PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

No blogging for a while as I am taking time off for a break. Three articles already written for the Western Mail and the Daily Post for next week so lots of articles when I return

I recently conducted the latest in a series of interviews with successful Welsh entrepreneurs to try and discover what makes them, and their businesses, tick. Thirty detailed interviews have been carried out to date (some are on video here ), and the information gathered will, undoubtedly, lead to the production of some key academic papers in the field. One of the key questions we ask during face to face conversations with the entrepreneurs is whether the values of the business reflect their own personal values. The aim of this is to probe the extent to which business ethics play a key role in the strategic development of the business. The responses to date have been encouraging, despite the fact that many may think that ‘business ethics’ is an oxymoron, particularly in more entrepreneurial ventures. This variance to the accepted norm in our research findings reflects the high ethical values espoused by many growing firms in Wales. Business schools have as much to learn from the person...

According to the Morning Advertiser (the publican/licensee's magazine), the Welsh Assembly Government is considering plans to support the Prince Charles-backed scheme that helps regenerate rural pubs. "Pub is the Hub" has submitted a draft plan "Rural Pubs and Services Strategy for Wales" to the Assembly suggesting how it can help pubs diversify and offer new income streams. This follows a year-long study by a 17-strong regional group chaired by SA Brains chief executive Scott Waddington which suggests how different projects should be supported in different Welsh regions, including puttting post offices into local pubs. Given the budget increases (see below), this cannot come quickly enough.

Great story from the BBC how pubs have barred the Chancellor Alistair Darling from their premises. I was back home in North Wales this weekend and popped into one of the local pubs for a pint. Chatting with the landlord, he told me that it wasn't just the 4p increase, but that the breweries had also taken the opportunity to raise prices too. Along with VAT, the price of a pint had gone up by 20p. As a result, a pint of John Smith's bitter came to £2.55. In contrast, you can buy 18 cans for £16.00 at the local supermarket. No wonder local pubs are shutting up shop all over the place.

This weekend, we have been celebrating Easter with my parents in Pwllheli. As I have stated on numerous occasions, I believe that my hometown is a weathervane to the state of local economies throughout North Wales. Whether it is the state of local trade or the opportunities for further prosperity, Pwllheli reflects the challenges faced by many Welsh towns in a rapidly changing economic environment. Nowhere is this more pertinent than in the current debate raging locally on the effect that the opening of a new Asda supermarket is having on the local economy and how local firms can react to this. The argument put forward by the local council for supporting the creation of a new superstore was that it would bring additional trade into the town. Yet, my impression last week was that the car park in Asda was full to bursting with shoppers, but very few were finding their way up to the smaller shops in the high street. Of course, the proof of the pudding will be during the summer months whe...

I thought I would share some more research results from this year's Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report for Wales study. Globally, GEM study covers 42 countries, interviews over 156,000 adults annually and represents the world’s most authoritative comparative study of entrepreneurial activity. It does this through examining individuals and their role in starting a new firm, whether they own or manage a business, what motivates them, where their finance comes from, and what their attitudes are towards entrepreneurship. Since 2000, when I was awarded the research contract to undertake this work by the Welsh Development Agency, I am proud to say that the study has come a long way. Now financed through a combination of support from Cardiff and Glamorgan Universities, European Structural Funds and Assembly funding, the project has developed into one in which detailed evidence cane be produced to influence policy. This year’s report is the most comprehensive ever, and is testam...

Increasing entrepreneurial activity is critical in addressing economic inactivity and raising levels of prosperity within the poorer communities in Wales. These are the conclusions of the 2007 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, the annual research study undertaken by the National Entrepreneurship Observatory, a joint project between the University of Glamorgan and Cardiff University supported by the Welsh Assembly Government and the European Commission. This year’s report is the most comprehensive study ever of entrepreneurship in Wales, and includes a number of special sections on informal investment, enterprise and the welsh language, enterprise education, home-based entrepreneurship, family businesses in Wales, serial and portfolio entrepreneurship, business closures and entrepreneurship within the deprived areas of Wales. Whilst there has been little change in overall entrepreneurial activity in Wales over the last four years, the study demonstrates that there is still m...

Many small businesses in North Wales would have been disappointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer last Wednesday, as he continued with his plans to change the capital gains tax regime and ignored pleas not to raise the level of corporation tax for small firms. To compensate for this financial hit, he introduced a raft of enterprise-friendly ‘soft’ policies to allegedly support small firms and to create a culture of enterprise. For example, the UK Government is to create a capital fund of initially £12.5 million to specifically encourage more women entrepreneurs, is establishing a National Enterprise Academy offering skills training and qualifications to 16 to 19-year-olds, is providing specific support for young entrepreneurs and the over 50s and is introducing a set of detailed measures promoting business mentoring, work placements, skills training, improved careers advice on self-employment and access to business support. Of course, none of these measures will apply to Wales as su...

