roundtable: technology in the thames valley 19
Joe Solari, a non-exec director of several small technology businesses, revealed: “I’m a believer that a good marketing and sales strategy should be the key driver for most businesses, including start-ups.” He added that Ultima had grown dramatically recently, not through new technology, but by “being lucky enough to hire top-notch sales people”.
because you have to compete against London salaries to get the right people.”
His senior management team (“who have been with me since the company’s inception”) worked very hard on talent retention, and Volume had invested heavily in staff training and mentoring. “It’s heart-breaking when you spend three years developing a graduate and then they go off to a global corporate. But, we do get some coming back, more industry aware and worldly-wise.”
Solari, chairman of Ultima’s 360-strong IT business solutions team agreed that recruitment was a huge challenge, particularly “getting the right people, at the right time, in the right location.
Sean Duffy
Sykes: “The tech sector is very broad and has so many facets that I think at times there can be a fixation about the technology rather than its people. There is always this balance: Are you investing in extraordinary people or extraordinary technology? But ultimately, whatever the business is, it is people that actually drive it.”
Leadership was often the key to success, he suggested. “Every business needs a god, and sometimes that aspect is lost within the technology of the tech sector.”
What is ‘a technology company’ today? Solari queried. “We (Ultima) are a senior technology business but we are not a technology company. We represent other people’s technology; we don’t develop new things. Basically we resell, and our strength is adding value to the implementation of technology into businesses.
“There are tons of technology companies in the Thames Valley, but they tend to be mature businesses, not the start-up types.” He noted that many of Ultima's clients had moved their IT departments out of London, because of the region’s experienced skills-base. “I don’t know whether that is technology, but it’s good business.”
The kinds of people required in ‘technology businesses’ can differ greatly, Solari added. “It’s difficult to find technical people in this country, but even more difficult to find good sales people, and unless you have a sales- driven organisation it is difficult to grow.”
London’s bright lights v the comforts of home
Sykes: “Recruiting is very hard. Though Volume operates globally, we are seen as a small company hidden away in leafy Berkshire, surrounded by major-name tech companies, with the lure of London’s bright lights nearby. Wage expectations are a bit of a nightmare,
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2014
“One problem in south-east England is that it’s so easy to change your job without moving home. In the US it’s almost unheard of not to have to move outside the town or state. It just adds to UK competition for recruits and staff retention difficulties.” Too often money became the differentiator, he added.
Home-working and flexibility was assisting recruitment, however. “With mobility technology emerging, most people now work offsite, so you can hire them almost anywhere as long as they are well connected.” Such dispersal didn’t necessarily help technological clustering though. He revealed that 60% of Ultima’s 160 technicians live outside Berkshire. “It’s not the where or way they live that matters, but what they do – and they are very productive.”
Sykes noted that Spanish and French graduate developers often favoured the UK for tech employment, but many preferred the Thames Valley to London “because it is a little ‘softer’ with its trees and countryside; more real England.”
Lisa Forrester reported differing regional recruitment pressures between the Dublin, London and Reading offices of GCS, but agreed that Thames Valley technology recruitment was very competitive, although slightly less than London. Demand was revealing skillset shortages within certain talent pools.
Business growth confidence was rising. “Last year, six out of 10 technology companies hired. That’s going to increase to seven out of 10.”
Many clients were hiring interim contracted staff while waiting for the right recruit, she added. And companies were having to work harder to engage employees, both to attract and retain staff.
Sykes said Volume runs a year-round academy for student work placements to boost potential recruitment. “Generally the standard of student intake is lacking because, although the theory is there, they are not prepared commercially and some of their expectations need to be reset in their minds.
It’s been
successful, and it’s our own investment. We had to go to the schools and colleges to set it up.”
Forrester suggested more should be done among the Thames Valley’s educationalists to encourage STEM subject studies and enable continuous ‘topping up’ of the tech talent pool, plus greater support for talent retention through apprenticeships and internships.
The Thames Valley did have its own recruitment appeal with its lifestyle, large established corporates and mature technology sector, Forrester added, although this attraction may not be as strong as it once was.
Is the Thames Valley punching its weight?
Here David Murray brought in Louize Clarke, co-founder in April of a new accelerator community in Reading for technology start- ups. She has been critical of the Thames Valley in not doing enough, in her opinion, to help support fledgling tech businesses.
Clarke handed around a map, produced by the independent research company Policy Exchange, showing existing and developing UK technology clusters, which appeared to exclude the Thames Valley.
Louize Clarke
Her contention was that the Thames Valley’s reputation as a tech powerhouse was being challenged, although the Policy Exchange report did indicate that the Wokingham district had more than five times the national proportion of technology workers.
“It appears we have decided as a region that we are going to be mature, and not do anything to attract the next generation of technology start-ups. We are just not looking at that community locally, and they are going elsewhere. Yet, if you support a start-up community it will help improve local talent, because not all start-ups succeed, and people within them learn then go into other local businesses,” explained Clarke.
Continued overleaf ...
www.businessmag.co.uk
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