Tag: Innovation

Home / Innovation / Page 8

In conversation: Northumbrian Water Group hosts its first Innovation Festival

Next week will see Northumbrian Water Group host its first Innovation Festival – five days of sprint activity taking leading design thinking techniques, developed by global tech leaders, and applying them to making a real difference to people’s lives.

Nigel Watson, Director of Information Services at Northumbrian Water Group answers some questions about the festival…

What’s the innovation festival all about?

Northumbrian Water Group’s Innovation Festival is all about bringing together the brightest minds, with the right experience and expertise, to find solutions to some of our most important environmental and social challenges. We want to do this in an environment that allows creativity to flourish, with wellbeing sessions in the morning and entertainment to help people relax on an evening. The whole thing will be set in the marquee village at Newcastle Racecourse.
We’re going to be tackling issues such as flooding, water leakage, living and working in 2030, mobile workforce challenges and more.
Additionally, by running all of this activity in one place I believe we will find that ideas and inspiration will cross pollinate between the different sprint tents. Sometimes the best ideas come from somewhere totally unexpected and it’s really exciting to see this happen. We’ll even have Busy Bees, actively moving between the tents, taking ideas with them and helping this to happen.

There are six problems that you’re hoping to find solutions to by bringing big businesses together with SMEs, academia and your teams – this will be open innovation in action. Why do you think this type of collaborative working is important? Do you think we need to see more of it?

We definitely need to see more of this type of collaboration. No one person or company holds all the answers and if you ignore the experience of customers, suppliers, other businesses and academics, you close your mind to all sorts of possibilities.
The involvement of customers is particularly important for any business, because if your innovation does not meet the needs of the people who receive your service or use your product then what real use is it? You have to listen to customers to understand those needs and having them in the sprints when you’re coming up with ideas is equally valuable.
The NWG Innovation Festival is supported by IBM, Microsoft, CGI Group, BT, Reece Innovation and Ordnance Survey, with another more than 20 other organisations, from the business and academic worlds, also backing things. That shows a massive will from around the world to make this type of innovation happen and that’s incredibly encouraging.

This will be a pretty intense week – was that deliberate – do you find it helps to maintain focus?

We normally run one sprint a month, so this actually represents six months of our normal innovation schedule in one week. Sure, it’s going to be intense at times, but that’s why we’ve built everything into a festival atmosphere. It will be a week that mixes that intensity with relaxation and enjoyment.

The methodology of sprints is deliberately designed in this way, cramming the right minds into a space for a set period of time with the intention of cracking the problem. I’m sure most people have been in the situation where the process of innovation has involved a long, drawn-out series of meetings and the time from the realisation that there is a problem to the delivery of a solution has been measured in years.

With a sprint, the idea is that you walk into a room with a problem and walk back out with an idea that can be taken forward. The potential of that happening in six sprints at the NWG Innovation Festival is incredibly exciting.

You can find out more about Northumbrian Water Group’s Innovation Festival here.

Home / Innovation / Page 8

City Limits – Does location affect innovation?

Laura White, Communications Manager at the Innovation SuperNetwork, asks this question to John Hildreth, Business Growth and Investment Manager at Arch, Northumberland’s development company and member of the network.

Q. From market towns and industrial estates to far-flung farming communities and seaside spots, you work with businesses in a wide range of settings in Northumberland. Does location affect innovation?

Innovation knows no bounds. Not least the difference between the urban and rural economies. Government figures back up my personal experience as someone who works with rural businesses in Northumberland on a daily basis – these days location have little effect on levels of innovation.

There has also been a blurring of the lines between the types of industries investing in innovation in rural areas. A glance at the leading companies shaping Northumberland reveals names and sectors some might find surprising in a rural area.

Healthcare & life sciences, advanced engineering, renewable energy and even subsea & offshore are among the sectors thriving in the area, with Northumberland today being called home by businesses that have located from countries around the world.

Q. Does this mean a move away from traditional rural industries such as tourism and agriculture? Are our rural areas are becoming less distinct from our urban counterparts?

