GLASGOW BUSINESS DECEMBER 2016
CONTENTS/PRESIDENT 12
Neil Amner, President
president@glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
Building new business for our vibrant city
Many business indicators suggest 2017 will be an arduous year for businesses in Scotland. Price inflation will impact on profit margins, consumers will have less money in their pocket and economic growth is going to slow to a crawl. That all seems negative stuff when we are always striving to be positive here at Chamber HQ. From a Chamber of Commerce
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point of view, there is not a great deal we can do about the macro-economic position in Scotland and the UK. Of course, we will continue to lobby for a better political landscape but, in business, it is always better to deal with the risks that you can influence, rather than stress about the things that are way beyond your control. There are two areas where Chamber members can make an impact in 2017: one is working to increase and improve the productivity of their organisations, while the other is to look at building an export market for products and services. This is where the
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News City Roundup
Agenda
Member news Partner news New members
Features Intel Q&As
Brexit strategy
Looking back to 2016 and forward to 2017
Export experts 6
10 11 16 44
24 35
36 38
Events International Trade
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Past and forthcoming events 18 Heathrow Business Summit 19 Inspiring City Awards
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Glasgow Talks: Skyscanner 25 Glasgow Business Awards
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DYW Glasgow Influencers’ Dinner
Column BIG Talks
Cover image: The Glasgow Business Awards 2016 34
Chamber can help. Prior to the turmoil of Brexit, the Chamber was already on a path of increasing its international connections. Now we want to increase this trajectory and, over the coming year, strengthen our network in Manhattan and Italy and look towards building a sustainable business relationship with Germany where we already have an opening with the 2018 European Championships, held between Glasgow and Berlin. We will be working on securing
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more ‘memoranda of understanding’ so that Glasgow firms have an easier route to international markets. While we’ve kicked off with our successful mission to Manhattan and trip to the British Chamber of Commerce in Milan, we’re also interested in the United Arab Emirates, Canada and China. Perhaps Glasgow also needs to re-ignite its relationships with its twin
cities, including Nuremburg, Marseilles and Turin, and work towards closer economic co-operation with them. The impetus of Brexit and the
recognition that both Scotland and UK governments are acting to increase export activity means we are keen to speed up our overseas programmes. This is not about one-off connections on a trade mission and an exchange of business cards. This is about actually turning this into a business relationship. And I am looking forward to personally growing my involvement with the President Club’s Away Team which is also about driving sustainable business opportunities for Glasgow. On this score, we also welcome the
news about Heathrow’s expansion but we want to ensure that this is about creating a better hub for the UK that gives regional access to Glasgow and Scotland. The Scottish
Government’s ambition to enhance economic partnership between the public and private sector is to be applauded. More devolved decision-
making to the civic leaders in our major cities means
Glasgow has much more local say in how it wants to spend and invest in the Clydeside regional economy. The Chamber can play a central part in this by helping businesses work to improve their productivity and by continuing to help the young workforce, equipping them with the skills required to make a contribution to our vibrant city. While we are reinforcing the work
that was done with the Glasgow Economic Leadership Board in growing the success of key sectors, particularly the ones with international trading opportunities, we also need to help tackle head-on the issue of long-term unemployment in the city and getting more people into productive and worthwhile employment. So let’s go into 2017 with renewed
determination to work on what we can fix.
Glasgow Business . 3
www.glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
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