BQ2 Yorkshire Special Report

In association with

SPECIAL REPORT: SME BREAKTHROUGH WOMAN AT THE TOP Profiling Julie Kenny DELIVERY PARTNERSHIP Talking to Sheffield’s key players NEW BANKER Charles Garfit on Manufacturing

CONTENTS

CONTACTS

04 RISING TO THE CHALLENGE

ROOM501 LTD Bryan Hoare Director e: bryan@bqlive.co.uk

Meeting two of Santander’s key players

EDITORIAL Mike Hughes Editor e: mikehughes@bqlive.co.uk

10 WOMAN AT THE TOP Profile of Julie Kenny

12 DELIVERY PARTNERSHIP Presenting John Mothersole and James Newman

18 MEANING BUSINESS Entrepreneurial education

26 GROWTH LESSON Meeting Darren Hart

30 EXPORTMAN TO THE RESCUE Talking to William Beckett

32 BRIGHTER FUTURE Profiling creative Sheffield

38 IDEAS 3D view

40 GLOBAL AGAIN Microsoft help for SMEs

THINKING INSIDE THE BOX

42 SME BREAKTHROUGH

DESIGN & PRODUCTION room501 e: studio@bqlive.co.uk

SPECIAL REPORT:

BREAKTHROUGH TO SUCCESS

WELCOME The Santander Breakthrough red box event has now grown into a roadshow, taking a message of support and solutions for SMEs around the country. The Breakthrough is, of course, for those ambitious and skilled SMEs who want help to take the next step and establish a reputation and a market; that grow and develop a local workforce to support the regional economy. But now the event itself has become a breakthrough. The bright red box is symbolic of the flexibility the bank has to open its doors wherever SMEs need practical support that they can put into action the next day. Set among iconic buildings and landscapes, the venue has shown that 21st century banking has its part to play in the development of any city or town. In these pages, you will hear from the widest range of business men and women about the needs of industry and from Santander’s senior staff about the solutions the bank can offer. They are all leaders, of organisations, companies, councils, LEPs, colleges and universities who are aspirational and ambitious and determined to grow. Here at BQ Yorkshire, we are proud to be playing our part in spreading that message from the heart of the financial district in Leeds city centre to the grounds of the historic Sheffield Cathedral and beyond.

MIKE HUGHES, editor, BQ Yorkshire

PHOTOGRAPHY KG Photography e: info@kgphotography.co.uk SALES Hellen Murray Business development manager e: hellen@bqlive.co.uk t: 0191 426 6182 / 07551 173 428 Alan Dickinson Associate publisher e: alan@bqlive.co.uk t: 07917 733 047

room501 Publishing Ltd, Spectrum 6, Spectrum Business Park, Seaham, SR7 7TT www.bqlive.co.uk Business Quarter (BQ) is a leading business to business brand recognised for celebrating entrepreneurship and corporate success. The multi-platform brand currently reaches entrepreneurs and senior business executives across Scotland, the North East, Yorkshire and the West Midlands. BQ has established a UK wide regional approach to business engagement reaching a highly targeted audience of entrepreneurs and senior executives in high growth businesses both in-print, online and through branded events.

All contents copyright © 2015 room501 Ltd. All rights reserved.

While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, howsoever caused. No liability can be accepted for illustrations, photographs, artwork or advertising materials while in transmission or with the publisher or their agents. All company profiles are paid for advertising.

All information is correct at time of going to print, July 2015

room501 Publishing Ltd is part of BE Group, the UK’s market leading business improvement specialists. www.be-group.co.uk

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BQ Magazine is published quarterly by room501 Ltd.

SPECIAL REPORT

OPENING COMMENT

SPECIAL REPORT

04

SME BREAKTHROUGH

OPENING COMMENT Are you ready for your Breakthrough? Jonathan Thompson and Andy Stobbart from Santander talk to BQ Editor Mike Hughes about what a difference the bank can make to businesses large and small >>

MEETING THE CHALLENGE AND SERVING THE REGION SME BREAKTHROUGH

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SPECIAL REPORT

OPENING COMMENT Our ethos is one of local relationship banking,with a challenger mindset – we place experienced relationship bankers in offices across the South Yorkshire and Humber region

Andy Stobbart

Santander has always existed to deliver creative ways to support ambitious people.

Every high street in every town and city in the country has dozens of ways SMEs can get money and support. So Santander has to be different. It has to offer more.

The Breakthrough initiative – rocket fuel for businesses – is just one way it is providing businesses in South Yorkshire and the Humber with practical solutions to help them grow, just as the bank itself has done in the region.

Jonathan Thompson joined Santander in 2009 to jointly establish its large corporate bank in Yorkshire and North East, and now leads the

SPECIAL REPORT

corporate and commercial bank across the region, which was formed in October 2013.

“Santander recognised the opportunity this area presented to an ambitious, growing challenger bank in the UK. “My first move on being appointed was to promote Andy Stobbart to area director, to work with me, and take specific responsibility for leading the charge in South Yorkshire, recognising the sterling work he had done in Sheffield over the previous four years,” says Thompson.

Andy Stobbart opened the Sheffield office for Santander Corporate & Commercial in October

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2009, as Andy Bowden did in Hull, and had overseen a successful period of sustained growth for Santander in the Sheffield City Region.

Since 2013, the two men have worked closely together and have taken bases in Sheffield, Doncaster and Hull and expanded into Chesterfield in June 2014, Barnsley and Rotherham in December 2014, and south of the Humber to Grimsby and Scunthorpe in April this year.

“Our ethos is one of local relationship banking, with a challenger mindset – we place experienced relationship bankers in offices

SME BREAKTHROUGH

OPENING COMMENT across the South Yorkshire and Humber region and set them free to connect with the local marketplace, and build a business based on strong local relationships,” said Jonathan.

The team is now more than 30 strong and is focused across the SME banking landscape, with local specialists supporting trading businesses, healthcare, growth capital, assetbased lending, international, transactional banking and business development.

“We also have a local team of credit partners who are actually allowed out of the offices to meet the businesses they are looking to support,” said Stobbart.

That rate of confident and assured growth is within the grasp of every business leader and the experience Santander’s team has built up in the region can be invaluable as you plan for growth. Others have already recognised the bank’s success, with Corporate Banker of the Year awards for Andy Stobbart in 2011, Andy Bowden in 2013 and Craig Williams, who is now the region’s senior credit partner, in 2014.

But the awards don’t matter if Stobbart and Thompson are not bringing in business by helping SMEs and last year more than £125m was advanced to SMEs in the South Yorkshire and the Humber region, every pound going to help fuel the ambitions of local men and women.

The major advances the bank has made over a very short time includes the Trade Portal, which allows Santander Corporate & Commercial customers to get detailed market information from around the world at the touch of a button.

Thompson says this is all part of the much wider remit the bank now has.

“The market is now widely aware Santander is a full service UK corporate bank. Our international reach is also a major strength and, to sustain our growth, our team is able to draw upon some unique capabilities to support ambitious, growing businesses.

“That includes our Trade Portal and Trade Club, which can support and validate international market opportunities for Santander Corporate & Commercial customers, and Breakthrough of course our support programme for fast growth businesses, the cornerstone of which is Santander’s £200m growth capital fund.”

SME BREAKTHROUGH

Does it work? Well, lending to SMEs in the region has grown on average by 33% per annum over the last three years and there is an experienced team backed up by geographical coverage and market connectivity.

“This compelling offering with some points of genuine differentiation will continue to fuel our growth,” says Stobbart.

“We will continue to support business in the region, drawing on the support from the five core pillars of ‘Breakthrough’ – Knowledge, Talent, International Trade, Connections and Finance.”

Santander has also increased the number of subsidised graduate interns - 160 were provided in Yorkshire last year - to set a benchmark across the region supporting the talent agenda.

“As more businesses look abroad to new markets, we are here to help them find the

right one, by adding even more countries and contacts to our trade portal, which is available to all corporate and commercial online customers,” says Thompson.

“Our growth capital product is perfect for successful, ambitious owners and management teams looking to take their business to the next level.”

Santander’s aim is to listen to business leaders and deliver creative ways to support ambitious people and businesses to become more successful. If you would like a conversation, just get in touch. n Lending is subject to status and lending criteria' Jonathan Thompson is regional director for South Yorkshire and the Humber and Andy Stobbart is area director for South Yorkshire

We will continue to support business in the region, drawing on the support from the five core pillars of ‘Breakthrough’

Jonathan Thompson

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SPECIAL REPORT

NEWS >> University points the finger An innovative technology pioneered by Sheffield Hallam University academics can detect the presence of a range of illegal and designer drugs from a single fingerprint, which could be a valuable new tool in bringing drug dealers and other criminals to justice. The journal ‘Scientific Reports’ has published a new paper confirming the technology, known as Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MALDIMSI), can detect the presence of cocaine, THC (the chemical present in marijuana), heroin, amphetamine and other designer drugs from a fingerprint. The paper also points to the possibility of being able to use the methodology developed to detect drug use, through analysing secretions found in a fingerprint. The paper is the work of Sheffield Hallam University, the Department of Fingerprint Research at the Netherlands Forensic Institute and the Centre for Applied Science and Technology in the Home Office. Dr Simona Francese at Sheffield Hallam University has developed the technology, which is able to be carried out in conjunction with crime scene investigation methods used by the police.

Dr Francese’s team can detect traces of toiletries, cleaning products, the presence of caffeine, medications, condom lubricants and even the sex of a person.

>>Irwin Mitchell’s Ascent moves in for P&A Irwin Mitchell has completed the acquisition of the commercial debt recovery division of Sheffield based specialist P&A Receivables Services. The acquisition has been made through Irwin Mitchell’s fast-growing subsidiary, Ascent. It is the fifth acquisition by Ascent and the seventh overall by the group since Irwin Mitchell was awarded its ABS licences in 2012. Irwin Mitchell’s group chief executive, Andrew Tucker, said: “This is another important acquisition for the group and a sign of our continued ambition to expand across the UK. “This brings a solid portfolio of long-standing

SPECIAL REPORT

clients and we are confident it will be a valuable addition to our debt services business which again will further strengthen our position in this important market for us.” The deal comes just six months after Irwin Mitchell’s purchase of Mayfair-based Berkeley Law, which offers advice on complex financial matters for high-net worth individuals and added two further offices in Mayfair and Kensington to Irwin Mitchell’s established office in the City.

>> Boardroom battle for awards Six company directors from Yorkshire and the Humber will compete against the best of Britain at the IoD’s prestigious Director of the Year Awards this year. A strong delegation from the region includes Delroy Beverley, director of property solutions at Bradfordbased social housing group Incommunities, who is shortlisted in two categories – Corporate Responsibility and Not for Profit / Third Sector. Neil Fisher, managing director of Hull-based Airco, and Gav Winter, managing director of Leeds-based The Test People, are both shortlisted in the SME category. This follows their triumph as joint overall winners at the Yorkshire and the Humber Director of the Year awards, held in Sheffield in June.