Not in Northumberland. Agricultural activities and tourism, particularly in areas such as Kielder, coastal locations and North Northumberland, still form the building blocks of the economy. But these emerging new sectors are helping the area to diversify.

Q. So why here? Why are countless innovative companies such as Piramal, Aesica, The Specials Labs and MSD, choosing to put down roots in Northumberland?

The answer is simple – it’s easier to innovate here than ever before. Of course improvements can always still be made, but many of the challenges associated with doing business in rural areas can now be overcome and opportunities can be properly harnessed:

• Connectivity. Poor internet connection used to pose a major challenge to businesses in Northumberland but services have radically changed. In fact the iNorthumberland scheme aims to bring superfast broadband to 95% of the county by the end of 2017
• Skills acquisition. Today there is a much better spread of skills across the county. Diversification in business sectors has brought new skills and expertise to the area
• Flexible working practices. Improved connectivity means employees can work remotely while remaining connected to their global customer base
• Business support. Specific support is targeted at rural businesses, for example the North East Rural Growth Network, delivered by Arch, is designed to support small rural businesses with capital investment projects. In 2015, the Rural Growth Network secured £6 million capital investment from the North East LEP.
• Quality of life. Northumberland’s lifestyle offer has always been a big draw and when you couple its coast, castles and rolling hills with the offer of a good job and connectivity, companies here can attract – and retain – world-leading talent.

Q. Given all of that, it is no surprise then to see innovative companies investing to increase their innovation capacity. Can you give us a few success stories from across the area?

We’ve lots to choose from but here are three examples of businesses we’ve supported recently to achieve their growth plans.

1. Arcinova is a leading global provider of research and development services to the pharmaceutical industry. The company has recently worked with the Arch Business team to secure rural growth funding in order to increase its capabilities by developing its Alnwick facility. The £60,000 grant will help to develop an additional revenue stream to complement their existing capabilities. The project includes the construction of a 20L API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) manufacturing plant, a suite of new drug development services and the creation of at least 30 high-quality jobs over the next few years.

The funding has helped the company to accelerate its strategy for growth as it seeks to provide world-beating technology services in contract research, development and small scale manufacturing from one site. This move will help its UK and international customers progress their projects through the drug development process efficiently and with minimum risk, which is a key consideration when innovating in the pharmaceutical sector.

2. Northumberland’s track-record in innovating in the rural economy also extends to other rural areas including Berwick-upon-Tweed where Maden Eco Ltd, a specialist in a range of renewable technologies and their different applications; is innovating in areas such as solar panel and biomass boiler installation, production of eco-friendly wood fuel, and the construction of eco-friendly homes.

3. Alongside this, Innovision Global, based near Ashington, develops products for pedestrian accessibility and safety. The product range encompasses tactile surfaces for the partially sighted, anti-slip step nosings and wayfinding systems. These products are based on a unique polymer which, when combined with a catalyst, forms an amazingly strong molecular bond with all existing floor surfaces.

Q. Can you tell us a little more about how Arch is helping to encourage innovation in rural areas?

Recognising the importance of innovation in the rural economy, Business Northumberland has embedded the theme as a key pillar across its programme of activity. Our aim is to level the playing field to ensure Northumberland based companies have the opportunities and the capability to achieve whatever they want, wherever they want to do it.
Click here to explore grant incentives in a rural location and to keep up to date with the latest funding calls.

About the author

John and the Arch team have a county-wide remit to attract investment, deliver development and implement regeneration. The Arch Business service includes tailored packages of support for businesses locating in Northumberland as well as a dedicated service to help local businesses realise their growth potential. These services include Business Northumberland a fully funded business support programme, part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), aimed at helping businesses understand their growth aspirations and achieve them

About the Innovation SuperNetwork

The Innovation SuperNetwork is a unique network supporting innovation and business growth across the North East of England. Its programme is developed with around 50 partner organisations and is supported by Innovate UK, the North East LEP, Northumbrian Water Group and the North East BIC, with part funding from the European Regional Development Fund. The Innovation SuperNetwork delivers inspiring events including VentureFest North East and FinanceCamp, helps businesses explore new opportunities through projects such as Innovation Challenge and supports collaboration by creating links between sectors and bodies of expertise.

