|
Strategy, training and finance were the key issues discussed at How-Do’s first Creative Business Forum in Manchester. Peter Baber reports on a forum which gathered together around 80 of the region’s creative industries’ owners and MDs.
The feedback subsequently received for this invitation-only affair confirmed it was a highly successful event. The second Creative Business Forum, which is being held in Liverpool on Thursday 22 October at the Contemporary Urban Centre, has a few places remaining. For enquiries about attending, please contact Dunstan Carter at dunstan@how-do.co.uk
The problems of how to build and measure a business strategy, how far to train your staff, and whether the training industry is currently supplying the market as it should, were all discussed at the forum in Manchester – as was the perennial topic of where to get funding for your business. Supported by:
And round table sponsors
The event and lunch was supported by Creative Manchester at the Manchester Metropolitan University and Business Link Northwest with Barclays Bank and law firm George Davies additionally supporting the roundtable discussions.
Around 80 creative industry leaders from the North West were invited to take part in the discussion at Urbis in Manchester, which was chaired by broadcaster Jim Hancock and featured a panel comprised of Alex Connock, chief executive of Ten Alps; Code Computer Love managing director Tony Foggett; Lawrence Jones, managing director of UKFast; and Godfrey Taylor, former senior partner at Deloitte and now chairman of Hasgrove plc, Manchester’s only listed media company. Prior to the panel discussion, John Young, the North West agent for the Bank of England gave an overview of the UK economy from the Bank's perspective.
 Hancock
Both Connock and Taylor said small agencies should not be put off by the constant changes in the digital industry. Connock referred to the military strategist Clausewitz who said the fog of war was an opportunity, not a problem. And Taylor pointed out that a revolution like the one we are currently going through “gives the small guys a chance to compete with the big players”. “That doesn’t normally happen,” he said. “Once you have four or five global players, that’s it.”
Jones thought making a strategy was incredibly important, revealing that he has even set a 50-year plan with his wife. “If you haven’t got a map, how can you arrive there?” he said. “In business generally we don’t set enough goals. But make sure you have smaller goals along the journey.”
But Foggett warned that too much strategising could be harmful. Code only looks at the most two years ahead, he said. “Too much focus on measuring can undermine creativity,” he said, “which comes from making mistakes.”
Mike Perls, chief executive of MC2, revealed that he had been wondering to what extend his PR agency should move into social media. Both Foggett and Connock said they believed social media was ultimately a game for PR people, although they would probably have to become more technologically savvy. “If I were running a PR agency the service I would offer above all is the protection of my online reputation,” said Connock. “If I am talking to someone on a phone I can hear them typing away to find out who I am on Google. So before the call is even over, they have got from Google whatever Google says about me. So my first PR job would be to make sure the first hit is an attractive one.”
However Taylor warned that in choosing to diversify, “you don’t take people who are very good at digital work and try to make them PR people”. “You have groups of connected specialists,” he said.
 Connock
Three years ago Ten Alps had taken the unusual step of buying a business contract publishing company. “Lots of people said we were mad,” he said. “We did it first for protection of revenues, but also because we saw how the world was changing. If you are a TV producer you are largely a story teller, and the world was changing to where stories were largely being told online, so we needed to own some channels ourselves. Within a year we were the biggest contract publisher in Britain.”
Another question brought up in the morning’s round table was to what extent you should provide training for your staff. Some delegates to the round table had suggested that it would be foolish to provide too much, because staff would only up sticks and work for someone else as soon as they were properly trained.
 Foggett
Jones agreed. “People are learning at work,” he said. “It’s when they stop learning that they think it is time to leave.”
Discussing training also brought some difference of opinion about how well current education providers in the industry are serving the industry. Connock thought there was possibly too much training going on. “There are thousands of people qualifying every year just in topics that are related to media,” he said, “but there aren’t that many media jobs. One of the issues about Media City is that there is more training going towards it than there are jobs that can be fulfilled there with only one big employer. If I was advising funders I would say reengineer your resources away from training and into employment, by finding another big employer on the scale of the BBC who will locate there. Because what we see in Manchester is a net loss of talent around the 21 to 23 age group.”
