Innovation

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March 2015 | business-reporter.co.uk

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The many faces of Melvyn Bragg

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LEADERSHIP 2-5 It is important that we have female leaders in key positions at Ikea

INNOVATION & ENTERPRISE 6-11 Fair ways to a golfing heaven

Business Reporter · March 2015

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Leadership

Opening shots René Carayol

I

RECENTLY had the privilege of hosting a provocative debate around the Business of Football and, just like a good Premier League match, it proved to be a special, fast moving and passionate affair.

On this particular panel at Hult International Business School, we had David Gold, one of the co-owners of West Ham and a serial entrepreneur, alongside Mehmet Dalman, the non-executive chairman of Cardiff City, and a classy investment banker by background.

Instructively, no other chairs or owners accepted invitations to sit on the panel. One could understand why they might perhaps give this type of event a miss as there would appear to be no upside for them. In fact there might be nothing but grief.

The two men could not be more different.

Mehmet was the ultra-smooth and ultrasophisticated corporate leader. He answered every question in a diplomatic and suave manner and always got his point across. He did so without breaking any eggs or bruising any egos. He was structured, measured and always stayed within the unwritten rules. It was noticeable that he was a little hierarchical and thoroughly enjoyed the status that had been so hard-earned.

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David and Mehmet show how to combine entrepreneurship with business leadership David, on the other hand, was David. He cannot be anyone else, and doesn’t even think or try to sugar-coat any of his messages or responses. He was sparky, forthright and outspoken. His passion allied to his selfdeprecating humour, enabled him to get away with some pretty confrontational stuff. It was clear to all that he was comfortable in his own skin. He never really bothered, or perhaps even noticed, that he was not just bending the unwritten rules, but sometimes trampling all over them.

What we were watching in action was the consummate professional business leader, and a raw, high-octane entrepreneur. From a distance, one could assume that they have similar roles, but nothing could be further from the truth. At West Ham, David Gold and his co-owner and partner, David Sullivan,

were astute enough to appoint Karren Brady, who effectively manages the day-to-day running of the club, as vice chair. She is much more akin to Mehmet.

The owner of Cardiff City is the Malaysian serial entrepreneur, Vincent Tan, who is much more like the two Davids; forthright, mercurial, a little in-your-face and forever backing himself no matter what the odds.

Growing economies and industries and expanding businesses require both. Without our somewhat unmanageable entrepreneurs, who can think the unthinkable, and do the things other people say cannot be done, we wouldn’t have enough successful start-ups to fuel our local and national economies.

In order to capitalise on the innovation and risk-taking of the entrepreneurs, we then need good business leaders to ensure these fast-growing businesses are run in a more measured, structured and therefore sustainable manner. The heady mix of electrifying entrepreneurship and seasoned business leadership delivers the sustainable wealth creation our faltering economy desperately needs.

Entrepreneurs sometimes need a foil to enable longer-term thinking and a more organised, consistent approach.

More cautious leaders can find it easier to deny the sometimes scary entrepreneurs the space that provides the essential, but quite risky oxygen all businesses need. It’s never been about who’s right for the business, but what is right, and collaboration is the new leadership.

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Leadership

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Why women make better CEOs in the 21st century

By Tim Adler CHIEF EXECUTIVES are giving more weight to qualities traditionally associated with women, such as collaboration and listening.

The old top-down, command-and-control structure does not work any more as compa nies become more porous and fluid.

In 2015 companies are not hermeticallysealed bubbles. Apple, for example, has 45,000 employees worldwide but another 180,000 people outside the company who earn their living developing apps for IoS. They are not going to be told what to do.

“Because of these fluid boundaries, you’re no longer king of the hill, you’re more of an orchestrator,” says Colin Price, chairman of consultancy Co Company and visiting fellow on leadership at Oxford University.

“A highly macho, power-oriented structure is not going to get you very far.”

Tim Morris (below), professor of business studies at Saïd Business School, says that the chief executives he has interviewed tend to suggest that women are better suited to run large organisations because of their skillset.

Morris interviewed 152 CEOs worldwide for a recently published report, co-written with leadership consultancy Heidrick & Struggles.

Thirty years ago leadership books were in-your-face macho tomes, such as those written by Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca and General Electric CEO Jack Welch – archetypes of the male-leadership cult conquering hero.

“Male qualities such as strength, decisiveness and telling people what to do need to be complemented by more female qualities such as collaboration,” says Dr Bernd Vogel, associate professor of leadership and organisational behaviour at the Henley Centre for Engaging Leadership.

Says Price: “The evidence is pretty clear. Organisations with more women in higher roles outperform organisations that don’t.” Indeed, the pyramid command-andcontrol structure is a western concept that is not found in other regions – China, India and the Middle East all favour a more collaborative approach, for different reasons.

Simon Sinek, author of the bestseller Start With Why, says: “It’s not that we need more female leaders. What we need are more leaders with female qualities such as empathy and humanity. Aggression and selfinterest are the qualities of bad leadership.

Five keys to good leadership

75%

of CEOs believe the role has changed

94%

of CEOs emphasise the pace of change

Leadership experts give Business Reporter their tips for success

1

Good leadership is about communicating a vision of something that does not exist yet. Hitting revenue targets is not a vision. The worst combination is a leader who keeps a tight grip while offering no vision.

2

Once you have defined that vision, you need to articulate it. Employees are increasingly questioning why they work for a company. So CEOs have to convince others to get on board, leading sideways rather than just downwards. Instead of vision, many CEOs prefer to use the word “purpose”.

“There was a generation of female leaders who came up in the Eighties by acting more like men than women. That time has long gone. They don’t need to wear pantsuits and wear their hair short anymore.”

Leadership is important because it can make a dramatic difference to how your company performs. Nitin Nohria, dean of Harvard Business School, says that the difference between good and bad leadership is about 40 per cent in terms of performance.

Price goes further: good leadership can as much as double company performance.

Says Price: “Leadership is not a peripheral thing. The difference between good and bad leadership is about a 50 per cent return over five years.”

The report also found that 71 per cent of business leaders doubt themselves.

CEOs should not consider doubt to be a weakness, says Sinek. In fact, moments of doubt invite collaboration and engage your staff.

Si ne k s ay s: “ G o o d leadership is about communicating a vision

3

Surround yourself with people who are better than you, developing and building that talent.

Nurturing talent is like being a parent, in that you take pride when your executives achieve independence.

4

Avoid being pushed into instant decisions. Think about what you are doing. Too many CEOs are pushed around by social media. Don’t let yourself be bullied by a fickle public.

71% of CEOs doubt themselves

5

Walk the walk. You need to embody qualities such as collaboration, encouragement and listening rather than just pay lip-service to them.

You need to be an exemplary role model.

of something that doesn’t exist yet. The worst scenario is a leader who keeps a tight grip on things, but has no vision. That’s the worst. Hitting revenue milestones is not having a vision.”

Steve Jobs was a leader whose vision was of a company that helps everybody by simply harnessing the power of technology.

That was why design and simple interfaces were so crucial to Apple, says Sinek. What Apple was not about was hitting market-share milestones.

Indeed, one of the tenets of good leadership is “the vision thing” – communicating why a company is in business to its increasingly highly skilled and mobile workforce, giving them a reason why they want to stay loyal.

“Think of leadership as a fire that needs to catch across a company. You need to think about spreading leadership across the organisation, not just keeping it contained at the top.” says Price.

For Vogel, leadership means knowing your limitations and how to complement other people.

“That’s a key piece. Just because you know your weaknesses doesn’t mean you won’t win.”