On Tuesday, the S4C current affairs TV programme “Taro Naw” reported on a study carried out by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project into the relationship between the Welsh language and enterprise. This research is the first of its kind ever to take place in Wales and follows anecdotal evidence that many Welsh speakers become entrepreneurs by perceiving an opportunity to provide speciality goods and services for their linguistic community. For example, the increasing demand for Welsh literature has led to a growth in Welsh publishing houses, such as Gwasg Gomer, y Lolfa, and Gwasg Gwynedd, as well as the development of specialist publications such as the Welsh language magazine Golwg. The greatest demand for such goods and services are naturally to be found in the Welsh language heartlands such as Gwynedd and Ceredigion, and it would be expected that new Welsh language businesses will thrive in those locations. There are also examples of a new type of professional Welsh la...

What a fabulous day in which the atmosphere at the Millennium Stadium was absolutely electric. The team were awesome, especially the forwards, who have been the real difference this year. In the backs, Shane is now world class and Lee Byrne is metamorphosing into JPR. Watch the game again and again here For me, that sunny day in 2005 was still better but only because we broke the 27 year hoodoo back then (after spending thousands following the team around the six nation cities!) Of course, the team then did not go on to greater things but the difference this time is that we have a squad that hasn't even begun to demonstrate its full potential and a coaching team that is just going to get better and better. Bring on South Africa in the summer! A great shame that my sister - who played rugby for the Wales Ladies and was watching the game in the expats club in Bahrain - wasn't with me again this time. Ever the optimist, I predicted 30-12 in the sweep and was one point off, so look...

Currently blogging from the Federation of Small Business Conference in London where the spirit of enterprise is alive and well. Guest speakers include Sir Trevor MacDonald, Dr David Bellamy, General Sir Mike Jackson and Jim Bowen/Eric Bristow resurrecting Bullseye tonight (I kid you not!) Listened to a speech this morning from Baroness Vadera , Small Business Minister where she announced a range of entrepreneurship measures which, because of devolution, will not apply in Wales (although the corporation tax increases will). Will blog more on this next week. Leaving first thing tomorrow morning to return to Cardiff for the Grand Slam game - grub booked, tickets on the mantelpiece and a day to remember in store. C'mon Wales!

Many will have read the news about the Mon and Menai Action Plan, where £15 million is being given by the Assembly Government to support the regeneration of this part of North Wales. In stark contrast to this largesse, administrators at Dolgarrog Aluminium announced, a few days later, that the much trumpeted potential sale of the business to a Russian firm had come to nothing. This is the last sad chapter in what has become a shameful story of a company and its employees being let down badly by an Assembly Government which had pledged, in its manifesto, to help Welsh firms. Six months ago, there was a systematic failure by civil servants within the Department of Economy and Transport to secure the future of Dolgarrog Aluminium. To suggest now, after the final nail has been firmly hammered into the coffin of this viable business, that ‘no effort will be spared’ in regenerating the area, is too late for 170 local people who have lost their jobs and is nothing more than an exercise in of...

This week, the First Minister has flown out to the city of Chongqing in China to promote economic opportunities for Wales. He is being accompanied on this mission by a group of Welsh firms looking to increase their international links with one of the world’s fastest growing economies. Certainly, there is a need for Welsh business to be out there selling their products and services, with the latest statistics for Wales showing a decrease in the value of exports for Wales of £401 million in 2007 as compared to 2006. In particular, it looks as though trade with EU countries is being hit the most, accounting for nearly two thirds of the decline in exports last year. This makes the development of links with emerging economies such as China even more important in the future. Perhaps more worryingly in terms of our ‘competitors’ around the UK, other relatively poor regions, such as the Yorkshire and Humberside, North East of England, Northern Ireland and Scotland actually experienced an incre...

Excellent article by Harriet Sargeant , guest columnist in the Sunday Times, on the value of post offices in our local communities. Given the sentiments expressed in this blog in February and earlier during the Assembly campaign, I think the following phrase is spot on: "There is an alternative. Essex council has just announced that it plans to fund 15 recently closed post offices for another three years. It wants to experiment putting post offices in schools and libraries or offer more local authority services in post offices. Meanwhile, we are left with only a tiring bus journey, a long walk or paying £5 to park to get to our nearest post office".

George Osborne made the case today for lower business taxes. Given the fact that small businesses will be paying more taxes after April at a time when the business environment is getting tougher, I would be interested in the opinions of fellow bloggers over this issue, whatever your political colour.

When the 'bonfire of the quangos' was announced in 2004 , there was an assurance that nothing would really change and, as the First Minister repeatedly pointed out, there wasn't really anything difference between a WDA executive and a civil servant. How more wrong can you get from someone who should have known better, given his background in economic development? Nearly three years later, things have hardly changed for the better for many businesses and business organisations who were promised a more customer-focused approach. Today's story in the Powys Times is just one small example over the frustrations over increasing centralisation and bureaucracy which is strangling the business support sector. Certainly, the Entrepreneur Action debacle may be the tip of the iceberg regarding the problems of trying to develop a business support system within a rigid civil service environment. In addition, there have been considerable frustrations which have led to a number of...

