business matters

Cyber Security insurance, things have changed

We’ve had many, many conversations of late around this subject, with the consensus being that insurance companies now want a bucket-load more information at renewal.

Robert Morgan

Founder, Factory Internet Ltd

Why?

Ransomware. This is highlighted several times and in much more detail than before, requiring answers that are much more technical in nature.

The approach insurers have taken to ‘insure anyone’ but litter the policy with caveats – has given them invaluable data about breaches.

When an organisation has been breached, the insurance companies have a front row seat to the incident response and can gather a great deal of data pertaining to which defences reduce risk.

Insurers now have a detailed view into what indicative factors give better or worse Cyber health.

This means that the process of getting insured has changed dramatically. With this newfound data, insurers can assess risk in a more competent manner and make more informed decisions around a company’s particular level of risk and likelihood of being attacked based on their cyber practices.

Our advice

With more sophisticated tooling and detection evasion, attacks are becoming more common and aggressive – particularly Ransomware attacks. These are ultimately the attacks that insurers are paranoid about.

Organisations always have issues when the availability of information is compromised and ransomware does exactly that, making it difficult, expensive, impossible - or all three - to get information back.

When dealing with business information and data, there are three important aspects to consider:

Confidentiality – Who has access to the ---information?

Integrity – Is the information assured and ---unmodified?

Availability – Is the information readily ---available to those who need it?

Ransomware typically targets the availability of information, which is often immediately impactful – people will notice if something isn’t available, and the longer it is unavailable for, the more likely they are to consider other sources to find that information.

The confidentiality and integrity of information shouldn’t be underestimated either. Whilst changes are less obvious than availability, both can have a major impact on the validity of information or data.

Attacks on any of these aspects scare insurance companies.

Questions to ask Insurers

1. How will the insurer protect these answers, who exactly has access to this information and what else can it be used for?

2. If a vulnerability scan is performed, how will they protect that assessment and who has access to its results?

3. How does the insurer protect the sensitive security posture information they now have on lots of different clients?

4. Has the insurer paid out claims where the answers have been the same or worse than ours, in the same geographic/legal region. Will they also confirm this in writing – i.e., not just a verbal ‘yes’.

Ultimately, cyber insurance should be a policy that pays out and gives a level of comfort should the worst happen. However, like any form of insurance, prevention is often better than the alternative.

Considerations to limit the blast radius of ransomware attacks.

Email/Proxy Scanning/Monitoring – The ---majority of attacks come from email or ---web browsing sources.

Architectural controls and segregation of ---systems.

Endpoint Protection – Good EDR/XDR ---style endpoint protection can be worth ---its weight in gold.

Endpoint Lockdown – Even with the best ---EDR, locking down endpoints is crucial.

Pull not push backups – Backups should ---be “pulled” to a backup system rather ---than pushed.

Enclave systems – should older/riskier ---applications be required, or should ---features like Macros be required, use a ---terminal server type approach and ---heavily segregate that system and put ---appropriate monitoring around it.

Network Segregation – Try to design ---systems in a way that the internet via ---your VPN or via the Office Wi-Fi is -- essentially just a good internet connection. ---Move to the zero-trust framework and ---don’t assume because a device is on the ---network it should have permissions to ---freely move about.

Cloud Security – if you’re using Cloud ---Services, remember that hardening/--- --- security is almost two-fold.

Standards – There are some good ---standards out there. ISO27001 used to be ---a good standard to aim for, and in many ---respects it still is. From an actual impact ---perspective though, we’d recommend ---getting Cyber Essentials certified as a ---starting point.

Some of these tips may sound simple and people will often mention getting the basics right. The reality is, even getting the basics to a good level – and keeping at that level – is difficult and shouldn’t be underestimated. Frameworks such as Cyber essentials are also hard to get right, especially in older and larger organisations.