Source: The CEO Report, Saïd Business School/Heidrick & Struggles

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What can you do? Taking responsibility for equality and diversity

W

e must all take responsibility for promoting equality and diversity as our workforce changes to meet the demands of 21st century companies. Talking about what these terms mean, along with how we can progress change at an operational level can initiate the waves of improvement needed.

Women make up more than 50 per cent of the workforce and yet there are still fewer female senior managers than male. As their careers develop and they progress into more senior roles, they are often paid less than men in comparable jobs. In some organisations where women may comprise at least 25 per cent of the senior management team, they still lack equal decision-making power and influence because of the roles they represent.

These topics are widely debated in a range of professional and personal contexts.

Discussions often focus on the apparent lack of women available to take such roles, and a need for quotas to create diversity of representation at senior management and at non-executive levels. People’s views and opinions on these

matters are as varied as the individuals who promote and challenge them.

Reasons given for the slow rate of change include fixed assumptions and mindsets about who the right person for the job might be, the existence of old boys’ clubs, and the impact of caring responsibilities for children and elderly parents which, even in 2015, still fall largely on women. There is also still evidence of unconscious bias: revealed, for example, through the ways in which companies manage their events, holding meetings after 5.30 or before 8.30, organising networking events only on the golf course, offering women theatre trips rather than race days, and assuming only women will want to take time off during school holidays or when children are ill.

To tackle these issues, the best organisations are changing the ways in which people work so that everyone has the opportunity to contribute equally to the success of the company, whatever their personal circumstances.

They are implementing flexible and remote working practices, ensuring that parental and carers’ leave policies and procedures enable men and women to share caring responsibilities, as well as allowing people to find

ways to work and manage their personal commitments, family lives and work/life balance in a way that fits their needs. They are developing policies and procedures, roles and responsibilities, to ensure that they are opening and widening career avenues so that both men and women can progress equally.

One key step towards creating a better, more balanced workforce involves supporting and encouraging women to put themselves forward for new roles and responsibilities. This can be done by providing mentors and role models or, as many organisations and professions now do, creating networks for women to share experiences, address challenges and find support and inspiration to gain confidence in taking on new roles and seeking out challenges.

Professional groups, including Women in Construction, Women in Project Management, Women in Science and Engineering, Women in Management, are proving highly effective.

What can you do?

Dr Ruth Sack (left) is senior lecturer at Westminster Business School, University of Westminster @uw_wbs www.westminster.ac.uk/stleadership

You’re not getting the message…

W

e are a hyper-connected nation. An obsessively, permanently connected nation. And we’re not alone (so our connections tell us). Recent developments in communications technology have put us in touch and in control like never before. We can interact with anyone we want, wherever and whenever we want, and have instant access to information on any topic imaginable. Of course, hyper-connected people want hyper-connected businesses that support responsive, information-rich experiences, delivered through multiple channels.

“In addition to a home internet connection, the average person has three other devices.”

Unsurprisingly these high, and now completely normal, demands can have major implications for businesses.

Expectations have risen and are still rising. In addition to their fixed home internet connection, the average person has three other devices. Some 70 per cent of all millennials (born between 1982 and 2004) use their own applications to help them go about their work which, considering they’ll comprise 50 per cent of the workforce by 2020, places pressure on businesses to accommodate unprecedented levels of flexibility in ways that are also secure.

The emerging paradox of connectivity Our use of multiple devices drives multiple expectations: that we should be able to interact using the communication channels of our choice, at the precise moments we need to. But in business, this hyper-connectivity has started to appear paradoxical.

Some 86 per cent of organisations experience employee demand for remote working options. And the average British worker sends and receives around 10,000 emails a year.

“Top decision makers now spend nearly one day a week managing communications.”

With more devices and communication channels to use and check than ever before, missed messages are becoming more common, meaning the changing landscape can often inhibit rather than facilitate staff productivity. Today, it’s more about how we’re saying something, rather than what we’re saying.

As a result, top executives now spend nearly one day a week managing communications, distracting them from more strategic decision making.

It’s clear that in order to make hyper-connectivity work, organisations need a seamless infrastructure that allows both employees and customers to communicate easily. Sounds like an overwhelming challenge? It need not be.

As Tony Bailey, head of Vodafone Enterprise Services says: “Things are complicated, but leading businesses are harnessing the potential that comes with making communications simple again… they’re implementing better ways of working that are supported by converged communications. The benefits are happier, more productive employees, better customer experiences and more predictable costs.”

So what now?

Greater connectivity gives greater control, but the challenge is clear. Businesses need to ensure that this control is effortless, and stress-free. As leaders in innovation, Vodafone has created history many times, including in 1985 when it placed the UK’s first mobile phone call and in 1992 when the world’s first text message was sent over its network. More recently, Vodafone has pioneered the first and only tool of its type to help UK organisations work better together and simplify the way they do business.

So what is the answer? Vodafone One Net Enterprise Cloud – by combining fixed, mobile and desktop services into a single system, it lets staff work together effortlessly across multiple devices, channels and locations. And by using cloud technology to integrate different types of device, from basic mobile to high-end phablet, it allows everyone from business leaders to graduates to focus on the things that matter. vodafone.co.uk/onenetenterprisecloud

Business Reporter · March 2015

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By Tim Adler

S

OMEBODY rings a hand bell every morning at 9am in Ikea’s Wembley headquarters gathering staff for the daily briefing.

It’s a way of bringing everybody together, says UK country retail manager Gillian Drakeford.

Drakeford is clear about what leadership means to her: direction, clarity and building trust. “As the business evolves, you need different types of leadership,” she says. “Men and women have different leadership traits. Perhaps those female traits such as nurturing and inclusiveness have become more important in today’s world. That said, I do have male colleagues with those traits too.”

Drakeford, who spent 11 years growing Ikea’s business in China – including Beijing, the most popular store in the world – admits that she couldn’t do her all-consuming job and raise three children, the youngest of whom is seven, without support.

Her husband stays at home.

“But more importantly Ikea’s Swedish culture promotes equality.

It would be more difficult to do this job if there were two demanding careers,” she says.

D r a ke ford s ay s t h at s ome businesses do have glass ceilings that prevent women from getting the top jobs, but not in retail and especially not at Ikea. Half of Ikea’s UK stores are run by women. And 50 per cent of country managers, the most senior territorial role, are female as well, as is half of Ikea’s worldwide staff.

“It’s important that we have female leaders in key positions and that we tell our stories. I’m a better leader because I have three kids,” she says.

Drakeford took advantage of Ikea’s whole-year-off maternity holiday policy before being promoted again when

Culture club

Leadership

5

It’s important that we have female leaders in key positions at Ikea. I’m a better leader because I have three kids, says UK country retail manager Gillian Drakeford she returned. “A big piece of this job is leading by example,” she says. “If I can show I can do a big job and can also have a family, it becomes something people can connect to.

“We truly believe that people are at their best when there’s a balance between work and home. Another big part of my job is creating an environment where people feel safe [rather than worry about job security].”

Drakeford can be frustratingly on-message when it comes to Ikea’s

W A T C H

Video special Ikea’s Gillian Drakeford talks about the importance of good leadership at www. business-reporter.co.uk/ikea

values. She is, though, full of energy, bubbly and chatty – you hear her laughter through thin Ikea walls.

“As leader I’ve learned that it’s very important to provide direction and be clear about what’s the direction. Why are we doing this? What’s the purpose?

People will exceed your expectations if you connect them to the picture and treat them as adults.”

And Drakeford’s vision is paying off: UK sales jumped more than 11 per cent to £1.4 billion in the last financial year, while internet sales were up nearly 27 per cent. Her stated aim is to double turnover and market share by 2020.

