Manchester

Get on the phone…

Phone

Communication is and always has been one of the most important elements in a successful business, weather that be internally or with customers.

We communicate to our external audience in a variety of fashions, through marketing and advertising campaigns, the company website and in more recent years and in increasing numbers through a range of social media platforms.

On a day-to-day basis, what method do you most use to have a conversation with your team or your customers? My guess is that it is via email.

The email has replaced the telephone as the main communication tool in business- and even in our personal lives we are as likely to get a text message from a friend or loved one, as we are a telephone call.

This change isn’t new, and hasn’t happened overnight; but it is accelerating, and in my view is having a detrimental effect on our ability to communicate effectively.

I went into a meeting in Leeds on Wednesday afternoon for an hour and a half. When we had finished, I looked at my mobile device (it is much more than a phone these days) and I had just one voicemail – but my inbox showed an incredible 129 emails!

Many of them were crap that I was able to delete fairly quickly. I don’t mean ‘junk’ as in invitations from Eastern European women to ‘make friends’ with them. I mean crap as in emails from colleagues who think it necessary to CC me into stuff in order to have a paper trail that covers their own back.

But also buried in this avalanche of correspondence, there was some important stuff too, including invitations to television debates; a request for an introduction from one of our sponsors and information about forthcoming business support programmes and the next round of ERDF funding.

The challenge I have nowadays is to pick out the important stuff from the crap and then try to respond to it in a timely manner – and it is a challenge I am finding increasingly difficult to deal with.

Of the 129 emails that I received in that 90 minutes on Wednesday, over half of them were unnecessary; another chunk of them were at best for information purposes only; and then there were at least a dozen that would have been far better dealt with by a quick telephone call.

We are losing the art of verbal communication. Even when you walk down the street these days you will walk past someone you know without even noticing as your head is bowed reading the latest barrage of content that has been emailed, tweeted or text to you.

As for using your mobile device to actually phone someone, do you do that as often as you should?

My team don’t. In particular my sales team don’t. After Easter they will, so expect to get an actual telephone call from one of the Downtown team – and have a conversation with them ‘voice to voice’ rather than ‘electronically’.

‘Get on the phone’ will be the new mantra I will be using in our office from now on. The bombardment of email has created a wall of noise that is no longer penetrating your customers. Downtown has taken note. You should too.

Happy Easter!

Is Liverpool happy to just be Manchester’s playground?

IFB Mipim

Last week I referenced an event I had attended with Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese. Among the many great insights he offered into the success of his city was his analysis of how Manchester used to be marketed.

“We were very good at marketing ‘fun’ Manchester” he said. “But we needed to find a way in which we could promote corporate Manchester, and demonstrate why it was a place to do business and invest.”

It is a point that Liverpool’s leadership may wish to take account of as it plans its next business growth strategy. Because, for all of the improvements, regeneration and enhancement of reputation the city has undoubtedly enjoyed in the past decade, there is a concern among some of us that we are focussing a little too much on ‘fun’ Liverpool and not enough on the commercial offer.

Liverpool can proudly boast that it is now the best visited city in the UK outside of London and Edinburgh. It can evidence a track record of putting on a great show through events such as Capital of Culture and the giants. Our hotel, bar, restaurant and hospitality sector is quality. The Arena has been an unqualified success. But it is now time to move on, progress the agenda, and invest a little less in ‘fun’ and a bit more in the business of the city.

This was a topic I picked up on at Downtown Liverpool’s post MIPIM forum on Tuesday morning; and it has also been highlighted by the Think Tank led by former Liverpool Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle.

In his report ‘Damage Limitation on Devolution’ Kilfoyle argues that “often Liverpool is content with its new label as a party town, a place where people go for a stag night or hen party. Whereas once it was a great and important commercial centre, it is now happy to build ever more apartments for transient investors, rather than create jobs and houses for its deprived communities.”

I can only subscribe to a small part of this narrative, as I know how hard the city’s business and civic leadership is working to win jobs and investment, but it would be fair to say that Liverpool is now perceived more cultural than commercial. If the city wants to be front and centre of the Northern Powerhouse, then that has to change.

First off, we need to look at how we better manage the limited resources available and find a way of putting additional cash into economic development, business support, policy and research. That means a long overdue conversation about merging Liverpool Vision with the Local Enterprise Partnership; and reviewing the wisdom of huge spend on ‘showcase’ events such as the giants.

I’d rather see a Million pounds invested in policy and business case planning than on a three day ‘fun’ festival that may generate short term cash and a feel good factor, but leaves little behind in way of economic growth and legacy.

Liverpool City Region has much to learn from our friends at the other end of the M62 – but the starkest lesson for now is that government in Westminster, of whatever colour, will only hand over the cash when you can guarantee a Return on Investment and present a business case for additional resource. Saying ‘It’s not fair’ is just not good enough anymore.

As Sir Richard Leese said, having ‘fun’ is great; but having a job is often a pre requisite to enjoying yourself!

North needs to be united

Reflections Liv

We’re all in this together…

It is a phrase that the chancellor has trotted out regularly during his near five year tenure in number 11 Downing Street, to explain and justify the austerity programme he has embarked upon since taking office, but it is now a mantra that should be adopted by northern cities as the devolution bandwagon continues to gather speed – but with only Manchester in a position to take full advantage of the progressive plans that are being presented.

I have had the opportunity of speaking with both the Leader and the chief executive of Manchester City Council in recent weeks, and they are naturally delighted with a ‘Devo Manc’ package that now gives them budgets, powers and responsibilities over a whole range of services including housing, health, business support and economic development; and following the budget on Thursday the local retention of business rates raised in Greater Manchester too.