Home / Innovation / Page 8

Catherine Johns of Business Durham takes a look at the success of the satellite applications sector in the North East

“Satellites? Here in the North East?”

Three years ago, the North East won a contract to host a Satellite Applications Centre of Excellence (CoE), the bid led by Business Durham.

We already had some interesting businesses in the space sector. Mars Curiosity Rover: Radiation detector chip on board, courtesy of Kromek plc. Experiments on the International Space Station: Look no further than REPROCell.

So why a Satellite Applications CoE? A day without satellites is a rather inconvenient one, yet the data that streams back at us from these assets is not fully exploited commercially. Secure satcomms can reduce waiting times for health screening results from days to hours. RealSafe, here in the North East, has developed an app that uses GPS to inform emergency services if a biker is involved in a crash. There are huge opportunities to develop new products and services using satellite data.

Over the last three years, the CoE has engaged with 345 businesses, 84% of which were not in the space sector and, for every £1 invested by the Catapult, £18 has been secured for businesses in the North East. The United Kingdom Space Agency also awarded Business Durham the North East Space Incubation Programme, and we also secured some EU Interreg funding for space and photonics.

But we’ve barely scratched the surface. In the last six months, we have shifted to a challenge-led approach – rather than saying “ain’t space cool”, we’ve been saying that we want to use satellite data to make us feel safer in the world, looking at our food chain, our water, how we move around the planet. It’s working: anyone who was at the Satellite Applications conference in March saw how we used challenges around 5G, ports and logistics, and transport as platforms for discussion.

The result is that the Catapult and the UK Space Agency have extended our contract for another three years, based on the “Satellites for Safer World” theme. This will use the conference as a springboard for collaboration, drawing together government, academia, communities and businesses to solve the problems that matter to us.

Business Durham manages the Satellite Applications Centre of Excellence, which is funded by the Satellite Applications Catapult and the United Kingdom Space Agency. The consortium consists of Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside Universities, the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, Concision, e2E Services, Bon Accord and Harland, and is chaired by Telespazio Vega.

Home / Innovation / Page 8

In conversation: The value of university spinouts

Dr Tim Hammond is Director of Commercialisation & Economic Development, Research and Innovation Services at Durham University. Here, he discusses the quality and value of university spinouts and the collaborative research commercialisation project recently launched by Durham and Newcastle Universities:

“A recent article in Money Week highlights the growth in value of spin-out companies that have arisen from research at UK universities, whose combined turnover is now £1.84bn per annum and rising. The article goes on to describe how academics and their parent universities are increasingly embracing the idea of setting up new firms to exploit their discoveries. It is also refreshing to see that amongst the spin-out stars of the future that the article highlights, that alongside the “Golden Triangle” Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial spin-outs, Durham University spin-out Kromek Limited is also tipped for success.

Recognising that still more can be done to create north east companies like Kromek, Newcastle and Durham Universities have recently launched their collaborative research commercialisation project.

With strong support from the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), and part funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), this project sets out to attract experienced, dynamic business leaders to work with University spin-out ventures at an early stage, working alongside the founding academic and technology transfer offices to develop and lead a strong management team to take the business forward. The project targets the creation of 15 successful, high technology spin-out companies by October 1, 2019.

The ultimate objective of the project is the creation of a new innovation-based eco-system where talented business leaders will be attracted to high-tech, innovative commercial opportunities both created and developed in the north east of England. Through contracting highly skilled experts at the pre-commercial funding stage, this project will allow the universities to attract a suitable person to the venture at an early stage, thus giving university start-ups a much greater chance at success.”

For individuals interested in engaging with this project, please contact:

Newcastle University: David Huntley
Durham University: Michael Bath 

Dr Tim Hammond is Director Commercialisation & Economic Development, Research and Innovation Services at Durham University. He also sits on the North East LEP Innovation Board.

A chemist by background, Tim has broad industrial experience working within research and product development within large corporates including ICI and Astra Zeneca, and at technical director Level, within a local plc (Applied Optical Technologies).

Home / Innovation / Page 8

In conversation with Alan Lowdon

In his latest blog post, Alan Lowdon, Chair of our Innovation Board discusses championing the North East as a place to live, study and work.

