focus on oxfordshire – roundtable 37
“If you look at it geographically, the competition is not Cambridge and London, it is overseas in global markets.”
UK businesses were now recognising that collaboration with each other could provide a strong ‘Best of British’ narrative within international markets. “We are not playing catch-up and now have a strong economic proposition. We can pitch collaboratively and collectively, supported by the Government’s world-trading message, to promote our proposition globally.”
With Oxfordshire now economically strong, correctly positioning the region internationally was the future challenge – establishing brand ‘Oxford’ as world-leading not just world-class.
David Murray highlighted that Oxford already led the world in academic terms.
How do we gain and retain a skilled workforce?
Having discussed macro-economics, the Roundtable turned to the nuts and bolts of starting and running businesses in the county.
Nikki Godding deals with companies of all shapes and sizes and from a variety of industry sectors in her role with the Business Learning Foundation. With such low unemployment in the county, she evidenced businesses often finding it a struggle to recruit really good people. Twelve months ago it was a different story, she explained.
Locations such as Milton Park were very attractive workplaces, but companies are working hard to retain their talented employees and therefore people are opting to stay in their jobs rather than move to other companies.
Employment lawyer Beverley Sunderland agreed. “Getting good quality people is hard.” Persuading people to move into the county – “finding quality properties at the right price-range etc” – was difficult too. “Yes we can recruit people, but where do they live; where do they bring their families?”
Tipple agreed that supply of housing was an issue, being addressed by the LEP and the local authorities, along with the improvement of travel links. “The A34 is a national arterial connection between Southampton and the Midlands, but also in Oxfordshire, it’s a local
Andrew Barlow
Careers information and guidance, both at school and university levels, was another concern with budget cutbacks hitting such services. “Young people coming out of education today are not quite sure what a career in science actually means. How does Diamond Synchrotron or the F1 Grand Prix circuit relate to a job they might want?”
The LEP is currently working with companies bringing them closer to schools, he added, aiming to get them to “. . articulate what a career in their sector can actually mean.” For example, BMW MINI is positively promoting female apprenticeships. “Today, it’s not about big spanners and bolting cars together, it’s such a high-tech environment that it’s about quality and intellect, and often soft skills.”
Location, location, location
Oxford’s central location in the UK was also a bonus, said Barlow, since it can attract people from all points of the compass, unlike several of its UK competitors. “With investment in travel infrastructure, journey times can be reduced. We are 45 minutes from anywhere 50 miles away.
“Things won’t happen overnight, and other areas in the UK have similar issues, but we are now well placed to make sure that improvements are made, to ensure our future growth.”
Campbell pointed out that the planned Western Rail Access to Heathrow (WRAtH) would provide journey times from Oxford to Heathrow of 45 minutes, making the county more attractive to international inward investment.
Murray and Tipple both highlighted that the region already had its own airport, London Oxford City Airport at Kidlington.
Steve Clarke THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – APRIL 2014
Sunderland said her company, after studying operational efficiency, had moved away from Reading. “This is an absolutely perfect location for my business. Clients love it. They can easily come to us or we can get to them quickly.”
distributor road. It was not built for that sort of volume, so we need to improve traffic flow.” Moving freight onto rail was one solution; improving junctions and better management of HGV transport and work-related travel were others.
Technology business chief executive Christopher Willmott revealed that his company’s development team had all previously worked for technology companies in the Oxfordshire region. “For us, it has been fantastic and an attractive resource of really talented skills.”
However, being so close to Oxford’s universities was a twin-edged sword. “My immediate reaction was what a great pool of potential recruitment, but we found that really difficult to source. It’s a dichotomy. You can see the attraction of this area from a work perspective, but you do get the impression that a lot of graduates migrate out of the county rather than staying to work in it. If only we could retain more of that resource.”
The draw of the bright lights…
Clarke: “Any economy within striking distance of London will suffer because of the draw of the City.”
Tipple: “We do need to work closer with the universities and students to better communicate the strength of what is on offer here, particularly where we are comparable to London with the same profile and nature of businesses. We should be attracting them back here too. Maybe we just don’t shout enough about the strong proposition that Oxfordshire has to offer, or act enough as ambassadors when we are out working with other businesses.”
Christopher Willmott
Campbell noted that quite often when high- growth Oxfordshire businesses were taken over, senior staff left but stayed in Oxfordshire to start up new businesses. “Why? Because they know that Oxfordshire is a great place to have a business. What we all need to do is tell everybody that. There are so many local businesses with international links it would be a very simple way to spread the word.”
Sunderland: “In the legal profession, it would be unrealistic not to expect young lawyers
Continued overleaf ...
www.businessmag.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