But, far from cocking a snoop at their northern neighbours, who have failed miserably in grasping similar offers made to them by central government, Sir Richard Leese and Sir Howard Bernstein are desperate for others to ‘get with the programme.’

For, as Leese pointed out at the Northern Powerhouse dinner hosted by PwC in Manchester on Wednesday night, it will be much more difficult for any future government to dilute the Manchester devolution package if several others are enjoying the same or similar devolved powers.

He and Bernstein are also acutely aware of the need to connect the north far more effectively and efficiently through big infrastructure projects on road, as well as rail, if their city is to meet its full potential. And, they will also know that Manchester is now the undisputed capital of that Northern Powerhouse, meaning that they can be far more generous in supporting and ‘coaching’ other city regions to improve both in economic and governance terms.

To this end, I hope Leese and Bernstein continue to explain to Leeds and Liverpool that it is not only pragmatic to accept the notion of a directly elected leader to oversee and be accountable to the electorate for all the additional powers that are available, but it is, democratically, the right thing to do.

What government in its right mind would hand over billions of pounds in resources to a bunch of largely faceless councillors, who may or may not be in a leadership position in twelve months’ time, depending on the whims of not only the local electorate, but their own political group as well?

The idea that you can ask for radical changes to your power take, without accepting an equally radical change to your governance arrangements is clearly a nonsense.

Politicians in Merseyside and Yorkshire may cry ‘it’s not fair’ – but without any movement on the governance agenda from them, then it is most certainly right.

It’s Hard

Office Move

Downtown recently held a fantastic half day conference in association with the government’s flagship business support initiative Growth Accelerator.

The event was entitled ‘Limitless – developing a hyper-growth Mind-set’ and focussed on how successful business leaders and entrepreneurs from across the UK had ‘done it’.

Inevitably the contributions from the speakers were upbeat and positive, but almost to a person, every keynote speaker and panel member warned would-be growth ambitious businesses that taking your company forward is challenging, at times frustrating, and it’s hard!

Downtown has been evolving and growing, relatively steadily, for just over a decade now. On Monday we are moving offices, so that the team at our Liverpool HQ have a better working environment. It is also a facility that provides us with space and collateral to offer our members a more diverse range of events and business support services.

In 2015, you would think that an office move would be relatively simple. However, we have needed to find additional hours and resource from our existing team, and use some external help too, over a period of a few months, to make it happen. Telephones, internet services, the office fit out and new furniture are among a long list of things that were on the ‘to do’ list, and I can’t say I’m looking forward to the actual physical move next week. I’m sure though that the old adage ‘short term pain for long term gain’ applies here.

This is the latest ‘hard to do’ in my personal business growth journey and it would be nice to say that UK Plc, with its love of an enterprise culture and entrepreneurial spirit, has at least been there to help me through it.

Sadly not. There is no ‘one-stop-shop’ for a small business to seek guidance on who the best suppliers are when you’re moving office. There is no robot within HMRC who will accept that moving office to grow your business and secure, hopefully create, jobs, is deserving of some lee-way in terms of tax returns and VAT payments. There is certainly no business book, manual or course that can take you through the ‘office move’ project – or indeed many of the other issues you will face as an ambitious business owner.

This is why business support initiatives such as Growth Accelerator, and a few others that are genuinely private sector led, are so invaluable. It is also why public sector agencies, quasi-public sector organisations and failed middle managers should not be allowed anywhere near business support – but that is a rant for another day.

For now, I will get on with the latest ‘challenge’, and simply take on the chin the hefty fine imposed on me this week by HMRC for my VAT payment being a day late!

The UK is getting more enterprising – The North must catch up

Uk Enterprise

Britain is getting great at starting business again and rediscovering its entrepreneurial spirit. The latest statistics on start up’s show an all- time record for new company incorporations here – a massive 581,173, which is an increase of almost 10% on the previous year. That bastion of enterprise that is most often held up as the example to us all, the United States, suffered 70,000 more business closures than start- up’s in 2014. Government initiatives such as entrepreneurs’ relief and the Enterprise Investment Scheme, introduced by the last Labour government and continued by the coalition, have also helped small businesses grow. And get this – according to the Centre for Entrepreneurs one reason Britain has become such a hotbed for start-up’s is immigration. A survey it undertook last year showed that one in seven businesses here are run by migrants. A ‘hats off’ to StartUp Britain and the more recently launched GREAT campaigns. Both organisations are doing a damn fine job in promoting all that is good about starting your own business, and growing it!

But it’s still not enough, and in the North of England we are still failing to encourage and support enough people to have a go and setting up on their own.

There has been a massive push over the past five years to provide support to what are commonly known as ‘Gazelle’ type businesses – those companies that have been established for a time, and with the right mentoring and coaching can meet their ambitious growth potential.

This has been a reasonably successful approach, led by initiatives such as the Growth Accelerator, who partnered Downtown last week for the ‘Limitless’ conference that we hosted with 100 plus delegates in Liverpool.

However, just as I would argue that it is a mistake made too often to focus on big business, which make up a tiny percentage of the UK business community, I would equally express concern at the start up agenda being neglected.

The next round of European funding has just landed and negotiations are taking place as to what projects should be going forward and supported. I hope that the objective of creating a more entrepreneurial culture in the North is a big part of the new programmes that are agreed.

We need to start to see the establishment of tomorrow’s Gazelles today.