It is important, however, to invest in time, expertise, and effort to adopt these frameworks, or at least the parts that make sense for your workloads/ organisation, as not just a security measure, but a general IT practice.

Cyber Security Insurance – Things are changing… - Factory Internet Cyber insurance | Business Insurance | ABI

Cyber insurance costs up by a third (computerweekly.com)

PHL - Sussex born and bred - Commemorating 20 years

This year Pasante Healthcare (PHL) is celebrating its 20th year of trading! Whilst the Pasante brand and other aspects of the business existed before 2002, the business was officially incorporated on 5th April that year.

Chloe Francis-Smith

Marketing Executive, Pasante Healthcare

The Lancing-based business has developed from a small, family-owned company focused on the UK market, to becoming part of the World’s largest manufacturer of condoms. It now represents 4 international brands in the UK (Mister Size, sebamed, INSTI and SunSeal) in addition to its own 4 brands (Pasante, Adore, Clear Sign and MediCheck), with some being exported to over 35 countries.

The company has decided to mark the occasion by hosting 22 celebrations, competitions and thought leadership/ community initiatives focussed on both the PHL team as well as the Lancing area. Employees, customers, and the local area will all benefit throughout 2022. 2002 themed 20th Birthday party at Pasante Healthcare’s HQ in Lancing (8th April 2022)

A little bit of history on PHL…

In 1992 PHL began life as Pasante, the UK’s first ever condom business in Lancing. By 2000 it was established as a family affair. The product portfolio grew to include further products such as lubricants, HIV and syphilis tests, pregnancy tests and medicinal skincare. With a focus on sexual health solutions, PHL has become the leading supplier to the NHS and non-government organisations in the UK.

The success of PHL became internationally recognised and in 2016 the company was acquired by Karex Berhad, the World’s largest manufacturer of condoms.

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, PHL has continued to grow. In 2021 it opened the doors to a new head office just round the corner from their main warehouse on the Lancing business park. This incorporates the expanding sales and marketing team and has allowed room for growth within the warehouse. The company prioritises meeting the ever-changing needs as the business continues to expand online.

Now in 2022 PHL is celebrating 20 years of providing healthcare products which inspire people to make better, healthier choices, making a positive difference to their lives.

The 22 celebrations…

The 2022 celebrations focus on a range of activities to mark the significant achievement of 20 years. As it is PHL’s birthday, we are giving all our employees their birthdays off work. With this additional day of annual leave, we want to reward and thank our people for their support to the success and growth of the company. A cause for all to celebrate!

In July, we will be hosting a company away day with team building activities and as well as a company update following the end of our financial year, we will be outlining the opportunities and focus for the next 5-year plan ahead.

We are also supporting the local area by engaging in a volunteer programme. Every member of the PHL team is investing a sponsored day towards supporting a charity/not-for-profit of their choice. This is a way of employees being able to give back to their local community. This is an initiative that we will also be carrying into 2023 and beyond.

There are lots of company-based activities going on too. A time capsule will be sealed in December this year to commemorate our 20th Birthday. It will then be opened again in 2042. It will give an interesting overview for the employees of the business in 2042 so that they can learn about life in 2022, both at work, and culturally. The employees are going to decide what goes into the time capsule.

PHL is not forgetting our customers at this time of celebration, as without them, there would be no PHL. Our main customer focused activity will be a B2B thought leadership project on the past and future 20 years of sexual health. Further initiatives include social media giveaways and website promotions for every month of the birthday year.

To stay tuned and hear more about our celebrations throughout the year, please follow PHL on LinkedIn @pasantehealthcare

You can find us at Unit 1 and Unit 21 on Lancing Business Park.

Nordell’s Growth: Sacrifices, Successes and Lessons Learnt

For Paul Mason, Managing Director and owner of Worthingbased plastics injection mould company Nordell Ltd, watching the business grow is one of his proudest accomplishments.

