Attendees: Seamus
McAleavey, NICVA
Wilfred Mitchell, FSB
Mark Sweeney, NICCI
Will McKee,
Entrepreneurs Forum
Lester Manley,
Entrepreneurs Forum
Terri Scott, Invest NI
Noel McClean, Invest NI
Alan Clarke, NITB
Fiona Hepper, DETI
Philip Rodgers, DETI
Brian Gorman,
Helen McConkey, DETI
Welcome and
Minutes of Last Meeting
1. Seamus McAleavey welcomed members to the 7th meeting of the Forum's Enterprise Sub-group. He noted apologies from Lord Rana, who had asked him to Chair the meeting in his absence, Patricia McKeown, Bernie O’Hare and Mike Brennan.
2.
Mr
McAleavey also welcomed Mark Sweeney, NICCI, Will McKee, Entrepreneurs Forum, Alan
Clarke, NITB, Terri Scott and Noel McClean, Invest NI. It was hoped that Lester Manley would join
the meeting at a later stage.
3.
The
minutes of the 6th meeting were agreed without amendment.
NI Bureau in
4.
Mr
McAleavey reminded members that the Group had been trying to arrange a meeting
with Tim Losty of the NI Bureau in
ACTION: Secretariat
to continue liaison with Tim Losty about his next visit to NI.
Sub-group Work Programme
5.
Mr McAleavey advised members that the 4 priority
actions put to members in the Group’s report to the December plenary had been
endorsed by members. He reminded members
that they had each agreed to take lead responsibility for an action to ensure
its delivery.
Action Relating
to Accelerating Entrepreneurship Strategy (AES)
6. Wilfred Mitchell advised members that he had arranged to meet with Paul Brush, Invest NI on 3 February. In response to Mr Mitchell’s query Prof Scott advised that the AES review had progressed and confirmed that now was an appropriate time for EDF to get involved. She explained that there were a number of factors which needed to be considered such as inward immigration which had not been a factor when the strategy has been developed.
Action Relating
to Exports
7. Mark Sweeney reminded members that the action relating to exports could be split into two strands: efforts to raise the profile and importance of trade; and how to encourage companies to adopt the export route. He advised members that the NI Chamber was taking a multi-faceted approach to this. He explained that an Export Forum had been established which included input from Invest NI. The work of this Forum aimed to understand how to generate interest in exporting; identify best practice; identify areas which needed to be improved; and identify what the customer valued. To find out this information a survey was being developed for issue to approximately 150 companies. It was also intended that surveys would be carried out in ROI and GB to identify other approaches taken to develop export potential. It was intended that this fact-finding exercise would result in the preparation of an options paper by mid 2006.
8.
In relation to
encouraging companies to adopt the export route Dr Sweeney referred members to
the all-Island marketing initiatives. He
explained that the NI Chamber, by using its contacts with Chambers in
9. Dr Sweeney advised members that a number of trade missions had taken place in recent months. He explained that organising such trips was becoming easier due to lessons learnt along the way. He advised that reciprocal inward visits to NI were scheduled for March 2006.
10. In conclusion, Dr Sweeney advised that more attention needed to be paid to export performance and development of an export culture; greater co-operation / synergy was required as energy had been dissipated due to the number of organisations involved in developing / promoting export; the potential of the all-Island marketing needed to be exploited; NI needed to develop better networks; and NI needed to be benchmarked against initiatives in other countries.
11. Prof Scott
agreed with Dr Sweeney’s report, the amount of work ahead and the timing issues
involved with this. She advised that
inadequate attention was given to the value of exports and figures were not
available to show incremental value. Members also raised the issue of the return on
money spent on, for example, trade missions.
It was suggested that it might be useful to undertake a review of
available export figures as a means to identify any trends relating to trade
missions and their affect on export figures.
It was recognised that trade missions provided participants with an
opportunity to find out about the competition for their product / services. In relation to building links members also
mentioned the importance of the enticing association conferences to NI which
could have a multiplication effect and add value to the NI economy.
ACTION: NICCI to bring options paper, due to be ready by
mid-2006, to a future Sub-group meeting for discussion.