Also on the shortlist is Herwig Vennekens, managing director of Haribo manufacturer Dunhills (Pontefract), who will be vying for the Large Company title. Sophie Jewett, director of York Cocoa House, will be Yorkshire and the Humber’s representative in the Young Director of the Year category, while Julia Gash, chief executive of Sheffield-based Bag It Don’t Bin It, will compete for the International Director award. Natalie Sykes, regional director for the IoD in Yorkshire and the North East, said: “This is a wonderful result for the Yorkshire and Humber region and clearly demonstrates that our business leaders are on the right track. “

This is a wonderful result for the Yorkshire and Humber region

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>> Azzure aims for Microsoft title Fast growing Microsoft specialist Azzure IT has beaten off competition from 2,300 tech firms across the globe to be named a finalist in Microsoft’s 2015 Partner of the Year Awards.

Azzure IT is one of four Microsoft partners to be named as a finalist for the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Global Partner of the Year 2015. The accolade means the Sheffield-based company has been globally recognised by Microsoft as one of the top four companies in the world delivering ERP systems to small and medium sized businesses.

The prestigious awards attracted entries from 108 countries and Azzure IT will be joining other finalists from across the globe at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Orlando later this month to celebrate the achievement.

“To be a finalist for the ERP World Partner Award is a huge honour and is a testament to the Azzure IT team, and the strong IT business solutions we provide to our customers”, said Craig Such, Azzure IT’s managing director.

This award win is the latest in a string of successes for the company, which include securing €200,000 from the Regional Growth Fund Grant by the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to part-fund additional staff recruitment and training, and support its aggressive growth strategy. In the past three years, Azzure IT has grown from a £450,000 turnover to £1.7m in 2014 and is on target to exceed a £2.4m target for 2015.

NEWS Animal care and veterinary medicine are highly competitive

>> All apprentices great and small Jim Wight and Rosie Page, son and daughter of Alf Wight (otherwise known as vet and author James Herriot) attended The Sheffield College to present a Veterinary Nurse Apprentice of the Year award and unveil a plaque in their father’s name. Rachel Green, 18, is one of the first veterinary apprentices at the college and is completing her apprenticeship with Springfield Veterinary Group, Crystal Peaks.

She said: “I’m so pleased to receive this award. I love working with, and caring for, animals. Each one is different and an individual patient. I’m really enjoying the apprenticeship as I’m learning quickly in a really practical, hands-on way, and I like the fact that no day is the same.”

The award was presented and the plaque unveiled on behalf of the James Herriot Legacy Fund, based at the World of James Herriot in Thirsk. Previously owned by the local council, the World of James Herriot is now a privately operated company whose management has a vision to continually develop it and attract more visitors, including the launch of the James Herriot Legacy Fund initiative which aims to provide bursaries for people wishing to enter the animal care world and for whom the James Herriot stories have been an inspiration. Heather Smith, principal, The Sheffield College, said: “I’m delighted that the family of Alf Wight, who have such strong Yorkshire connections, have named our veterinary nurse training room after him. Animal care and veterinary medicine are highly competitive but the education and training our students receive means they can compete with the best.”

>> Olympics champions secure £73m deal A Sheffield group of companies that supplied more than half the timber used in constructing the 2012 Olympic venues has secured long term refinancing.

The £73m deal, composed of both term lending and an asset based lending facility, will be used to fund future growth plans.

The group, founded in 1920 by Arnold Laver, is now headed by his grandson Andrew. In addition to the national timber business, the group operates Leisure Parks on the east coast of England and has other property interests. The timber business recently surpassed £100m in annual turnover for the first time since the global economic downturn.

Andrew Laver, chief executive of the group said: “We are extremely excited about this next phase in Arnold Laver’s journey. We will be announcing a further significant expansion of the timber business in the near future, which will strengthen our position as the key supplier of timber products in the UK. I would also like to thank Deloitte for their invaluable support during the process and help in structuring the refinancing so that we can achieve our growth aspirations.”

>> Titanic link for tenants A prominent historic building in Sheffield, once part furnished with items from the SS Olympia, the sister ship to the Titanic, is welcoming new tenants following a refurbishment programme. Albion House on Savile Street, which has a Victorian facade and steeple roof, is the new home to cloud technology experts Results Squared.com which relocated from its smaller base in Park Hill to occupy 5,300 sq ft on the first floor.

The landlord Perland Properties Limited has also secured a change of use with Sheffield City Council planning department to provide retail space of 6,000 sq ft on the ground floor.

Ben White from the Sheffield office of Knight Frank, which is marketing the building, said: “Albion House is a prominent and historic building in Sheffield.

“It was originally built by scrap metal merchant and shipbreaker Thomas Ward dating back to the late 19th Century as a headquarters for his growing business Thos W Ward.

“Ward rose to considerable fame as a skilled shipbreaker and tradesman and formed his business into a limited company in 1904. He was elected to the prestigious office of Master Cutler in Sheffield in 1913.

“The building has an opulent past having been part furnished by items from the SS Olympia, the sister ship to the Titanic. The historical contents may have gone but this building is now providing a new future for local companies wanting a modern working environment.”

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SPECIAL REPORT

INTERVIEW

SHE BUILT A CAREER - AND A BUSINESS I’m never very sure about the glass ceiling argument. I think powerful women in business would thank me for not bringing attention to it, and certainly wouldn’t want me to tell thousands of readers that women are overlooked just because they are women.

Men and women can both fail to secure top jobs for the same reason – because they are just not good enough. The job must go to the best candidate.

But what do I know? Julie Kenny’s opinion is much more worth seeking out. She is a highprofile, long-serving company boss who has made her company, Pyronix based at Hellaby in Rotherham, one of the world’s leading providers of security equipment.

But she starts by saying “It is quite right to challenge the need for ‘women in business’ events.”

“Men, bless them, will say ‘well why don’t we have a men’s day’ but the fact of the matter is that over the last many decades men have had a ‘leg up’.

“They were, are and continue to be, the majority of individuals that have started a business and women have been the carers and the part of the family that has raised the children.

“I also think that women, through generations, haven’t had the same level of confidence that men do. As a result of that there is lots of evidence that shows that men negotiate really hard for their first job in order to get on a salary scale, and the women have been disadvantaged.

“A man can say ’there is a job advert, I’m going for that because I could do it’, even if there are four things that are essential and he can only do three.

“Typically, women will say that they need to tick all four boxes. So there are generic differences as well as genetic ones.“

SPECIAL REPORT

Mike Hughes meets Julie Kenny, who is heading for 30 years as chairman of Pyronix

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INTERVIEW So there is a legacy issue here, inevitably mixed with family matters. That’s historical fact, but from the point of view of skills and leadership, there is equality. Isn’t there?

Kenny pins down the issue now by suggesting that business is “not quite at the point where women don’t need to learn from other women”.

“There is no doubt about it, certainly when you think about the security industry, a lot has changed in the way that women have become engaged in the industry. Attitudes are changing and improving all the time - but I just don’t think we are closing the gap quickly enough.”

Kenny’s considered, but forthright opinions are much sought-after. But she has spent just short of 29 years at Pyronix building a career that is worthy of that attention. It hasn’t always been an easy journey, but she was certainly determined.

“I always thought I would get quite far up the ladder. I sold my house and had just got married to Mr Kenny, and we started the business together. For the first three years I had a full-time support job and then came to Pyronix in the evening.

“From day one we were designing and manufacturing detectors and always had this vision that we would be the top PIR (passive infrared sensor) manufacturer in the UK. “We always had what I know now to be strategic objectives - although at that time I didn’t know that was what they were – and we would vocalise to each other what we would and wouldn’t do. Then every year we would review what we had done and what we had planned. In 1992 the company brought in additional external investment and took on a non-exec to work with them. Kenny is honest enough to say that he ‘polished a couple of rough diamonds” and helped Pyronix bring in new processes and procedures.

With this lift, the scope increased for the firm to create local jobs.

“Before this, I had always been employed and had never been an employer,” she says.

“For those people who run companies, you are never going to be successful unless you have the right talent in your business. So jobs had always been important for me, but they

had to be sustainable.

“You have to grow talent within your organisation and make sure you have a succession plan in all departments. You get to know where the gaps are and to plan ahead for them and you can build a team that will stick with you through thick and thin.”

During the worst of the recession, Pyronix lost $800,000 of business in four months, and Julie needed every ounce of effort from her committed workers to see them through a four-day week and respond again when there was an uplift.

Psychologically, you have to be strong to come through those sort of figures. But this is a very strong, content, woman.

“It’s the people that make the difference for me. It would be a damned miserable place if you couldn’t enjoy work at the same time as getting the job done.

Kenny says the region is moving forwards, but with some “pockets” where business is tougher. The recession may be over, but the growth still has to return to its heyday – and more. Her role as a board member on the Sheffield City Region LEP gives her the opportunity to influence that growth and take the Pyronix principles as far as possible.

She was the chair of Yorkshire Forward and closed it down on behalf of the Government, so her experience, empathy and enthusiasm is difficult to match.

“I have been really impressed with the number of private businesses willing to engage with the LEP – something I have never seen before at this level. It is a massive advantage for the region, with a lot of businesses having

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something to add to their particular sector.

“You have to get on like a family, and sometimes that means dealing with arguments and disagreements and then getting on with things.

“I think we are certainly up to the job as far as devolution goes. It depends what the rules turn out to be, but the organisations I have been talking to make me think we are in a good position.”

As if Pyronix and the LEP were not quite enough, two years ago Julie became a founding investor in dotforge, a three-stage accelerator programme based around mentoring.

“I hadn’t heard of anything like it before and thought it sounded really interesting so I got involved myself. It is easy to start a business nowadays, but hard to scale it up.

“I have met some interesting companies and some that have the right ideas, but just don’t have enough cash to get it to a place where it can make money.

“I follow the principle that the sum total of the whole is always bigger than one individual or one organisation “There are some jewels in this region that are coming to the fore and will help the perception of the whole area and gain external recognition for what we do. You always have to look to the future as an opportunity, but recognise that there are challenges.

“We must continue to innovate and strive to move ahead.”

Still only in her mid-fifties, there seems to be no limit to the contribution and potential Julie Kenny brings to the table. n

SPECIAL REPORT

INSIGHT

If there is to be local regeneration on a huge scale and fast-tracked devolution, then there has to be a strong relationship between the private and public sector.

There has to be trust and clarity and there have to be common goals. And for a model of how this should proceed, many LEPs and local authorities are looking to Sheffield.

On the day I talk to LEP chairman James Newman, he is pushing the envelope once again and announcing a radical new structure for his group, described as “a landmark agreement on the road to devolution”.

The new approach sets in stone an existing culture of collaboration by establishing five new executive boards looking after skills, business growth, infrastructure, transport and housing. Each board is made up of key players in the public and private sector, with considerable delegated powers.

