Each Business Link is a local, business-led partnership involving TECs, chambers of commerce, local councils and local enterprise agencies – and often also including higher education and various development agencies. So far 73 local Business Links have satisfied the independent National Assessment Panel that their plans will meet exacting quality standards and service requirements. These have more than 140 local outlets and will become fully operational during October.
Now they face a twin challenge – how to win support from large companies, keen to support enterprise but already involved in a host of activities, and how to make the grade as world-class small business support agencies.
Big business support
Many companies have long been big supporters of local enterprise agencies and other small business support programmes, usually with a primary objective of helping start up businesses. During the 1980s there was probably an over-emphasis on start-up and micro businesses and the focus now is on developing quality services to help all businesses with the potential to grow, whatever their age – and that’s what Business Link is all about.
But start-ups remain important – and this is recognised in the government’s second Competitiveness White Paper. The private sector can play a particularly important role in ensuring their needs are addressed: for example, its sponsorship of local enterprise agencies can be ring-fenced in a Business Link partnership to be used specifically for start-up work.
Some companies have said that the arrival of Business Link means that they no longer need to fund business support activities. Not so! The government is only funding part of Business Link activities. In no sense is enterprise support being ‘nationalised’ – in fact, quite the reverse: many of the services previously run directly are being contracted out. This is exactly what companies have been asking for over many years and now is the wrong moment to withdraw.
We have an opportunity to achieve both a radical improvement in the quality and extent of services to small businesses – and to make much better use of available resources. We desperately need established business engagement and expertise in this exercise – not just with cash and serving on Business Link boards, but also with access to networks and contacts that big business has. Similarly, Business Links need the ability to work through the big business supply chains to reach clients and to tap into specialist expertise of larger businesses in areas like environmental auditing, total quality management and overseas trading. (See ’39 steps to support small business’ in Community Affairs Briefing Issue 17, August 1994, for more ideas on how to help.)
World-class
A second challenge facing the new Business Links is to become world-class small business support agencies. To achieve this they must demonstrate:
Leadership and vision, with a clear sense of purpose and strategy;
Customer focus, offering differentiated services to address explicit needs;
Quality and constant innovation, exceeding customer expectations and swiftly learning lessons from failures;
Empowerment, helping SMEs to do things for themselves;
A lean core but with extensive networks and strategic alliances; and
Entrepreneurial style, charging for valued services where possible.
Corporate sponsors group
To help companies get involved with Business Link and maintain a focus on start-up support, Graham Parker of United Biscuits is convening a meeting of group of corporate sponsors on November 16 to discuss these issues further. He can be contacted on 01895 432100.
David Grayson chairs the National Assessment Panel of the Business Link initiative which has examined more than 130 bids for Business Link franchises from local partnerships across England and Wales.
COMMENTS