Dragon's Eye picked up on the EA story last night. It was a shame that no-one from the Assembly Government saw fit to respond properly to this situation, especially given the accusation that they have been essentially operating as 'shadow directors' of the company. A report on the creditors situation can be found here .

It would seem that the Welsh language will be given co-official status by the European Union. According to a report by Reuters , Welsh is following in the footsteps of Spain where the regional languages of Catalan, Galician and Basque have "co-official" status. What does this mean for Welsh speakers? Well, they will be able to use the Welsh language to communicate with the EU, the European Parliament and the European Commission and Ministers can use the language at any EU meetings in Brussels. Whilst some critics will say this another waste of money, it will clearly strengthen the status of the language outside of its heartlands and give Wales a higher profile within Europe. If it's good enough for the Spanish regions, then it's great news for us.

This article written by yours truly appeared in the Western Mail yesterday. It builds on some of the arguments made in this blog in the last few months on the importance of enterprise education in Wales and encouraging greater entrepreneurship amongst young people. Last Thursday, the former Secretary of State for Wales, Peter Hain, made his first speech to the House of Commons since his resignation earlier this year. Interestingly enough, it was on the economy in Wales and, significantly, on the importance of reducing the dependency on the public sector and growing the business sector. That is clearly a debate for another day but another point which he made which caught my eye was his call for schools, colleges and universities to promote entrepreneurship amongst young people. Having been involved in entrepreneurship research and teaching for nearly twenty years, I can safely say that despite considerable funding by the Entrepreneurship Action Plan, enterprise education is still not be...

According to the Daily Telegraph today , Gordon Brown has ordered a review of the Barnett formula, which allocates public funding across the UK. The formula is very simple - for every pound the UK government distributes for spending around the country, 85 pence goes to England, 10 pence goes to Scotland and 5 pence to Wales and is suppose to reflect the relative population of each part of the UK. For a detailed explanation, see the Treasury paper on Barnett. As Lord Barnett himslef has agreed, this review is long overdue but I would suggest that this is more to do with the growing concerns of middle class voters in many parts of England as opposed to coming up with a fairer system that reflects the actual needs of each region of the UK, including Wales. Of course, the outcome for Wales all depends on the methodology recommended for allocatting future funding and rather than gaining more money for Wales, we could actually lose out to some of the the poorer English regions such as the No...

There have been serious concerns raised about the demise of the enterprise agency Entrepreneur Action on this blog and on Valleys Mam's , where a number of clients and service providers have revealed the mess behind the management of the Assembly's flagship high growth programme. This has finally been picked up by the Western Mail today . However, the reaction of the Assembly Government beggars belief yet again “Entrepreneur Action and Entrepreneur High Growth Services are private companies that bid for business support contracts award ed by the former Welsh Development Agency. At this stage of the liquidation proceedings, it would be highly inappropriate for the Assembly Government to respond to anonymous comments allegedly made by a former employee of EA. The priority for the Welsh Assembly Government is to seek to secure alternative service provision and support for the companies registered on both programmes provided by EA and EHGS.” Now the Assembly is trying to push the b...

As someone who was involved at the coalface of the Assembly election campaign in Aberconwy last year, I remain acutely aware of the concerns raised by thousands of people across the constituency regarding the proposed downgrading of Llandudno Hospital and the campaign to stop the transfer of specialist medical and coronary care to other larger hospitals in North Wales. Given this, it must have been a body blow to campaigners to read the health minister’s announcement on Tuesday that her review endorsed the proposals of the original “ Designed for North Wales ” document, namely that coronary care, breast care surgical services and acute stroke work should be relocated to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd. Having read the report from the review, I would argue, as I did throughout the election campaign, that this has been another expensive exercise in creating three general hospitals across North Wales and ensuring that Llandudno’s status is reduced to that of a community hospital which cannot serve the...

Given the current furore in Gwynedd, I am pleased to see that the Welsh Conservatives have called for the introduction of community and Welsh language impact assessments before a decision is taken to close schools in Wales. The strategy recognises that closing a school, especially in a rural community, has implications on the whole community. When a school closes that decision is taken by the minister for purely educational reasons, but in reality the decision has implications for the whole community. For some children the closure of their school means they have to attend a new one in a far more Anglicised area. Carrying out community and Welsh language impact assessments at the time of a proposed closure would mean this would be fully considered before any action was taken. In some communities, especially in rural areas, the closure of a school can have a huge impact on how much Welsh children are then exposed to. This should be thoroughly welcomed across rural Wales as a positive pol...

When I visited the USA in January, I switched off the comments part of this blog as I wouldn't have time to moderate/respond etc. Over the last few weeks, I have begun to wonder why I wasn't getting any comments posted and thought nobody had anything positive or negative to say about the articles. Then I realised that I just hadn't switched the comments section back on! Anyway, it is now back to normal and comments are enabled again!