At the announcement, Newman said: “Since the formation of the LEP in 2010, I have been astounded at the enthusiasm and time the private sector has given. Their leadership and intellectual contribution to economic strategy mean political leaders are willing to share the decision making burden.”

Sharing is the key, and shows a sea-change in strategy and a realisation that unless we all toil together we will get left behind.

“This cements the private sector into the structure of decision-making in the region,” he tells me.

“As you can imagine, it is rather easier to get nine local authorities together and rather more difficult to get 55,000 businesses all hitting in the same direction.

“The LEP has debated and dealt with strategy and created the delivery model and the structures and engaged with the private sector through such things as sector groups, while

SPECIAL REPORT

PARTNERS WORKING TO DELIVER Collaboration and devolution have become keywords in the resurgence of the Sheffield region. BQ editor Mike Hughes spoke to two men at the centre of it all – John Mothersole, chief executive of Sheffield City Council and, firstly, James Newman, chairman of the Sheffield City Region LEP the local authority has the statutory duty to make sure the money is properly spent.

“Now these five boards have delegated authority to take decisions and create strategy, so for the first time the private sector has virtually a veto.”

Leaders in other area of the country reading that might either dismiss it as an ill-fated exercise or look out of their office window and wonder how far away – in so many ways –

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they are from Sheffield.

“It is pretty much a unique model,” says Newman. “The LEP and the private sector part of the LEP have led a number of the key workstreams that form the basis of these boards.“This whole growth agenda is about private sector growth. The public sector isn’t going to grow. This is about 6,000 new private sector businesses and 70,000 new private sector jobs. >>

John Mothersole

Our strategic plan was the fifth best in the country, but we are only the ninth largest LEP, so we hit above our weight

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SPECIAL REPORT

INSIGHT “This is all about GVA created by the private sector – but none of it happens without the private sector taking some risks and putting their financials on the line, mixed in with public sector support.

“My argument to the purists around democratic deficit is that there isn’t one.

The people most affected by the local economy are in the private sector, so they should have a say. “ I watch Newman’s body language closely when he is talking. This is on the day of a press release that will get limited coverage, but this is not a rehearsed speech from notes, merely listing the make-up of a new committee.

There is an architect’s pride in the unveiling.

Newman and his colleagues know they have done something radical here, and are justifiably pleased with their design.

“At the end of the day, the Government created these LEPs and said they are to be public-private partnerships and they wanted to bring private sector maverick thought and commerciality alongside the processes and accountability that the public sector does so well. But they didn’t know how it was going to happen and how it was going to work.

It is quite ironic, frankly, that this is a city region where the politicians are in complete opposition to the current Government and yet we are ahead in so many areas. I think that’s great.

“Our strategic plan was the fifth best in the country, but we are only the ninth largest LEP, so we hit above our weight. That is because the private sector here is embracing the opportunity to have influence.”

Landmark achievements like the Olympic Park legacy, Advanced Manufacturing Innovation, and Enterprise Zones aren’t just requests that get rubber-stamped.

They need rational vision – foresight coupled with realism and achievability – which is what Newman is driving home to such good effect and which is changing the perception of the area. Suspicion has been replaced by trust.

John Mothersole certainly has history behind him for his role as Chief Executive at Sheffield City Council.

The distinctive surname was first recorded (as Modisoule) in Wakefield back in 1275 and

SPECIAL REPORT

If we don’t deliver, then any government can turn around and say ‘well, you had the chance’ may be from a nickname for someone who was a “brave, proud soul”. Not a bad start.

He is a big advocate of the Santander method of getting the message across in its red Breakthrough boxes. It was, he summarises, “well attended and straight to the point” and the message of opportunity and entrepreneurialism was well received by organisations large and small.

“In terms of Northern Powerhouse, the policy environment has shifted our way,” he says.

“So let’s not miss the opportunity by not being clear about what we are going to do.

Businesses have, perhaps, been very good in the past at articulating what is going wrong.

But now we have been asked to do something good with new tools – so let’s crack on. If we don’t deliver, then any government can turn around and say ‘well, you had the chance.

The challenge is clear: “The asset base of the North is strong – but the economic performance needs to be stronger,” says Mothersole.

“It has taken us more than ten years to become an overnight success, but now the

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economic components are right to take advantage of what we are being offered.

“We had already invested time in getting to know businesses and they had invested time in us, so when the opportunity presented itself to set up the LEP ambitiously and quickly, we didn’t have to spend time saying ‘who are you, can I trust you, are you business-friendly...’ we just knuckled down and did it.”

The time is now for the Sheffield region, highlighted by the strong turnout at events around the area. Part curiosity about what is being done with our taxes and business rates, but also genuine interest from the private sector in playing a part.

“There is an absolute understanding now that economic balance has to be achieved through growth, not redistribution. If we just redistribute the economy locally then we will be no better off.

“Nationally, businesses have been sold a strategy in the past that if you weren’t part of the financial and service sectors then you were somehow part of a dying sector. But now Britain has rediscovered what we are good at knowledge-driven business as opposed to ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ businesses.”

Mothersole demonstrates a clarity of purpose that is evident across Yorkshire. Industry, relationships, education, governance. The list goes on of long-held methods that have changed beyond all recognition and are continuing to change. He knows that attitudes must change with them otherwise the chance will slip by into the hands of the next city with the clearer vision to more ambitious horizons.

“In SCR, I have seen businesses rediscovering a confidence in what they do. It is really hard working with a business that isn’t confident, just as it is hard working with a council that isn’t confident.

“There is a difference between consulting businesses and letting them lead. There isn’t much time now for businesses that just want to stand on the sidelines and commentate.

I am a fairly patient guy, but I don’t have patience with that.

“They have to say what needs to be done and be prepared to stand behind that.

“That seems obvious now, but was very hard to achieve 15 or 20 years ago. All I can think is that the pretty dark times of the Seventies and

INSIGHT Eighties cast a much longer shadow than we realised. If we had realised, maybe we would have made more of an effort to get rid of it quicker than we did.”

There are still some businesses around with long memories and fixed views, but they won’t last much longer – or at least their views won’t. Things are a lot more sophisticated now and if what you do doesn’t contribute to GVA, then step aside and let someone else through.

“You have to keep your eyes on job numbers, but the danger is that if we just drive up jobs, then we don’t drive up wealth. If I was sitting here in ten years’ time and the value of our economy hadn’t shot up, I would be very disappointed. You have to look after both and make sure the value of the economy is increasing with manageable job levels.

“I am optimistic that we are getting the tools to drive the economy and that it is getting recognised for a more diverse range of sectors, but on the other side we have to continuously understand that a strong economy has to be supported by good public services.”

After eight years in the role, John has seen as many changes as you would expect. The need to make good decisions hasn’t changed but, like many industries, the resources to follow them through aren’t the same.

The council has had to make £300m of savings in the last five years. But it has. And now stands up comparison with any authority in the country.

He says: “Chief execs always used to think there would be periods of full-on activity and periods of calmness. It is all full-on now – but at least that is because of opportunities.”

For John, full-on means living in the city and knowing how it ticks on a Sunday afternoon just as much as a Friday rush-hour.

He sums up his relaxation time as “going home and stepping through the door to the family”.

This “product of a government-sponsored training scheme” (cast your mind back to the Manpower Services Commission...) can’t completely switch off and admits to having a lot of his best ideas when he isn’t in the office.

Thankfully, he writes them down so he can start with the next project the following morning. n

James Newman

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INSIGHT

INSIDE THE RED BOX Young would-be entrepreneurs found inspiration and invaluable business advice at the Santander Breakthrough Box festival in Sheffield

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SME BREAKTHROUGH

SME BREAKTHROUGH

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MEN IN EDUCATION WHO MEAN BUSINESS BQ editor Mike Hughes looks into the education sector with two key figures from The Sheffield College and Sheffield Hallam University

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INSIGHT

A few years ago, the phrase ‘business-facing’ for a university or college was more likely to mean your student flat looked out onto Argos.

Now the phrase is an essential tick on the list of expectations for post-sixteen education.

The relationship with businesses, particularly local ones that could provide a career, is critical if all the hard work done in the lecture rooms is to pay off.

As head of learning for the Centre of Business and Enterprise at The Sheffield College, Andrew Sale is the fulcrum, pulling together business provision across all departments.

“It is all about gathering together everything we offer that has a business flavour to come up with an offer that business can relate to.

I want the centre to be a one-stop shop for businesses for apprenticeships, young people and school leavers, perhaps an employee wanting to upskill.

“We have to be able to respond to needs for diagnostics, compliance, obstacles to growth – not always accredited qualifications but anything a company or sector might need.”

This approach is still in its infancy at The Sheffield College – and hasn’t even been thought of at many educational establishments around the country – but the expertise is there and the appetite among local businesses is sky-high.

In the very best traditions of Yorkshire manufacturing, it is a production line. Perhaps this is too simplistic, but it is raw young people in at one end, a process started and a finished product, ready to begin work within moments of leaving the factory. Without the local raw ingredients or without the assembled process you get nothing – it’s not even worth starting the machine.

“We are trying to identify gaps and

opportunities and fill those gaps in what industry needs going forwards, so that they know we are producing just the sort of young people they need,” says Sale.

“The basic skills in every sector stay the same, but it is part of our job to stay on top of the very latest developments and make sure our own staff know exactly what is going on in all sectors.

“That means businesses can be invited to be a full part of the process. It would be wrong of us to assume that we have all the answers. We need to be working with industry.

“It is unlikely we will be able to provide every single answer for every single situation, but if we are to take this seriously we have to let industry know we have moved away from the days of just putting on a course because that is what we do and into putting on courses because we know that is where the demand

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is. That is the natural flow.”

So does the skills gap exist any more? Or is it just fleeting, as the educators respond with agility to a concern? If there are enough people with foresight in Sheffield businesses then can they see ahead to a looming problem, and work with schools, universities and colleges to plan for it?

“It is certainly in everyone’s interests to remove any gaps,” says Sale. “Young people need good prospects and good opportunities and industry needs good young people.

“It’s a partnership, we all need to be looking ahead as much as we can, gathering local market information and studying trends.

What is on the horizon and is going to be cutting-edge?

“The whole region is like a city, just more spread out. If we are always competing against each other it’s going to get us >>

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nowhere. If everything was pulled together more joined up and less territorial - it would be a heck of a place.”

With just a half-mile walk between them, it is no surprise that Sheffield Hallam University shares many of the college’s goals.

Conor Moss, director of education and employer partnerships, says Sheffield is at a good point in its rise to educational prominence and providing the right solutions for industry – but with work to be done.

“From a higher level skills perspective, Sheffield produces thousands of graduates each year- some of whom stay in Sheffield and some go back where they came from or further afield.

“But is it addressing the particular needs of the Sheffield City Region and is it alive to the economic growth of the region? Probably not as well as it could be.