Daniel Grover

Head of Commercial, Nordell Ltd

It’s been a busy time for us. Both turnover and staff headcount has doubled in less than two years. And while many looking in from the outside would be envious, the truth is that achieving this extraordinary growth certainly comes with a few “growth pains”. Behind every successful company, there’s a story of sacrifices, hard work, and lessons learnt. We wanted to share ours with you.

Growth Opportunities

A couple of years ago, the Senior Team at Nordell identified potential growth opportunities. The factory had at least 50% spare capacity during our Monday to Friday manufacturing week and even more if you considered the available capacity at the weekend. So, we knew there was an excellent opportunity to grow, but we had to plan for it. Reviewing the Companies Mission, Vision and Core Values ensured that the company had a clear foundation for growth and our decisions guided by them. Five-year plans and budgets were put in place, although that was certainly easier said than done. We had to rely on a lot of “gutfeel” when we got beyond a couple of years, but having a plan was essential so that we could identify the labour and infrastructure requirements.

Investing In Future Growth

Nordell had to invest heavily in infrastructure and facilities in readiness for the planned additional turnover. This included the build of a 300m2 cleanroom, the addition of 15 moulding machines, and two new lorries. The factory was extended from one site in Worthing to a three-unit multi-site (and we have plans for additional factory space later this year). Of course, our infrastructure growth required us to take a calculated financial risk. We invested over £1.25million in one year and - with the team increasing from 60 to 200 - had an additional £2.5million annual spend on labour. Trying to recruit over 100 new people during a pandemic was not easy, to say the least. Essential to achieving this goal was the development of our HR team; this was expanded from one to three people, covering recruitment and training and development. With the team growing significantly, we needed to put a new structure of Management, Supervisors and Team Leaders. Certainly challenging when the number of new employees was going to substantially outweigh employees who had some knowledge of the Nordell business. On top of ensuring the management team was extended, we needed to add numerous new skilled roles, including Toolmakers, setters, technicians and quality.

Communication

With a growing company, effective internal communication was going to be critical. We needed to find a way to have real-time, two-way communication and feedback to keep the team on board and motivated. We found the perfect solution with Workvivo (www.workvivo.com). It did exactly what we wanted, linking posts to company values and celebrating individual and team achievements.

Challenges Faced

What was the biggest challenge we went through on our growth journey? Without a doubt establishing a new, functioning team. One thing we did underestimate was how much building a new team would impact on our productivity. After more than a year, we are now starting to see productivity improving; however, if you are budgeting for significant growth, I would certainly say you need to factor more on productivity loss than you estimate. We are now starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel, with the factory build programme nearly complete. Turnover is strong, and productivity is improving. We are investing heavily in “People First” to continue to roll out our training and development plan. We have established a ‘Future Leaders programme’ which is helping us to identify and nurture future leaders of the Nordell business. It’s managed by our Head of HR, Emma Penn and Rachel Stone from the leadership and coaching company Actioncoach.

www.actioncoach.com

It’s been an arduous journey, but one that has been hugely rewarding and enjoyable. It’s true what they say: you get out what you put in. The icing on the cake has been two huge awards this year. Paul Mason was recognised by his peers at MD Hub and awarded the MD of the Year award; Nordell, which was just a small business a year ago, was awarded “Large Business Of The Year” at the Sussex Business Awards. We were surprised and humbled, but it was great to celebrate after a marathon of hard work!

The quote “No Pain, No Gain” is true. However, if you plan, are prepared to put in the hard work, keep the team engaged and remain true to your values, the journey to growth will be far easier!

Global Markets

Global markets and supply chains have become an everyday conversation with the impacts of Brexit, Covid and now the Ukraine situation being felt ever more significantly. Added to that the ‘post-covid’ rebound in global activity, together with supply disruptions and rising cost pressures, have pushed up headline inflation across many countries.