Drakeford is an Ikea lifer – she has worked for the retailer since 1987, when she ran a department of its

Gillian Drakeford (main image) has worked at Ikea since the company’s UK debut in 1987

inaugural Warrington store – and coming through the ranks means she sees things from a holistic perspective.

Drakeford says: “The real job for me is engaging with our 78,000 people who work in the UK, not just the top 50 people within senior management.”

Ikea is considering opening smaller city centre stores, she reveals, as an increasing number of people live alone

and do not own cars. The company has 18 stores in Britain and plans to open another four out-of-town sites in Reading, Greenwich, Exeter and Sheffield.

Drakeford says: “We need to move the offer closer to people. We need to be where the customer expects us to be, and our customers’ lifestyles are changing.”

Business Reporter · March 2015

Innovation & enterprise

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Big business: Justin Rose on how his sport is changing both on the course and in the hi-tech equipment stakes

Peter Dixon

Innovation is anything but business as usual – anon

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T IS 17 YEARS since Justin Rose burst on to the scene as a teenager at The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, in Lancashire. That year, the young Englishman finished fourth in his debut appearance in the oldest and most coveted of golf’s major tournaments and has since, by his own admission, been a work in progress.

For Rose, read the business of golf. If, as one commentator puts it, “innovation is the ability to convert ideas into invoices” then the game of golf is at its forefront – constantly looking for better ways of doing things, constantly innovating, never standing still. There is money to be made, and lots of it in a growing global market, but not by treading water.

As with Formula 1 motor racing and motoring, innovations developed for golf professionals invariably work their way down to Joe Public.

Whereas motorists have ended up with traction control and direct-shift gearboxes (no clutch required), so club golfers have also benefited massively from the appliance of science.

Using light, strong materials, some clubs are now unrecognisable from their predecessors of 20 years ago; balls fly further and straighter; and hi-tech equipment has been developed to give instant and hugely detailed feedback on such things as ball trajectory, spin rates, launch angles and distances carried.

“We’re always looking for that little edge,” explains Rose, who in 2013 became the first Briton to win the US Open in 43 years. “A tweak here or there can make a big difference. It’s very scientific now. When I started out much of it was guesswork. Your coach would watch you and advise you based on what he could see with his naked eye.

“The club set-up [its loft, how it sits on the ground, its shaft length and flex] was pretty much trial and error until it felt right. We had no

actual feedback on the ball’s flight and what it was doing through the air.

“Now we have instant and incredibly accurate feedback from TrackMan [a portable radar device that uses missile-tracking technology to provide 26 data parameters], that tells us everything we need to know. The ‘Holy Grail’ is a launch angle of 17 degrees with a spin rate of 1700rpm – and that’s what we are working towards.”

So, what have been golf’s main innovations and what is on the horizon?

Motion analysis

A good place to start is at Wentworth, iconic Surrey club and headquarters of the European Tour. Here can be found one of two TaylorMade Performance Labs in the UK (the other is at Turnberry). Here, it is possible to use the same “motion analysis” technology used by Rose, himself a TaylorMade player.

The lab consists of seven infra-red cameras which pick up the light emanating from reflective markers placed on the player and his golf club.

The cutting-edge software instantly analyses the movement of the golfer when swinging the club and converts the information into a 3-D avatar, which can then be used for teaching purposes or for the “fitting” of clubs.

“You can be fortunate to buy clubs off the shelf and find they suit your game. But equipment like this helps you to tweak your clubs and your swing to really help you to improve,” says Luke Peterken, PGA professional and teaching lab specialist at Wentworth. ”We’d all like to swing it like a tour player, but realistically do we have the time to put in all the practice that would be necessary?

“This system tells me a player’s clubhead speed and hand speed, which helps to work out where the stiffness of the shaft needs to be.

It shows where the ball is coming off the clubface and it measures swing path, which affects the way the ball will react on impact; and it shows if too much loft is being created, which in turn affects the distance the ball flies.”

The clubs

Computer technology has helped the likes of TaylorMade, Ping, Callaway, Titleist, Nike and the other equipment manufacturers to develop clubs that make the game easier and more enjoyable to play.

“TaylorMade found that with a high launch and low spin you get the best of both worlds,” Peterken says. “A few years ago, it was about getting the weight to the back and the bottom of the club. That’s good for getting launch, but it increases backspin (which reduces distance).

“Now they’ve found that by moving the weight to the front of the club, it gets the launch angle up, but reduces the backspin. Ideally, if we can get the centre of gravity of the clubhead matched

AVATAR FINDS THE SWEET SPOT Peter Dixon visits Wentworth to find out how motion-capture technology is helping golfers improve their game. Watch his video at business-reporter. co.uk/golf

with the centre of gravity of the golf ball that will maximise ball speed, distance and stability.”

Where once drivers were made of persimmon, now they are a combination of titanium and carbon composite. Because they are light and strong, clubs have exploded in size (the maximum permitted is 460cc, which is more of a horse’s hoof than a fist), which means they have much bigger sweet spots and are more forgiving when the ball is hit off-centre. This, combined with a graphite shaft, makes the club light and “whippy”, which helps to hit the ball further.

The ball

In 2013, the United States Golf Association – one of two rules makers, along with the R&A – revealed that more than 1,300 different balls from around 80 companies were submitted for approval. It is a sign of the huge battle being fought for market share in an innovative world.

The biggest change in recent years has been the development of solid-core, multi-layered, urethane covered balls, as opposed to wound balls, which provide the perfect combination of distance and feel. In the hands of the likes of Rory McIlroy, the world No1, they travel anything up to 350 yards and beyond. In his prime Nick Faldo, a six-times major champion, would have settled for around 280 yards off the tee.

One American company trying to break into this lucrative market is OnCore, who have developed a ball with a hollow metal core. The company claims it flies straighter and longer because side spin has been reduced and “rifle” spin has been increased. Marketing the product, though, will be difficult with all the leading professionals signed up to the big manufacturers.

Their hope is that, ultimately, innovation will win the day. They are not alone.

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Innovation & enterprise

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7

CLUB CLASSICS Peter Dixon, a former golf correspondent of The Times, looks at five innovations which have helped to shape the modern game…

The Gutta Percha ball Prior to the 1850s, golf balls were made from a leather casing stuffed with boiled duck and goose feathers. The arrival of the Gutta Percha ball – the Gutty – revolutionised the game. It was made from a sap extracted from trees in South East Asia that was boiled and then moulded into solid ‘latex’ balls. The Gutty was cheaper to produce and flew much further than its predecessor, the Feathery.

Steel shafts By the 1930s, steel shafts had effectively won out over hickory, the previous material of choice.

Steel was previously too heavy to use effectively, but new production techniques allowed for a tube-like shaft to be tapered to fit into the clubhead. The flex of the shaft could also be altered to fit the needs of the player – whippier for a slow swing, stiffer for a fast swing.

Big-headed drivers In 1991, Callaway produced a metalheaded club with a head that, at 198cc, was a third larger than anything else on the market. Today’s drivers measure 460cc, with head size equating to distance off the tee because of increased perimeter weighting and spring-like faces.

Multi-layered balls New manufacturing techniques have led to multilayered balls, each with a solid core. These factors, combined with aerodynamic dimple designs, have led to an explosion of length off the tee, particularly among the leading professionals.

Feel and touch around the greens have been retained by using relatively soft urethane covers. Prior to the arrival of such balls around 15 years ago, players used wound balls with extremely soft balata covers, which gave plenty of spin at the sacrifice of distance.

