crucial, because we can just draw a line in the sand and say, ‘Yes, I might not have the answer, but I know somebody who does?’
What strengths can Lancashire’s professional services tap into as they look to develop?
PW: Lancashire’s got an untapped resource of high-quality people who choose to live and stay here. They would prefer to have opportunities on their doorstep. We’re also finding the private equity (PE) community is talking of Lancashire as a specific target market. Successful SMEs probably don’t understand what is available when it comes to PE and there is some education to be done. We’ve a lot of untapped businesses here.
SB: We’ve many clients in London who really recognise something different about what our people bring. There is a brilliant sense of community and work ethic in Lancashire, real honesty and transparent people in our industry. There’s no-nonsense if you hire a Lancashire business. The qualities of being based in Lancashire come right to the surface as soon as you look to do business elsewhere. I’m sure that could be marketed.
IM: There’s more engagement and ownership when you’re speaking to fellow Lancashire professional services. On a number of panel jobs, we are compelled to use Manchester or larger city lawyers and accountants. Our preference, if we can, is always to engage locally. You get a comparable service at a much more competitive price, with much more engagement, ongoing collaboration, and assistance.
PRESENT: Richard Slater
Lancashire Business View (chair) Steve Brennan
Bespoke Digital Agency David Cox
David Cox Architects
Lisa Kennery Pierce
Ann Lancaster Boost Business Lancashire/Orvia
Ian McCullough Begbies Traynor
Paul Waite Rowan Group
Heather Waters NatWest
Stephen Young Lancashire County Council
In certain circumstances the efficiencies have propelled things forward. As a company everything’s now sent electronically, documents are issued on our behalf by a central hub. We’ve saved significant costs and that’s an efficiency we’ll continue to adapt and continue to take forward.
SB: If we wind the clock back to pre-lockdown, we were always speaking to people about how well they understood their customer, how clear they were in communicating the value they could give. It’s become business critical now to have absolute clarity.
Lockdown has been like a business boot camp with people saying, ‘We’ve got to get this in order now. We need to come out of this lean. Everything that we’ve been meaning to do needs to be done during this period, we can’t come out of this with the issues we used to have’.
Which reset and recovery strategies are paying dividends for you or for your clients?
IM: The pandemic and lockdown has completely changed the way people work. The speed and efficiency of the response from phone and internet providers has meant that, particularly in professional services, a lot of us have been able to continue through Covid without missing a beat.
DC: A lot of projects are either being delayed or shelved, so we’re having to be a little bit light on our feet as to what we’re actually asking people to do. We haven’t found working from home a positive experience, I think we work in the office much better together. I am looking forward to getting people back and finding out what they have learned from the past few weeks, having a frank discussion with the team to find out what they want to do going forward.
SY: It’s more important than ever that we have a really strong Lancashire message, and we get that message out. We need to talk about the benefits of our economy, four strong universities, amazing infrastructure, great workforce and great people. Then we need to link that back into our industrial strategy.
LANCASHIREBUSINESSVIEW.CO.UK
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