley, founder of Green & Blacks, Susan Davis, Chair of Vital Voices Global, Lara Morgan of Pacific Direct and Chair of Women in Business NI, Kate Marshall.

Inspirational Women in Business NI Conference hailed as a huge success

he Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP, Minister Arlene Foster, conference speakers from Northern Ireland, the UK, the US and delegates from across Ireland and the UK, have all joined in hailing the fifth annual Women in Business NI Conference a success. In ten short years, the organisation has grown to a membership of 1,000 and more than 300 delegates packed into the Hilton Hotel in Belfast to connect and engage through a series of networking sessions and to learn from leaders in business. Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP officially opened the conference and paid tribute to “the excellent work Women in Business NI does in forging networks to bring together aspiring entrepreneurs and those thinking about taking their first steps into commerce”. Following the Secretary of State’s official opening of the conference, Susan Davis, Chair of Vital Voices Global in Washington, told delegates there is one piece of good news to come from the global economic crisis. Susan said: “Countries and companies can’t be competitive by leaving half or their population behind so women have to become part of the solution. Instead of still having the same discussions about the glass ceiling, it’s about our fair share of the economic pie – women need to be part of the solution to

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economic prosperity.” She added that investing in women is smart economics and told delegates to “forget China, forget India, forget the internet because women are the emerging market” which was of course met by rapturous applause from the gathered audience. Minister Foster joined the conference by video. She said: “Northern Ireland women have determination and resilience and I encourage local businesses to use their enthusiasm. I commend the work Women in Business NI have done to bring you all here today and look forward to supporting Women in Business NI for next year’s global conference.” Lara Morgan of Pacific Direct told delegates of the lessons she has learnt on her entrepreneurial journey, noting that “business doesn’t happen by remote control – it takes persistence”. Jo Fairley, co-founder of Green & Black’s told how she changed the world, one square of chocolate at a time. Inspired by Anita Roddick of The Body Shop, Jo approached her bank manager for a loan of £20,000 to start the business. When he asked what the loan would be spent on, she replied ‘chocolate’. Jo said: “The brand has officially been named as the ‘coolest’ for the 7th year running by Cool Brands and sales are approaching 100 million per year although it did start off with a

humble beginning.” Following the keynote addresses, delegates had the opportunity to network and attend various workshops hosted by Invest Northern Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Microsoft, Running Start and Department for Employment and Learning’s management and leadership team. Roseann Kelly, Chief Executive of Women in Business NI, said: “I am absolutely thrilled with the success of this year’s Conference and looking forward to our International Business Women’s Conference which will take place from 13 to 16 May 2014 and will see more than 750 delegates from across the globe descend on Belfast for what is promising to be a life changing experience. www.ibwc2014.com “The extent of real business connections that have been made through our conference will be manifested over the months to come but initially it’s been reported that more than half of those who attended left having engaged firmly with delegates who will be of benefit to their business and workplace. “The success of this conference is proof that if you are a woman in business in Northern Ireland, you should be a member of Women in Business NI. Whether you own your own business, or hold a senior management, leadership role, the networking opportunities will enable you to connect and engage with those you are trying to target.”

Responsible Business Rewarded The eighth annual Business in the Community Awards for corporate responsibility in association with Electric Ireland took place on 6 June at Belfast Waterfront. This gala event, attended by 500 people, celebrated businesses and organisations that demonstrate responsibility through their actions towards their People, the Planet and the Places where they operate. The keynote address was given by Jean Oelwang, Chief Executive of Virgin Unite.

“Interest in our awards is stronger than ever. We had some excellent entries and shortlisting them to choose the best in each category for our judging panels was no easy job. Each year the standard increases as more companies explore what it means to invest in doing business responsibly and reap benefits in terms of – their workforce, local communities and the wider environment.”