TrackMan

2013 US Open champion Justin Rose is just one top player benefiting from techological advances in golf

At around $25,000, the TrackMan launch monitor does not come cheap. It is the must-have piece of equipment for elite players, however, giving instant feedback on such things as ball flight, dispersion, distance carried, spin rates and launch angle.

Manufacturers have also come to rely on it to help develop new products.

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Innovation & enterprise

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Melv yn’s indep Tim Adler

S

ETTING UP his own business at 70 came as quite a shock for Melvyn Bragg. Until 2010 the pope of arts television led a cosseted life, protected from vulgar commercial reality on the 22nd floor of ITV Tower on the South Bank.

Sky told him he needed his own production company if it was to keep supplying The South Bank Show to its nascent Sky Arts channel.

Welcome to the hand-to-mouth world of being an independent television producer.

Bragg confesses that the original boardroom was a stairwell in the office they were camping out in – and that their office was really the reception sofa.

Things have improved since then. Director’s Cut Productions is nearly halfway through a five-year contract with Sky to supply The South Bank Show. The new series starts in May with an hour-long profile of actor Mark Rylance, star of Wolf Hall.

There is also a South Bank Show Originals strand – half-hour shows where Bragg revisits the archive, reflecting some of the legends he interviewed, including Paul McCartney, Luciano Pavarotti and David Lean. Sixty South Bank Show Originals are in the can, and another 90 have been commissioned.

Bragg naively thought that his bank would be falling over itself to help him go into business.

After all, he went into his branch clutching contracts from the BBC and Sky worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“God help small businesses in this country, that’s what I say, God help them. No wonder they’re packing up by the million. It’s a disgrace,” Bragg says. Indeed, the bank was so obstructive that he wrote to its chief executive threatening bad publicity.

The bank initially provided Bragg and his fellow managing director Cathy Haslam with credit cards with a £500 spending limit – despite them having £250,000 in the current account from the off. “The problem was not the cash flow,” says Haslam. “The problem was getting access to it.”

Their account manager, who was apparently the only person who could authorise withdrawals, never answered his phone. Neither did he have an answerphone. The bank further hampered Bragg’s production company by limiting the amount of cash it could withdraw each day to £1,000. The bank refused to raise the card limit despite Haslam’s insistence.

This made it almost impossible for Director’s Cut to function on a day-to-day basis. Because the bank had only issued two credit as opposed to debit cards, the start-up production company

The big interview Melvyn Bragg

God help small businesses in this country, that’s what I say.

No wonder they’re packing up by the million. It’s a disgrace Up on the air Independent television production has become a £2.8billion business sector since the government ordered the BBC to take outside programmes. “We’re a diverse programme supply market. As soon as talent was able to form corporate structures, they did,” says John McVay of producers’ association Pact. Business Reporter profiles some of the busiest companies formed by TV celebrities.

John Hannah/ Clerkenwell Films

The Mummy star established Clerkenwell Films back in 1997.

Since then, the production house’s hits include cult sci-fi drama Misfits, currently being remade in the US, with Channel 4 set to broadcast the indie’s new six-part comedy series Scrotal Recall. Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) is adapting Len Deighton’s Cold War spy novels as an 18-part series.

Ruth Jones/ Tidy Productions

The Gavin & Stacey co creator is working on a new sitcom for the BBC to fill the gap left by Miranda and Mrs Brown’s Boys. Meanwhile Sky 1 began showing the fourth series of Stella, the gentle Wales-set comedy Jones created.

David Morrissey/ On The Corner

The Walking Dead star announced that he is joining forces with Bafta-winning director Asif Kapadia and Bafta-winning producers Jolyon Symonds and James Gay-Rees to create a new TV and film company.

BBC WW, the broadcaster’s commercial arm, will have first look at the indie’s drama slate. The company has a number of projects in development, with UK broadcasters and a US remake of their BBC1 show The Driver with Showtime, in addition to a number of upcoming feature documentaries, including Amy, a film about the life of Amy Winehouse, and Palio, a film about the celebrated horse race in Siena.

Kirstie Allsopp/ Raise The Roof

Allsopp’s latest show Love It Or List It will air on Channel 4. Recent shows made by Allsopp’s company include Holiday Of My Lifetime, where celebrities revisit childhood holiday spots.

Raise The Roof is one of several indie producers working with the BBC on proposals to scrap independent quotas completely.

was unable to touch its own bank account. Haslam had to pay for anything above her own £500 limit personally. In the first four months of trading, she had to bankroll the business to the tune of £20,000 – all of which she tried to keep secret from Bragg.

Slow customer service meant that a payroll deadline was missed, which meant Haslam had to fund salaries out of her own pocket. The bank suggested that she could go round to each employee’s bank and pay salaries in by cash.

Five years on and Haslam is still fuming.

“Online banking took four months to set up.

Activation codes and cards were sent and were incorrect. We were unable to make any online payments, which meant we physically had to go into the branch to pay our staff’s monthly salaries. I live in the countryside, so this involved a 22-mile round trip.

“One time I arrived after 3pm – not having been told I needed to get there before 3pm to make a CHAPS payment – and the bank refused to make the payment. It actually suggested I take out £11,000 in cash and walk round to the other high street banks in Stratford-upon-Avon and deposit individual amounts into staff accounts. Obviously I didn’t do this, so people were paid late that month. When you’re starting up a new business, you need to be a company that staff can trust and believe does things properly – including paying them on time. It was unprofessional to pay staff late and damaging to our reputation with them.”

Adding insult to injury, their branch dragged its feet setting up a trust account so that Sky could keep track of production funds. This is completely normal in media banking. By the time the trust account was ready, filming was too far down the track in production

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pendent streak spend to switch operational activity between accounts.

Haslam adds: “Sky was very understanding but, again, it didn’t help our new relationship with them and our establishing in their minds that we were up to the job of running a company.”

Bragg says: “Trying to set up a company with a bank was shocking and a disgrace… it was dreadful what they did to us.” The broadcaster did not fare much better when he met bank staff face-to face. Says Bragg: “I have never met people so ill prepared and so totally ignorant of our business. They sailed into our meeting as if they had just been having a fag break out in the street, knowing nothing about us and having no will to help us at all.

“It is disgraceful that I had to write what was, frankly, a threatening letter to get what in the end was just serviceable treatment. The banks aren’t interested – they want huge pension funds to invest. They showed no interest in helping us grow, let alone survive.

“The ace up my sleeve was that I was still doing big documentaries for the BBC, so at least we could keep the sofa going,” he laughs.

Bragg has a reputation for being a difficult interviewee. After some initial tetchiness (which he later apologises for), you are struck by how charming he is, and how boyishly enthusiastic he is about his new life as an independent p r o d u c e r.

Programmes made by

independent producers such as Bragg accounted for nearly half the shows on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five in 2013. These broadcasters invested £1.7billion in independent programming. Back in the day, Julian LloydWebber’s revved-up Paganini theme tune and documentaries featuring artists such as Clint Eastwood, Oscar Peterson and Francis Bacon consistently had two million viewers tuning in every

Melvyn Bragg portrait by Andras Rac

Sunday night. One documentary profiling Michael Flatley pulled in nine million viewers. On Sky Arts, the new South Bank Show attracts just one million. Doesn’t Bragg miss the old days?

“It’s the way it is. If you start to complain about that, don’t stay in the business,” he shrugs. “The audiences that we had at ITV aren’t there, but there’s only one way and that is to persist – and as long as Sky doesn’t give up, I’m not going to give up either.”

Still, given that around 80 per cent of the population doesn’t subscribe to Sky, there are people out there who would pay to watch The South Bank Show on demand. Has Bragg thought about offering shows online in exchange for

Bragg talks to Steven Spielberg in 1982 about the director’s box-office hit E.T. The ExtraTerrestrial, for The South Bank Show

micropayments? “I would like to see a time when they are more available,” he says. “My hunch is that when Sky turns its mind to this being good for them, then it will happen.

