PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

According to various industry analysts, one of the major challenges for organisations in both the private and public sectors of the economy will deciding on whether to outsource certain functions, such as catering, cleaning, security, distribution and customer relations, to other businesses, rather than undertaking them in-house. With regard to customer relations, Wales has been a major beneficiary of the trend in getting someone else to answer the phone on your behalf. According to the Welsh contact centre forum , the call centre industry in Wales now has 160 firms employing more than 24,000 workers, with growth areas being in sectors such as travel and healthcare. However, call centres are not the only area of outsourcing which has seen expansion in terms of employment and business opportunity. In particular, the increased sophistication of services – in high value added areas such as marketing, design, management support - means that there are many opportunities for Welsh businesses...

One of the key aims of the first Objective 1 programme for Wales, when it was launched in 2000, was the development of a “high quality, job-creating, innovative and knowledge-driven economy”. To achieve this, one of the key actions was to be the exploitation of new technologies to develop new industries and improve the competitiveness of existing ones. To date, over £128 million has been earmarked in European grants to directly support innovation and R&D within West Wales and the Valleys and, through this money, support the development of high technology businesses, support research and co-operation between business, colleges and universities and improve training in higher level skills. During the last six years, the main beneficiary from this funding has been the higher education sector in Wales, which has received over £62 million of aid for various projects. In addition, the Welsh Development Agency (prior to its demise) received over £45 million of support. However, half of th...

LAST month, a survey by the Western Mail to identify the "Seven Wonders of Wales" voted for the Norman Foster-designed Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales as the leading candidate. Yet, less than two years ago, the future looked very bleak when serious financial difficulties looked, at one stage, like closing the Garden for good. There are considerable lessons to be learnt from the early management of this publicly funded body, especially as much of which transpired at the time could have been avoided. According to the National Assembly's audit committee , which examined the issue in detail, it was a lack of adequate checks by the public bodies which led to the financial problems that nearly closed the Botanic Gardens down. Perhaps the most important lesson is that millions of pounds of public funding was spent without any adequate examination of the business plans for the project. Many small firms will know that their projects are rarely funded by ba...

Many people might suggest that the term “academic entrepreneur” is an oxymoron, and that those who choose to enter the hallowed halls of university life are ill-suited to the business world. From my own point of view, being the founding chairman and shareholder of a spin-off company from the University of Wales Bangor has been a real change from lecturing about entrepreneurship. Experiencing the ups and downs of business life has sometimes felt like a ride at Oakwood but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. Whilst there have been challenges during the last five years, I am extremely proud - along with my two fellow directors - that Outlook Expeditions now employs 24 full-time local people and over 150 part-timers in the unique environs of Snowdonia. We have also recently bought a profitable business in Scotland as part of the company’s future expansion plans and are confident that we can make a real difference in our marketplace. The progress of the company was recently recognise...

Some of you will have heard of the decision to essentially remove me from my role as Director of Finance Wales because of my political position within the Conservative Party. At this stage, I am not going to say anymore as there will be further action over this matter. However, I refer you to the story within the Daily Post which says it all really.