The Winners Northern Ireland Responsible Company of the Year McLaughlin & Harvey Environmental Improvement Ballyrashane Co-operative (Highly Commended H&J Martin)

Business and Biodiversity McLaughlin & Harvey Employer of Choice Firstsource (Highly Commended Michelin plc)

Roy Adair, Chair BITCNI & Chief Executive, Belfast Harbour

Local Community Impact George Best Belfast City Airport

2013 NI Responsible Company of the Year – McLaughlin & Harvey Founded in 1853, McLaughlin & Harvey (McL&H) is one of Northern Ireland’s leading building and civil engineering contractors. It also runs three specialist manufacturing and facilities management divisions. It undertakes a wide range of public and private sector projects. McL&H has gone to great lengths to invest Kieran Harding, Business in the Community and Charlotte Elliott from category sponsor in the social aspects Asda with Deborah Noble, Louise Friel and Charlene Jones from winning company of its Sustainable McLaughlin & Harvey along with Roy Adair, Business in the Community Chair. Development Strategy. It has a focus on establishing positive relationships with community partners and local residents, employing health and wellbeing initiatives and leading the way for future generations in terms of CSR. Through Codes of Best Practice, McL&H ensures that all feasible efforts are made to reduce disturbances created by its projects within local communities and undertakes a Good Neighbour Policy at all sites. Employee wellbeing is a core focus of McL&H’s corporate responsibility agenda and it truly believes in the benefit of investing in the health and wellbeing of its employees. McL&H has invested time and resource into its ‘You Matter’ campaign which focuses on ensuring the enhanced wellbeing of both internal employees and promotes health and safety within its supply chain. The judges said: “We loved McLaughlin & Harvey’s ‘You Matter’ project which focuses on employee wellbeing and by the clear targets and reporting being carried out as it strives to be a ‘green leader’. Engagement with sub-contractors is commendable, involving them with local community initiatives and giving them many of the same benefits it affords to its own employees. It also showed a proactive approach to research and innovation that will see it continue to lead the way in its sector.” All of this work has resulted in McL&H sites being placed in the top 10% of Considerate Contractors Scheme across the UK. It has produced bird tables made from post-construction cedar waste given to over 100 local schools as well as creating an ‘eco garden’ for one school. It also invested over £90k in its employee wellbeing campaign ‘You Matter’.

Media Partner:

(Highly Commended BT)

Education Partner Equiniti-ICS (Highly Commended Ulster Bank)

Most Responsible Small Business ISL Waste Management Ltd Sustained Impact Ulster Bank 2013 National Big Ticks Diageo NI for the Bupa Workwell Award Moy Park for the Dairy Crest Rural Action Award and Diageo NI for the Workplace Talent and Skills Award Other companies also reaccredited with Big Ticks from 2011 and 2012 were: Adelaide Insurance; Allstate NI; Capita Managed IT Solutions; Phoenix Natural Gas and Translink

HRH Ambassador Michael Ryan, Bombardier Aerospace Sieff Future Leader Lauren Geddis, Citi Community Leader Kerry Anthony, Depaul Ireland (Highly Commended Anne Bill, FASA)

Mark Pollock Award for Hope Terry McCorran, City of Belfast Boxing Academy

Key Sponsor:

Most Responsible Small Business ISL Waste Management (ISL) is a locally owned company providing holistic and recyclingfocused waste management services. Newtownabbey-based, ISL extracts recyclable fractions from mixed waste, achieving zero waste to landfill for most of its clients. ISL actively works to change its employees and other stakeholders’ perceptions of waste and delivers some unique, innovative solutions. It encourages staff volunteering and gets involved in a variety of initiatives to inform the community about recycling opportunities. It successfully incorporated a 30% blend of bio diesels into its fleet of 11 vehicles in 2012. Its work has resulted in 2,015 tonnes of waste being diverted from landfill, redirection of 20,000 disposable face masks from landfill to doctors in Burkino Faso and five tonnes of material donated and used in school projects across Northern Ireland.

Derek Russell, Electric Ireland presents the award to Joe McCrystal, Danny Paton and Barry Donaghy from ISL Waste Management along with Tony Dunlea, Electric Ireland.

Environmental Improvement

David Hughes and Ian Campbell from Ballyrashane Co-operative receive their award from Catherine Mason, Translink and Tony Dunlea, Electric Ireland.

