BUSINESS WEST – CONNECTING BUSINESSES inspire CASE STUDY INSIDER


NAME: David Riddell POSITION: Innovation Project Manager E: david.riddell@businesswest.co.uk T: 07823 345266


What does your role involve? I project manage innovate2succeed, aimed at helping businesses that have highly innovative products or services overcome their barriers to continued innovation and commercialisation. A lot of my time is spent working with stakeholders and partners to identify the right companies to work with, promoting innovation as a way of growing your business.


NAME: Luke Aikman JOB TITLE: CEO COMPANY: Nudge Digital


Please give us a brief description about your business and what it does? Nudge helps ambitious organisations achieve more online. We build and improve websites and mobile applications that lead to more sales (or enquiries), more engagement and an improved return on investment (ROI) from online advertising spend.


Do you think there are skills gaps in the digital sector overall? Yes – I think the UK has too few performance marketers and too many ambient marketers. There are a lack of strategists that truly understand multi-channel marketing and also have the ability to talk at a high technical level. There are also too few client service professionals that have come from a technical background.


From an education, skills and training perspective, what does the digital sector look like? It’s been improving but there is still a shortage of ‘prepared talent’ coming through. On the technical side there are many computer science students but not enough that are also ‘enthusiasts’; people that have taught themselves the technologies needed to be relevant to today’s mobile and web development space. On the marketing side there are too few professionals that are able to scrutinise performance and ROI from campaigns. There are lots of people that can ‘tweet’ but fewer that know how to measure performance back to sales… which is the important bit!


‘There are a lack of


strategists that truly understand multi-channel marketing’


If we don’t fill skills gaps, where do you think the digital sector is headed? I think the UK digital sector will focus more on strategy in the coming years and clients will ‘wake up to’ the need to invest


in strategy before buying websites, apps and more. Agencies that lack a strategic focus (at Nudge we’ve invested heavily on


having the right people in strategic roles) will


become commoditised and have little chance of competing.


Do you have any skills gaps in your business? All businesses have skills gaps!


What can we do to make the most of the digital talent in the region? Help colleges and universities in their course creation and syllabi. Also ensure that practitioners are teaching the new grads coming through. There is a low barrier to entry which is both a huge opportunity for young people and a huge threat to the industry in terms of quality assurance.


What do you love about your job? The level of detail that you need to go into when working with a business to really understand where their challenges lie means that you end up in a very privileged position and get to see inside of a range of different businesses. Being able to help companies and then seeing them go onto great things is very rewarding.


What is your top tip for anyone starting out in business? Understand your customer! It’s great to have an idea for a product or service but unless people are prepared to pay for it then it’s ultimately just an idea.


What are you interests outside work? Mainly cycling, although I don’t actually get out on a bike as often as I’d like. I’m also a trustee of an Exeter charity that helps people get out on bikes: www.rideoncycling.org


What did you want to be when you were growing up? I’ve always been interested in technology and how things work so engineering of some description always featured. It was as I progressed through my career that I found that my interests lay more in problem solving and how businesses solve the world’s big (and not so big) problems, so I’ve naturally gravitated more towards that. That’s why this role is perfect for me!


What is the most unusual business you’ve encountered? Working with a lot of companies who are doing something novel and cutting edge, there are quite a few that verge on unusual!


SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 insight 13


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