roundtable
The Business Magazine organised this roundtable at The Madjeski Stadium with the assistance of sponsors NatWest, Taylor Made Computer Solutions, Pitmans Law, Hays, James Cowper Kreston, and ActionCOACH. The world has never been more uncertain – Brexit and Trump are just two of the recent factors which have shaken up the world order. But what does this new age of uncertainty mean for businesses? Could this changed landscape herald fresh opportunities, or usher in new threats?
What makes companies successful? Participants
Jon Atherton: Group commercial director, Centerprise International
Gamil Magal: CEO, Magal Engineering
Martin Reed: CEO and chairman, Thomas International Chris Sykes: Chief executive, Volume
David Bloxham: Managing director, GCS Recruitment Specialists
Peter James: Business development coordinator, Thrive
Lined up to debate: the Roundtable team Matt Wright reports the roundtable highlights
How much global uncertainty is out there?
Publisher of The Business Magazine, David Murray, kicked off the discussion by asking the table their views on the current state of global trade?
With over 60 companies worldwide, all highly dependent on business confidence, Martin Reed, CEO and chairman, Thomas International, was well-placed to answer this international trade question; “Psychometric testing is used primarily for recruiting, so we should be one of the first companies to experience any downturn ... but we’re still doing ok.”
David Bloxham, managing director, GCS Recruitment, also reckoned that the market had held up pretty well internationally, with demand for people still buoyant, although with more caution in evidence in the UK (versus other global locations), owing to Brexit.
Angela Shields, employment partner, Pitmans Law, commented that one of the positive international aspects of Brexit is that UK clients will be doing more business with countries outside the EU. To maximise the opportunity clients will be looking to use the resources and international
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networks available to them from those around the table today.
Chris Sykes, chief executive, Volume, a specialist in Artificial Intelligence (AI) pointed out that they had already lost some of their European AI developers from countries such as Spain, who had been “spooked post-Brexit” and no longer felt welcome anymore.
There was a different take on the potential post-Brexit trade effect from Gamil Magal, CEO, Magal Engineering: “We are a UK group with business all over the world. We export worldwide from the UK too; some of our European customers have already asked for guarantees that they would not be affected should any trade penalties be imposed on the UK. We had to say “yes” or we’d have lost business, but having said that, if anything were to happen tariff-wise, we would just shift production to our plants in other European countries.”
Bloxham added that while GCS’ main headquarters will remain in Reading, it was planning to make Dublin its European headquarters. It can already see the effects of inward investment from other companies moving their operations to Dublin, warning that this migration “might have a negative long-term effect on the Thames Valley.”
Lesley Reeve: Chief operations officer, FISCAL Technologies
Dan Rogers: Director, Thames Valley, Hays
Joe Jeffers: Finance director, Taylor Made Computer Solutions
Paul Williams: Head of mid corporate banking Thames Valley, NatWest
Alan Poole: Partner, James Cowper Kreston
Rob Pickering: Business coach, ActionCOACH
Angela Shields: Employment partner, Pitmans Law
Shub Naha: Business development director, Redwood Technologies
David Murray: publisher of The Business Magazine, chaired the discussion
Lesley Reeve, chief operations officer, FISCAL Technologies, explained that due to their own unique circumstances they had yet to feel any slowdown in their US operations, although she did highlight the destabilising effect of the recent US elections: “We’re in the process of developing our market in the US, so we’re still in a growth phase. The decision to incorporate in the US was a fantastic one
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – APRIL 2017
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