“Television has changed. You have multiple accesses to posterity. You can see these things on multiple platforms for ever. The initial broadcast audience may be small but maybe the audience reach in five years’ is not small at all.”

Bragg cannot praise Sky highly enough for its can-do attitude towards independent producers such as himself. He is also grateful to ITV for giving him exclusive access to the archive.

“The BBC is sometimes extremely difficult because you don’t quite know who’s making the final decision. That feeling of communality that was there when I first joined has stratified into management layers. The difficulty lies in the time it takes. We have not got that sort of time,” he says, thumping the table for emphasis.

Cathy Haslam adds: “Sky is quite proactive, they’re trying to provoke partnerships between independents and arts organisations. It’s much easier to work with Sky, there are fewer layers.”

Having been institutionalised since he joined the BBC in 1961, Bragg admits that being an entrepreneur is much harder. Now he is responsible for salaries, employees and generally keeping all the plates spinning. “I think you should toughen up in your seventies,” says Bragg.

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Academic excellence boosts business innovation Innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Edinburgh

I

t is more than 45 years since the University of Edinburgh established one of the first industrial liaison offices in the UK, to promote and encourage industrial engagement with the science base at Edinburgh. Edinburgh Research and Innovation (ERI) is the University of Edinburgh’s research and commercialisation arm, and is continuing that ethos to ensure that academic excellence translates through business innovation into economic and societal benefit.

As a global university consistently ranked in the world’s top 50, Edinburgh is actively engaging in collaborative partnerships with organisations across the globe, which see Edinburgh as a source of world-class expertise, technology and research facilities.

However, with more than 99 per cent of the UK’s private sector represented by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Edinburgh also seeks to engage with these companies at every level through various initiatives that are designed to build longer-lasting strategic partnerships and lead to a stronger UK industrial base.

In the past three years, ERI has won funding from several of the UK Research Councils to improve the impact of the university’s research through increased business engagement. Our dedicated customer relationship management team has adopted a variety of initiatives to use these impact-acceleration funds, which are primarily targeted at

developing more and longer term strategic partnerships with industry, with activities such as proof of principle funding to help develop technologies closer to market readiness, market assessments and staff exchanges, internships or secondments, either into or out of industry.

As part of its business engagement programme to develop stronger collaborative ties between the business and academic communities, ERI launched a programme of themed academic industry meeting day, or AIMday®, events in June 2014.

This collaborative knowledge exchange initiative began life at Uppsala University, but was brought to the UK for the first time by Edinburgh to provide a platform for exchanging information and ideas with industry, to identify pathways and find new solutions to the challenges facing industry today.

The AIMday format has proven successful in attracting business engagement to Edinburgh, with 20 industry delegates attending the first two AIMdays in Modelling & Simulation and Materials. Our third AIMday in April 2015 will focus on Fluids & Flow, with a fourth event planned later in the year.

ERI also organised an Access All Areas event in May 2014, to showcase the university’s research facilities and academic expertise at the science and engineering campus to around 40 industry delegates. This open-door event provided an opportunity for attendees to gain a fuller understanding of how accessing the university’s facilities and knowledge base could provide tangible benefits to their business.

These programmes are achieving success. The latest data shows that the university has engaged with business and industry on more than 1,500 projects in the past three years, an increase of more than 15 per cent over the previous three-year period.

Ideas for innovation Each year, more than 150 new research discoveries are disclosed by academics at

the university. Licensing this intellectual property (IP) offers business and industry an effective route to access world-class research advances at an early-stage to develop into new products, processes and services.

In addition to traditional licensing platforms, ERI’s online licensing portal streamlines the end-to-end licensing process for certain technologies, such as particular materials, software and copyrighted works. With standard non-­exclusive licence terms and an online payment facility, licences can be concluded much faster and downloadable software can be available for use in minutes.

At present, more than 20 click-through products are available to license online for commercial use – more than any other UK university with an equivalent facility.

Furthermore, as part of efforts to encourage broad knowledge exchange with business and industry, ERI launched a new initiative in 2012, called Open Technology. Open Technology features IP developed by the University of Edinburgh that is made available for academic or commercial use at no cost.

ERI recognises that successful commercialisation of intellectual property is reliant on finding the specific contract terms that meet the requirements, and accommodate the sensitivities, of both partners, so we have developed a suite of template licence agreements that can serve as starting frameworks for all licensing negotiations. Testimonials from commercial partners confirm the positive impact of our use of these templates.

Importantly for ERI, signing a licence agreement with Edinburgh signifies the start of a mutually beneficial partnership with our commercial partners, so we have invested in dedicated post-licence management and administration support to help address any licensing issues quickly and effectively, and further enhance our business relationships with clients.

Economic impact An economic impact report by BiGGAR Economics in May 2012 concluded that 81 per

cent of all the companies that Edinburgh had created were still trading in some capacity, and that Edinburgh’s commercialisation activities generate more than £164million GVA per annum for the UK economy (globally more than £200million), and support nearly 3,000 jobs in the UK (more than 3,500 worldwide).

Enterprise programmes The University of Edinburgh has transformed its enterprise support programmes over the past 10 years into a successful and awardwinning part of its commercialisation and knowledge transfer strategy.

Substantial funding and resources have been allocated to dedicated support programmes for staff, researchers and students, through initiatives such as LAUNCH.ed, which is designed to increase enterprise awareness, promote entrepreneurship and build best practice in student company formation. Through the creation of our own investment arm, Old College Capital, we can provide co-investment in enterprises that have the potential to become major players in their sectors.

As a result, ERI’s company formation activity continues to grow, with staff and students setting up more than 320 new businesses since 2000 – 105 in the last three years alone. This has strengthened the university’s position as one of the topperforming enterprise universities in the UK. In 2014, with its partners in the universities of Aberdeen and Strathclyde, Edinburgh was successful in securing support from the Scottish Funding Council to run the Enterprise Campus programme, which will make available our successful support programmes to postgraduate students in every Scottish university – thus enhancing enterprise, innovation and economic impact throughout the country.

Derek Waddell (left) is chief executive of Edinburgh Research and Innovation research.innovation@ed.ac.uk www.research-innovation.ed.ac.uk

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Innovation & enterprise

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Inspector Dogberry

and a practical list of ten essential things to turn your winter ideas into spring action.

Leadership experts interviewed for this issue have continually held up Apple founder Steve Jobs as a business leader

By Matt Smith, web editor

the high priest of technology

Fast Company Co.Exist

5mm – a similar feeling to

occasionally had wonky foresight:

www.fastcoexist.com

and-go, so his attention was

walking on a children’s

back in 2003 Jobs told Rolling

drawn to British start-up Pavegen

playground.

Stone that he didn’t think

Systems, which has developed

Continuous

subscription-based music services

a power supply generated by

steps

would fly. “I think you could make

people walking over springy tiles.

give a few

available the Second Coming in a

The electricity produced can then

seconds

subscription model and it might

be used to power streetlights

of power that

or mobile phones. Laurence

can be stored for use

through selling his start-up

Apple is preparing

Kemball-Cook, 29, had this (literal)

later. In an area such as Oxford

technology to Heathrow

to relaunch its

lightbulb moment while pushing

Street in London, where there

Airport, where it’s currently

Beats Music

99U

his way past commuters at

is heavy footfall, 10 tiles around a

being used to power lights

streaming app

http://99u.com

Victoria Station.

streetlamp will power it through

along a corridor.

as a subscription

When somebody walks compresses the unit by about

not be successful,” Jobs said.

the night, Kemball-Cook tells me.