“There are certain sectors where we could be more joined up in terms of 16-year-olds starting apprenticeships right through to

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degree apprenticeships. Our plan is to work much closer with businesses and our partners in Further Education to provide that seamless link.”

When you think of the sheer number of institutions, businesses and people that need to pull together to make that happen, you realise the scale of the task facing the two sides – industry and education.

But Sale and Moss appreciate it is not a matter of building the whole structure in one go. There have to be plans drawn up and foundations laid before the first bricks can be put into place. Moss says adaptability is important, which means offering the same high standard of education in all sectors, but perhaps on a different timescale and with a more honed end product.

“The challenge is how you take your resources normally delivered in a traditional way but the employer wants it delivered over three semesters or in a block release form. We have various provision – and are particularly

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keen to focus on logistics and supply – but perhaps not as much that is perfect for the employer.

“We need to work with employers to be very client-focused and satisfy their needs now and going forward.”

Working with the likes of Kier, Barratt and Nestle, Sheffield Hallam is being courted by some influential suitors, and has to try to be specific to one and not neglect the other, whether it is to upskill a mature workforce or supply a ready-made younger team.

“We have to be ready and able to be flexible with our delivery and take every opportunity we can. In the last ten years, there has been a massive push on universities to demonstrate employability of graduates regardless of the discipline.

“That means in-curriculum employability – what is it like to work in that particular sector and what is needed. For instance there is a lot of need in the creative industry, but graduates are most likely to be working for themselves,

INSIGHT so they need to know how to start a business, how to create a portfolio, that sort of thing, alongside the technical skills to work in video or animation.”

This helps get to the heart of the changes education has undergone in just a few years.

The old stereotype required students to be told things they needed to remember. Then they were let loose and wished all the best.

Now, the off-the-peg version is replaced with the tailor-made version, where students will already have been in touch with the people who might be paying their wages and (perhaps unfortunately for some of them....) can finish at the college on a Friday and start work on the Monday.

Along with many others, Sheffield Hallam is judged by the DELHE survey. Properly known as The Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education survey, it contacts HE graduates six months after qualifying to establish what type of employment or further study they were engaged in, and their income.

It’s the very grown-up version of an Ofsted, again reflecting the unavoidable link between education and work. Locally, there is also a huge focus on RISE - a major city-wide collaboration between Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Hallam University, The University of Sheffield and the private sector to increase graduate employment in SMEs. “It’s basically a matching service where we fund each student who is successful in getting an SME job to the tune of around £1,100, with the employer picking up the rest of the salary,” said Moss.

“We are on RISE eight now and have placed 130 students with more than 100 Sheffield SMEs” We were all students at one time, at one level or another, but what different paths we might have taken if RISE and other ground-breaking initiatives had been in place.

When he was in the lecture rooms, Moss, now 40, was “a decent student” in Dublin. He then worked for a year and went back to do his Masters.

“You would have to ask my tutors and fellow students, but in my opinion I wasn’t at the very top of the class,” he admits, “but I was certainly hard-working, diligent and got a huge amount from my studies.

Conor Moss

There are certain sectors where we could be more joined up in terms of 16-year-olds starting apprenticeships right through to degree apprenticeships “I am now a director of partnerships with an employer focus and both of those things are part of my values base I got from when I was a student. Because I was from a very workingclass background and had to work hard get to university, I have great commitment for getting access to education for all sorts of people and have had the joy of seeing people return after breaking off from higher level study.”

A lot has changed since 1843 when the School of Design was founded, as Sheffield was on the verge of becoming the steel, tool and cutlery making capital of the world.

Different trades, different skills, but the same reaction to demand. Back then it was the artist Benjamin Haydon who pressed for the right courses for the right employers. Now it’s people like Conor Moss who have that job to do. Not as historic, but equally vital. n

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Andrew Sale

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INTERVIEW MAKING CONNECTIONS, CHALLENGING PERCEPTIONS Sara Clarkson, a Senior Course Director for the leadership development organisation Common Purpose, talks to Mike Hughes about the value of networking and collaboration

Even the name has the right ring to it.

Common Purpose, defined by the organisation itself as “giving people from the private, public and not-for-profit sectors the inspiration, skills and connections to become better leaders at work and in society.”

As one of those people who has (about a dozen years ago) been inspired, and been given skills and connections, I am well placed to agree. In my own less subtle words, It’s a leader breeder. Sara Clarkson has been with them for 21 years and says the fact that the SCR enterprise culture has led to a large number of SMEs means collaboration has always got a key role.

“More than ever now, there is a broader awareness and outlook in terms of what I refer to as an ‘hourglass’ situation. You start off with a broad role, covering lots of duties and then as you progress you get more specialised, but then are expected to have more responsibilities, which brings you back in to the hourglass.

“We have very successful leaders who are a little bit sceptical of us, but the benefit they find really is sitting with such a diverse group of people and being challenged on your own thinking and assumptions.

“The people are all put there in each region – we just have to join the dots to bring them together and find time for that longer conversation. We live in a Twitter-centric age, where the challenge is to get a message across in a single sentence. That is what any busy manager will tell you. The sooner you can put the phone down or leave a meeting, the sooner you can get back to the in-tray.

But the value of those longer conversations can’t be overstated. Common Purpose targets

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busy boardrooms, leads people quietly out and sits them down, always persuading them that this will pay off. It is worth the time.

“I think we have fantastic convening power, longevity and the diversity to bring people together in all three sectors,” says Clarkson.

“One of our most important elements that delegates appreciate is that we operate completely under Chatham House Rules, so what is said at a meeting never leaves the room. They enjoy that environment.”

Those basic elements stay the same, but others have certainly changed since I was executive editor on The Birmingham Post.

Common Purpose starts with the Your Turn courses for secondary school pupils, through Front Runner for higher education, Navigator for early management and 20:20

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for executives through to ‘post career’ workshops. CP founder Julia Middleton says: “Wherever Common Purpose operates, you will find leaders doing unusual things; taking responsibility for problems other than their own - at work and in their community connecting efforts, recognising consequences, asking difficult questions and gathering disparate teams. These leaders are able to build sufficient trust so that people actually change things.”

Responsibility and trust need to be inbuilt into course delegates – even if they don’t realise it until the end of Day One. Clarkson says the mix is crucial both on the course and how it operates after the last day.

“The key thing – always – is keeping those connections across any level. It is really important to look for succession planning, so we have courses for early leaders within companies as well as senior managers. We make sure we run course that bring those two together, but also courses where we want similar levels.

“This gives us the great diversity we aim for – the latest course we started up had an archdeacon, a GP, and someone from manufacturing as well as Creative Sheffield.

There wouldn’t be another forum where that rich mix would come together.

“People just have to want to be there and be interested in making a difference.”

That’s the Clarkson message and it’s the same one that LEPs, local authorities and business organisations all over Yorkshire are putting out – and which is being responded to with wave after wave of support.

If you want to affect the future of your region we’ll give you the tools to do it. n

COMPANY PROFILE DONCASTER RACECOURSE: THE IDEAL PLACE TO DO BUSINESS Doncaster Racecourse is steeped in tradition and has been staging unrivalled horseracing and music events since the 1700s. One of the UK’s premier sporting venues, it has really got punters’ pulses racing with a fantastic summer events programme that has brought a string of top bands to Doncaster, including ska legends Madness and 1980s new wave band Spandau Ballet. Now all eyes are turning toward the annual St Leger Festival, which takes place from September 9-12 this year and will attract thousands of race-goers to the South Yorkshire venue.

A unique blend of history, top-class horse racing and fabulous live entertainment, the four-day extravaganza is one of the key dates on the national sporting calendar. But Doncaster Racecourse has so much more to offer than sporting events and festivals. It is also one of the UK’s leading venues for conferences, meetings, functions, exhibitions and trade shows.

The grounds of the racecourse contain an impressive array of versatile conference and event spaces, including the impressive five-storey Grandstand containing a purpose-built, 3,400 square metre exhibition hall which can hold up to 1,600 people, as well as more than 40 private suites that house up to 400 people.

Kieran Gallagher, executive director at Doncaster Racecourse, said: “We are very proud of our corporate hospitality offering, which provides an environment to suit all types of business event.

Our ultra-modern Grandstand is set against the backdrop of stunning scenery, while many of our rooms are glass-fronted with huge sliding doors opening out to a balcony or terrace, offering impressive views across the racecourse and beyond.

“Our generous conference and event space spans four floors and as well as our flagship Exhibition Hall, we offer numerous flexible contemporary suites with partitions for the smaller business occasion.”

The facilities at the racecourse are fully equipped to suit client requirements. It is one of the few

Doncaster Racecourse: the perfect venue for corporate hospitality.

The racecourse provides the ideal setting for all manner of corporate events, from small-scale functions to large conferences. large-scale venues in the country to offer superfast broadband speeds and with eye-catching, flat-screen plasma televisions in many rooms.

Kieran says: “We have put together an attractive range of affordable corporate hospitality packages and there really is no better place to be than Doncaster Racecourse. It’s very accessible given its proximity to the A1 (M), M18 and M1. The East Coast Main Line from London takes just 90 minutes with several direct services per hour, Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield is less than seven miles away and Leeds Bradford and East Midlands airports are within easy reach.”

Businesses that take up one of the racecourse’s attractive corporate packages can enjoy stunning views across the course and a dedicated host who will cater for their every need. If they combine their business function with a racing event, they will also be able to get tips and advice from a betting expert

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who will be on hand to visit their box or table.

The racecourse has an enviable portfolio of happy business customers who have enjoyed the state-ofthe-art facilities and excellent service provided by a team of friendly staff.

One customer, Pete Temprell of Saint-Gobain Weber, is a regular corporate client of the racecourse and has hosted several business functions at the venue. He says: “We’ve been coming here for several years and we’ve been really impressed with the quality facilities and high levels of service on offer. The racecourse provides the ideal setting for all manner of corporate events, from small-scale functions to large conferences, and I’d thoroughly recommend it to other businesses in the area.”

One of the keys to the venue’s success is its ability to deliver exceptional flexibility and value for money. On non-festival race days, exclusive private boxes are available for hire from just £109 per person and gourmet dining starts at an equally affordable £75 per person. Visitors can enjoy a top-class dining experience in the Grandstand restaurants, which offer panoramic views across the racecourse, while the Hallam FM Champagne Pavilion Marquee is open for use on Music Live racedays and during the four-day St. Leger Festival from £126 per person.

For those who desire even greater flexibility or exclusivity, the team at the racecourse can create bespoke all-inclusive race day packages and offer the use of private marquees that seat more than 100 people – perfect for extravagant parties or that all-important corporate function.

For more information about the corporate hospitality offering at Doncaster Racecourse, visit www.doncaster-racecourse.co.uk or call the venue on 01302 304200.

