Business News


Chief executive Paul Faulkner and president Paul Kehoe assess


Looking to the future, building on the past


It is two years since Paul Faulkner took over the reins as chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce (GBCC). Here, Paul and president Paul Kehoe looks back at some of the changes the organisation has undergone in that period, and what the future holds.


The last two years have flown by, and there have been many changes at the Chamber during that time. I made sure that we built on the


history and foundations and evolved at a pace, while staying entirely relevant to the business community. Our aim is to be a dynamic


organisation supporting businesses with an effective channel of communication and promotion through both B2C and B2B companies, adding very tangible value to our members. One major event was the huge


overhaul of the Chamber’s membership structure, to ensure its services were able to reflect the business requirements of the 21st century. This saw the introduction of a


new membership category, the 1813 Club, which recognised the organisation’s heritage from its beginnings 204 years ago. In addition, we saw Future Faces,


the networking and peer support group for ambitious individuals who are in the early stages of their careers, being fully integrated with the rest of the GBCC divisions as the Future Faces Chamber of Commerce. When I arrived at the Chamber, I


set out an ambitious target to achieve 4,000 members by 2019. I am pleased to see that we are


on track to achieve this, and we have seen significant year-on-year membership growth through our signicantly enlarged membership team, which now comprises 20 full- time staff. The new membership offer has been simplified with new consistent


6 CHAMBERLINK October 2017 Reflecting


on the past two years...


‘Our aim is to be a dynamic organisation supporting businesses with an effective channel of communication and promotion’


pricing across the group, new member benefits, and improved member communications, including a revamped new website launched in April last year. There has also been an increased


social media presence, and our various channels have attracted a following of over 70,000. Membership continues to be at


the heart of everything we do, and the key to our approach has been to a find the balance between the strength of the reach that the ‘Greater Birmingham’ name and brand brings, while also playing to the strength of the nine individual Chamber brands within our group, be it Solihull Chamber, Sutton Coldfield Chamber or the Asian Business Chamber. All of this was done after


extensive research with our membership, and this has allowed us to deliver the services that our members and others have told us they want. We have recognised that an


evolving business climate needs evolving support and this refresh brings us up to date with the business requirements of the modern era. We are doing more for the larger,


more established businesses but at the same time not forgetting those people who aspire to create their own business. We have just launched the digital member toolkit, which aims to remove barriers for members of all


sizes and make it as easy as possible to benefit from chamber member benefits. As well as revamping the membership structure, there have been other changes that I have introduced in the past two years. There has been an increased


investment in our policy team, which now comprises a team of four people who are dedicated to lobbying and campaigning on behalf of local businesses. We have introduced


improvements to our Quarterly Business Review (QBR), which is a key tool that is used to gauge the state of the local economy via a quarterly report and analysis event with local business leaders. Our latest survey is set to have


double the number of respondents compared to this time last year. Together with the policy team, I


have made a continuing effort to build stronger relationships with our key local partners, including the new West Midlands Combined Authority, Greater Birmingham Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership, Midlands Engine and Birmingham City Council. We have also forged a strong


relationship with our new mayor, Andy Street, and I was privileged to join him on a trade-building trip to Toronto. We have also improved our


communications strategy through a new marketing department. Last April, as one of my first initiatives, I


oversaw a brand refresh, with the launch of a new tagline to describe our mission to ‘connect, support and grow’ local businesses. This was in addition to the


revamped website and our new digital strategy, and together this has seen us shift from thinking of the Chamber as a purely business to business (B2B) focused organisation to one which also considers the individuals within an organisation. We are thinking of these individuals in terms of there being consumers as well as business people, which fits in with the fact that many of our members are targeting a consumer audience themselves. This approach has expanded our


target audience far beyond the traditional B2B and should ultimately allow us to reach more people, and deliver more value to our members and their employees. One example is a competition


featuring pop star Ed Sheeran, which we launched in association with 1813 Club members Amplify. The competition ran on Facebook to win two hospitality tickets to see Ed Sheeran at the Barclaycard Arena and reached more than 250,000 people. Aside from this, we have also launched the new Greater Birmingham International Business Hub, a particularly important strategy given the new importance that exporting will play once Brexit takes place. All of these changes have


created a sense of optimism, both within our organisation and also for the region and its future prospects.


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