17 minute read
Dr Laura Bradley McCauley
Columnist
Dr Laura Bradley-McCauley
Unlocking Potential in Small Businesses
Dr Laura Bradley-McCauley, senior lecturer in marketing at Ulster University Business School, reflects on some of the common barriers to investment in learning and development in SMEs and how to overcome them.
Running a small business can be challenging at the best of times, never mind against a backdrop of ongoing economic uncertainty, rising inflation rates, skills gaps and supply issues. As SME leaders face a raft of complex issues, the need for the right conditions and interventions to boost business confidence and unlock growth potential has never been more critical.
So why are SMEs important to the economy?
Often referred to as the backbone of the UK economy, SMEs are essential to economic growth and social development. Northern Ireland is regarded as a small business economy with over 123,000 small-medium sized enterprises, accounting for 99.9% of all private sector businesses – making it the region with the highest number of SMEs in the UK.
The Northern Ireland economy is expected to return to pre-pandemic growth by mid to late 2022, according to forecasts by PwC. Interestingly, when comparing pre-pandemic economic output levels in Q4 2019, NISRA shows recent local production output increased by 5.2% and service output by 4.9%, although retail remains 1% below. Coupled with this mixed economic landscape, SMEs, to varying degrees, are also facing significant challenges operationally including the ongoing impact of Covid-19 and rising global costs which are adversely affecting the wider business environment. Notwithstanding these challenges, many SME leaders aspire to unlock their growth and productivity potential. In fact, SMEs may seek new approaches to counter the contemporary business challenges.
How can this be achieved?
One way to unlock business potential is through greater investment in skills and knowledge. Enhanced skills and knowledge can inform different operational and strategic decisions to help businesses remain competitive and adaptable. However, investing in skills development and learning is often considered a secondary priority among small businesses, especially when wrestling with the day-today macro and micro challenges.
Let’s take a look at some of the common obstacles preventing SMEs from embracing learning and development opportunities.
• SMEs may not realise there is a need for learning in the first place. The business of ‘doing’ every day means that opportunity to reflect on ‘how to do’ is often overlooked. It is important to take time and reflect on what is working or not. Think about productivity and business goals and ‘where you want to take your business’. • Not knowing where to go to plug skills gaps can also prove problematic. If you don’t know what is out there and how to match it to an unknown skills gap then this may seem an impossible situation. This is where your network in councils, chambers, further education colleges and universities is critical to direct and guide you. • ‘I’ve been in this business for years and know what I need to do.’ This is true so business owners need to know the ‘real impact’ on their business of investing time and resources in learning. The best advice is to ask questions of the providers so that you can ensure the course is aligned to your business needs and goals. • The financial cost of training can be difficult to justify especially in the current economic climate. Think about how much budget is available for training and funding opportunities. Networks, contacts and training providers are best placed to advise. Remember the key is ‘value-for-money’ which can only be achieved by matching ‘gap-learning-impact’. • Finally, time is a precious commodity and freeing up time to learn in business is difficult. Identifying the time commitment and mode of delivery (for example, online, face to face or hybrid) in advance of signing up to a programme will help ensure that you can balance this. At Ulster University Business School we have the Help to Grow: Management programme, a practical leadership and management training course designed for small businesses across the UK to support business growth and advances in productivity and competitiveness. The programme focuses on a number of business priority areas including strategy, innovation, digital adoption, sustainable business, finance and marketing and the curriculum has been developed based on the needs and challenges of SMEs. From day one, the focus is on applying learning directly to your business to deliver targeted impact and results specific to your needs. This bespoke programme is delivered in a hybrid mode, using online and face to face, over 50 hours so the time commitment is designed to work around your existing business. The cost to the business is £750 which is 90% government subsidised.
For more information and details on the next available cohort, contact Dr Laura Bradley McCauley (lm.bradley@ulster.ac.uk) or visit www.ulster.ac.uk/helptogrow.
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Director of Customer & Market Services, Ronan McKeown.
A FUTURE NETWORK FOR ALL
AMBITION SPEAKS TO DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER & MARKET SERVICES AT NIE NETWORKS, RONAN MCKEOWN, ABOUT PROTECTING VULNERABLE CUSTOMERS, DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND ENABLING CUSTOMERS.
NIE Networks is the owner of the electricity transmission and distribution networks in Northern Ireland, transporting electricity to over 900,000 customers including homes, businesses and farms.
Their role is to maintain and extend the electricity infrastructure across Northern Ireland, connect customers to the network and ensure that their equipment is safe and reliable.
Ambition recently spoke with NIE Networks’ Director of Customer & Market Services, Ronan McKeown, to discuss their upcoming new business plan and Vulnerable Customer Strategy, which launched last year.
A chartered electrical engineer, Ronan has held various roles within the organisation, including asset management and investment strategy, before becoming the youngest ever director to be appointed to the NIE Networks Executive Management team. Almost three years later he tells us how he has found this step change in his career.
“It has opened my eyes to what is going on in the customer space and has made me realise how much of an impact what we do has on customers. It has been a great learning curve. As Director of Customer & Market Services, my role encompasses all customer-facing facets of the business.”
The key focus for Ronan and his team remains firmly on the customer and how a zero-carbon future will be delivered in Northern Ireland. NIE Networks is launching a consultation on their proposed new business plan in the autumn, which will see significant investment being spent on upgrading and transforming the network to facilitate the transition to net zero carbon by 2050.