Kemball-Cook has already earned £5 million in revenue

Dogberry’s eyebrows were raised by leading UK economist Douglas McWilliams asserting in his acclaimed book Flat White Economy that online retail and advertising will be worth 15.8 per cent of GDP by 2025, making them the UK’s single largest business sector. East London hipsters working in ad agencies and e-commerce start-ups will account for about a third of UK GDP by 2025, McWilliams predicted. He resigned this week as chairman of an influential think-tank after allegedly being filmed taking crack cocaine. With such excitable predictions, Dogberry was tempted to ask, “What have you been smoking?”

service later

Lighting up the lamp-post

this month.

while you go walkies – now that’s a great idea…

Crunching the numbers Nearly 60 per cent of CEOs see the rapid pace of technological change as a challenge, according to the PwC 18th Annual Global CEO survey. Engaging customers through mobile is seen as the most important use of tech (81 per cent), followed by data mining and management (80 per cent), cyber-security (61 per cent) and cloud computing

Matthew E. May http://matthewemay.com/blog

who had a vision. However, even

Dogberry loves a tale of get-up-

on a Pavegen tile, their foot

11

Beautifully designed and frequently updated, Fast Company’s Co.Exist blog takes a look at the latest innovations and how they might affect our lives in the future, from the rise of manufacturing robots to self-cleaning subway bathrooms.

Wired Innovation Insights http://insights.wired.com

This site aims to provide actionable insights for “making ideas happen”.

Recent posts include James Franco’s thoughts on developing your own creative community

(60 per cent).

Surprisingly, however, most CEOs point to operational efficiency as the area where they have seen the best return on digital investment.

Nearly 90 per cent think value has been created in this area, with half of those seeing “very high value”.

Author and speaker Matthew E May publishes his thoughts on strategy, culture and innovation.

As well as general musings and updates, May writes to prove that he does, in fact, practice what he preaches when taking on projects such as his website redesign.

Technology magazine Wired’s innovation blog, serves as a forum to discuss what the future holds for the tech world. As well as providing some interesting reading, the site also invites readers to jump in and write their own articles.

Hopper (FREE – iOS)

This innovative app helps travellers save money on flights with a colour-coded calendar showing the most and least expensive dates.

Swype (59p/79p – Android, iOS)

Boost efficiency with this keyboard app, which allows you to swipe across letters to spell out words rather than tapping each individual key.

How innovation is addressing the rapidly changing business landscape

N

ew technology, new and emerging industries and a “greying” of the workforce are combining to create a perfect industrial storm, says a leading academic.

Dr Terri Simpkin, Head of Leadership and Management at Anglia Ruskin University’s Lord Ashcroft International Business School, suggests that CEOs must realise that traditional leadership and management practices do not serve businesses well, as today’s organisations exist in a rapidly changing landscape.

From micro businesses to global enterprises, each faces different challenges to those seen a decade or two ago. Leaders of organisations must find innovative ways of addressing problems, such as major changes in how the workplace operates and how it is constructed.

Dr Simpkin believes that developing contemporary leadership capability, at all levels, is crucial to productivity, profitability and survival. Co-creation of programmes between industry and educators is essential in dealing with the shortage of leaders and managers with contemporary capability.

Such collaboration has brought about the MA in Data Centre Leadership and Management, the first and only postgraduate course aimed at

addressing a predicted global shortage of more than a million data centre managers by 2020.

The BSc (Hons) Business Management and Leadership degree has been developed to give graduates the capabilities to meet and manage challenges faced by contemporary workplaces.

Collaboratively designed courses allow the development of context-specific capability to enhance talent-creation, retention and proliferation.

Dr Simpkin believes that many of these challenges are often unidentified, misunderstood or ignored by those in leadership roles. She says: “Although the world of work has fundamentally changed in the last 20 years, many organisations continue to adopt outdated work practices, structures and ideologies.

“Global issues such as skills and labour shortages, brought about by different types of work and an ageing global workforce, are classic examples. While we exist in what has been described as a revolutionary second machine age, many organisations still adopt hunter-gatherer practices.

“Leaders must realise that traditional leadership and management practices will not serve organisations well, but many organisations are in denial about the complexity of the issues facing them.”

Reasons to choose the Lord Ashcroft International Business School We’ll help you work towards your ambitions, so you’ll graduate with the skills and qualities valued by employers. You’ll be part of a thriving community of people keen to get on, led by inspiring, award-winning tutors. You’ll also benefit from our strong industry links, placement years, our StartupLab, mentoring and internship programmes and other enterprising initiatives.

Be inspired…

• We are the UK Entrepreneurial University of the Year (Times Higher Education Awards, 2014) – what better place to develop your leadership skills?

• Students at the Chelmsford Campus use our new state-of-the-art Bloomberg Financial Markets Lab, for rich and detailed research.

• Our academic excellence has been recognised by the UK’s Higher Education funding bodies. Business and management studies research is rated as world-leading.* 01245 686868 www.anglia.ac.uk/laibs

* Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014

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INSIDE TRACK Has the time for the corporate entrepreneur arrived?

T

he globalisation of entrepreneurship is producing an explosion of programmes, start-up communities and enterprise labs across the world. Ideas, capital and talent are meeting and finding founder teams. In these changing times there is a legitimate argument that larger organisations need to adapt their cultures and approaches to level the playing field and create opportunities for their people to work more entrepreneurially.

Software can be an incredible enabler of this and idea management platforms such as Wazoku’s Idea Spotlight (www.wazoku.com/ CorporateEntrepreneur) are becoming the de facto solution within innovative and entrepreneurially-minded organisations. These platforms offer an off-the-shelf option to businesses to engage their staff (and other stakeholders) in their idea challenges.

People are invited to bring their ideas and solutions to defined business challenges, collaborate on these ideas and develop them through a defined process to surface and deliver the best ideas.

Unleashing your corporate entrepreneurs has never been simpler, and there is evidence to support the value that can be, and has been, delivered.

Are our global businesses ready to enable more entrepreneurial

cultures to thrive? We live in an age of anti-complexity. Business school teachings, management structure orthodoxies and leadership best practices have created organisational structures that are attempting to manage out complexity. On the surface this isn’t a bad thing. Keep it simple, stupid (KISS) is, after all, a great motto for most things in business (and wider life). However, we are constantly hit with the innovateor-die truism – this feels incongruent with an age of anti-complexity and is worthy of further exploration.

Breakthrough innovation is the introduction of new ideas that drive a different way of doing things. This requires risk taking. Breakthrough innovators are willing to make decisions and choices on the basis of intuition and insight, rather than relying solely on data and forecasts – they bet on people rather than manage a process.

Evidence shows that more than 80 per cent of breakthrough innovators allow projects to start with no projection of future returns. The innovator’s dilemma (as famously defined by Clayton Christensen in his 1997 book of the same name) has lead to the accepted view that breakthrough innovation should be handled outside core organisational structures and allowed to flourish unencumbered by day-to-day core business life.

Is this

the most efficient way of managing organisational innovation efforts and delivering true breakthrough innovation? Modern management philosophies encourage matrix structures, flatter hierarchies and open, collaborative approaches. The recent BCG Innovator’s survey found that three-quarters of breakthrough companies use different processes and KPIs for radical innovation projects.

Open organisation structures for radical-innovation easily allow for collaboration with internal and external partners. Additionally, highly innovative companies encourage a culture of experimentation and testing.

Put another way, the innovative organisation starts to sound a lot like the entrepreneurial cultures commonplace within start-ups.

