MICHELLE LESTAS
It is welcome news that, after a very long wait, we now have a Draft Programme for Government, released on 9th September, with priorities set out for Stormont expenditure for the next 3 years. The business community, like many other sectors, has been patient and now assessing how substantive a report it is. “Doing What Matters Most” as its titled, sets out three missions – People, Planet and Prosperity with a cross cutting commitment to Peace. Within this, there are nine immediate priorities, one of which directly impacts on the small business sector – i.e.– to Grow a Globally Competitive and Sustainable Economy and the document highlights the need to “provide better support to business”. This is a vision to be welcomed – but what does it actually mean?
When we drill down a little further there are four key areas for expenditure – productivity, good jobs, decarbonisation and regional balance. Any approach that supports the need to promote decarbonisation as well as our need to achieve a regional balance (a levelling up, if you like, across NI), must be welcomed and we can look forward to further detail going forward.
But what of productivity and good jobs? A lot of emphasis in relation to “good jobs”, is placed on the reskilling and upskilling of employees with future funding heading in that direction. By default, a further emphasis on productivity can also include improvement in employee training. This is hugely important and will go a long way to help us to become more competitive. However, the spotlight on the support to upskill and reskill business owners – those that are responsible for growing the business and creating the employment – seems to shine less brightly in the report. The development needs of the key strategic decision makers, once again, appears to get limited attention.
It is true that we have a vibrant start up economy for our size of population, around 6,000 new businesses created every year. Which for a small place is not bad. But then when we look at the survival rate, we have around 5,000 business deaths each year. The nett figure doesn’t look so good with only around an overall survival rate of 16%.Why? Part of the reason has to be that we are offering considerably less targeted learning and support to our business leaders than we do for other sectors in society, that also make a significant contribution to our growth. Doctors undertake a 5 year degree with continuous training for many years thereafter. Teachers, a four-year degree (and sometimes longer) and then continuous training and development thereafter. Most managers in the hospitality industry need a degree in management, again taking 3 or 4 years. For some reason, with our current set up, we seem to think that a business owner will automatically, after limited support, be able to develop a successful entity. It seems that anyone with a business plan and a few days of basic training can set up a business, with the expectation that this will automatically thrive and grow.
It is difficult to understand why this viewpoint exists when our statistics of growing a business clearly show something very different. The figures are stark proof that we need a long-term commitment to the development of our business leaders, first and foremost, in order that they can grow successful businesses and in turn create “good jobs” and increased “productivity”.
The report is still in the consultation phase and never has it been more important for the small business sector to have a say in the final version. There are of course a number of representative organisations that will respond to the draft report, but it is incumbent on all of us to have our say. There is no point in throwing stones after the event, if we don’t bother to use our voice. It’s a bit like our voting system – if you don’t bother to vote then how can you hope to influence change. We have until 4th November to respond at https://consultations.nidirect.gov.uk/teo/pfg-2024/consultation/subpage.2024-04-24.0780425831/ As the saying goes the “Success Lies in the Detail”.
Michelle Lestas, Founder & CEO of the MENTupLEADup® technique, Published Author of “In Business With Yourself” (Orpen Press) and Business Turnaround Specialist.
