Given the consultation exercise undertaken by WAG it is of enormous interest to get the opinion of those who have collectively grown their businesses by over £305 million during the worst recession since the 1920s and compare it to what senior civil servants in the Department of Economy and Transport are spinning as a "business-led" economic strategy.
There will be more on this in my Saturday column but in the meantime, this is what the five fastest growing firms in Wales would do.
“I would provide technical support, advice and mentoring to Welsh businesses, provide assistance to reduce barriers to future financing and make every effort to train and improve flexibility of labour market”
"I would recreate the Welsh Tourist Board to deliver a more coherent and aggressive marketing strategy to support the promotion of Wales as a tourist destination and support the promotion of Cardiff, in particular, as a major European capital destination that deserves a greater level of visibility on the international stage. Wales needs a strong marketing voice for its hotel industry. I would ensure that any further powers given to the Assembly Government are used to maximise a culture of increasing education, investment and innovation in Wales rather than to burden the economy with further regulation or taxation which would decrease the competitiveness of the Welsh economy. Finally, I would encourage the development of a wider degree of co-operation between the private and public sectors with closer working and understanding through a programme of secondment between the public and private sectors so that officials have a greater commercial understanding and learn best practices whilst sharing knowledge from the public sectors".
"I would maintain the current investment in upgrading and development of social housing. I would also be encouraging the banks to lend to small businesses and offer short term assistance if and when required. Finally, I would focus on investment in training – companies need assistance in recruiting and training unemployed people".
"I would develop a culture industry quarter so that media companies can benefit from economies of scale and closer working relationships. Our business had to go to London to secure bank funding for ITV projects and to engage lawyers specialising in the independent TV sector. It would be preferable if this could source this expertise locally. Finally, I would increase PR to promote media companies in Wales at all international festivals and review all Assembly targeted support for production companies".
"I would actively encourage youth entrepreneurial enterprises especially within schools, colleges and universities. There are many great ideas which need to get to market, and there is a lot of talent that could be uncovered faster. I would lobby for tax incentives for SMEs who are successfully trading through their first two years in business. Not only would this motivate business owners but it would ease their cash flow and increase their ability to re-invest.Another initiative would be to actively promote the benefits of exporting goods and services to the rest of the UK and overseas and appoint business ambassadors (existing business owners) to support new businesses through the process. This would also encourage active communication between business owners and help to cross-pollinate “ideas” within the business community and help migration of ideas and business practice across industries and sectors."
Comments
What is actually needed is proper Leadership.
No leader is ever going to come from business as most people are too busy running their businesses (trying to survive) therefore this leader must come from the public sector or from politics.
Whilst one must agree with most of the 'wot I would do if I wos IWJ' these are not do-able in the current climate, or the short-term and you are never going to get competing companies to agree to 'work together' on a meaningful scale or even to talk to 'academics' in Universities- the gap between these worlds is too great.
Similarly, the vast majority of academics are far from being at the 'bleeding edge' of research they are actually basically repositories of past knowledge and teachers of theory (which is as it should be). To consider that Welsh universities (as they are at the moment) can help business out of the recession through innovation (or even collaboration) is ludicrous and misunderstands totally the nature of invention/creativity and how innovation comes about in the real world. Technological and scientific advance (innovation) is now done by teams in global corporations or the military/industrial complex, or from, time to time, out of hotbeds like MIT, Harvard and Silicon Valley, or by increments from people working on specific projects within their own businesses (ie. finding ways to do things quicker and better).
Having said that the idea of more apprenticeships is a good one because 'on the job' training is the only way to acquire a new employee that is any use.
Coming back to the leadership issue, Dylan Jones-Evans would actually fit the bill as a putative Leader who straddles both the business, political and business worlds and looks OK on the telly. Therefore, I nominate him and pob lwc to him!