What role should Government play in business support?

Today, the Government as a whole spends over £3bn a year on business support. BIS (the department for business, innovation and skills) spends roughly £1.7bn of which £950m funds skills, £226 funds export support and £400m is earmarked for innovation.  PWC assert that every £1 spent on business support delivers 7.60 in benefit. 

The future of Business Link seems uncertain.  If you have spent any time around entrepreneurs in the past few years, you know that this news will almost certainly cause eyes to roll, heads to shake and a muttering of ‘good’.  Because knocking Business Link has become cool, just as knocking the ‘Daily Mail’ is also cool. 

Are we seriously saying that Government has no role to play in informing or advising businesses in Britain?  And even if that ‘advice’ is to come from ‘real business people’ are we really happy to agree that Government has no role to play in funding some of that advice?  I’m not convinced.

I’ve been thinking about business support, what Government can or should do, and what part others might have to play.   

A few thoughts, and as you’ll see, I’m not presenting solutions, just raising a few things which I find interesting;

1)  Seeding the idea of ‘self-employment’, as distinct from ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘business starting’.  I think that this would be a powerful message to take to the million unemployed 18-15 yr olds as they look out into a bleak jobs market.  For many, starting a business (high-growth or otherwise) is not right, however working for themselves might be.

2) Working ‘better together’.  Brokering valuable introductions between potential partners.  For example, between BIS, publishers (for example Channel 4) and brands (for example Apple).  Thinking about questions like ‘who has attention?’ ‘who is loved?’.  The partnerships and co-sponsorship agreements of the next few years will need to be far more sophisticated than just buying space and ‘badging’. Government can (through its power to convene) promote and enable the fostering of these new relationships.

3) Fostering of networks and mapping of social networks.   It remains important to connect the connectors across the UK, especially in deprived areas.  By mapping (with consent) who knows who, gaps will emerge, and this is where some of the most powerful opportunities to connect will present themselves

4) Crowd-sourcing ideas and views.  The coalition is off to a good start on this in other areas.  Ask business owners for VERY specific ideas about how they would reform business support (or cut ‘red tape’ for that matter).  Crucially, then represent those ideas to the crowd and invite people to rate and comment on suggestions.  Work in partnership with others to promote the consultation.  Why not offer a ‘prize’ for any ideas implemented (perhaps offered by a partner?).

5) Rather than thinking about large contracts, why not experiment with small experiments in priming partnerships?  Invest (say) 10k in a relationship with an online partner, invite them to present their results (who they have helped and how), then reconsider how to allocate future funding. Given that ‘information’ and ‘advice’ for business might be seen as separate, why now offer the former as ‘free content’ to publishers, and then consider a way of incentivising them to promote that content?

6) Finally, a ‘big idea’ for unlocking national growth is to unlock the personal productivity of our citizens.  This idea makes conversations around well-being and health unbelievably relevant.  If we can inspire (for example) young people to do what they love, they will be more productive, and the economy will benefit overall.  I wonder if this approach might unlock a very different kind of ‘advice’ and ‘information’ to business from Government?

What do you think?

 

I had some fantastic and inspiring feedback from my recent post, about the Private MBE’s Club (the members network for honoured citizens) including messages from brilliant people I haven’t caught up with in ages.  Thank you!  It has inspired me to share things more often.  So here goes…

More and more friends seem to be doing amazing things to raise money for good causes.  Running marathons, climbing mountains, jumping out of planes.  The list goes on.  I want to give them money.  But something is niggling me…

My friends, in many cases, are doing something which is immensely personally fulfilling.  Something which, in most cases, they really want to do.  I, in turn, am being asked to fund them, and of course a very good cause.  I want to give money to a very good cause.  I just have thoughts about whether I wish to be funding their adventures and whether this is the best mechanism to get me to part with my money.

Let me explain;   I am parting with my money, they are running the marathon, the cause it getting money.  Forgive me for asking…  What am I getting?  A warm feeling?  The knowledge that I have helped a good cause?  The satisfaction of supporting a friend?  Aside from these intangibles, however important, isn’t the reality that I am getting nothing?  Is there any other way?  Maybe there is.

All over the world, organisations are waking up to the power of social enterprise. They are using business methods to solve social problems.  They are creating goods and services to raise funds.  They do not rely on donations. 

So here’s the idea;

Goods For Good (working title) is a website which allows fund-raisers to sell products to their social networks. 

Imagine you are about to run the marathon.  Rather than rattling your virtual tin, how about getting your friends and supporters to BUY something.  How could it work?  Well,  a portion of the money would cover the costs of the item and delivery, a small amount would go on the handling of the transaction, and all of the PROFIT would go to your chosen cause. 

Goods For Good could launch with a range of core products.  Black Umbrellas, Greetings Cards, Ties, for example.  All things which you can imagine buying, perhaps as a present, and which might carry a decent margin for the cause.

As a fund-raiser (marathon runner for example), you would go to the site, choose your products, choose your price-point (there would be a minimum) and use the sites social tools to tell all of your Facebook friends that you had launched your own Goods For Good Page.   

Goods for Good would handle all of the delivery and fulfilment from a central location, charging a small amount per package.  You, at Cancer Research, Oxfam, or Save the Children, could have your own, branded version of the site, for your existing supporters. 

What do you reckon?  Look out Just Giving.  Here comes Goods For Good!  Let me know if you would like to plot with me…

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry, established in June 1917 by King George V.  It includes five classes in civil and military divisions (GBE/GBE, KBE/DBE, CBE, OBE, MBE).

