24
The Thames Valley success story
A world-class business location: past, present . . . and future?
Technology and the Thames Valley go hand in hand, and have done so for the past 20 years as the UK’s ‘Silicon Valley’ has evolved from a favoured European ‘bridgehead’ for multinational corporates to a globally recognised hub of dynamic economic activity
At The Business Magazine, we have reported and reviewed, discussed and disseminated news of that activity since 1993 when we launched. We have seen the Thames Valley’s economic dynamics continuing to change, not least when hit in 2008 by the longest and deepest UK recession this century.
Over the past 20 years it has been the ability of Thames Valley businesses to adapt and meet those different market and social challenges – often leading from the front – that has enabled them to go from strength to strength.
From Mr Blobby to The
Blade In September 1993, when Elcot Publications published its first issue of The Business Magazine, events were somewhat similar to today – 20 years on.
The Thames Valley was recovering from the recession (1990-91), Reading was a City-in- waiting, Manchester United had won the FA Premier League (in its inaugural season), and the World Wide Web was free for global use (having been launched six months before).
True, Mr Blobby was topping the UK music charts, Madejski Stadium (1998) and Green Park’s M4 landmark wind-turbine (2005) were yet to be built, and smartphones were still science- fiction, but the Government was Conservative-led and the Thames Valley was fast-becoming home to many of the world’s largest IT corporations, and the largest community of scientists and technologists in Europe.
US-parented computer firms such as Microsoft had led the
www.businessmag.co.uk
way and established their Thames Valley bases, and other major software and IT businesses soon followed. The attraction then was the Thames Valley’s proximity to London, its access to Heathrow Airport, and its location for European trade growth. It still is.
An English-speaking well- educated, skilled and creative local workforce was an added bonus for the predominantly North American companies who initially settled in the Thames Valley with its burgeoning business parks.
Quality of lifestyle with beautiful rural countryside, good schools, plus high standard and interesting retail and leisure options were the icing on the cake for incoming and investing corporates.
Over the past 20 years the Thames Valley has thrived, developing significant clustered industries, supply chains, and professional services support based around regenerated townships such as Newbury, Banbury, High Wycombe, Slough, Windsor, Maidenhead, Bracknell, Wokingham, Basingstoke and of course Reading, the unofficial
We have seen the Thames Valley’s entrepreneurs become rich and its businesses become established; its indigenous population enjoying job security and newcomers bringing a fresh vibrancy and sophistication to the region.
Technological advances may lie at the heart of the Thames Valley’s success story, but we interviewed some of the business people who have been at the heart of that 20-year journey to learn their own views, sector experiences and insights into then, now and years to come.
capital ‘city’ of the Thames Valley with its now iconic tallest building The Blade (2009).
With location being a self- determining factor and the Thames Valley retaining its ‘value-added’ attributes, the region has prospered – along with its businesses, land and property owners, working populace and entrepreneurs – gaining economic muscle and international renown.
Or, it has in the
real world Over the next 20 years, could the virtual commercial world enabled by the Internet make a European location less important, particularly among emerging trading powers elsewhere in the world? Will the Thames Valley need to re-affirm or alter its attributes to remain attractive to globally focused 21st century companies?
The paradoxical power of the
Internet In 1995, the Internet was used by
0.4% of the world’s population. Today it’s approaching 40% (2,750 million).
The Internet has been the biggest technological advance over the period and arguably the most disruptive force in the business world.
It’s now a 24/7 connected commercial world: a world where entrepreneurs can work from home and become global successes virtually overnight – literally. Corporate reputations can be lost as quickly through the worldwide awareness of immediate customer critiquing. Management of customer expectations has become vital.
The Internet has enabled the creation of new business sectors – online retailing, website marketing/design, cloud computing, etc – while providing increased opportunities for globalised export.
It has also introduced parallel lifestyles mixing real and virtual, where some people live in both, others in just one. It’s also introduced the dangers of global fraud and grooming.
Internet connectivity has radically increased the
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – SEPTEMBER 2013
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