As it enters its 117th year in business, Ballyrashane Co-operative is one of the very few remaining operational co-operatives owned by local farmers. With over 150 employees, it is headquartered in Ballyrashane and has premises in Coleraine and Enniskillen. In 2012, it opened its first ever ‘green energy’ facility using organic dairy waste to generate electricity. The £3.5 million Anaerobic Digestion Plant has allowed it to maximise its own renewable energy generation and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. £1 million has been invested over three years to improve its environmental credentials, including replacing two oil burners with gas, new refrigeration and chilled water equipment which achieves >30% efficiency than before, dissolved air flotation and storage units to aid effluent treatment for water discharge. All of this work has enabled Ballyrashane Co-operative to produce seven million kWh of energy and save 3,500 tonnes of CO2 each year. Highly Commended in this category was H&J Martin.

Education Partner

Andrew Brammer, Allen & Overy presents the award to Tony Madden and Claire Colvin from Equiniti-ICS along with Tony Dunlea, Electric Ireland.

Equiniti-ICS is one of the fastest growing IT services and payroll outsourcing providers. Headquartered in Belfast, it employs around 350 people and is now the fourth largest business services provider in the UK. With one in four young people aged between 18 – 24 unable to find a job here and around 2,000 new professional IT positions created every year being left unfilled, it decided to actively address this situation. Given the tight labour market within the IT industry, it explored the alternatives to recruitment with a view to minimising the risk to its business. It developed a Business Education Partnership with the Northern Regional College in 2012. Part of the initiative involves the company providing positive role models for students. This has allowed the firm to make a positive impact in its local communities by making strong connections with its future workforce. It has developed a number of initiatives including steering meetings, presentations to students, interviews, mentoring and plans for equipment provisions. This work has made a significant impact with three students being offered one year long work placements, recruitment costs reduced by around £55k and 15 employees involved in mentoring roles. Highly Commended in this category was Ulster Bank.

Business and Biodiversity Building and civil engineering contractor, McLaughlin & Harvey (McL&H) is committed to ensuring biodiversity is a key focus on its agenda. It has designed a Sustainable Business Strategy, fully endorsed by top management which aims to halt biodiversity loss and positively influence McL&H’s stakeholders to do the same. Through its ‘Green Value Engineering’ initiative, biodiversity is considered during all stages of the construction project. Protective measures such as pollution prevention measures, planting native species, construction and placement of bird boxes and other biodiversity measures are put in place as appropriate. Its biodiversity projects range from local, such as developing a community nature reserve and providing bird boxes for local schools, to global. McL&H has supplied over 120 bird tables to schools, reaching 3,000 local pupils. It is the first UK main contractor and only Northern Ireland contractor to achieve FSC certification. It has invested more than £70k in biodiversity projects. Mark Miller, AES presents the award to Richard Robinson and Louise Friel from McLaughlin & Harvey Ltd along with Tony Dunlea, Electric Ireland.

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Employer of Choice

Alan Bissett, Arthur Cox Solicitors presents the award to Grainne O’Kane and Laura Hourican from Firstsource along with Tony Dunlea, Electric Ireland and Minister for Employment & Learning Dr Stephen Farry MLA.

Firstsource is a global business process outsourcer located in 46 destinations worldwide, including Belfast and Derry/Londonderry. It supplies a range of services across the customer management spectrum, including customer acquisition, customer care, technical support, billing and transaction processing. With over 2,365 employees, Firstsource is proud to be providing meaningful career opportunities as well as providing a fun place to work and an environment that helps its people a successful work/life balance. In 2012, it introduced a wide range of flexible working options – homeworking, flexible family time and back to school initiatives – helping employees achieve their full potential. Firstsource engages with the long-term unemployed by working in partnership with Business in the Community and others. Through these interventions, it has successfully hired 223 long-term unemployed people. Last year, Firstsource promoted 69 people across Northern Ireland, reduced recruitment costs by £1.14m and achieved over 85% in staff satisfaction levels as well as saving public purse over £3.3m by employing those who were long-term unemployed. Highly Commended in this category was Michelin.

Local Community Impact

Michael Scott from firmus energy and Dr Malcolm McKibbin, Head of NI Civil Service present Stephen Patton and Michelle Hatfield from George Best Belfast City Airport with their award along with Tony Dunlea, Electric Ireland.