Even before the Ukraine war Global growth was expected to decelerate markedly in 2022, from 5.5% to 4.1%, according to the World Bank.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has downgraded its expectations for UK GDP growth in 2022 to 3.6%, from 4.2% in its previous forecast in December 2021 and less than half the growth of 7.5% recorded last year. The downgrade largely reflects a deteriorating outlook for consumer spending and a weaker than expected rebound in business investment:

Consumer spending is forecast to grow at 4.4% in 2022, down from its previous forecast of 6.9%. The downgrade reflects the squeeze on real household incomes and weakening consumer confidence.

Business investment is forecast to grow at 3.5% in 2022. This is down from the previous forecast of 5.1% and materially lower than the Bank of England’s projection of 13.75% as recently as February. The downgrade reflects the expected weakening in investment intentions from rising cost pressures, higher taxes and weakening confidence amid deteriorating UK and global outlooks, including the current impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

With such a challenging outlook, the BCC is calling for an emergency budget to give firms the breathing space they need to raise productivity and strengthen the economy, including reversing the recently introduced National Insurance increase until at least the next financial year.

Rob Clare

Chairman, Sussex Chamber of Commerce

Legal & General supports Hove students via the Dare to Dream Programme

Legal & General are helping students from Hove Park School to raise their aspirations and realise their potential through their support of the Dare to Dream Programme.

Christina Fishlock

Head of Community Programmes, LoveLocal Jobs

The programme, created by The Love Local Jobs Foundation C.I.C is delivered by Programme Lead, radio presenter Jack ‘The Lad’ Hayes who is currently on air with More Radio. Jack provides young people across Sussex with the support and tools to improve their selfawareness, confidence and resilience.

Jack has been working with over 260 year 9 students from Hove Park School with the unique ability to engage with the students and encourage them to think differently about their futures through drawing upon his own experiences and the challenges he himself has faced. In addition to this, ten mentors from Legal & General have supported 30 year 9 students from Hove Park School. Each Legal & General mentor has been assigned three students, offering them one-to-one guidance to help promote self-awareness, build resilience, and support employability. The programme is made up of multiple interactions including inspirational assemblies, workshops and one-to-one mentoring which takes place over a six month period and ends with student being shown around the Legal & General site in Hove to experience a reallife working environment. Employee volunteering is an important part of life at Legal & General, supported by a volunteering policy which allows their people to take time off to support charities during working hours. Commenting on her participation in this year’ Dare to Dream programme, Georgia Mills, Campaigns Manager, Legal & General Retail said, “I didn’t get the encouragement and support for my career when I was growing up, so I feel privileged to be part of this year’s programme. I get to positively influence young people, help build their confidence, and set them on a path for success.” Legal & General have long been supporters of The Love Local Jobs Foundation and its programmes, with Phil Anderson, Legal & General’s Hove Location Director and Chief Operating Officer, for its Retirement Institutional and Capital businesses commenting, “We’ve been proud to be part of the Dare to Dream programme for Brighton and Hove for a third time.

“All our colleagues involved have found the experience to be inspiring and rewarding, acting as mentors to the students and helping them to build selfconfidence, discover their ambitions and ultimately fulfil their true potential.”

Pentagon have made a lofty £35k investment in a ZERES (Hybrid) 40 tonne injection moulding machine adding to our range

Purchased in early April 2022 from valued and long-term supply partner Premier Moulding Machinery the new addition to the existing 12 machine plant will add to our full electric and electric with built in hydraulic machine offering delivering greater efficiency. This press size fits nicely into the lower clamp forces in our range and will be widely utilised for production of medical components as well as supporting other industry sectors for technical moulding production.

Gabby Day

Communications Manager, Pentagon Plastics Ltd

Selection parameters for the new moulding press have included energy efficiency and Pentagon anticipates that the ZERES will provide estimated annual savings of 47,352 kWh in energy consumption of excess of £6,000.00 per annum against older presses of similar size.