Ronan tells us: “We are in the process of developing our new business plan to cover the next price control period out to 2031. This next price control is fundamentally different than all the ones before it, because there are a number of different things that are coming to a head, most significantly our journey to net zero. Another is the age of all the assets. Most of our network was built in the 1960’s so much of it requires replacement and that is coming at a time when there are huge demands being brought onto the network with such a fundamental shift in our renewable energy landscape.
“We want input from all our customers on our proposed plan, domestic, commercial and agricultural. Our consultation will allow everyone to have their say, positive and negative, to shape our final approach and collectively reach a net zero carbon future.”
Ronan has responsibility for the customer engagement side of the business plan with a particular focus on the customer, their role and their future within the plan.
“Protecting vulnerable customers, easing how customers do business with us through digitalisation of our systems and enabling our customers to be more involved with and knowledgeable about their network and usage, are the three areas of focus now for our customer and market services division,” says Ronan.
“We believe there are three critical areas of reform needed to deliver those three areas of focus, including, tariff reform, smart metering and a review of connections charging. This will result in long-term solutions for delivering a renewable cost-effective network that is fair for all customers.”
Ronan’s approach to meet these demands on the network is to futureproof and invest in the network now. The aim is to allow customers to interact with the network in a way that they have never done before with major investment in digitalisation.
“It is a big change, even from an engineering perspective we have been used to planning and operating the network in a certain way. Through digital technologies we are increasing monitoring and visibility of what takes place on the lower voltage network allowing us to do more, with less. If we don’t embrace new technologies we would spend a lot more money making the network fit for purpose. Instead digitalisation allows us to be cost effective and innovative.”
Customer service is at the heart of the business and with NIE Networks providing a service to every house and business in Northern Ireland it is important to set a high standard. The digital transformation will be a challenging development in the company but Ronan is confident that these new capabilities will be delivered.
“It is a constant journey to keep evolving and the next big challenge for us is in the digital space and how we embrace platforms and systems that enable customers to engage digitally with us.
“We are looking at things such as self-service platforms where customers are enabled to do things for themselves and have greater input. We have appointed a Digital Transformation Manager and we are building capabilities in that area. It takes a bit of time to get those skills
embedded, but we are confident in terms of our digital strategy and we are moving in the right direction.
“It is not only a transformational challenge for the business to get the granularity of data that shows what is going on at the extremities of the network, but also a cultural shift to get customers thinking about what is possible using digital technologies.”
Although the advancement of digitalisation is a priority for NIE Networks, Ronan’s aim is to ensure that no customer gets left behind.
“Providing a good service for everyone does not always mean providing the same service for everyone. For me, success looks like the majority of people in Northern Ireland being aware of the services that we provide, being able to connect with us in a way that suits them and NIE Networks having the systems, training and skills to meet different needs.
“Part of my role is to ensure that those considerations are factored into our whole organisation and ensuring that decisions are being taken with every customer in mind. As we go through the energy transition, we must ensure that it is a fair and just transition and that we don’t leave any customer behind.
“We have to recognise that there is always a role for the traditional ways of interacting with us and we will integrate those ways to sit in alignment with our digitalisation journey.”
As well as the new business plan that is launching in autumn, NIE Networks will also be promoting their Vulnerable Customer Strategy, which was launched last year.
“Since implementing our first campaign last winter to raise awareness of the services we offer to those customers who may be vulnerable, we have seen a really positive upturn in how customers are engaging with our services. For example, we’ve seen a significant rise in the number of people that are registered on our Medical Customer Care Register so we are able to better support those that are dependent on electricity for healthcare needs.”
NIE Networks has been ramping up their current commitments, as well as adding other services such as ‘Sign Live’ which allows customers who are deaf, or have hearing loss, to communicate with them in a way they couldn’t before. As the winter approaches they plan to drive even more awareness to the services. With the term vulnerable being so broad, Ronan explains the crux of who they are aiming to help and how.
“Our strategy recognises that there is now a need for a broader definition of vulnerability and that it should not solely be centred on those dependent on medical equipment. We recognise that there are a wide range of people that we need to be tailoring our services to. Our staff are trained to recognise broader vulnerabilities and we will over time keep developing the services we can offer to customers who need additional support.
“We are a JAM Card friendly organisation, with over 90 per cent of our staff now trained to provide the highest standard of service to those customers with a learning difficulty, autism or communication barrier. It is all about having respect and approaching every customer with openness and patience to see how we can best help them.”
Identifying and helping those customers who need it though is not just about raising awareness, it is also about actively reaching out. NIE Networks’ meter readers carry out household visits four times a year, equating to 3.5 million visits annually. It allows the team to reach out in a faceto-face capacity, which is beneficial for both the business and customers.
“Last year the campaign involved lots of outdoor and radio advertising to alert customers that we are here to help. It was important though that we increased our ability to proactively identify customers who may be vulnerable, so we trained all our meter readers to recognise if a customer could benefit from our services and how to connect them with that support. That’s fundamental to our approach,” says Ronan.
Ronan believes that through protecting vulnerable customers, digitalisation of the network and systems and enabling customers to be more involved, will be transformational.
“The role of NIE Networks is to directly facilitate the energy transition and decarbonisation of energy. I believe we can develop the digital solutions, as well as the people and skills within NIE Networks now to drive that forward, all while ensuring our customers are engaged and empowered at every touch point.
“Ultimately, we will be a leader in helping Northern Ireland reach the netzero goals of the future through delivering a future network for all by bringing every customer on that journey and ensuring no customer is left behind,” he concludes.
