by Joe Pacitti, CeeD MD
I reflect on a great lunch and chat with a very old chum the other day. Not just great to have lunch with an old friend and colleague but always good when a bit of combined wisdom and trusted relationship allows the conversation to get down to the important stuff - and we were both on the soft drinks!
Yes, we covered old times as well as what is going on now, particularly with new political winds blowing and we of course did chat about some of the family stuff. The family stuff was not a distraction, I believe it made the chat more important. Why? Because our own thoughts and ambition for a prosperous Scotland are important to both of us, as we want to see our own next generation have the opportunities and choices for a balanced future, and so the same for everyone else in our country.
Pretty well what we confirmed to ourselves was that there is so much opportunity for great things to happen when synergy and shared views can be harnessed, adding so much of a boost to the economy and people's lives. We even talked about initiatives such as Digital Boost and what impact it had, and what so much more we could have had if funding to continue this initiative and some of it directed differently had been mobilised.
It was great to share a recent CeeD experience of activity focussed on the early-stage companies’ space that Business Gateway are steeped in. Helping early-stage manufacturing related companies from a competitive pot from the Scottish EcoSystem Fund. It was clear that the companies or at least the profile of these and similar ones are squarely supported by the many Business Gateway teams around Scotland, and many of these are supported by other great initiatives, such as Scottish Edge.
So once CeeD had also leaned into help, it did seem from the conversation that all of the efforts of three distinct organisations had been very much in harmony, with little duplication – even though we had not done this in a joined-up way before. However, we just operated in a way that was naturally complementary.
What's not to like or replicate more of, if this is the case?
It’s not always possible to achieve this kind of approach. We certainly agreed that the landscape is still a little cluttered with far too many competing offers and initiatives. That is not to say that a significant level of active, dynamic and vibrant support should not be in play, and we certainly don’t have enough capacity to support all that we could!
Where is the ‘BUT’? All too often, some organisations are not as complementary or purposeful and shared as they could be. By not coming together more often, flat productivity is often an outcome of this approach.
The other challenge which frustrated our positive vibe was the way many organisations operate initiatives in too short term a way. Sometimes the funding provided is too short term, but it is not always the funding cycles that are responsible for poor outcomes. Sometimes it is the nature of the organisations and their approach. Some organisations flip direction or lose interest in seeing out the approach – initiative-driven rather than the community-of-practice embedded model.
The phrase “It takes a village to raise a child”, for business and economy then probably this translates to "It takes a whole Country to nurture and grow a business!"
Just because there are loud voices shouting at the centre of an EcoSytem, suggesting they are the clear and central agents of change, and so shaping the manner and delivery of support, it does not mean this is always the right or best way – or dare I say a productive way. Back to that Productivity challenge we face.
The focus and manner for support, all the effort, oxygen and often precious funding may end up being directed to the wrong point or at least not being balanced in how it is used.
Perhaps the point of synergy and partnership at the heart of support would suggest that the voices that sing in harmony, maybe more softly but in tune, might be the places we should entrust with that nurture and growth agenda for economic prosperity – or at least a little more towards these.
Finding these nodes where organisations are already aligning because it makes sense, before the much appreciated and needed small amounts of support and funding are provided, might be the key to best use of public funding and better Value for Money (VfM).
The mix of public and private sector help leaning in together, with active businesses and organisations supporting the outcome and goal, because it is right has to be a model we need to embrace more. Less on following the approach funding organisations where their own profile is the measure for success. This may seem harsh or controversial, but the funding and support landscape creates sometimes too competitive an environment.
If we genuinely believe that Productivity is one of the critical challenges we need to fix in the economy, then we need productive and efficient partnerships at the heart pulling the lever. This means the funding and public sector funding approach needs to be more productive itself.
I suspect it is easier for productivity impact to happen in the sectors that CeeD operate in, as productivity is very much the thread that makes manufacturing companies sustainable and enables growth. Many other initiatives that have claimed the productivity beacon as critical are maybe not as impactful, as the core thread running through the group does not have that core ethos. Either because it is not as core to the community it works with, or the body delivering it are not lean and productive, either too bureaucratic or just a little too removed from being sleeves rolled up with organisations and the businesses they are supporting.
It perhaps harks back to my last blog on hierarchical vs network structured organisations and creating more valance between the two.
Another example where the shared views of trusted partners helps to bring together some logical thinking, tests the ideas and helps to build some more valued ideas and thoughts to find ways to make it better.
It may however come down to why there is so much joy in a lunch with old friends, it is what binds those friendships - trust, integrity and a right dose of getting on with solving the problems together - that not only brings joy but positive results or at least the signpost to the pathway!
I would love to see that legacy of more balance in economic development, with more support of agile pilots (perhaps the pebbles in between the large structural rocks in the jar of economic prosperity), being given more support to get on and do it. Not in isolation but delivering in a partnering model with that focus on the results, outcomes and impacts rather than the internal inward focus that comes along and blinds the mission and makes it less productive.
Also, allowing some of the shoots of success to be recognised in pilots and these being given a green light to extend the delivery period to the two and three year period that they clearly need to embed impact and success.
So could there be value in support organisations and CeeD not just discovering their alignment and working together but help to encourage this more in simple and practical ways.
I truly believe that smallish levers of funding applied to joint activity, agile and having joined up folk at the centre will make greater levers impact on economic growth, and also economic Value for Money.
With the public purse being so tight, a phrase we will hear for a while still, but knowing we can unlock growth with a private sector willing to make their contribution. Couple this with the importance of finding ways to rejuvenate and kick start our industrial strategy for growth, then success will come from picking the manufacturing sector and allowing and encouraging some really great pilot projects from some willing and effective partners to flourish alongside the big levers.
To go back to what I said earlier, what’s not to like?