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A bit of customer feedback!

Altius

Scores So Far...

Well, anyone on the ground will tell you that the RDAs, while nominally still running, and still costing the tax payer money, are now largely chiefly engaged in finding their senior staff new employment rather than doing the job they were set up to do. Progress on the LEPs that will replace them has been patchy; not a surprise, I suppose, as their success or failure will hinge on local efforts. Coupled with the announcement of a move of the services provided by Business Link to a wholly voluntary set-up, this will be an interesting couple of years for those engaged in trying to grow engineering businesses. I suspect that there is an opportunity for industry bodies, such as the EEF and the FSB, to come to the fore, either under their own flag, or in partnership with the LEPs. That provides a dilemma about the support to small concerns not yet able to pay subscriptions to membership based organisations.

Interestingly the programme of setting up national specialist technical centres, funded through a combination of national and EU grants, with industry support, has continued unabated; one I'm especially interested in is the National Composites Centre(NCC) in Bristol. Should this initiative be sustained past the inevitable early teething problems I believe it does stand a chance of boosting the income the UK gets back from engineering technology. However, I am concerned that there may be a tendency for the industrial backers to do their best to ensure that the major benefits are for themselves, either directly or through preferred engagement with their supply chain, rather than being more widely available for SMEs which might use the technology outside the industries where current usage is concentrated.

Of course, at the moment I have my own personal reasons for keeping an eye on this, as I'm working for Rolatube, an innovative composite materials start-up (product pictured) based in Hampshire. I can think of all sorts of ways that the NCC could help us once they're up and running, but suspect they may be too busy running around after the likes of Airbus and GKN, their major industrial partners, to look at helping to grow smaller ventures into the large companies of the future.

Am I worrying unnecessarily? I hope so, but time will tell!

(As ever, you can learn more about me at my website.)

Change is coming...

My new website is currently in "beta testing." There will be a link to this blog from it, hopefully a bit more prominent than at present (a button from the "ABOUT" page.) Please let me know what you think. Many thanks to "Wix.com" - a great (UK) technology simplifier.

Shhh - It's Chatham House Rules

Well, the most interesting occurrence since my last post I can't really talk about! I attended the West Midlands Economic Forum where one of the Conservative MPs who had been responsible for the LEP proposal as a member of "Localis" - the think tank on localism - gave a very interesting talk. One of the attendees, vice chair of our local RDA, being scrapped under the LEP proposal, had some views on this.

And that's about as much as I can say.

Despite the flux in funding, and the uncertainty over the future of support of any kind, whether central or local, business goes on; even new businesses. One of the areas I'm currently involved in is finding "trailblazer" applications. An inventor has a technology. He knows the lucrative market, but there are regulatory or technical hurdles acting as a barrier to entry. He knows the cost, but doesn't have the money. What he needs is a "trailblazer" application; not as lucrative as his target, but with much lower entry costs, and it will mean his company is revenue generating (as opposed to pre-revenue) in a much shorter timescale, and he will have case studies showing that the technology works in real world situations. All of which means that his company is now a much more attractive proposition to potential investors, and at a much greater valuation. These trailblazer applications may not be obvious to someone who has a particular longer term goal in mind, and it's an area where a view from outside can be enormously useful, and can lead to some very fruitful collaborations.

Does Your Company Have "Affluent" Summer Holidays?

Contrary to appearances from this blog, I haven't had a long Summer holiday this year. Since the last blog post I've visited "pre-revenue" enterprises in Cambridgeshire and Wales, as well as larger firms that are aiming to do something a "bit different" in the Wirral, Swindon and Staffordshire. All have been great opportunities, as the companies concerned are very successful, or have huge potential, or both, which counters the negative comments about declining British industry that may sometimes make the news. However, one issue that I have run into is that I'm in the minority in foregoing a long Summer break. A number of the things I'm working on have had to be put on hold as the critical person, or people, are on holiday. With multiple heads required, and overlapping holidays, this dead time has stretched into a couple of months.