Just last week,  Her Majesty’s Birthday Honours were announced, including recognition for Professor Brian Cox and actress Catherine Zeta Jones.

Reading through the list, I was struck by just how tiny a percentage are what you might call ‘well known’.  The vast majority are so-called ‘ordinary, hard working people’ from a wide range of backgrounds and walks of life.

It gave me an idea;

Why don’t we create a Private MBE’s Club for Great Britain?

Why not seize the opportunity to offer the recipients of honours with an invitation.  An invitation to join a network of people, all over the country, who have an interest in making a difference.  Yes, it’s important to recognise achievement and there should be a ceremony and gathering.  But what happens next?

The Private MBE’s club would allow people from all over the country to connect with each other at a range of gatherings (both events and online).  Just imagine you had just been honoured.  Rather than returning to your community, what if you had the chance to join forces, even a few times a year, with others from around the UK?

This could be an amazing resource for the nation.  Perhaps the network could be asked questions.  Perhaps it could be mobilised at certain times of the year, or in times of national need.  Maybe through partnership with existing organisations, it could be given somewhere to live or meet?

What if you can’t think of anything worse?  What if you are humbled and more than a little embarrassed by your honour?  That’s fine.  You could decline the chance to join the Private MBE’s Club.

If we have a system in place for spotting and recognising people who have served their country, why waste the opportunity to connect them with each other, knowing that they could be greater than the sum of their parts?

Last week I had coffee with a friend.  She ordered an almond croissant and we sat outside a little French shop in the heart of Soho.  I knew that she had recently left her organisation, and as we chatted I asked her a question;

If you could do anything, if all of of your costs were covered, and you had to work… what would you do for the next year?

At first she stared at me.  Then she smiled, then she laughed.  “Do you know, THAT, is a really good question”.

It didn’t take long for her to begin describing her dream work.  We talked more.  We went our separate ways.

Almost exactly a week later, I turned on my phone to find a text. 

Oli hi.  We need to talk!  Have news you around tomorrow am?

We spoke at 8am the following morning.  She certainly had news.  In fact she had a new office.  In Soho.  More importantly, she had decided exactly what her next adventure would be.  Doing exactly the thing we had discussed over coffee and a croissant.   As we spoke on that morning phone call, she said something very interesting to me;

“You asked me that question.  And nobody had asked me that question for years.” 

So reader, this got me thinking.  I decided to ask people, using Twitter and Facebook the same question;

You have all costs covered for one year.  You must work.  What do you do?

I’ve been amazed, surprised and inspired by some of the answers.  Here is a selection;

@corrozo Write and make films

@jake A fisherman or farmer in that order

@nedatutu I would probably set up a Neda Concierge business!

@rachel_james Work at a zoo without a doubt

@farhanlalji What I’m doing now, starting a company

@kouya Write books

@robwmay Photograph the nation’s homeless

@fbrownwork touring creative enterprise and design innovation around US colleges.  Road trip!

@EmmsieLu Bake cakes, paint pictures, design websites and branding for start ups, work in a charity

@Matlock organise conferences about storytelling. take pictures, blog more

@LloydDavis Create the ‘thing’ that #Tuttle2Texas was a prototype for; blog more; play more (serious work play!)

@Groob Exactly what I’m doing now (just maybe from a Covent Garden penthouse).

@LouiseWiseman Write and act, maybe do a spot of garden design on the side, if I have time!!

@evarley Throw myself into starting all of the projects I have on the backburner without having to worry about how I’ll pay the rent

@oli Live in the sunshine and play and record some outstanding music

@RichMulholland I’d write a book

@ArrivalEd Do everything you think you can’t or isn’t possible

On Facebook, friends shared answers to the same question, which included…

“Teach”

“Study”

“I think the same as now. Is that weird? I love my life and wouldn’t change it for the world”

“Write a book on how you did it and what you did now you got there”

“Set up a cool new project for your local teenagers”

“I’d pay it forward”

“Become a courtesan”

“Do what I’m doing now, trying to raise money for the forthcoming production in September of a new play by a 91 year old playwright who influenced the Pythons, Goodies and just about any absurdist comedian you can think of;  but without the crappy, low paid itinerant work squeezed around it.  You did ask.”

“Exactly the same as I’m doing now. But I’d probably fill my panini sticker album quicker”

 So many answers, and as you might expect, so many times when you think how amazing the person answering would be at their dream work, if only they could start it right now.

Inevitably, this has got me thinking about the same question.  What would my own answer be? 

Although broadly speaking I love what I do, it has reminded me of some things.  Things I’ve not really spoken about properly for years.  I have a passion for writing songs. Composing them on a beautiful Yahama piano would be a dream for me.  I want to travel more, and to spend more time hosting fantastic events around the world,  bringing very different types of people together.  I want to work in TV and radio, maybe presenting, maybe producing.  Making programmes not about politics, not about the doom and gloom, but about incredible people doing great things, all over the world.  Meeting, them, interviewing them and hopefully helping them in some way.  Perhaps this is my croissant moment.

Strangely, reading those replies, and writing this post, it hits me that what I’d also like to do is help people to do the one thing they would love to do.  Not in an advisory way – I wouldn’t know what to say- but in a practical way, by connecting them with people.  I’m going to add that to my own answer.  Hopefully someone reading this will be receiving a text message,  from me, in a week from now.