This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
INDUSRTY ARTICLE


ARE YOU D FOR GOLD SELLING A


You would normally find an editor’s article here on a


Wherever you look in the offshore wind industry truly massive sums of money are discussed. The numbers are always staggering; be that in monetary terms, physical project size or jobs created. Every so often, when you hear these numbers discussed at conferences, you see magic in the delegate’s eyes as he computes those numbers; “if I got just a slice of that I’d make...”


As a small businessman my question is; where’s my piece of the pie?


My involvement in offshore wind began three years ago when we completed a basic business plan for a subsidiary of the then flush with cash Yorkshire Forward. The challenge was to look at how Yorkshire based SMEs could develop into the sector. In true public sector speak there was a brief built around buzz works such as “engagement”, “assists”, “sign posting”, “outputs and inputs” etc.


The brief was cringe worthy. But the Great Recession was just taking hold so we swallowed our pride and took the work.


Completing the project it became apparent that the risk factor and sheer scale of investment prevented most SMEs from participating. There was a fixation on the “big picture” side of the projects in terms of technology, investment and infrastructure.


subject relevant and topical to the industry When we read Sam Pick’s take on a very relevant and topical subject area we had no hesitation in stepping aside and giving his well thought out reasoning centre stage . . .


My conclusion was that this was the domain of government, universities and the major multi-nationals. As an SME owner the question was what position to take in the market? Rapidly I saw, as an SME owner, the focus was wrong. A good friend told me:


“In a gold rush the likes of you and I don’t want to be running off into the hills digging. We need to be selling spades.”


04 www.windenergynetwork.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112