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Business Southampton comes of age
24th April 2009
From the city's CEO dinner club a new force emerges
As a member of the CEO Forum a dinner club in the early 2000's I was involved in the early days of the creation of Business Southampton., and yesterday I saw the organisation come of age at its annual conference.
This morning of theatre was well orchestrated by a number of the cities marketing companies including LeepeckGreenfield. Key note speeches by Malcolm Le Bas, Sally Lynskey and Sean Muskett from Scandia all beat the drum of collaboration for a better city and outlined the success to date.
However it was not until Michael Portillo, the guest speaker for the morning, was introduced that the event turned from good to great. Michael is a fine speaker but had also done is home work and it summed up Business Southampton very distinctly.
He said what is important about the Business Southampton is that it actually exists at all. It is a 'brand' that is a point of contact for Government and big business to identify with. The fact that Business Southampton has not yet achieved any of the big changes that many leading cities such as bilbao, Barcelona and Valencia have,to quote 'Michael should not been seen as a negative because all this could be achieved. Michael took us through a very inventive and witty journey of metaphor and strories each time coming back to the core theme of people and leadership.. well crafted in every way.
But what Business Southampton needs is more creative thinking and more members and I believe this could come quite quickly as during this harsh recession there is more intent for communities to pull together.
Business Southampton must embrace technology and new networking techniques and be given some important central funded projects to run and manage in a proactive and creative way to enable critical mass to be created.
To quote Tom Peters
Those who Add Value through the Creation of Intellectual Capital are the new winners. ... They are not people who make lumps. They are people who create billions of dollars of value ... through the pure exercise of imagination
Business Southampton has not been an easy birth but there are signs that if the main goals are kept clear and local infighting from other 'business' organisations are avoided and a singularly motivated board of directors are driving the organisation then Business Southampton may well become a great innovation for Southampton - the sleeping giant.
Other notable moments was the introduction of Dawn Baxendale a new member of Southampton City Council heading up economic development. I was impressed immediately by her and hope she will become a supporter of the organisation and pass some key projects to the organisation.
Ian Murray scribbler and pirate still wants to plunder the art vaults of the City to build , build, build and this would be great had it been done in 2006 when art prices were the highest ever. To do it today would be the same a Gordon Brown selling off our gold reserves just at the wrong time... or would it.. answers on a post card.
On a more personal note, this is a blog! I have spent the last few months working on the creation of a regional investment vehicle this started as Uvestin and I very much wanted Business Southampton to embrace this idea. To me BS was a perfect partner. The organisation is made up of a majority of service type businesses, all of whom need new businesses to flourish in Southampton, (Funny how many lawyers have recently joined) Uvestin would in effect be a venture capital business designed to take 'local' risk for middle size businesses struggling because of the recession. This idea as grown into the HantsFund when I was fortunate to meet Caroline Williams the force behind this fund to help home buyers obtain mortgages. Today Essex Council have announced the creation of a Uvestin style set up. You know Business Southampton and Southampton City Council can be part of Hampshire's version and it could be the idea that is the catalyst to take Business Southampton into its next phase of getting Southampton through the recession.
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