Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business
“We need to give the guys who have survived this recession far more support....If you have just got through the last two years, congratulations. You have showed some mettle and will have learned a lot. Why are we not supporting them to get to the next stage?”
Lara Morgan, founder of Pacific Direct
Comments
We also have 00s of business account or relationship managers being employed with nothing to do and no information to give as to what, when and how the new capital scheme will work or when the sectors will be up and running. WAG reports it’s working on projects on ‘a case by case’ basis, but when you speak to officials for answers you get the same ignorant response.
The latest (sketchy & worrying) information gleaned, is that the 6 sector departments will be spread across Wales. So for example, that ‘Advanced Materials & Manufacturing’ will be based in South East Wales, so if a client wants to setup or expand a manufacturing business in North Wales he/she will have to deal with a department that’s based over 200 miles away.
The most important thing in life; is your health and the well being of your family and the second is to have a job to support them. So, why with unemployment at 133,000, is WAG doing this now when we have the worst recession in living memory plus we still have a couple of years of ‘Assisted Area Status’ to take advantage of, I don’t get it.
Moreover a friend of mine advertised an admin assistant’s post in the Job Center; she received over 200 ‘serious’ applications for a position that paid the minimum wage. Applicants included graduates, experienced office managers, as well as those from outside office work. With this in mind, there’s been lots of talk about picking winners and quality jobs, yet let’s face, we’re a million miles away from that at the moment when any job will do for many people.
Neither, the economy or the people of Wales can afford to be victims of untried, spin driven, bungling policies that put livelihoods at risk. The policy announcement was a shock to everyone in the business support sector because we knew the risks and we we’re not consulted.
I believe Jane Hutt is our Business Secretary in Wales, so she should also be challenged along with Ieuan Wyn Jones about this shambolic situation.
Keep up the pressure Dylan, well done!
"Reading Dylan Jones Evans in WM, we should appoint him as a SPaD let him put his money where his mouth is!"
Up for it?
I just find it incredible to believe that the Minister has signed up to this approach. I once spoke at an FSB event with IWJ and he was passionate about Welsh business.
That is why i find it so difficult to believe that he has changed his mind so quickly. Have his senior officials, many of whom look down on small firms with ill-disguised disdain, that much influence?
Anon - forget the money, I would do it for free but the devil will be wearing iceskates before that happens.
This location decision will have a major impact on inward investment and trade due to the loss of skills, experience and more importantly contacts and networks established over many years by the inward investment and trade teams based in Cardiff who can't relocate to North Wales.
Whilst there will be very strong competition for the limited number of posts within South Wales - at least 3 for each post - they are going to have a hard job filling posts internally for North Wales.
It's not unknown for inward investment projects to take 2-3 years until they finally come to fruition. People buy from people, as every good business development manager knows. Simply handling over a pipeline of projects to someone else who has not built up a position of trust with the company, particularly when that person almost certainly will have no sector experience or knowledge is a very risky strategy.
No thought appears to have been given to business continuity or having a sensible handover period.
The location strategy has been driven not by need but by policy.
One way of ensuring better coverage would be to reduce the number of policy and strategy posts within the sector teams and increase the customer facing staff. At the moment there are the same number of policy and strategy posts within each team as there are business development managers working with companies. So, whilst the number of customer facing staff will fall dramtically, there has been a massive rise in the number of strategy and policy posts.
I suppose it's not really surprising when ERP has been driven by strategy and policy staff.