roundtable ... continued from previous page
Stevens added: ”Pre-Brexit, expansion to Europe was Plan A, but we’re now evaluating deeper; in other words, where in the rest of the world it might be easier and more profitable to expand to.
Davis agreed: “That’s a positive – to push organisations into global regions where they wouldn’t otherwise have been.”
Hicks aded: “For businesses not currently doing business in Europe, it remains a frontier. The region is struggling with low growth and a huge debt burden and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”
Miles Hewitt-Boorman Charlie Nicholson
Kirk added that Gateley was committed to investment in the UK with key international relationships. English law had always been a very popular choice for parties doing business worldwide and the UK’s exit from the EU should not have any effect on the willingness of contracting parties to choose English law as the governing law of a contract. As such England would remain a key legal jurisdiction. Economic volatility can promote the need for legal advice – for example in the areas of contract redrafting, changes in the work force, uncertainty from an employment law perspective, asset disposals, balance sheet restructuring and can promote litigation. Gateley offered the full range of legal services so was well positioned to advise on any of these areas.
The Thames Valley continues to be attractive
As far as the Thames Valley is concerned, the room expected that the post-Brexit outlook would be driven by an even more pressing need to reduce costs and increase productivity.
Nicholson: “Robust measures will continue to be required on cost bases. For example, about 10 years ago, there was an average of 1.0 to 1.25 desks per person in office buildings; now it’s closer to 1.5 - 1.75 people per desk, as practises such as flexible working and hot-desking continue to gain in popularity.”
David Murray
Stamatis agrees: “Businesses will continue to examine their building cost base very closely – these costs feed right through to the bottom line.”
Many firms have already been encouraged to set up offices in the Thames Valley, attracted by the availability of office space and talent. Furthermore, it was felt that the advent of Crossrail would prove a major boost for the region’s attractiveness, once the possibility of travelling door-to-door from places such as Farringdon in Central London to Reading in one hour became a reality.
Hewitt-Boorman: “We see the potential for more growth in the Thames Valley than in London – the impact of Crossrail will be
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huge, and then we’ll start to really see that shift out of London.”
Kirk added, as a business which had only just recently moved into the area, opening an office in Reading earlier in the year, “we feel that the Thames Valley has been a really good strategic move – there is a high level of confidence in the region and we strongly believe that this will be a platform for future growth alongside our other regional offices”.
The Thames Valley’s growing reputation as a hotbed for technology and research was also felt to be a potential attraction to employers and investors, especially given the potential for technology microbusinesses to achieve massive growth in a short period of time on a global scale.
Investing in people is essential
The room agreed that there had been a change in mindset compared to 20 years ago, when university education was free. Nowadays, young people were wary of graduating £50,000 in debt, hence the emphasis on getting into the right discipline early on, with the option of undertaking a vocational degree further down the line.
Davis: “Remember that the Apprenticeship Levy is coming soon, and that could be a big opportunity to change people’s mindset. We are likely to see businesses looking for people with multiple skills.”
Hicks: “We need to invest in apprenticeships and build on that investment, not just chuck people into university for a degree which has very little value at the end of the day.”
Murray asked whether this was likely to result in a change in recruitment strategies?
Bloxham: “Clients are already asking us what they are able to do for school leavers and local colleges; they are keen to get the talent in quicker and train them up with ‘their’ skills.”
Conclusion - be proactive and see the glass as half-full
The common consensus in the room was that it was too soon to identify any tangible outcomes from Brexit, since these would only become apparent when more precise terms of the UK’s exit were known, something that would not happen for at least a couple of years.
However, in the meantime, there was a need to ‘seize the opportunity’, to see the glass as being half-full rather than half-empty, and to make things happen.
Hewitt-Boorman: “Brexit or no Brexit, we need to look at where competition is coming from globally and adapt to it – we can’t be insular.”
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2016
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