In January of this year, I had the privilege of visiting Laude College near (snowy) Marbella, Spain. The college is an international school spanning years 6 to 13. The trip was organised by Mike Burrett, Vice-chairman of the Durham University Energy Institute (DEI) Advisory Board and formed part of their outreach activities. Mike and his family live in the vicinity of the college. The trip was fully supported by the international office of Durham University. Accompanying us on the trip was second year Durham MEng student, Kitty Stacpool.

Our aim was to raise awareness of the UK university system, its benefits, its draw-backs and, in particular, to promote Durham University as a place to consider when making the important choice of where to study. Not only did we fly the flag for Durham, we championed the cause for the North East of England as a fantastic place to live, study and work.

The main event saw us present to some 200 students assembled in the sports hall, covering years 9 to 13. Kitty stole the show with her anecdotes about student life – lectures, college life, sports, societies and socialising. She was also able to impart a serious amount of information about the science and engineering courses on offer and answer the question as to how fast the university wifi was! Mike and me provided the ‘seasoned input’ and described the importance of degrees and apprenticeships to future career advancement. The whole approach was seen as highly innovative by the school staff as it had never been tried before; the student response was superb. This was emphasised when we circulated sheets of paper during the Q&A session in order to give everyone – the confident and the shy – the opportunity to pose their questions. Over 90 were received! Answers to these have been formulated and returned to the school to put on display so the students can see the answers to the questions they posed.

The return leg is scheduled for the summer when 20 or so students from Laude will make the trip to the North East to see first-hand the facilities at Durham University and the wider North East. Demand is set to outstrip supply! There’s nothing better than experiencing the real thing!

It’s very rewarding to ‘give back’ to the system which has served us so well in our careers. Witnessing the enthusiasm in the eyes and voices of the Laude College students made the whole thing worthwhile, the snow in Marbella apart!

Home / Innovation / Page 8

In Conversation with Jacquie Potts, Managing Director, Marketwise Strategies

The Innovation SuperNetwork is a unique network supporting innovation and business growth across the North East. It delivers inspiring events including VentureFest North East and FinanceCamp, helps businesses explore new opportunities through projects such as Innovation Challenge and supports collaboration by creating links between sectors and bodies of expertise. It does this with the help of partners in business across the region. We spoke to one of those partners, Jacquie Potts of Marketwise Strategies who gave us her thoughts on how to de-risk your innovation.

Understanding is Power

What makes a new product or service innovation most likely to succeed – and how can the risks be reduced? It seems to me that, whilst what organisations ‘do’ around new product development (NPD) is crucial, what organisations – and the people running them – ‘believe’ is often worthy of a closer look.
As MD of Marketwise Strategies, which is in its seventeenth year of helping clients de-risk their innovations, I’ve worked with a vast range of organisations, across the UK and internationally: from technology companies to universities, major not-for-profits and some of the UK’s best-known public sector agencies.

Thinking upfront = value from research

What those clients (and their projects) have in common is some sort of ‘knowledge-focus’ and a risk that needs to be reduced. Together, those factors produce a need for robust, insightful research; into markets, customers, competitors and – often – into a whole range of wider issues that can shape the product or project’s success.
To get maximum value from their research, however, each client organisation needs to do some thinking upfront – and this is where beliefs and values, corporate culture and internal information flows can become incredibly important.

Beliefs really matter

Beliefs around new product development can make an enormous difference to the de-risking that takes place and how effective that is. Beliefs matter because they can lead to market research taking place at the wrong times, among the wrong audiences, and via entirely the wrong methods. Any one of those can send a new innovation ‘off course’.
So I would like to challenge a few of the beliefs that inhibit the de-risking process and that lead to faulty NPD decision making.
Three of the most common ‘unhelpful beliefs’ are that:
1. Market knowledge is power – and data will drive success
2. The main research need is to measure the market
3. The time to research the market is after you have developed the product.
Let’s consider those one by one.