However Foggett said that while there might be adequate training for traditional media such as TV production, universities were “doing a woeful job” in training people in the kind of work Code specialises in.
Connock, who is a governor of Manchester Metropolitan University, said that was partly an issue of staffing. “One challenge universities have is resourcing courses that are high end enough to keep up with the pace of life,” he said. “You need to have cutting edge instructors, and there is shortage of those in industry, never mind on academic salaries.”
Foggett countered by warning that the industry was moving so fast that as soon someone left industry to go into academia they would lose touch with what was happening. A happy medium would have to be reached.
There was also some difference of opinion on just how hard it was to find funding for your business. In part inspired by the talk given just before the forum by Bank of England agent John Young, Taylor was pessimistic. “Banks are shrinking their balance sheets at a speed which is frightening - 12 to 15 per cent a year, which is faster than in the 1930s,” he said. “If that carries on, bank finance will be replaced by equity finance, and what that means is credit is going to be tougher to get.”
 Jones
Connock insisted banks were still lending, a number of them - including Barclays he quickly added! - had all at least been to see him in the past fortnight, but it was a fundamentally different atmosphere from what people might have been used to. “They want to give you funds on two or three times EBITDA which is not the same as the eight times profit they were offering two years ago,” he said. “So if you want to buy someone your firepower is only two times EBITDA, and if someone is buying you they will offer much lower multiples than you might expect.”
The stock market had not proved useful for small media companies, he said, although there could be as much as £100m of public money coming through the North West Development Agency next year.
The final round table had discussed intellectual property, and in particular whether it might ever be possible to have pitches that were entirely based on credentials and not creativity, so that agencies might not worry that their ideas might be stolen. The round table had concluded that such a panacea, while appealing, was unlikely, because someone would always slip some creative work in.
But Sandy Lindsay, managing director of Tangerine PR, said she had been heartened by one recent pitch battle where the client had offered to pay the losing bidders for their ideas. Surprisingly, one agency had turned the offer down – perhaps because it was such a novel idea. Panel member biographies
Alex Connock, chief executive, Ten Alps plc
Alex is chief executive of Ten Alps Plc. He co-founded the company in 1999 with Bob Geldof and secured an AIM listing in 2001. His earlier years were spent in TV and radio production with the BBC, Granada and Planet 24. Ten Alps has made numerous acquisitions and is now a leading independent factual media producer of high-quality TV, online TV and B2B content.
Godfrey Taylor, chairman, Hasgrove plc
Godfrey is the co-founder and non-executive chairman of Hasgrove plc. He was previously the Senior Partner of Deloitte and Touche (formerly Arthur Andersen) based in Manchester from 1997 to 2003 with responsibility for 30 partners and 700 personnel. He also has property and sports interests. Hasgrove, whose portfolio of companies includes The Chase and Amaze, is one of the UK’s leading independent marketing services groups.
Lawrence Jones, managing director, UKFast
Lawrence is the co-founder and managing director of UKFast. Along with his wife Gail (a co-director), Lawrence set up UKFast in 1999 to fill a gap in the UK hosting sector. Lawrence saw an opportunity to establish his business at the heart of a burgeoning industry and the company has subsequently grown year on year. In 2008 UKFast was ranked number 28 nationally in Deloitte’s Fast 50 list.
Tony Foggett, managing director, Code Computerlove
Tony set up Code in 1999 with fellow directors Louis Georgiou and Wini Tse. The company has grown into a multi-million pound turnover business delivering award winning digital marketing solutions for clients including HMV, Waterstone's, NUS, Crown Paints, PZ Cussons, LEX, First TransPennine Express and the Kimberly Clark Corporation. He is also helping the region to nurture up and coming digital talent, tutoring in and working with educational establishments throughout the North West.
John Young, Bank of England
John joined the Bank of England in 1998 after working for twenty years in economic research and advisory roles for UK and international banks in London. He was appointed as Agent for the North West in June 2009.
Something to add? Then leave a comment below or email us now.
Sponsored links:
|