SPECIAL REPORT

INSIGHT SMEs looking to expand into international markets can take advantage of ‘Breakthrough’, Santander’s unique initiative to both identify and capitalise on the most appropriate overseas opportunities. For many small and medium-sized UK businesses, pursuing aggressive growth strategies and breaking into new markets can prove a daunting task.

Breakthrough is geared specifically at helping ambitious UK SMEs realise their full potential by offering a suite of support including access to top business leaders, top talent and exclusive networks of like-minded entrepreneurs as well as providing funding solutions. But Breakthrough also encompasses a unique international element – Breakthrough International.

“We offer a range of solutions to SMEs that can help them explore new markets and support their international growth plans,” explains Mark Collings, head of SME International. “Our aim is to add value to their businesses by helping them to leverage from our strengths overseas.”

A key feature of Breakthrough International is access to Santander’s global networks and alliances. Through its own footprint in 14 markets and a network of banking alliances Santander can help UK businesses expand worldwide. Key markets include Brazil, Mexico, USA, Poland, Spain, India, China and the UAE. This is supported by its Trade Portal, an online resource where businesses can find information on all aspects of exporting. The Trade Portal allows businesses to search for new markets and identify which overseas markets could offer the greatest potential for their products and services; and can supply the contact data for over 200,000 global importers and exporters as well as the details of over one million private and public tender opportunities.

The Portal also contains a wealth of practical information for doing business in 171 countries, including legal and tax information, shipping costs and customs and labelling rules “In effect, this provides SMEs with the opportunity to develop a bespoke international business plan, which, were they to do this themselves, would end up costing a lot of time and money. The Trade Portal provides a means of short-cutting to new supply chains in overseas territories,” says Collings.

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EASING THE EXPORT JOURNEY

Mike Hughes looks at the global side of ‘Breakthrough’ with Mark Collings, Head of International for Santander’s SME Banking Santander also arranges subsidised overseas trade missions, through which participating SME delegates can make valuable face-to-face contacts among buyers, suppliers and distributors in key high-growth export markets across South America and Europe, where the bank has a major presence, as well as in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where it partners with local banks.

“When SME delegates go out on a trade

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mission with us, they will not be exploring the overseas market concerned from scratch. The market will already have been explored for them by us, and we will showcase to them where the best opportunities lie before they go,” says Collings.

Trade Mission survey results show that 33% of SMEs gained a new customer, supplier or distributor within three to six months of their return to the UK while 16% recorded

SME BREAKTHROUGH

INSIGHT significant results within a year. PVL UK, a specialist in marking kits and vehicle graphics to the emergency services and major highways contractors and operators, attended a Santander trade mission to Abu Dhabi and Dubai in September last year, which culminated in a £100,000 contract, and the more recent signing of a major agency agreement with another group, with which it first made high-level contacts during the trip.

Since then, Nick Broom, managing director, has decided to move to the UAE to focus on new growth opportunities in this region, which he only fully realised during the trade mission. “On the mission, I suddenly realised that I needed to really take advantage of the opportunities in front of me: an emerging and growing market seeking UK innovation and expertise, great contacts and an opportunity that could spread beyond the products and services we offer in the UK, potentially to a Gulf-wide audience.

“As a result, I am now planning to move my family out to the UAE to focus on the growth of the business here within the next 12 months.”

The company are moving all of its banking to Santander. “This is not because they took us on a trade mission, but because the trip made me realise we needed a bank that was interested in our business and, more importantly, had the right attitude to global business banking,” he says.

Broom is keen to attend further Santander trade missions, citing the opportunities to meet influential people and the practical help offered when navigating culture and business etiquette in a new region, as the key benefits of Breakthrough International.

Yorkshire-based Top Screen Media, a digital innovation company specialising in customer engagement technologies participated in a Santander trade mission to New York last year. They attended a business meeting, prearranged by a partner of Santander, with the CEO of the New York Port Authority, which runs the transport infrastructure in New York and New Jersey. This resulted in it winning contracts for the transport system and a major retail development at the World Trade Centre – its largest contracts to date.

“Santander was very professional and well

SME BREAKTHROUGH

organised, enabling us to be well-prepared for the trade mission and the meeting with the NY Port Authority before we went out,” says CEO Achille Traore, pointing out that Top Screen Media was ready to discuss how its digital technologies could meet the challenges faced by the authority in a meeting that was attended by all the relevant personnel.

“This meeting then led to further meetings with the World Trade Centre, which is built on land owned by the NY Port Authority, to discuss further opportunities involving the delivery of our cross-platform customer engagement technologies for a major retail development at the Centre.

“Santander’s local connections really played a big part. There is nothing better than local knowledge, and we could not have achieved what we did on our own.”

The New York trade mission has now put Top Screen Media on a clear path to developing further business opportunities in the US, and it is considering setting up its own local presence.

“As a digital technology business, based in Yorkshire, it is easy to think that this level of technology advancement may be better in the US market but the trade mission taught us that this was not the case and has given us a lot of confidence,” says Traore.

“The World Trade Centre is a very high-profile development, and New York is considered one of the hardest markets to break into. If you can do business there you can do it anywhere in the world. The success of Santander’s trade missions led to the bank taking SMEs to countries closer to home where it has a presence, such as Poland and Spain.

One SME that participated in a recent mission to Poland is telecommunications product manufacturer Vocality International.

“This provided the opportunity to use the

extended network of the local British Chamber of Commerce and in-country staff to help facilitate meetings to drive brand awareness and revenue opportunities for Vocality,” says Jonathan Richards, business development director, adding that the company is now considering a further trade mission to Singapore.

“If a business is interested in visiting a country outside of our trade mission calendar, the Trade Portal can help them to gather as much information as possible about the target market and can identify their most relevant potential new business partners” says Collings.

Santander local market expertise and that of leading professional services firms, with which the bank has on-the-ground relationships within overseas territories, such as accountancy firms, lawyers and business groups. “SMEs can rely on our knowledge and the knowledge of our contacts in each country,” says Collings, pointing out that smaller UK companies often find it hard to access this type of third-party, high-level accounting and business advice in overseas markets. “This can play a big part in actually helping them set up in business in a new market.” Santander’s subsidised trade mission programme has expanded significantly in the four years since it was introduced. The trade missions are typically attended by about 10 SMEs and arranged for four to six day durations, including networking events.

Santander works closely with UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) on all trade missions thereby expanding the exporting and investing opportunities open to SME delegates n

Lending is subject to status and our lending criteria.

Santander’s local connections really played a big part. There is nothing better than local knowledge, and we could not have achieved what we did on our own

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SME BREAKTHROUGH

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A LESSON IN GROWTH FROM AN UNFLAPPABLE TEACHER Mike Hughes meets Darren Hart, head of growth capital at Santander >>

SME BREAKTHROUGH

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INTERVIEW

The Growth Capital sector is busy. The Santander Breakthrough events are busy. So Darren Hart is a busy man.

Yet he has an air of calm about him as we meet at the bank’s landmark Sheffield offices. His measured replies and seemingly unflappable manner come from many years of experience in banking.

In three months he will have been Santander’s head of growth capital for four years. Couple that with his ‘roadshow’ role as one of the lynchpin speakers inside ‘The Red Box’ carrying the bank’s Breakthrough event around the country, and you can see why he might be wishing there were eight days in a week instead of seven. But his enthusiasm for the box remains undiminished.

Over the years, the tools at the disposal of people as high up the ladder as Hart have changed dramatically. Taking a message of support for thousands of SMEs doesn’t get much more effective than the box – and his message is just as direct and timely.

“There are real and tangible success stories as Breakthrough has developed,” he says.

“There are the non-financial parts like interns, trade missions and international initiatives, and there are the companies in our growth capital portfolio.

“There is an increasing amount of work going on in my sector, which is down to the

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Investing for growth is very often a good idea at this time

economy going well. Companies are seeing their competitors investing in growth and are more willing to borrow for investment themselves. During difficult recessionary times that would have been a bold move. But there is a lot more visibility now on future sales, opportunities and trading partners.

“Investing for growth is very often a good idea at this time,” he adds, with his usual trademark clarity.

“If you align that to the stability we have after the election you will get a lot of interest.

More firms want to talk to us and for a high proportion there is a good deal that we can do. What is quite new is the pace of innovation, not just in technology businesses but in all sectors that use technology to a greater or lesser degree. The pace with which business is done is increasing – I have been talking to businesses recently who are working

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with SMEs doing a lot of their business on the cloud, which seems to be a win-win scenario.

“So the investment in growth for SMEs may not be in their own products and businesses, but in the way they run their businesses, their own platforms and client relationship models.”

For this lesson on Growth Capital, if I am the listening pupil then ‘Mr Hart’ is instantly my favourite teacher, the one you used to look forward to when you were checking next week’s timetable. He explains and supports in equal measure, analysing questions and comments and adjusting his approach accordingly.

That calm manner makes you certain that what he is saying would get ten out of ten (and a gold star), so you listen...and learn.

“We are still very much a sector-agnostic team. We want what we offer to be available to all sectors of the economy, but we are probably still doing an unexpectedly high level of business in consumer sectors – the areas you wouldn’t usually expect banks to favour, but there are some really good models out there and great brands are being built.

“We have seen that in the retail space and in the restaurant space, but we are still supporting many manufacturing, engineering, telecoms and software businesses that you would more likely expect.”

The surge in interest and confidence and the

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INTERVIEW

presence of strong forward-thinking business leaders means that Hart’s team deal with, on average, a new referral every day. That’s hundreds of firms every year wanting to find the best way to grow.

Not to dig in or cut costs or plan an exit – but grow. A huge vote of confidence not only in the economy but also in the solutions the banking sector can provide.

“We are moving from companies which are very owner/founder-managed with a very small team of people on the cusp of thinking about taking their business to the next level right through the whole definition of an SME, up to £50m of annual sales, who have a much broader and deeper management team.

“For the smaller interests, we will work with people from a very early stage. But they will own their figures and their assumptions and we will help them to model it and interpret the conclusions.”

Firms that want to grow need to have an idea of where they are heading – although Hart points out that that may not be where they eventually end up – and be innovative and ready to respond to substantial change.

“They need to have proof of concept and show that they are making a difference to their own customers and that the business model is sustainable. They also need a management team that we can warm to and

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believe in.

If those are the starting points, then jobs is an ever-present factor. Levels of unemployment can grow or demolish communities, so jobs growth is critical.

“We are very interested in tracking jobs because we always knew that the SME segment would be a significant job creator.

Almost all the time, the companies that we are lending to, because they are investing in their growth there probably will be job creation.

“It’s not a pre-requisite for us, but it is a very positive impact from what we do.”

Again, the over-arching plan is actually quite simple. It is the experience and knowledge base that make the difference, whether that is working alongside a long-term customer where the understanding is instinctive or a new referral, where the learning curve begins with the first handshake.

Now, after three years, and more than 60 deals, almost £160m of new money has been loaned to high-growth SMEs. No one had done it the Santander way before, using mezzanine debt as a growth tool for smaller companies.