As organisations look to innovate, attract and retain the best talent and drive business performance most effectively, the corporate entrepreneur may become a more familiar and commonplace term across all types of organisations globally.

Simon Hill is CEO & co-founder of Wazoku info@wazoku.com www.wazoku.com/ CorporateEntrepreunship

Innovation = fresh thinking + brave decisions

S

uccessful leaders make consistently good decisions, driving innovation and growth. Evidence shows that profitability is closely linked to how well the senior management team work together, which means having open, and often challenging, conversations. It means a lack of hidden agendas in meetings, emails and phone calls. When the personal and corporate rewards are so clear, what’s stopping teams from doing this?

Research shows that it’s not lack of strategic awareness, but people themselves that inhibit consistently great performance.

Interviews with hundreds of senior executives suggest – perhaps surprisingly – it comes down to fear.

The most reported fears are those of not being good enough, of underachieving, of appearing foolish and of being vulnerable. Executives themselves easily identify the consequences which include poor decision making, a focus on survival instead of growth, failing to act unless there is a crisis and allowing bad behaviour at the next level down. While fear is an inevitable part of being human there are simple steps that can break the cycle and reinvigorate the organisation.

The most important step is allowing the senior team time to think and talk to each other.

Properly talk to each other.

Building trust requires openness and vulnerablility – a brave step. This first step is not easy, which is why teams look for outside help. Business schools offer Leadership Development programmes, but most of the curriculum is about best practice, strategy and skill sets. Very little of it addresses the tricky topic of fear.

So isn’t it time for some fresh thinking on leadership development? Shouldn’t the focus be on the executives themselves? Shouldn’t programmes take leaders and teams away from it all, allow them to come up with fresh ideas and start making new and brave decisions?

Moyra Mackie helps leaders and teams work with courage, commitment and creativity. She is an Executive Coach who facilitates innovative leadership programs, including Campfire Conversations® in the African bush, giving leaders the time and space to focus on what matters.

01442 506476 moyra@mackieconsulting.com

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Packaging showstopper heading to Olympia

L

ondon’s biggest packaging event – Packaging Innovations and Luxury Packaging – returns to the capital on September 16 & 17 2015 at Olympia.

Packaging Innovations is set to be the most exciting, inspirational showcase for everything new and exclusive in packaging. Co-located with the UK’s only Luxury Packaging event, it provides a unique opportunity to be immersed in the world of packaging, discovering new ways to improve the

appearance of products, reduce environmental impact or simply find the next iconic packaging.

For its sixth show, organiser Easyfairs, the world’s fastest-growing trade show organiser, has made the decision to move its successful event to London’s most iconic venue – Olympia. The event, originally located at the Business Design Centre, has experienced phenomenal growth since its launch in 2010. Alison Church, UK Packaging Portfolio event director (left), remarks: “Since 2010

M

technology are going to transform gambling.

So what will the world of online gaming look like three or four years from now? Let’s talk about virtual reality and wearable technology, both of which have the potential to transform our lives, not just when it comes to entertainment.

Operating in a world where technology is at the epicentre, we believe wearables are poised to offer a unique gambling experience. We’ve studied hard and we believe each technology suits a different type of gaming.

For example, we developed an online slot for the Oculus Rift VR and Google Cardboard headsets. The 360-degree view and interactive elements delivered an immersive experience like no other! This year we took our Oculus Rift offering to the next level.

We created a virtual reality 3D roulette set in an expansive space scene that used advanced natural motion controls, allowing the player to place chips using their hands.

Google, meanwhile, is redesigning its Google Glass eyewear. We developed a sports betting application for the original Google Glass,

merging the in-play betting experience with live game action via augmented reality.

Next, we are planning to work with Microsoft’s HoloLens glasses; we believe this technology lends itself well to sports betting.

We also developed the industry’s first fully-functional five-reel slot for the Samsung Gear smartwatch. Most recently we have launched our popular Thunderstruck slot game, overcoming industry challenges such as platform type, form factor and screen size, for Android Wear. We hope to have Thunderstruck up and running on Apple Watches too.

When it comes to wearable technology, it’s still early days for the gambling world. But we know players aren’t sticking to one form of technology or way in which they consume our product. So for us, it’s all about making sure Microgaming is at the crest of the technological wave. After all, we did develop the world’s first online casino back in 1994, followed by the first mobile casino a decade later.

Microgaming provides its software to over 400 casino brands globally; our customers include Betway, 32Red,

+44 (0)20 8843 8800 www.easyfairs.com/pi-london

How Turkey is getting in the zone for 2023

Microgaming wagers on technology to transform online gaming ore and more of us are using our smartphones or tablets to place football bets, spin the roulette wheel or play poker in the world of online gambling.

Mobile is booming, and we estimate mobile gambling should account for more than half of all interactive gaming revenues by 2020. The online gambling market in 2015 is projected to be worth £23.8billion in gross wins, nearly one third of which is estimated to come from mobile. That is expected to grow by 9 per cent in 2016 to £26billion, with mobile carving out a 39 per cent market share, according to H2 Gambling Capital.

Product-wise, betting currently accounts for 47 per cent of the interactive gambling market, followed by casino on 21 per cent and poker with 9 per cent. Europe is the biggest market for interactive gambling, followed

by Asia and the Middle East.

That’s how the market is now, but we are looking further than that. Our research and development division has peered into their crystal ball, looking at how advances in

the show has doubled in size. Packaging Innovations and Luxury Packaging is established as the exclusive event for branded and inspirational packaging, attracting world-class visitors, speakers and exhibitors from all corners of the globe. Exhibitor space for 2015 is already limited so we are expecting September’s event to be a real showstopper.”

T

William Hill and bet365.

We are a truly global business – though headquartered on the Isle of Man, our extensive talent pool is spread across every continent. Our recent mobile hit is Game Of Thrones™ online slot, also available on desktop, and our portfolio of over 800 games includes well-known titles such as The Dark Knight™ and Terminator 2™. The games that we are most excited about this year are Hot As Hades and Bridesmaids™, both set for release this summer.

The wearable technology market might be in its early adopter phase right now, but the market is growing rapidly.

How long until mass adoption takes hold and wearables become part of everyday life?

We may not be able to place a date and time on this, but one thing we can be certain of is that there are a host of new devices and platforms on the way. The gaming world must adapt to technological change, and you can count on us to be ahead of the curve!

Roger Raatgever is CEO of Microgaming +44 (0)1624 647777 hello@microgaming.co.uk

he Turkish government aims to make Turkey the Afro-Eurasian base for medium and hi-tech industry R&D, design and manufacturing by 2023, the centennial of the foundation of the Turkish Republic. ISPAT’s investment promotion strategy supports this vision with policies to ensure technology transfer to the country by attracting technology-intensive investments.

The government has been implementing a wide variety of incentives to address the needs of investors in R&D and innovation, according to scale, location and sector, including reductions and exemptions for tax and social security premiums and land allocation.

Turkey will rely increasingly on technology development zones (TDZs) in the future. Their number is growing thanks to the country’s visionary entrepreneurs and talented workforce. These zones support R&D and software development

and attract investments by offering investor-friendly environments with ready-touse infrastructure and social facilities. They are exempt from corporate and income tax and VAT for sales of software produced within the zone, and the employer’s share of social security premiums may be reduced by 50 per cent.

Efforts to upgrade R&D infrastructure and attract more high added-value investments have already yielded results.