1 Market knowledge is power – and data will drive success: At a time when data is increasingly available – and plentiful – it is easy to be seduced by the belief that the more data accumulated the better. What really matters, however, is developing actionable insights. In other words, understanding what is going on (in the market place, in competitor organisations and in the mind of the customer), what is influencing this, and what you can do to shape future events.

Data drawn from surveys, developed through data-mining exercises, or aggregated in dashboards cannot help to solve problems unless time is taken to understand it and to use it effectively. Unfortunately, it is increasingly common for organisations to be ‘drowning in data’ that they cannot easily analyse, interpret and therefore act upon. In that situation, what matters most is to step back and assess what you already have – or bring in some help to do that – before spending time or money on any further data/research.

2 The main research need is to measure the market. Among smaller businesses – and sometimes even among university spin-outs – this is a fairly common view and can lead to the ‘wrong kind’ of market research taking place. In essence, the danger is that all is measured, but little is understood: as not enough investigation takes place into why customers and markets behave in the ways that they do. This focus upon the ‘what’ rather than the ‘why’ produces shallow insights and can lead to:
(i) research being conducted twice (for example, if the initial, quantitative-focused work fails to spot important barriers to purchase).
(ii) a product/innovation progressing too far before being ‘killed’ – or even going to market with some very inaccurate assumptions in place.
Either scenario is expensive, compared to getting it right first time.

3 The time to research the market is after you have developed the product. This assumes a ‘one shot’ approach to NPD market research, rather than a – usually more effective – drip feed, that can inform each stage of the development process. If research is left quite late, then there is a greater risk that product prototypes, initial software developments or other potentially costly areas of spend will take place before customer requirements are properly understood.
To avoid this, we recommend a 5 Stages approach, made up of: Initial market scanning; detailed market scanning; ‘proving’ the market; market entry research, and post-launch market monitoring.

The Initial market scanning stage builds secure foundations for the NPD process and often acts as the first ‘stage gate’ for Go/No Go decisions. This can often be a DIY exercise, conducted internally, using mostly desk-based research and known contacts.
Detailed market scanning then adds the detail and validates assumptions about demand (current and potential), competition, technologies, trends etc. This stage can benefit from an independent perspective.

Proving the market involves more detailed customer research that will inform product/service design, the business model, pricing strategy, competitive positioning etc. This needs to uncover what ‘value’ really means to the customer and what barriers to purchase exist, as well as getting to grips with the competitive environment. The full range of ‘W’ questions should be brought into play: Who; What; How; Why; Where; and When. This type of research tends to be at its most effective when it is carried out independently.

Market entry research – to inform the details of going to market, such as brand strategy, promotional planning, pricing tactics and to help finalise marketing resource. This also acts as a useful check on any changes within the marketplace that might influence success. Very much tailored to the product and market, this stage tends to require a mix of methods and might involve a team – across the business – plus external market researchers and the marketing agency that is developing the brand and the promotional campaign.

Post-launch research is just as important as the earlier stages, in that it keeps the product or service on track for success. This can largely be built into day-to-day business operations, enabling low cost, data gathering and ongoing customer feedback.
Not every organisation requires every stage

And not every stage requires the same amount of detail. But being aware of those stages is a useful first step.
De-risking any new product or innovation is a balancing act between the degree of risk that is acceptable and the amount of resource needed to produce strategic, risk-reducing insights.

If the emphasis is upon understanding – and, importantly, upon timely understanding – then success is much more likely to follow.

About the author

Jacquie and her team at Marketwise Strategies help their clients to de-risk new product development, market entry, market positioning and business strategy decisions. Through detailed and robust, market and competitor research, this helps organisations, large and small, to move forward with confidence.

Home / Innovation / Page 8

In conversation: Alan Lowdon on the Global Entrepreneur Programme

In the latest of his regular updates, Alan Lowdon, Chair of our Innovation Board discusses his new role with the Department for International Trade’s Global Entrepreneur Programme (GEP) and his hopes for 2017.

At the end of the first month of the New Year, it’s pretty clear that this promises to be an intriguing 2017 around the world.

Talking about ‘around the world’, it was with great pleasure that in October last year I became an ‘ambassador’ or ‘dealmaker’ for the Department for International Trade’s Global Entrepreneur Programme (GEP), which seeks to identify and attract IP-rich, high-growth-potential start-up businesses to the UK.