Hart says it was “bold”, but it was a gamechanger for the industry.

“It’s very rewarding work,” he says.

“Everything we do makes such a difference to the companies we lend to. We are building

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a portfolio of very loyal customers, who advocate what we do and act as referees for our work with other business.”

The loyalty is well illustrated by one of the high pile of projects in Darren’s in-tray, when he will again be working with a telecoms company for a third round of financing – the second portfolio firm that has come back for a third time, alongside around a dozen that have already had secondary financing.

“I think you have to be very brave to be an SME, “ he admits. “I know we all say we know what it is like to be one – but I’m not sure we really do.

“We are a fast-growing business ourselves, but I know my salary will be paid at the same time and at the same amount every month, and the same for my team - so it is a very different thing.

“But I think SMEs recognise that we really care for them and we understand they make a significant contribution to the UK economy and their local communities.”

Santander was founded to help SMEs trading between Northern Spain and South America, so the blend of international trade and smaller firms has always been deep in the DNA. Very different times. But very similar and very successful strategies. n Lending is subject to status and lending policy

SPECIAL REPORT

Mike Hughes meets master exporter William Beckett, of William Beckett Plastics, which is tucked away round the last bend of Shepcote Way on the Tinsley Industrial Estate in Sheffield, is a cover for one of Sheffield’s superheroes – Exportman!

IS IT A BIRD, IS IT A PLANE? NO IT’S WILLIAM BECKETT! SPECIAL REPORT

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INTERVIEW MD William Beckett has run the business for more than 38 years. But at the slightest whiff of trouble he can change into the chairman of the International Trade Forum, ready to help firms sell their products globally.

Beckett has assembled a team of powerful sponsors to back up his ITF work – Santander, Irwin Mitchell and BHP, all of whom have outstanding export pedigrees.

“It was set up ten years ago when it was known as the South Yorkshire International Trade Forum – but when we found out we had members from Northern Ireland to Ascot it seemed a bit of a contradiction,” he tells me in his office, packed to overflowing with plastic components. Beckett became chairman four years ago and brought in the former head of international trade at Sheffield Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Renate Halton, to be executive manager. Things were starting to take shape and a renaming to the ITF was a key element of a new era. The UKTI has been a big supporter. Having had its wings clipped financially and now focussing on firms turning over more than £25m, it knew there was a substantial gap for someone to operate in and provide help. “We are completely independent and self-funding and I think the members feel more comfortable with ownership of their own club. It only costs £120 a year and there are about 100 companies with us.

“From an exports point of view nationally, the apathy is quite significant. We are an island, which doesn’t help matters. When you are in Europe surrounded by other countries, it is quite natural to export. But I don’t think we qualify for exporting to Wales or Scotland yet.

“While there is a lot of emphasis on encouraging start-ups and companies that don’t export to start, there is a fear factor over the mechanism of how to go to market.

“If you were sending goods to Hampshire, you would Google it, find out what the target markets are, check out websites for exhibitions or go to the Chambers to find out about a particular company and then arrange a trip.

“It’s exactly the same process if you export to China. We can organise trade trips with help from UKTI and perhaps get ten interested companies to come out and see what is out there. This is cheap market research and they

will feel so much better once they have seen their market.” To be blunt, the International Trade Forum shouldn’t be needed. As Beckett suggests, even the likes of Malaysia, Singapore and Turkey should not be no-go areas for Yorkshire businesses just because it takes more of an initial investment of time and money to embrace the market.

The technology exists – and the ITF exists – to make it all possible, and even straightforward.

“There should also be more help from the larger companies who are exporting,” says Beckett. “But there is a reluctance to reach out and help the other firms in the Sheffield region. They will engage with companies in their supply chain, but they are not so good in offering to be supportive in a more altruistic way to other firms.

“It’s quite an annoying factor and we almost need to start an initiative to encourage them.

“Aerospace, defence, oil and gas, rail and high-tech innovation are all coming to the fore, with a lot of traditional skills still vital to the whole picture, but getting engaged in exporting is crucial to the region’s reputation and development.”

Beckett’s own company had become the UK market leader in its niche market – making plastic boxes designed for packing cutting tools – and was looking for wider markets.

In those days there were 17 trade associations operating out of Sheffield. None of those 17 exist now, which illustrates the changing face of support for would-be exporters.

“Back around 20 years ago, we found that America was showing more interest than anyone else, so we started doing market research in the States at the end of 1991, and then went out there, spending ten days travelling where we knew the cutting tool industry was strong.

“There was so much enthusiasm we came back thinking we had won the pools. But then nobody contacted us. So we knew we would have to set up over there and shared a warehouse in Chicago. Within six months we had outgrown that and moved in to another one next door.

“Now it is 50% of our market. They had not viewed packaging as a marketing tool, which is what we did, so it was a bit of a breakthrough

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and we doubled in size in two years. “It wasn’t only a springboard, it was a diving board.

“Once firms realise how much bigger the international markets are, they see that you have to get in there.”

The Beckett ‘bank’ of information and advice is invaluable, and Beckett has committed many hundreds of hours of his time to help other firms export and make the most of their product. He says there are two logical steps to start off the process. Join a group so you can start talking to like-minded people, and use that to gain useable information about the market you might be aiming for.

His experience and the fact that he is a very approachable business leader is good news for would-be exporters just as it has been for his own company.

“We have 70 people here and five in the States. We are not very automated because of the nature of the manufacturing we do.

“But we have been very successful, winning two Queen’s Awards which I look on as the equivalent of a company knighthood and fantastic for morale .

“Our biggest challenge, because of the niche market we are in, is skills. We can’t buy staff off the shelf, so we have to train them. But gone are the days of day-release and night school, so it is four months or six at the actual centre and we don’t get to see them.

“Then when they start we have to train them in our particular skills.

“We do blow-moulding, but we can change the moulds 30 times a day to make myriad shapes and sizes and it is those skills that are difficult to get.”

That flexibility is essential for smaller businesses competing globally.

If the answer to ‘Can you do this?’ ever gets close to being ‘I don’t think so, it’s just not worth the effort’ then you’re in trouble.

But the ‘30 moulds a day’ metaphor is not lost. As companies look to export or even expand within the UK they have to be in the mould of William Beckett and see a new market as only a positive. There is help out there if you want to go out and win business that helps the Yorkshire economy - whether it is Leeds or Lisbon, Sheffield or Singapore, Hull or Hawaii. n

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INTERVIEW

CREATING A BRIGHTER FUTURE Edward Highfield, director of Creative Sheffield, talks to Mike Hughes about the past and future for the region It must have been an interesting meeting of Sheffield City Council when they were launching their economic development body and looking for a name.

It’s possible that Creative Sheffield was not the most obvious choice, but for me it reflects a pride in the history of the area, signals the rise of the creative and digital industries – and pins down one of the main skills Edward Highfield needs to have to make it all work. And he has to be creative on a wide canvas.

“We are responsible for business support, inward investment, economic strategy, highlevel skills and, increasingly, the devolved external funding that comes into the city from the likes of the LEP,” he says.

“As the successor body to the urban regeneration company (Sheffield One), we work at arm’s length from the council, but are completely funded by them. We are just about Sheffield, not the city region, although we do manage funds over a wider area.”

Creative Sheffield is necessarily pro-active as well as reactive. It can’t just sit back and wait for ambitious firms to knock on the door and hold out their hands. The expectation and responsibility run much deeper.

“We want as many businesses as possible

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to know where we are, how to contact us and make that as streamlined as possible, but equally we want to be targeting growthoriented companies. We will respond to any enquiries but for us the holy grail is to get out there and create the opportunities ourselves.

“We have targets in our service plan, but ultimately we will be measured on jobs, GVA and business rates. Local public services in this country are going to be reliant on business growth, so we need to understand the environment where businesses are growing and investing, which leads to growth in the local economy and in business rates for the council.”

Highfield’s organisation also has to plan for the long term as well as short-term, which means that many projects may not be making a substantial difference to those all-important rates figures for five or ten years. That is not always a crowd-pleaser, and can miss out on the big headlines, but it is a crucial bedrock for future survival and prosperity.

For example, if a strategically interesting building is coming on to the market, Creative Sheffield may want to bank it for a future project. So it needs to be secured and a plan put in place for its future well before the

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readers’ letters start arriving at the local paper asking what the council is going to do with that old mill building.

“I couldn’t tell you how many jobs something like that might create, or what the GVA effect might be, but I know it would be the right thing to do,” says Highfield. “These things always need metric applying to them where we can, but that has to be mixed with longterm thinking.

“It’s important to know in all this that Creative Sheffield doesn’t create jobs, the private sector does that in the environment we can create to help it happen quicker and with a bit more certainty.

“We have to be able to say to elected officials, in return for your investment – which they could choose to spend elsewhere – this is what you will get back. And some of that will be intangible confidence because we are an area that is successful and open for business, working with a council that listens and responds.

“There is no doubt that austerity, budget restrictions and the loss of the RDA has had a massive impact here, but out of that come new opportunities, working with the LEP and the SCR. >>

SUMMER 15

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INTERVIEW

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INTERVIEW We are on our way to a skills success story, although there is hard graft for many more years to go

“We can’t just be a funder, we have to be innovative and collaborative. It has all opened as many new conversations as it has closed down old ones.” The balance between new and old is particularly relevant for the Sheffield revival. The road into the city is dotted with breathtaking - but broken - buildings that mark the early stages of change for the area.

Advanced manufacturing is rapidly taking over from retro-manufacturing just as surely as shiny new science parks are replacing old brick edifices and broken windows. But the two must exist alongside each other. They are both too important to neglect.

“Nationally manufacturing is back, rebalancing the economy with export-led growth and a Government agenda that has swung fullsquare round to manufacturing.

“Sheffield has never stopped being a manufacturing centre, but is now in a far more diversified economy than Sheffield’s previous history of over-reliance on declining sectors of steel and metals.

“Now there is a focus on creative and digital and healthcare technology, which often have their roots back into manufacturing. We are on our way to a skills success story, although there is hard graft for many more years to come. The story has changed and is changing still.”

Along with Leeds and Manchester, Sheffield is at the forefront of devolution, which will give it the long-term control it deserves over the skills system, rather than facing changes each time a new Government is put in place.

“It is devolution because we believe in it ideologically, but also because it enables us to deliver what businesses say they want,” says Highfield.

“For instance, there has been a frustration with the centralised learner-led education system rather than industry-led. That is on its way to changing quite profoundly in Sheffield

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City Region. It is a lot like turning an oil tanker around, but there is now a direction of travel.

“Devolution and the Northern Powerhouse are both relatively new game-changers politically, but they are things we have been arguing for over quite a while here. It is up to cities to know what they need and negotiate for it – which is quite a liberating place to be.

“The idea that London and the South are the only economic engine for the UK is just not sustainable. If we can get Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield connected better and punching their weight then you have an economic entity about the size of London, which leads the way for a much more ambitious ask.”