International giants and local companies have begun to invest in Turkey’s promising future. Ericsson, Huawei, 3M and Vodafone have already established their regional R&D centres in Turkey. According to the Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index prepared by Deloitte, by 2018 Turkey will be the second most competitive manufacturing hub in Europe after Germany. info@invest.gov.tr www.invest.gov.tr

Business Zone

14 · Business Reporter · March 2015

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The future

Open up the Pandora’s Box of packaging

Working together: How Swansea has joined the premier league

T

his autumn, Swansea University will open its £450million Science and Innovation Bay Campus development, which has been widely recognised as one of Europe’s leading knowledge economy projects.

Gifted a 40-hectare site by one of its major industrial partners, BP, the ambition and industry-focused nature of this development has attracted £60million of European Investment Bank funds together with more than £90million in Welsh, UK government and European structural funding.

“The Bay Campus will continue the Swansea University tradition of co-location of research and industry to drive innovation, economic growth and entrepreneurship in the region,” says vice-chancellor Professor Richard B Davies. “The integrated academic and industry focus at Swansea provides for strength of applied knowledge and tremendous real-world experience for our students.

“The university’s collaborative research links with industry are among the best in the UK. On the Bay Campus, The Engineering Quarter alone will house two new research institutes, allowing for major research collaborations with Rolls-Royce, Tata Steel and BP in materials testing and energy safety.”

Paul Jones, technology and innovation manager at Tata, said: “We have been working with the College of Engineering at Swansea University through the Steel Training Research and Innovation Partnership (STRIP) and Sustainable Product Engineering Centre for Innovation in Functional Coatings (SPECIFIC). It is a great way for us to tap into the knowledge and enthusiasm that exists in abundance within the university. The EngD and MRes students we have working on the STRIP scheme have brought a fresh way of thinking to our company and they receive valuable training and access to real industrial conundrums.”

Telecommunications billionaire Sir Terry Matthews – an alumnus of the university – is confident that Swansea University and its new Science and Innovation Bay Campus can play a powerful part in driving economic growth and regeneration in the region and beyond.

Sir Terry has said that he would be delighted if Swansea University was known for the best software graduates and the best computer science people, and that the region became known worldwide as “world class” in software, as well as driving graduate entrepreneurship levels. It is a challenge that Swansea is rising to.

Swansea’s success in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in December 2014 showed the largest climb up the rankings of any research-intensive university in the UK, up to 26th place from 52nd in 2008, delivering worldleading and internationally excellent research across all disciplines – science, engineering, medicine, arts, humanities and social sciences.

REF 2014 measures of impact – the difference that research made to the wider world – demonstrated more than 10,000 jobs created and safeguarded, an economic impact of £2.1billion, and 341 million people engaged by Swansea University’s research.

The university’s outstanding REF performance is central to the stimulating and enriching teaching and student experience provided at Swansea. It is integral to achieving the highest five-star QS ranking for teaching excellence, and an NSS student satisfaction score ahead of the UK average.

With Swansea’s existing Singleton and new Bay Campus locations offering inspiring and spectacular seaside locations, it is no wonder Swansea University is making waves. UK and overseas student numbers have grown

considerably, resulting in a vibrant and stimulating student community, with access to some of the best societies and sporting facilities in the UK. The university’s employability academy, Queen’s Award-winning discovery volunteering centre, and entrepreneurship initiatives – championed by industry leaders – ensure young people are developed into graduates with the academic and all-round life skills that are demanded by employers.

This tremendous rate of growth has occurred in an increasingly competitive HE environment. Swansea’s income growth over the past 10 years has out-performed not only the HE sector in all areas, but also the Russell Group, in research income, UK and overseas student numbers (2003/04 to 2012/13).

To use a sporting analogy – and with a nod to another of our collaborators, Swansea City FC – Swansea has joined the premier league of UK universities.

The findings of REF 2014 show that Swansea University has succeeded in its ambition of becoming a top-30 UK research university. Its strong upward trajectory will be further enhanced a doubling in research and teaching capacity with the opening of the new Science and Innovation Bay Campus. +44 (0)1792 205678 www.swansea.ac.uk

In the fascinating world of packaging I always suggest there are three main areas to follow. First, new product development and monitoring. Second, innovations and seeking that elusive idea that enables you to climb above the competition.

Third is probably the most important – communication.

I encourage people to look for new ideas, store unused elements for the future and communicate their findings.

Membership of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3)/The Packaging Society (http://www.iom3. org/packaging) gives you access to the numerous activities through the packaging and design community. Ideas are regularly born online and it is well worth browsing daily and joining groups who supply information on a global basis.

There are always trends emerging – at this moment digital printing, 3D printing and stand-up pouches. Of course, with oil prices dropping dramatically, this will feed down to the price of plastic packaging.

As well as keeping up with the monthly news included in Materials World magazine, free with membership of IOM3, we offer an enquiry service through our website, and many of our members have diverse backgrounds and a willingness to provide information and contacts.

Our packaging world is getting bigger and more complex every day but with good communications, nothing should be impossible.

Keith Barnes is chairman of The Packaging Society.

Find out about IOM3 membership at www. iom3.org/content/ become-member

Business Reporter · March 2015 · 15

AN INDEPENDENT REPORT FROM LYONSDOWN, DISTRIBUTED WITH THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Fuelling the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem

L

ondon is one of the world’s leading financial hubs, and in today’s globally connected economy, we find the UK positioning itself as an essential player in one of the most vibrant eras of innovation.

Entrepreneurs leading disruptive technology businesses are driving growth and shaping a bright future for the UK. The UK has become the most entrepreneurial country in Europe, according to the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute.

With a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem, Oxford Economics expects that London’s digital technology sector will boost the British economy by £12billion and create 46,000 jobs over the coming decade.

For more than 30 years, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has helped fuel the global innovation economy with a bold approach to banking. We started in Silicon Valley and you can trace our origins from the days when early technology businesses were benefiting from the formation of specialist investor groups, many of whom went on to form the

first venture capital firms. The founders of SVB had a plan that was simple: build a bank dedicated to innovation businesses and their investors.

Over the years the bank has grown significantly, expanding the group’s international reach to clients worldwide through offices across the US and international operations in the UK, China and Israel. We have continued to introduce new methods of lending that best support up-and-coming startups, well established businesses and their investors in three sectors: technology; life science and healthcare; and energy and resource innovation.

You might be asking: how is our approach different when lending to early stage businesses? Traditional banks tend to look at a business’ track record, how much profit it makes, and the assets on its balance sheet. At SVB, our approach is founded on the premise that a lot of startup businesses may not have fully established their revenue models. Therefore, we focus on the creation of enterprise

value, stemming from the underlying business model and/or technology, the management team, the investors and a deep understanding of the market in which the business operates.

We partner with businesses, venture capital and private equity firms within our niche segments, helping support innovation businesses from early stages right through to growth and large corporates. In terms of lending, we provide venture loans to early stage businesses, through to growth capital, working capital, larger corporate facilities, and buyout financing for acquisitions for more established businesses. We are proud to have supported global businesses such as Cisco and LinkedIn, and more recently UK businesses like The Foundry, Swiftkey, DueDil and Scottish Equity Partners.

Keeping ourselves laser-focused has

equipped us with the knowledge and the network to be a valuable partner, and it’s our mission to help entrepreneurs and innovation businesses succeed. We aim to offer more than just financial services; our desire is to connect our clients with the right people globally, offer insights to improve their businesses, and provide solutions that will help them succeed.

With our mix of sector knowledge, international reach and creative strategy, SVB is helping contribute to a UK ecosystem that gives entrepreneurs and startups the best start possible, while being the trusted bank of mid- and late-stage businesses.

Phil Cox (left) is head of EMEA and president of the UK Branch, Silicon Valley Bank Twitter: @SVB_UK www.svb.com/uk