A team of circa 25 of us practising entrepreneurs exists – covering various areas of specialisation – as the UK Government’s ‘entrepreneurs in residence’. Whereas the time commitment on paper is only a few days per month, the psychological commitment to promote the UK, and, in my case, the North East of England, as a landing place for such, more and better job-creating, businesses, is huge.

The GEP is unique in the world and I view my participation in it as my ‘National Service’. It meshes superbly with the other elements of my portfolio and allows me so join even more dots – the essence of innovation and entrepreneurship – for the benefit of both the UK and the North East!

In the North East, the innovation ecosystem has developed apace over the last two years alone! In my engagements, I proudly talk to would-be arrivals about the Catapult network, the National Centre for Ageing, the National Centre for Energy Systems Integration, Sunderland Software City, the National Institute for Smart Data Innovation, the Automotive Alliance, NetPark, the LEP Smart Specialisation Areas, Venturefest, The Innovation Supernetwork, the work of the BIC, RTC North, and the emergence of the Innovation Observatory, the North East Investment Fund and the various other forms of investment finance available; I actively promote our superb universities, colleges, schools and training establishments…the list goes on! There are few, if any, other UK region’s which can lay claim to such a rich innovation and knowledge transfer tapestry! Certainly, none has an Innovation Director such as we have in ‘Wor Hans’. However, it is not until one has to articulate it to others that one truly appreciates the innovation leadership and fabric that our region oozes. It makes the NE a very compelling sell to those I engage with.

So, my resolution for 2017 is to continue to positively impact the development of our innovation ecosystem such that the ‘sell’ continues to become even more compelling. I look forward to working with you to achieve this end!! Have a great 2017 and remember that innovation comes in many shapes and forms; innovation in adapting to the new world order will be one of the biggest challenges we face in the coming years. However, if any region can make a success of this, it’s ours!

 

Home / Innovation / Page 8

Swedish trade chiefs seek business opportunities on North East visit

The strength of the North East’s thriving digital and tech sector will top the innovation agenda of Swedish investment specialists looking for new business opportunities this week.

Investment, regeneration and start-up experts from the Vastra Gotaland region of Sweden have a packed itinerary on 23 and 24 January meeting business leaders and organisations spearheading the North East’s bid to be one of Europe’s innovation hot spots.

Hans Moller – the North East Local Enterprise Partnership’s Innovation Director – is part of the delegation meeting the Scandinavian visitors.

The Swedish-born former director of one of the country’s leading innovation parks before joining the North East LEP – he is ideally placed to showcase the region and understand where business and partnership opportunities lie for both parties.

The delegation are also learning about opportunities in the North East’s key automotive sector, and how its growing economy and investor strategy offer the perfect platform for UK investment from Scandinavia.

The Swedish delegation comprises representatives from Region Vastra Gotaland, Tillvaxtverket (the Swedish agency for economic regeneration), Vastsvenska Handelskammaren (Swedish Chamber of Commerce), Europe Enterprise Network Swerea, Business Sweden (inward investment organisation), Almi (investor in high growth start-up businesses) and Exportkreditnamnden, the export credit advisory service.

North East business leaders Jen Hartley, Dynamo North East’s Head of Tech Sector Strategy, Herb Kim, CEO of Thinking Digital and Lyndsey Britton, CEO of the Ignite 100 growth accelerator, head the list of tech business leaders showcasing the region’s strengths to the Swedish delegation.

Region Vastra Gotaland is in western Sweden. With 1.5m inhabitants, its largest city is Gothenburg.

It has the largest port in Scandinavia and is recognised as the country’s leading region for industry and transportation.

Hans Moller said:

This visit from Sweden’s top industrial region is a great opportunity for the North East to showcase its strengths and lay the foundations for new business.

Sweden and the North East share a strong focus on innovation in the marketplace and I’m sure the delegation of regeneration and investment leaders will see the potential for future collaboration.

Olle Jonang, of Tillvaxtverket, said:

We are delighted to come to Newcastle and be welcomed with such an ambitious programme.