Of course in the past there was an easy solution, and some traditional industries still use it; the company shutdown. No choice of when you take your holiday - everyone has the same. Then it's back to work at the same time. How old fashioned. How efficient. France takes it to extremes, and applies it to the entire country. However, even companies back from shutdown still run into the same problem; the people they need to deal with in other companies are on holiday. I have heard sales teams complaining that they may as well be on holiday over all of August, as everyone else is.

It struck me that there are some similarities with the often observed phenomenon of long Summer holidays setting back children's learning, at least for those from non-affluent backgrounds. For middle class children the picture is different. A holiday diet of books and improving visits to museums, art galleries, and events (such as the recent Birmingham ArtsFest) means that they return to school with a head start on their class mates. Can this be applied to companies?

Certainly if the Summer "break" means that those in work have less to do, doesn't this provide a wonderful opportunity for all those strategic things that never get done? The market analysis, the manufacturing improvement projects, the thinking about where the company will be in 3, 5 or 10 years time, because the pace means that we can only think about the next week or month. Those sales people who find all their contacts on holiday could pool their experiences and come up with some ideas on new markets and approaches. In other words, the business equivalents to those museum and gallery trips.

All of this would mean a rethink to the holiday system, giving incentives for short, separated holidays, instead of one long break, perhaps by having a sliding scale of how many "days" holiday are counted as, according to length of consecutive break, with long holidays being more "expensive." This is a complete reversal of the standard views on work disruption; most measures of absenteeism "prefer" employees to take one long period off sick, rather than several short periods, penalising those who try to return to work before they are fully recovered.

This wouldn't fit in well with schools, which seem wedded to the long break, despite the evidence from abroad of the benefits of shorter, more frequent holidays from those countries that follow a semester system. Effectively business practices are being dictated by the school system. As a parent myself I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, but when studies of the school holiday system show the negative impact it has on the progress of children, should we then inflict that on our economy, or should we investigate alternatives for both?

Changing Times

And so it came to pass that the incoming government duly decided to dispose of the dirty water that was the regional development agencies (RDAs), without bothering to remove the baby of useful assistance to regional economy. We are left with proposals for unclear "puddles" of local economic partnerships (LEPs), set up by feuding local agencies, with their exact scope and operating principles hastily derived in the face of a tight deadline. In the meantime the existing bodies have more or less shut up shop, leaving employees, suppliers, applicants and those who thought they were being assisted, in some cases through large projects which required a good deal of upfront commitment of "resource" (that's time & money) bemused and confused. Thanks to thebusinessdesk.com for their excellent reporting on the situation; I admire their reporters' fortitude. If it was me having to write about it, my desk would be awash with tears.

Still, it represents an opportunity, and it's noticeable that a number of bodies - public and private - have stepped into the breach. Some, such as Business Link, themselves have an unclear future. Another body with "mixed reviews", Business Link has insisted that rumours of its demise are exaggerated. My own canvassing has revealed a split along regional lines. Local Business Links have considerable autonomy and, along with the local West Midlands Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS-WM), the West Midlands organisation scores higher than the UK parent in terms of "user satisfaction." My own dealings with both groups have been straightforward, pleasant experiences, and I know of several cases where MAS-WM, in particular, has gone "above and beyond" in supporting the growth of local businesses. Not, I must say, in terms of just doling out tax-payers' money, but in providing specialist advice when it was required. There are options now. Can these groups, and others, find a home in more local LEPs? Will there be mechanisms for adjacent LEPs to work together when appropriate, to avoid inter-locality competition wasting regional resources? I guess we will soon find out, since, apparently, the details will all be finalised by 7th September. Just to be clear, it isn't the removal of the RDAs that upsets me; it's the inadequate consideration of what they did poorly and what they did well, and the non-existent preparation of their replacements before the existing bodies shut up shop. It has been, so far, an opportunity missed, and I hope that the local business communities can save the day before it is too late. Personally, I am willing to offer any help I can.

