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Looking to the Future

Bob Collier joins the Chamber this month as its new Chief Executive. He is taking over at a challenging time for business but says we must look for the opportunities which exist.

Bob Collier is firmly focussed on the opportunities which lie ahead, not the ubiquitous gloom and doom which dominates the headlines.

The man at the helm of the organisation which is the beating heart of the North-east business community has his sights set beyond the present global economic problems.

The new chief executive of Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce aims to help members weather the current economic storm and emerge stronger for a prosperous future.

It is a challenge he relishes.

Although he has spent the past six years as managing director of Tourism South East in Hampshire, Mr Collier will require no familiarisation course on North-east life and the economy.

He is a former managing director of Aberdeen-based RGIT, the offshore survival training and occupational health firm, and throughout his time in Hampshire his family remained at their home at Strachan to which he commuted at weekends.

Although born in Yorkshire he now regards the North-east as his settled home and is looking forward to playing a key role in securing its future.

"Recessions are a time of maximum opportunity for many businesses, because of lower barriers to entry," he said. "It sounds a counter-intuitive thing to say but there are lots of opportunities around - especially for entrepreneurs.

"When a business fails, competitors can pick up that market share in most cases and although it is a difficult message to get over when there are people struggling and losing their jobs, every cloud does have a silver lining.

"Those companies which get their cost base and their customer-service right in the downturn and survive it in good shape are going to be really well placed to take advantage of the opportunities. Firms should use these tough times to test themselves and their offering, become more lean and efficient, and be ready for the upturn."
Mr Collier is intrigued by some of the current analysis of the situation which suggests that at the root of the current economic problems is a banking imbalance of £750 billion between credits and deposits, built up since 2001.

"Having experienced the last three recessions, the difference this time round is the ‘credit crunch' element, which has restricted access to credit for many enterprises, and has undoubtedly dented consumer confidence," he said.

He also favours the view put forward from several quarters that the expectation for the whole UK economy is that the current quarter is going to be the worst and by early 2010 the economy will be back in neutral and then very quickly return to growth - albeit modest at first.

"So in terms of the trading environment, we may only have the rest of this year to go before business can start to plan with more confidence," he said. Business hates uncertainty.

"That is when things start to even themselves out but of course the personal impact on people in business will continue because unemployment and redundancies will lag for a year after that.

"This national analysis may play out differently in Aberdeen and Grampian with its energy economy, and the Chamber's recent annual Oil and Gas Survey highlighted the likely impacts of global trading conditions on the sector in late 2009 and early 2010.

"The job of the Chamber of Commerce over the next two years is to make sure it supports business in Aberdeen and Grampian to help everyone to come out in good shape - and that means some pretty simple things.

"It means low cost/high value benefits and services like the training opportunities we provide and the export documentation we do for businesses.

"It means representing commerce through to government, central and local, making sure we aren't burdened with any further red tape while industry is looking to survive rather than prosper.

"It means finding ways of helping firms to source new business opportunities. Business networks like the Chamber of Commerce are very good at that because we have 1300 members here in Aberdeen and Grampian, but across the country we have tens of thousands of members through our links with the British Chambers of Commerce and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce. It really is the ultimate business network.

"The Chamber has an excellent team of hard working professionals who fight hard to lobby on behalf of business, provide first-class services which are recognised at national level, and are always on the lookout to make the network produce results for the North-east. Geoff Runcie has handed over a well-respected and effective Chamber. My job is to take it to the next level on behalf of our members and the broader economy of the region."

He believes the Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future (ACSEF) economic action plan to 2025 is an excellent foundation from which the area can build. Its four main pillars are life sciences, energy, food and drink and tourism and it is to the latter in particular he can bring a special insight.
He has a wealth of experience from senior roles across a wide variety of areas but has particular expertise in tourism.

"I always think tourism is dead simple," he said. "It is O - level economics to some extent - supply-side, demand-side and intervention. The demand side is all about understanding the consumer, understanding what they want and what the trends of the market place are. The supply side is making sure your business and destination has those products which people want to buy, which are of good quality and well-delivered.

"The intervention is the essential bit of the public sector core funding - pump priming funding which oils the wheels to overcome market failure and get good product-market fit.

"Understanding consumer behaviour and presenting your product so it meets their needs is necessarily complicated. But you do get a better match and a better performance if you take that complicated approach. You need to make every visitor feel special.

"There are clearly identified opportunities for the city and shire in the three other key industry sectors.

"We have two outstanding universities in the city, both of which have a reputation for supporting and developing innovation and research in the field of Life Sciences and this will continue to place us as a global leader in this field.

"Our energy opportunities are focused around internationalising expertise in oil & gas - particularly with the value added engineering qualifications of the industry's work force - and taking full advantage of renewable energy as an additional source of economic sustainable wealth."

He regards the food and drink sector as one of the historic strengths of the region, perhaps overlooked in recent times.

"North-east Scotland produces more than 30% of Scotland's agricultural output and is home to more than 300 companies with a combined turnover of around £1 billion per year. The quality of the produce is world class and is recognised as such and we must continue to promote that as a key industry sector."

He sees many similarities between his new post and the one he has just left.

"It is a mix of different things - business support services, training, business events - and the kind of things the Chamber does are exactly the kind of things Tourism South East does. I know how important these services are, especially to the SME sector, and I know how important it is for the Chamber to be supporting and representing commerce in the North-east making sure there is the best possible platform for sustainable growth.

"The purpose of the Chamber is to look after businesses, so that they are prosperous, and the purpose of the prosperity is looking after the people who live here making sure there is a strong community looking after itself - industrious and self-reliant. That is the important thing which comes out of business and commerce."

"Prosperous, industrious, self-reliant? That sounds like the North-east of Scotland to me."