Quality counts
Nov 28 2008 by Alistair Gilmour, The Journal
The North East’s business support services have gone through massive changes in the past two years – for the better. Alastair Gilmour talks to one of its drivers.
The answer is not really in doubt, but often encouragement from a reputable source is enough to finally help that idea fly – or rescue a shipwrecked crew through being able to see further.
Nicki Clark, director of operations at Business & Enterprise North East – which administers Business Link in the region – brims with this broad vision combined with a remarkable honesty. She freely admits that before joining Business Link Tyne & Wear in 2002, she was “a bit picky about who I wanted to work with and what the organisation did”.
Crucially, she had enjoyed a successful career in the private sector, working in international sales for Hartlepool-based Orchid Drinks. She saw the other side of the fence and grasped the opportunity to breach a hole in it to help run a publicly funded organisation along the lines of a private company.
“I had great fun trotting around the globe selling soft drinks, Aqua Libra and Purdey’s,” says Nicki. “But then Britvic came along (a takeover in 2000). I wasn’t ready for the corporate life, I’d been in a medium-sized business and got involved in all sorts of things. Anyway, I didn’t want to move to Slough.
“I then went to Business Link Tyne & Wear which was quite a bizarre move at the time. I always said I’m not going to work for them, I’d heard various experiences of their services. I saw it as an organisation full of people who had been there a long time and didn’t think they’d take kindly to some young whippersnapper.
“But after came to Business Link I was sold on the vision; the organisation was exceptionally passionate about what it does and I got to work with a great team of people. There are some fantastically creative people in the quasi public/private sector who are extraordinarily committed. Then I moved on through the organisation in project management to be looking after 50% of the customer-facing teams, the marketing team and the business development team.”
Big changes were on their way, however. The whole Business Link structure was then reconstituted nationally with Nicki playing a major role in designing a new service delivery model for the region, pitched successfully at regional development agency One North East.
“It was an interesting time but a tough time,” she says. “Alastair McColl was appointed chief executive – a breath of fresh air and just what we needed – and appointed me operations director. I work really hard at getting the Business Link service and support seen as one the business community values, not just tolerates.
“I couldn’t do this if I hadn’t had the experience in the private sector. I spend a lot of time developing relationships and we want to give businesses such standards of service that they’d pay for them if they had to. Over the last six months, 90% of our customers have declared themselves satisfied or very satisfied with our service.”
Nicki’s style is very much hands-on – she knows no other way, or certainly gives the impression she’s comfortable working like that, as is the business community. It’s called win-win.
She says: “I insist on going out in the field with our advisers to see customers and get a sense of what’s going on. You get to meet so many inspirational people and I often come away completely humbled.
“I was talking to a businesswoman in North Tyneside who had to go off and pick her kids up from school. She thought she was just a mum, but when I told her she was actually a very successful businesswoman and that her family should be very proud of her, she went quiet and blushed. She said, ‘nobody’s ever said that to me before’. There was this instant recognition that it wasn’t just about bringing home pounds and pennies.
“We sometimes work with businesses that are really struggling and with some that are going to close, but we want to make sure they profit from that experience and have the confidence to start again. People like that will have the battle scars and use their experience and skills in the future.”
Nicki’s drive and enthusiasm to promote business success in the region is illustrated by her determination to not allow complacency to set in at any level of Business & Enterprise North East.
“We behave like a private sector company,” she says. “We distribute our profits and are really ruthless about the quality and performance we deliver and are ruthless about being more efficient every day. And I’m the harpy in the corner.”
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