So does industry really need any government assistance? It's a question that needs asking. I've certainly heard one multi-millionaire member of the new administration say "I set up my business without any help from government." True, his business required virtually no start up capital, and didn't require substantial upfront commitment to suppliers, but he has a point. The industrial revolution occurred without any government programmes that have gone down in history (although there was more central control and assistance than people realise.) On the other hand it was assisted by the demands of numerous conflicts, an expansion of empire and, in my view, a base of wealthy entrepreneurs who had made their money from industry, understood it, and were willing to invest in it. In other words, Angels. Over the past month I have heard from a number of sources that VC funding scales have continued to drift up, and the base of seed fund availability, both public and private, has continued to decline, leaving an increasing funding gap for those aiming to commercialise new products past the R&D stages. This is an area where one can hope Angels do not fear to tread! There are funding vehicles gaining in popularity which aim to fill this need, while diluting individual risk, and lowering the threshold for personal wealth required to invest in innovative business. Of course, they are still high risk, high return options, but it represents an interesting approach to a gap in the market, and one I'm investigating at the moment.

Of course, there are some areas of the UK engineering industry doing very well. I was fortunate enough to visit one manufacturing start up which is making a stir in a specialist niche. However, one point that came out was how many of the larger companies they supply to are behind the times in terms of their understanding of the manufacturing technology used. They have a very compact footprint (a fancy way of saying "small premises"), yet their customers visit and are clearly expecting to see large amounts of unused space, perhaps with a manned reception and open plan entrance foyer complete with pot plants, as this appears to boost credibility. How does one turn around what seems to be a need for high overheads in their supply stream on the part of some firms? Or should I head out to the garden centre for a nice palm tree?

Being Anti-Social on Social Media

So Fintelis is a new company, and as a new company I decided it needed to use new media, and have some sort of a social media footprint. I know a little about the internet, so I decided that it was obviously something I could do myself. I set up a web page, decided on including a blog (thanks to excellent advice from Angela Podmore of Kinetic PR) and waited for the visitors, and resulting business. Nothing. I know; I'll join Twitter. Still nothing. Maybe if I'm more active on LinkedIn?

Hmmm.

You see there's more to this social media mullarky than I realised. I know enough to be dangerous, and was lucky to get away with just a low profile. I was fortunate enough to bump into someone who has made himself a brand using social media, Donato Esposito, better known to anyone online in the West Midlands, and beyond, as Bostin Bloke. I mentioned my problems to him, and it seems I'm not alone.

There seem to be as many social media outlets out there as there are people. Which are appropriate for which market? He mentioned Facebook.

"I'm on Facebook, " I said, "but I'm keeping that for non-work related friends..."

"So it's not important for you that clients know you have a personality? Or do you have stuff on Facebook you don't want clients to see?"

You see, I've been imagining that I can channel work into LinkedIn, this blog and Twitter, and just use Facebook for the personal stuff. So my "work" channels tend to be very dry, but I'm lucky that I'm not the sort of person who is indiscreet or insulting elsewhere.

Donato mentioned some large and well known brands that have failed far worse than I have, relying on cheap (or even free) fresh faced, straight out of college enthusiasts to try and build an online presence - typically building one aimed at attracting people like them, a straight out of college enthusiast, rather than their target market. I mentally re-read my output. Gulp. It's aimed at .. me, and people like me... Ooops. Building an online brand requires a blend of marketing, technology savvy and, in certain cases, chutzpah that doesn't tend to "just happen."

I'd mention the brands concerned, but since they ended up going to Donato for him to help them out of the hole they dug, it wouldn't be fair. Let's just say that some of them would think nothing of spending a great deal of money on an expert to redesign their stationery - but for some reason the thought of spending some money on how they are perceived in new media seemed to be offensive.

Now I'm one person, running a one person consultancy. I'm going to have a think, and try and retarget my output. Even, shock, consider spending some money and, more importantly, time talking to someone who knows what they're doing. It's been a big step admitting that in this field I'm not that someone!

Similar mistakes made by large blue chips have taken cost and time to clear up. The "free" route can sometimes end up costing them dear.

There are instances as well of worse problems in the social media/business mix. Remember the spy chief with the inappropriate Facebook page? The budding politicians with indiscreet Tweeting? The blurring between social and work media has already claimed some scalps, and I suspect any lazy journalists might still be able to get some copy through scouring the Twitter feeds of people in the public eye who are new to the whole arena.

At least the boss of of BP didn't send any Tweets from his sailing holiday "Having great time on clear blue water. LOL."