It was the chance to work closely with City Council chief executive Bob Kerslake (now Baron Kerslake of Endcliffe) that brought Highfield to the city in 2004. Now he admits to his role being his dream job – although, along with thousands of Sheffield businesses, he looks forward to the payback from a period of tight financial management.

“Sheffield has some phenomenal assets. It would be such a different place without two such world-class universities. And the fact that we can live a few minutes away from some of the best countryside in Britain and still work in a big urban authority is exceptional. Then there are the businesses like Forgemasters and Alcoa.

“We are doing some truly stunning things and still don’t shout enough about it.

“The best thing about my job is that I get to be a small cog in that machine.”

Perhaps not quite that small, Highfield. As with all cogs, they each rely on the other doing its job. Without a Highfield in the production process, connected to a Creative Sheffield and turning the City Council wheels which in turn mesh with aspirational businesses, the Sheffield machine would grind to a halt. n

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Sheffield Winter Garden

INTERVIEW

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My involvement with different aspects of business has been a massive plus

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SME BREAKTHROUGH

INTERVIEW

INTRODUCING A NEW KIND OF BANKER Santander’s head of manufacturing in the UK, Charles Garfit, gives his assessment of the sector to BQ editor Mike Hughes As head of manufacturing, Charles Garfit’s brief is to understand the sector and make sure it has everything it needs, and engage with companies wherever possible.

“We want the sector to know that we are in the marketplace for them and know what we stand for. A lot has changed, but manufacturers are still wary of the banks given the experiences they have had around 2008.

But they continue to be receptive because they recognise we weren’t part of that and my belief is that they are starting to understand Santander is in this for the long term and is a bank they can trust.

“Breakthrough is a huge help with that support because it is a fresh initiative and enables us to offer SMEs what other organisations were reserving only for their largest customers. We can help them build a business and then evolve it and grow it.” Whatever size a business is, growth means survival. The search for the right balance sheet, new orders, new markets, new skills and new products is lifelong. That means exports should play a part at some stage. With the web, new markets are a click away, but the voice of experience is always invaluable.

“It can be a very lonely old world out there for them jumping on planes and going to strange places. But through our Trade Portal and Trade Club online and our trade missions, we can really help with that, which is particularly helpful to the manufacturing sector.”

Garfit has one of those CVs that embodies

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experience. From head of asset disposal at Lombard in the late 1990s, through five years at asset consultants Henry Butcher and a largescale business review as MD of SHM Smith Hodgkinson, he joined Santander in 2010 as director of asset management. He moved up to be head of asset finance and then took his current role in January last year.

“My involvement with different aspects of business has been a massive plus,” he says. ”Santander are good at employing extremely seasoned bankers, but also at taking people from more diverse backgrounds and putting them into the banking arena.

“I have great empathy with people running an SME because I have run one myself. From the work I did in my own career, I have experience of a wide variety of different manufacturing processes and businesses.

“But I didn’t think twice about joining the banking sector because I was captivated and interested in the Santander story and I enjoy the passion and enthusiasm from the whole build process.

“Banking has changed a lot over the last few years and is now a much more personal and involved experience for SMEs. But it is also realistic about what it can and can’t do. Its great problem, in my opinion, is that it had tried to do far, far, far too much and ended up doing some things badly.”

That honesty marks Garfit out as clearly an example of Banker 2.0 - the much improved

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version of Banker 1.0 who sat above his customers and whose sole job seemed to be to make sure everyone gave him as much of their money as possible. The game has changed and it was a key part of that change that banks took a long hard look at themselves and built a different sort of sector. Back to the manufacturing, Garfit’ says: “Manufacturing has an increasingly important part to play because, from the Prime Minister downwards, everyone realises that you can’t just ‘service industry’ your way to prosperity.

“The sector now can stand up tall and very proud across many of the disciplines. It now understands what it is and what it stands for.

“Teamwork has a big role to play when we are working with companies – it has to be a twoway relationship because a lot of firms are still cautious, which is understandable given what they have experienced.

“But let’s make no bones about it – their prosperity is our prosperity and if we are doing it right then our figures will speak for themselves, and they are, having grown steadily over the last five or six years to make us a force in corporate and commercial banking.

As he tells me: “I am passionate about my work and thoroughly enjoy what I do and with whom I do it. I think I am very lucky to do my job and I continue to be very interested in the things I am seeing in the manufacturing sector.” n

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OVERVIEW

HANSELMAN IDEAS MAN BQ editor Mike Hughes gets a 3D view of the business world from Andy Hanselman You can almost picture the TV advert for Andy Hanselman. Blue-sky business meeting a little overcast? Feeling damp after dipping your toes in the ideas pool? Just add Hanselman to your daily meetings for a brighter result!

That’s what Hanselman does, and why he is in demand across the region. He wakes you up and makes you realise that what you’re listening to could actually be quite interesting. Even the intro on his webpage has two exclamation marks: Hello There! Thanks for dropping by! He and wife Jill run a small consultancy from their Sheffield offices, helping businesses improve their performance by being 3D Dramatically and Demonstrably Different.

“People value the opportunity to get together with different sectors to talk business”, said Andy. “I just help break down some walls between those businesses and the powers that be. It’s not that people are always saying different things – they just don’t get enough chances to say them together.”

His business, which mainly covers Yorkshire and the North East, is based around entrepreneurialism, whether that is new and ambitious companies or larger, more established ones that want to rediscover the entrepreneurial energy that got them where they are.

“They all find benefit in getting in someone from outside to look at how they perform. It is obviously a fresh pair of eyes, but also, I have been doing this for 20 years now, so there is a fair chance I have seen their issues somewhere else and can find a solution for them.

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“A lot of my time is spent getting ideas from other people that can be used, rather than always presume it will be my own ideas from day one. So if one of the company’s own team has a strong idea, I can help put that into practice.”

But it can be a tough gig, drawing on all those 20 years, to open the door to the boardroom on the first day and be accepted as a person who can make change happen.

“There is a lot of groundwork before that first day before you start getting the employees to understand why you are there and that their voice really counts.

“I am being invited into these workplaces, so there is a receptiveness and a recognised need for something to happen, but equally there are workers who are not sure what is going to happen, but are hopefully pleasantly surprised when I come up with my ideas.“ Hanselman started off with ‘a proper job’ working down Dinnington pit and doing his A-levels at night school. Then he moved into quarrying and aggregate and met someone who ran a small consultancy.

“I joined him as this sort of runaround apprentice and learned a hell of a lot very quickly. I had always thought about a consultancy and then this chance came up to jump in and have a go.

“I think that sort of background gave me the passion to try to change things and make something of the mess the mining closures left behind. We helped a lot of redundant miners who were setting up their own businesses.

Some would never have done that if they

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hadn’t had to, but did very well with it all.

“There were opportunities that came out of it, but also a lot of struggle.”

The company still works with a lot of startups, with Jill building a young entrepreneurs network called Next Generation Sheffield, linking them with established entrepreneurs , and the recent launch of Hanselman’s Cream programme – Creating Results for young Entrepreneurs And Managers.

“My job is a mix of working directly with firms and doing the public speaking,” he explains.

“Half the fun for me is that I can be speaking to 400 people at a conference one day and then sit down to help a growing Sheffield company the next, seeing what is really happening in businesses. I like the big events because you get a buzz, but some of the clients we work with have been with us for 20 years, so it is very rewarding to see the next generation carrying it forward.

“Either way, people don’t just hand over money without getting something from it.

With conferences and events it is all about reaction and feedback and with businesses it is tangible results and improving profits – whether that is by improving customer satisfaction levels or employee engagement.

“Sometimes we get brought in to sort out a customer service problem, but as soon as you start looking at the business, you realise there is a leadership issue.

“As a starter for ten, we use a model where we look for a balance between having sufficient happy customers, committed, motivated and effective employees and

OVERVIEW maximising returns. There’s a triangle there and typically we will get people to score their own business out of ten in those areas.

“It is quite frightening sometimes that people who work together every day score it very differently. There is a split between working in the business or on the business. Everyone works in it as a job, but sometimes you have to step out for a while and work on the business with people like us.”

Andy Hanselman is his own product. He admits to not being the most organised person, doesn’t like the buttoned-down shirt and tie approach and jokes he once turned up late for a time-management course.

But the freedom he gives himself is paying dividends for his own business as well as that of his clients. He is sector-agnostic, believing that corporate problems can be found across all areas – leadership in a three-man welding operation can be as good or as bad as leadership of a 5,000-strong workforce. He just asks that his clients are open to change.

“There are some very forward-thinking leaders across Yorkshire and clearly some that are more traditional. But the forward-thinkers mean there are some very good things going on, certainly around Sheffield.”

The future is also looking good, Hanselman has the Cream network to work on and is planning an online diagnostic tool, so business can mark themselves against the seven 3D characteristics. “I think I am an optimist by nature anyway, but there is a lot of cause for optimism out there,” he says. If some of that optimistic spirit can be translated into investment and then into profit, the region is wellplaced for the highest level of devolution. n

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AS I SEE IT

A BIG COMPANY FOR SMALL BUSINESS Global giant Microsoft is helping thousands of SMEs grow their businesses. Senior programme manager Daniel Langton told Mike Hughes how it works Microsoft has a workforce a quarter the size of Sheffield’s entire population - 128,000 against 550,000. The maths-minded among you might point out that Sheffield actually has 4.296875 times more people. But you get my point....

Microsoft is huge. So it is a key part of their work to make SMEs in the region know they can help. It’s a big world market out there, but still made up of high streets, industrial estates, science parks, factories and businesses.

Boss by boss, people like Daniel Langton are

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getting the message across that technology matters if you are going to keep pace with your rivals.

Here’s another impressive stat: If you feed ‘Microsoft helps SMEs’ into Bing you will be offered 131,000,000 results, and on their own page the company says: “Make sure you’re ready to start a business by having the right technologies in place. Whether that’s to get more done, work better together, or you’re in need of the most up-to-date software, Microsoft Business is here to help you and your business become more efficient.”

Sticking to the web, Langton’s own LinkedIn definition of his role is neat and frank: “I’m shaping the way Microsoft engages with SME customers, and developing a world leading customer experience designed to accelerate the adoption of the latest technology, drive loyalty and revenue.”

When I get to listen to ‘Langton Unplugged’ after his session inside the Breakthrough Red Box in Sheffield, it soon becomes clear the passion is very much alive and genuine.

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“I look after a number of partnerships in the UK to help accelerate the growth of small and medium sized businesses. We think technology offers a real competitive advantage and want to make sure as many businesses as possible get the benefits – yet in some areas only 60% of small businesses have a website.

“So there is a huge gap in terms of the skills, technology and opportunities for SMEs. Cloud technology can really level the playing field for them. It is now not only the huge companies that have access to it.”