Action
Relating to Marketing of
12. Fiona Hepper reminded members that the Sub-group was interested in improving the marketing of NI as a quality place to live as a conduit for attracting entrepreneurs. She explained that DETI had undertaken some initial work to identify what was available on the Web. This work had highlighted the NI E-Government Unit’s review of the NICS web presence and that Invest NI was adopting the UK Business Link model of a one stop shop for public services. She referred members to the NI portal which might provide a good platform for taking forward the Sub-group’s thinking on marketing NI. She explained that DETI proposed to take forward this work in the context of these initiatives but to ensure that the right messages would be communicated she asked members to clarify the target audience for this work. Members agreed that there should be a wide target audience, covering those who might come to NI to set up a business and those coming to employment, i.e. economically active. Members suggested that if web presence was the proposed route for this work there needed to some sort of snapshot to sell NI as a place to live and work to make the reader want to find out more, for example, to delve into housing, schooling, etc.
13. It was suggested
that key messages needed to be established and NI needed to be branded as a
country. In relation to this it was
suggested that DETI’s work should also consider the work being taken forward in
relation to Smithsonian 2007 which was being led by DCAL.
Action Relating
to Tourism
14. Alan
Clarke, Chief Executive of NI Tourist Board explained that NITB was half way
through implementation of it Strategic Framework for Action 2004-07. He went on to advise that NITB needed to plan
for long term growth and referred members to NITB’s 5 signature projects. He also advised that NITB was working closely
with
Action
Relating to Entrepreneurial Culture in NI and Attitude to Risk
15. Seamus
McAleavey explained that the agreed action relating to entrepreneurial culture
in NI and attitudes to risk was tied into the DETI research agenda. He advised members that he had arranged to
meet with DETI Economists on 20 February to discuss the way forward and would report
progress at the next Sub-group meeting.
16. Seamus McAleavey reminded members about their discussions on a proposal to appoint a facilitator or ombudsman from the private sector to encourage Departments to be more aware of enterprise. Mr McAleavey welcomed Noel McClean, Invest NI Client Executive who had joined members to explore this proposal further.
17. Mr McClean provided members with a paper which set out the key role and activities undertaken by Invest NI Client Executives. He explained that the most important part of a Client Executive’s job was to develop a relationship with companies and through this make them aware of opportunities / threats and how Invest NI worked.
18.
Members recognised that the Client Executives could
only be as good as the framework within which they worked. Members also recognised that a risk culture
was more important than a funding culture.
Members raised the issue of the current culture in terms of the Public
Accounts Committee (PAC) and the pressure that the threat of PAC had on public
service employees and Departmental attitudes to taking risks in general.
Discussion with Entrepreneurs / Entrepreneurs Forum
19. Will
McKee, Chair of the Entrepreneurs Forum and Lester Manley, member of the Forum
were introduced to members. The
Entrepreneurs Forum had been established as part of Invest NI’s Accelerating
Entrepreneurship Strategy (AES). Members
were advised that, despite a number of good initiatives, the fundamental
problem was the unsustainability of the NI economy. Entrepreneurs measured and took calculated risks
when required but did not take risks when it was not required. The large public sector dominance of the
20. Although
there was plenty of ability, drive and vision in NI this was backed up by a
negative support environment. A small
example highlighted was the often used public sector phrase “managing
expectations” which intentionally or unintentionally sent out a signal of
downward pressure or could be interpreted as “lower your expectations”. It was recognised that although there was an
entrepreneurial culture working in NI the amount of funding provided and where
this funding was allocated and how enabling it was needed to be reviewed. It was also recognised that opportunities could
arise through the development of an all-island economy that went beyond
commerce and trade. A common economic
strategy was needed to lay the foundation for an expansion of private sector
entrepreneurial activity in
Any Other
Business
Plenary EDF Meetings – Agenda Items
21.
Mr
McAleavey reminded members that their last report to plenary had recommended
that the inadequacies of the local planning service and legislation and fiscal
incentives should be discussed at a full EDF meeting. He advise members that this recommendation
had been accepted and these issues would be included on the agenda for the
March 2006 plenary meeting.
Sub-group
Report for March 2006 Plenary Meeting
22. Members
agreed that a “to note” progress report would be prepared for the March 2006
plenary meeting. Members asked that
their concerns relating to Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the effects it
had on Departmental attitude to taking risks be included in the their report.
ACTION: Secretariat to prepare draft report and clear with members via email.
Date of Next Meeting
23. It was agreed that the Secretariat would
liaise with Lord Rana about a date for the Group’s next meeting.
ACTION: Secretariat to discuss a date
for the next meeting with Lord Rana.