Regional airport George Best Belfast City Airport (GBBCA) has grown significantly in recent years and is a key strategic gateway to the province, catering for over 2.3 million passengers per year.

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Sustained Impact

Richard Ennis from Ulster Bank receives the award from Tracey Meharg, Invest NI along with Pauline McKiernan, Ulster Bank and Tony Dunlea, Electric Ireland.

Established in 1836 and with over 136 branches, Ulster Bank, a subsidiary of RBS Group, employs 6,000 people and serves the needs of around 1.9 million personal and business customers. Ulster Bank believes in supporting its local communities and works hard to instil this culture into the heart of its people. As a socially responsible bank it believes that the key community issues should also be its key issues and invests time and resources into these. It has developed the largest financial programme available in Ireland – ‘MoneySense for Schools’ – a free online educational resource that teaches young people the vital finance and business skills they need for life. Ulster Bank’s financial education has gone from a ‘nice to do’ to a ‘strategic asset’, evident through its Community Impact Fund which has been developed to provide grants to community organisations to help them deliver financial education and enterprise support. As a direct result, Ulster Bank has experienced a 15% increase in employee engagement, 65% of secondary schools here use ‘MoneySense’, reaching over 29,000 students, with 238 volunteers participating.

Mark Pollock Award for Hope Terry McCorran, founder of the City of Belfast Boxing Academy, was nominated by Michael Copeland MLA. Situated in East Belfast, Terry has successfully run the Academy for many years. He has been steadfast in its development even when David Armstrong, pwc presents Terry McCorran, City seriously ill. Making a of Belfast Boxing Club with his award along with Tony difference to the lives of Dunlea, Electric Ireland. many local children from all sides of the community, it is widely accepted by local people as an oasis for community activities, running a variety of clubs as well as its core function – a place for children to develop their interest in boxing.

Community Leader Award

It is committed to delivering a safe, efficient and friendly service whilst seeking to reduce the impact of its operation on the environment and local community. Its programmes – Community Fund and High Flyers – seek to enrich and support its local community. Community groups in East Belfast and North Down have benefited from over £100k of support for 60 different projects. High Flyers offers participants aged 16-24 the opportunity to gain expertise and skills in a vast range of disciplines, including human resources, customer service and catering, over a one year period. The airport invests over 1,000 business hours each year into educational initiatives. It accommodates over 20 school visits per year accounting for over 160 man hours. Two employees participate in BITC’s Time to Read initiative, helping six children from Knocknagoney Primary School with their reading. GBBCA also works strategically with three local schools through BITC’s ‘Adopt A School’ programme. The results of GBBCA’s efforts include £50k invested in community projects in one year, an increase of 7% in employee volunteering and supporting over 35 students by providing work experience placement of 22 hours per week.

Winner Kerry Anthony was nominated by Jurys Inn Group Ltd. As CEO she is the inspirational driving force behind Depaul – a cross-border charity offering homeless and disadvantaged people the opportunity to fulfil their potential and provide both crisis and long-term support to homeless Richard Caldwell, Danske Bank and Simon Hamilton MLA, present Kerry Anthony, Depaul Ireland with her people in Northern Ireland. award along with Tony Dunlea, Electric Ireland. Kerry’s enormous passion and tireless work keeps funders committed. She has made the organisation more efficient, accountable and sustainable, ensuring it can continue to change people’s lives.

Highly Commended in this category was BT.

Highly Commended in this category was Anne Bill from FASA.

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Moy Park scoops Rural Action Award Moy Park is a top UK food company and one of Europe’s largest poultry producers. With a turnover of £1bn, it employs 10,000 people in Northern Ireland and England and has over 700 farms in its supply chain. It supplies all the leading retail and food service customers. With youth unemployment at its highest in 15 years and 1 in 4 young people looking for employment here, Moy Park saw an opportunity to address this issue and the fact that it was facing a shortage of skilled agri-food people. It launched the Moy Park Academy in partnership with the College of Agri-Food and Brian Moreland, Moy Park receives a Big Tick Award with Ronan Sheehy, Electric Ireland and Gillian McKee, Rural Enterprise to encourage and support young Business in the Community. people to further their development and careers in the agri-food industry and help tackle youth unemployment in rural areas. It provides four bursaries and five placements each year. By actively supporting The Prince’s Countryside Fund, Moy Park has helped 366 rural enterprises and over 700 people by providing training opportunities for young people. It has provided one British Poultry Council (BPC) scholarship annually since 2011 and got involved in providing enterprise education to over 200 school children.