It shouldn’t really be an issue anymore, but perhaps SMEs in Yorkshire are so busy making ends meet that they can’t focus on one of the tools at their disposal and spare money and time for tech. “For a lot of them they don’t necessarily see the benefits,” said Langton.

“So part of our partnership with Santander is how we can bring all that to life?

“Technology can help people be more productive in what they are doing through access to the right tools to speed up work, but it can also revolutionise a business that puts it at the heart of its offering.

AS I SEE IT “What I love about my job is that, for example, I was working with British Airways the other day, who have thousands of Microsoft licences, yet that is exactly the same technology that a start-up or micro company can use .

“And we think that the cloud is another technology that is transforming the way businesses work. You can get rid of servers and all the management overheads and get ‘anywhere access’ to files and folders.”

Microsoft just needs that key element of engagement. Take a good walk through your processes, whether you are office-based or working on the factory floor. If you recognise areas that could be handled better with an injection of technology, then you are already halfway there.

“Everything from butcher shops to estate agents are online because they see that technology can help them do more of what they do and differentiate their business.

Innovative companies can do better than they have ever done before.

“For us it is very much a long-term relationship we are building. If we support businesses early on in their lifecycles and help them grow and develop in many areas, one of which is technology, then when it comes to evaluating where they are, they keep us in mind.

“We are fully committed and are now investing more in small businesses than we have ever done before.”

With 32,000 partners in the UK and 850 sites across the world, Microsoft’s network is of Web proportions. The reach is impressive, and priceless to ambitious SMEs, who seem to be ready to talk with Microsoft.

“Those 32,000 partners are all out there in local communities to help SMEs achieve more.

We have even more still to do, but we are investing at a local level.

“For me it is less about the complexities of technology and more about the impact it can have on people at that local level. I love technology, but it is more about what can be done with it. Most of my time is spent talking to people about how it can be used to transform a culture, rather than all the bells and whistles.

“It’s been a really positive engagement with Santander,” said Langton. “It is great to be working with a partner who is as committed to SMEs as ourselves. The response from the businesses has also been very positive.

“Many of them know they have to do something from a technology standpoint, they just didn’t know exactly what.”

Now those questions are being answered.

It is, again, all about problems and the

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If you recognise areas that could be handled better with an injection of technology, then you are already halfway there Breakthrough Box is giving added visibility to the solutions. There will be companies out there who have been living with a problem for years, from how to grow or find the right staff through to how to invest in the next piece of kit - and then how to pay for all of them.

Now the message is ....just ask, there will be a way forward. n

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INTERVIEW

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SME BREAKTHROUGH

INTERVIEW

THINKING INSIDE THE BOX After being described by his Santander colleagues as ‘Mr Breakthrough’ BQ editor Mike Hughes just had to meet Jonathan Rostron to look ahead to its evolution In the ongoing campaign to be ‘the different bank’ Santander’s red box is reaping rich rewards. From the first few weeks when it attracted only curious glances as it was set up beside some iconic landmarks (and fairly close to some competitors’ offices....) the arrival of the Breakthrough venue is becoming a recognised event.

It’s banking’s equivalent of the Tardis – materialising wherever help is needed.

I’ll resist the temptation to say that that makes Jonathan Rostron the new Doctor Who, but he is certainly at the controls of the whole Breakthrough initiative.

“We are engaging with businesses in a way that they have never been engaged with before in terms of creativity and innovation,” he tells me, explaining that is a new challenge for him after five years with Santander.

“I only became head of Breakthrough a couple of months ago after being area director in West Yorkshire. I was given a brief to strategically develop Breakthrough and then implement it across the UK, with a team of five staff dedicated to helping me do that.

“The whole initiative gives structure and content to the team to help them engage with businesses differently than standard day-today banking.

“My role, right across the bank, is to make

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sure we all come together to bring the five pillars (Finance; Talent; International; Knowledge and Connections) to life. Each of the team has responsibility for a pillar and I am the ‘glue’ that sticks it all together and stops the bank operating in silos.

“It all started back in 2011 when we asked how we, as an ambitious growing bank, can access future customers and enhance relationships with existing customers.

“It sounds really obvious, but we talked to our customers, and asked them what was really important and made a difference to them running their business. And that was distilled down to the five pillars.

“John Williams led it all until I took over and it has now been taken right down to street level to make it come alive in the regions. It has to be very local and run by the local teams.

“My day-to-day job as area director had been working with businesses to help them achieve their ambitions, so I had a very practical view of what needed to be done.”

This was an important element for Santander – that Breakthrough quickly became respected and known at a granular level and not just as a poster-led idea. It had to have obvious practical benefits for SMEs in the regions and not become a target for people to be able to say ‘That’s all very impressive, but I’ve still got

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to pay for my new milling machine’.

“Our customers right across the UK should be able to have exactly the same experience of Breakthrough,” says Rostron.

“They will want to access Breakthrough wherever they do business and our local teams will want to offer all that it has.”

Rostron’s team also has to strike the right balance when they bring in the big guns – partners like Edinburgh Playhouse, McLaren, Saatchi and AutoTrader – to help get the message across. Too much style and not enough substance and they would lose their audience pretty quickly.

“We know that businesses have to gain practical advice from all of our sessions no matter who is leading them. They could be PR agencies, recruitment, precision engineering it has to be relevant for all of them and come under one or all of the pillars.

“For instance, McLaren has a really strong culture of what they are all about, which makes other business think what their culture is and what happens when they are not at work.

“That’s one way of looking at a company’s culture – it means what goes on when the boss is not around. How would my employees describe the culture of my business?

“The immediate issues are, of course, >>

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INTERVIEW things like products and pricing, but sometimes you need to reflect and have time to work on the business and ask if you are putting the customer first.”

One of the tests of that culture is the growing idea of allowing your staff unlimited time off.

Sounds terrifying, but it empowers the staff to self-regulate and gives a regularly updated reading of how they view their own company.

The work still has to be done, so there can be a fine line to tread between doing your job so well that you can take eight weeks a year off and the company won’t suffer.... or helping your boss realise that they could get the same out of you if they cut your hours.

“Marketing and IT companies seem to have embraced it first,” Rostron tells me, “but it is becoming more and more pervasive as an idea and is the sort of principle our customers get to hear about.

“We can help a business as far as their ambitions want to take them. That’s the only limiting factor and sometimes that immediate ambition is just to stabilise their company. But if they tell us they need to stabilise because their sales are falling, we can look at things like online presence to see how their shop window looks and what their marketing is like.

“The solution might be to take on an intern for three months to look at the options and perhaps revamp that shop window at the same time. There is always a way forward and something to be done, which is great news for the company and a great opportunity for those interns.

“Instead of trying to wait it out, we encourage firms to wade it out - wade out of the problem and harness the opportunity.”

Rostron can gauge his success because the long-term relationship with the businesses means he can easily tell how effective the injection of Breakthrough has been. But the trade missions which might follow a session with Trade Portal give strong feedback.

If a company is visiting Spain, Poland, Mexico, the USA or UAE for the first time, how did they get on, did they do business as a result?

How many orders, how much revenue involved for what investment?

“We are dealing with ambitious businesses and we want the work we are doing to contribute directly or indirectly to how

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We can help a business as far as their ambitions want to take them. That’s the only limiting factor

that business performs. If we have helped a business understand the international opportunities that exist, we have succeeded with one of the key pillars.

“We are relationship bankers, not just in it for a quick deal. When you think about going international or taking on staff, these are fundamentally long-term decisions that have long-term ramifications for how you structure and operate your business.

“And Breakthrough is still blossoming. It started in the UK very heavily backed by Ana Botín, who is now chairwoman of the organisation worldwide, so it is being taken around the world and becoming the way of engaging with SMEs in all the countries in which we operate.

“I think pre-2008 banks got too caught up in doing deals rather than understanding relationships, and I think there has since been a market correction leading to them needing to understand those relationships better. It means you can understand the business needs well before the profit and loss figures arrive on your desk.”

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There is a lot to be said for the Captain Mainwaring way of banking, where you could bump into each other in the street and have a chat, he could have handled your parents’ banking so would look after yours and would know you personally. That’s proper banking, and a pretty solid model to follow.

“It’s a brilliant job to have – absolutely engaging and I love it,” said Rostron.

“The scope of it is massive and I have great plans for where I want to go – like the £40m Enterprise Ventures fund we have just launched in Manchester, which is a great step forward.

“Breakthrough is constantly evolving and responding with innovations like this. That’s the beauty of it. There’s no straitjacket, it can pivot-move-pivot-move in response to needs often within 24 hours.”

The straitjacket is off, and a global bank is responding inventively to individual needs within 24 hours. That’s the new banking that Santander has created, owned and evolved. n

SME BREAKTHROUGH

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OVERVIEW Mike Hughes finds out about another way Santander support is helping small businesses

FILLING A FUNDING GAP Enterprise Ventures, which specialises in providing finance for small businesses in the regions, has launched a new private capital loan fund with £40m backing from Santander UK plc and Greater Manchester Pension Fund.

Enterprise Ventures SME Loans will provide up to £1m to established and ambitious SMEs in all sectors and in all areas of the UK, building on Enterprise Ventures’ strongholds in Yorkshire and Humberside and the North West. The launch of the new fund brings Enterprise Ventures’ total funds under management to £200m. Chief executive Jonathan Diggines said: “Enterprise Ventures SME Loans represents a significant new institutional source of investment into the SME market, one which is not subject to the constraints of other Government and European funds.

“We recognise the important role that small businesses play in providing services and employment within local communities,

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developing new ideas and technologies, and strengthening regional economies.

“The backing by Santander UK and Greater Manchester Pension Fund supports our aim of providing better access to finance for small businesses and their commitment is highly innovative.”

Santander’s investment is part of its Breakthrough initiative, a unique suite of financial and non-financial services and products for the country’s most ambitious businesses. Damian McGann, divisional managing director - North of England, at Santander Corporate & Commercial said: “SMEs need access to multiple sources of finance, our support of Enterprise Ventures allows us to fill a gap in the market and provide a breadth of innovative solutions for all ambitious SMEs. SMEs are the lifeblood of the UK economy, helping to create jobs and drive local economic growth. Santander has been a consistent supporter of businesses in

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the UK, with lending over the last four years growing by an average of 20% per annum.”

Enterprise Ventures SME Loans are available now to established businesses anywhere in the UK which have been trading for three years or more and which have current or anticipated £100k operating profit and a minimum turnover of £1 million.

Loans will be available for all purposes, including acquisitions, asset purchases, operational improvement and business development. Enterprise Ventures, which has offices in Dodworth, near Barnsley, as well as Liverpool, Manchester and Preston, is one of the leading providers of venture capital, growth capital and loans to small businesses in the UK. It handles funding for start-ups, including management break-outs, investment for growth or development capital, management buy-outs (MBO) or management buy-ins (MBI), acquisition financings and replacement capital. n

SME BREAKTHROUGH