Delivery for 14th April with instillation just days after, to accommodate the additional press Pentagon are revising the layout of their existing manufacturing facility in Blatchford Road, Horsham. This will include the relocation of the production offices to create valuable shop floor workspace.

Renovations of a previously disused office area in the neighbouring building (also owned by Pentagon) will create a dedicated management suite thereby facilitating the move of the existing production offices.

This is another big step in the Pentagon renovations that have spanned several years and will allow the full factory footprint to be used to facilitate the manufacturing process.

Other recent self-funded investments for the Moulding Division at Pentagon include three new conveyors from TH Plastics which are wider than the current ones in use. These were purchased to reduce the risk of waste product due to overflowing when running multi-cavity tools. Two new water heaters (model TT181) have been purchased from Tool Temp to improve our control of mould tool temperatures during production. A final April purchase for moulding has seen a new large screen display monitor being installed on the shop floor to deliver live Intouch monitoring of all the injection moulding presses to the work force which follows the recent upgrade to their I4 cloudbased application.

The investment comes at an exciting time for Pentagon as they edge closer to celebrating their 50th year in business and this most recent investment is an additional cause for celebration.

If you are considering moving your production to a new UK supplier or have a project to consider Pentagon’s full plant list can be found on pentagonplastics.co.uk.

The Goodwood Estate

The Goodwood Hotel - Credit Mike Caldwell

Over the past five years Andrew has been overseeing the operation of the Goodwood Hotel, The Kennels (a private members’ clubhouse) and Hound Lodge (an exclusive 10-bedroom sporting retreat).

Andrew Coggings

Managing Director of Entertaining and Hospitality, Goodwood

In addition, Andrew is at the helm of the organic farm, golf, clay shooting, afternoon teas, health club and the introduction of a new wellbeing programme.

Running a 365-days a year, multi-function business, Andrew is responsible for more than 300 staff who organise and deliver meetings, conferences, weddings and events across the world-class Goodwood Estate in West Sussex.

Deciding on a career in hospitality

I was born and brought up in the North East and I was always fascinated by the local, main hotel -The Royal County Hotel, where I went to school in Durham.

All the big social events seemed to be centred around The Royal County and I became fascinated about working in a hotel that was at the epicentre of everything.

Making the transition

It was a no brainer about going into hotel business. During my A-levels I told my school careers advisor that I wanted to be a hotel manager. He was shocked as it was virtually unheard of at my school. He told me to get a proper job and become a quantity surveyor. I totally ignored his advice and never looked back.

The importance of having a mentor in business

In the late 1980s, I was employed by the legendary hotelier Patrick Griffin as an assistant manager at The De Vere, Coventry. He was suave, sophisticated, drove a Ferrari, which was a rather unusual sight in Coventry at the time.

He took time to guide me and showed me the importance at a young age of doing things with style and panache.

Highlights of my career

I followed the traditional route of progression in UK hotels, then spent time running hotels in Dubai, South Africa and Malaysia.

Returning to the UK, I ran some wonderful hotels including Brown’s Hotel and The Grand Brighton. I then spent 10 years running my own pubs and restaurant in Brighton before joining Goodwood.

Now I am responsible for the Goodwood hotel, members’ clubhouse, golf, health club, motor circuit catering, the organic farm, meetings, conferences and events across the 12,000-acre estate, along with afternoon teas at Goodwood House.

Becoming my own boss

Before joining Goodwood I spent 10 years running my own pubs and restaurant in Brighton. Being your own boss and taking the opportunity to have your own business is an opportunity that everyone should take at least once during their career.

Big challenges

How to best motivate, enthuse and develop the team you work with so they have the skills to provide an exceptional standard of service, consistently, and with enjoyment.

Best business advice

I enjoy inspiring younger people, who are just setting out in their careers, who you know will succeed and you just hope that you can help them on their way. I operate an open-door policy at work and people feel they can pop into my office any time.