We are convinced we will have an interesting exchange of information and economic opportunities which we hope will be the start of future business partnering, co-operation and collaboration.

Caroline Theobald, North East Honorary Swedish Consul and Chair of International Newcastle, said:

This important fact-finding visit by Swedish business leaders and economic regeneration specialists should lay the ground for significant bi-lateral business opportunity, such as the example set by D3Associates’ partnership with Swedish company Capital Cooling.

“This visit builds on the successful culture-led ‘Creative Links’ partnership between our two regions and will prepare the ground for a business matchmaking visit later in the spring.

The delegation will learn from Sarah Stewart, Chief Executive of NewcastleGateshead Initiative about the NGI’s role in supporting inward investment.

North East Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive James Ramsbotham will tell the Scandinavian party why North East England is a great place to do business and the party will meet with Port of Tyne chief Andrew Moffat to learn about the port’s thriving business.

Paul Haverson, Director d3 Associates, will talk about partnership working in the development of sustainable energy and district heating systems while Dr Colin Herron, Chief Executive of Zero Carbon Futures, will talk about the North East’s hugely successful automotive sector.

The Swedish delegation is keen to exchange information and knowledge on economic opportunities, including opportunities for international trade between the two regions and to better understand the support that exists to do this.

The next step is for Swedish businesses from key sectors to come to the North East to explore export and partnering opportunities.

Home / Innovation / Page 8

In conversation with Joan Louw, Director Agora Bay Ltd

The Innovation SuperNetwork brings people together to generate fresh ideas, new market opportunities, knowledge and money. It does this with the help of partners in business across the region. We spoke to one of those partners, Joan Louw, Director Agora Bay Ltd who gave us her thoughts on how to get your business ready for a successful finance application.

Developing and growing a business is a balancing act. On the one hand you need to get your products and services to your target market as quickly and efficiently as possible and on the other you need to spend time building the core infrastructure of your business. Both aspects require planning, resources and most of all – that precious commodity – time!

As a director of a (relatively) new, Northern based, consulting firm I have firsthand experience of trying to strike this balance.

At Agora Bay we try to practice what we preach in our role supporting senior management teams to grow their business and explore future financing options. We are conscious that we want to build our own business and not just provide a few hours of consultancy services in a desultory fashion. This means that we have had to take time to consider our values, branding, systems, cash flows, strategic partnerships and the quality and consistency of the services we offer.  At the same time, like all business owners, we need to keep up to date with admin tasks, grow our client base and actually deliver our services!

Supporting operational activity with business infrastructure

In any business, there is a linear progression of operational activities that flow from product development and production to marketing and sales to receipting and managing cash. Surrounding and supporting these activities, is the business infrastructure, the buttress that provides the reasons why you are doing things in a certain way, how you are going to reinvest profits and how you manage the strategic risks that could prevent your longer -term success.

This infrastructure is the value part of your business and is reflected in every aspect: from the selection and development of the Board, the way in which the company and its staff manage and interact with suppliers and customers, to how the business reflects and promotes the corporate brand.

Resource planning is part of building the business infrastructure and identifying and managing working capital is a crucial resource in any business.

There is no shortage of finance and finance products in the market but that does not mean that it is easy to secure loans or investment.

Exploring the finance markets and deciding on the right type of finance for your business is one thing but finding a suitable provider of this finance product may take a little longer – especially when looking for a business angel or equity investor.

Getting it right

From an investor perspective, an “attractive investment” is one that meets and exceeds expectations: from the initial meeting or Executive Summary review, to the completion of due diligence and through the on-going communication process.

A business needs time to research and find the most appropriate finance solution to suit its needs. An optimal finance solution should provide a company with sufficient funding to cover its cashflow requirements – and should be secured at a reasonable cost with and an acceptable level of business risk.

The key to a successful finance application is planning and taking time out of the busy day job to plan!

About the author

Joan and co- directors at Agora Bay are all professionally qualified accountants, with extensive finance and board level experience across a range of business sectors. They focus on building value within the business, helping clients develop a sound investment proposition that clearly explains their business model and their longer term growth plans.