Diageo shows its talent and skills The world’s leading premium drinks business, Diageo in Northern Ireland has three manufacturing sites and employs over 400 people in Northern Ireland. Facing a skills shortage in some areas of the business, it took steps to address the issues. It developed a Manufacturing Excellence (ME) Capability Programme with a focus on increasing productivity and providing employees with training and accreditation opportunities for the work they do. It created a new performance appraisal process for employees and line managers Deborah McLean and Michael Hailes, Diageo NI receive reflecting the capabilities required within the their Big Tick Award with Ronan Sheehy, Electric Ireland programme and appointed a dedicated ME and Gillian McKee, Business in the Community. programme resource and trainer to ensure that reporting, monitoring and evaluation processes are implemented accurately. As a result, staff productivity increased by 60% and its values survey showed that 82% of employees are highly engaged and proud to work for Diageo. In both Belfast packaging and Baileys Mallusk, almost 10% of current employees have gained a new qualification and plans are in place to roll the qualification out to many more in 2013.

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Sieff Future Leader Award

Roy Adair, Chair, Business in the Community and Simon Lucas, Marks & Spencer present Lauren Geddis, Citi with her award along with Kieran Harding, Business in the Community.

Lauren Geddis from Citi was described by her manager as “an ‘ideas’ person from which everything flows. She is dedicated to her own professional development, the development of her team, the wider Belfast legal team and enhancing the profile of Citi Belfast within the Citi community and also the local community. Lauren constantly explores innovative ways to add value and improve the service provided to the business and its clients.”

HRH Ambassador for Corporate Responsibility in Northern Ireland

Diageo Northern Ireland works well Employing over 400 people in Northern Ireland, Diageo, the world’s leading premium drinks business, is one of our most important exporters in the food and beverage sector. A Wellbeing Risk Assessment highlighted issues around staff feeling overstretched and lacking control of their work/life balance, so Diageo NI decided to address these issues. It launched its ‘You are Made of More’ health and wellbeing programme, providing education, support and health awareness activities for employees. Activities include a weight-loss programme ‘Made of Less’, a walking challenge, Lynn Graham and Michael McCann, Diageo NI receive their Big Tick Award with Ronan Sheehy, Electric Ireland ‘Know Your Numbers’ health checks, gym and Gillian McKee, Business in the Community. membership, a bike to work scheme and energy management workshops for people managers and healthy eating programmes. It addressed mental wellbeing using iPads, wellbeing guidelines and health webinars on issues such ‘handling pressure’ and ‘developing resilience’. The results are impressive, with programme participation increasing from 88% to 92% in one year. 97% of employees say it is a great place to work. Manufacturing productivity has increased by 8% in one year and staff turnover remains well below the national average at < 1%. Baileys Mallusk site achieved over 1,900 days without an accident. During 2012, 92 (25%) employees took part in the weight-loss programme with an overall weight loss of 730 lbs, raising £3,650 for charity, employees collectively walked over 11,600 miles during the ‘Walk for Wellbeing’ challenge and the company’s overall engagement score up 4% from 2011 figures.

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Roy Adair, Belfast Harbour presents Michael Ryan, Bombardier with his award.

Winner Michael J Ryan, CBE, Vice-President & General Manager Operations, Bombardier Aerospace has been deeply engaged with Business in the Community for over ten years and was Chair of the NI Board of the organisation between 2005 and 2009. His leadership and vision have been truly valuable, not only to Business in the Community but to his own company and the wider community. Michael has been at the very forefront of efforts to encourage long-term unemployed people back to work. He has chaired the West Belfast & Greater Shankill Employers’ Forum for a decade and invested over £1m from Bombardier Aerospace in the Forum’s development which has now expanded citywide. It has helped over 1,300 people gain jobs. This accolade is very fitting as it comes during the tenth anniversary year of the Employers’ Forum that he is leading from strength to strength.

Executive Motoring By Pat Burns