The best advice I can give is: be energetic, always make eye contact, show enthusiasm, ask questions and you will go far.

Always look after your team. I like to think I have always led by example at all stages of my career and if there is a problem, I will get out there and meet it head on. I get out there on the floor regularly for walkabouts to meet guests, offer assistance and support my team.

Why have a career in hospitality?

It’s the greatest career in the world! Despite the recent challenges for the industry, we are bouncing back.

Here at Goodwood every day is different. There is so much variety in my role. I am responsible for delivering outstanding service to 1,500 guests at Festival of Speed’s private black-tie ball, held at Goodwood House which dozens of VIP guests attend. Other days I can be meeting with people about the direction for the estate’s organic farm shop or consulting about potential development plans for the hotel.

Any regrets?

None whatsoever. I would have been a rubbish quantity surveyor.

Not all member-only business clubs are the same.

While most have a strong focus on networking, County Business Clubs Sussex goes further.

Sam Thomas

Co-founder, County Business Clubs

As Joint Managing Director Sam Thomas explains, sharing success stories is a major part of the Clubs’ work.

“It is how we raise the profile our of members’ products and services. But not only that, our members’ stories can be the catalyst for future success, inspiring new businesses and the entrepreneurs of tomorrow,” he said.

“Whether a story is about how a firm got from A to B, solved a problem or the way they are reducing their carbon footprint, it’s relevant. Other businesses will be facing the same barriers or problems our members have overcome, so to be able to share how they navigated common issues is a good thing for everyone.”

Business story-telling is one of the fastest-growing and most successful ways to attract and retain customers. And it is something County Business Clubs Sussex embraces.

Being able to demonstrate how a problem can be solved or processes streamlined to save time and money in a way that emotionally connects with the reader - yes, even in B2B - is extremely effective.

Even telling stories about what a brand stands for can be incredibly engaging. Harnessing such a powerful tool across multiple platforms gives County Business Cubs’ members targeted exposure that really does appeal to the reader. So, how does the organisation share members’ stories?

County Business Clubs Sussex utilises cross-channel promotion - in print via the well-established Sussex Business Times, on LinkedIn and on other social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook. Of course, networking is still a major part of the Clubs’ work. Members enjoy monthly meet-ups in a successful collaboration with Freedom Works. They also network on the Clubs’ own platform, which also offers a wide range of valuable benefits. As well as having access to exclusive content, they can enjoy money off hotel stays, sportswear, wine, gym memberships and much more.

Sam says many businesses find the membership fee is more than offset by the savings they can achieve. “Our website also boasts members’ shops, so they can purchase from each other online. It’s a great way to support one another as well as showcase what they do.” Of course, County Business Clubs Sussex has its own success story to share. It was launched at possibly the worst time in modern history for UK businesses - at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. That leap of faith has paid dividends for businesses caught between the quagmire of lockdowns and work from home directives. With no in-person networking taking place anywhere (unless you worked in Number 10!), many businesses were looking for opportunities to connect with others.

They needed new connections, new leads and new ideas. With most stuck at the kitchen table or in a home office, all three of those were in short supply. And with depressing news dominating the headlines, they wanted to find new ways to move their businesses forward in spite of everything.

Being able to join an online community at that time was a cross between a huge relief and a breath of fresh air.

“People really responded to it,” said Sam. “They appreciated the opportunity to connect with others and share their stories. The move to hybrid working was among the things some of our members were embracing as the pandemic moved out of lockdowns. I am sure their efforts to overcome some of the barriers thrown up during the darkest of days inspired others to adopt the same approach.”

Sam is keen to point out: “Our story has only just begun. We have got exciting things planned for the future. Rest assured, we will share our own success stories - as well as our members’.”

County Business Clubs Sussex is a growing community and you can be part of it. As a Sussex Chamber member, you can join at the reduced rate of just £9.99 per month or £99 for the year and start sharing your stories.