Enquiry into Reform of the Enterprise Networks

• The review of the enterprise networks has created some healthy debate about how best to support Scotland’s economy.

• Our own model is based on a deep understanding of the Scottish economy – underpinned by economic intelligence, research, and feedback from the wider business community.

• There is no single quick fix for Scotland’s economy. To drive economic growth we need to focus on a number of key areas that will allow us to help companies achieve growth in the short term while also investing in Scotland’s long term future.

• This means focusing on supporting growth companies and helping them to innovate, internationalise and secure new investment. It also means focusing on the biggest opportunities within Scotland’s key sectors such as renewable energy and life sciences and creating a world class business environment.

• We cannot do this alone – Scotland needs a strong, coherent joined-up approach to economic development with all of Scotland’s public sector working under a single strategy and approach.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

How successful have the reforms of Scotland’s enterprise networks been?

The reforms have given us greater clarity, creating a leaner and more focused organisation. They have also allowed us to re-energise our activities and priorities to ensure we are focused where we will have the biggest impact on Scotland’s economy.

The process of reform is ongoing and we are constantly looking at how we prioritise our activities and organise our resources – particularly in a time of increased pressure on budgets.

There has been a lot of discussion about the best model for economic development in Scotland. How do you ensure your current model meets Scotland’s economic priorities?

Our model is underpinned by a commitment to identify and exploit Scotland’s global competitive advantage and be driven by the biggest opportunities for economic growth. This includes opportunities at a sectoral level, where Scotland’s capabilities offer huge potential in areas like renewable energy and life sciences, and opportunities at a company level, where Scottish businesses have the potential to achieve rapid growth.

This approach is based on a deep understanding of the Scottish economy. Over the past seven years, we’ve spent a great deal of effort analysing Scotland's economy and the challenges and opportunities it faces. We've also evaluated our own activities to identify the types of support that have the biggest impact on the companies we work with and, indeed, the wider economy.

What impact do you have on the Scottish economy?

Independent evaluations show that one year’s investment by SE will create over 5,000 additional new jobs for Scotland and grow the economy by £2billion over 10 years.

Equally important is the feedback we get from companies we work with. In our most recent customer research, 87% of the companies we work most closely with said that we were responsive to their needs and 96% believed we are an organisation to be trusted.

How have the reforms helped you respond to the challenges facing Scottish businesses during the recent economic downturn?

Creating a single organisation has allowed us to respond quickly and effectively to changing economic circumstances and offer focused support to our customers – when and how they need it. For example, we focused more resources to help businesses access finance.

The reforms have enabled us to sharpen our focus across all of our work. Our deeper engagement model, for example, has helped us raise the ambitions of the companies which have the potential to create the most wealth and generate the most jobs. At the same time we’ve been able to direct resource quickly and effectively where it is needed most.

We’ve also maintained a local focus despite being a smaller organisation by moving staff out of our HQ and into local offices. This has kept us close to our customers and best placed to listen to their needs and challenges.

How do you work with companies to achieve growth?

We work with around 9,000 companies, 2,000 of these most intensively through our account management programme. These are the companies which have been identified as having the potential to grow their turnover by £1 million a year over three years.

Research shows that these businesses will have by far the biggest impact on Scotland’s economic growth and job creation. We work closely with their management teams to understand their business and develop an action plan, tailored to their business and which identifies new opportunities for their business both at home and overseas.

We also support a further 7,000 businesses that have longer term growth potential or are important to a particular region or sector’s growth. This is usually through specialist or one-off support to help companies improve a particular aspect of their business such as innovation, business efficiency or working overseas.

What is your relationship with Business Gateway since the reforms?

It is vitally important that there is an integrated model of business support in Scotland where companies can access the right type of support at the right time for their business.

We work closely with our partners in Business Gateway to ensure that any customer that demonstrates significant growth potential can also access SE support where appropriate.

Since the removal of local enterprise companies how do you support local and regional economies?

All of our activities are delivered at a local level whether this is support for a particular company or the delivery of a major infrastructure project. We also have a clear focus on delivering the right business support services to customers, regardless of their location.

In order to remain close to our customers at a local level we have moved a significant number of staff out of our headquarters into our 12 offices across Scotland.

What is the role of the Regional Advisory Boards and how successful have they been?

The five Regional Advisory Boards (RABS) are made up largely of private sector representatives. They provide advice and direction to our business, helping to identify key opportunities on how we can make more use of the assets we have across Scotland to support the growth of our key sectors.

In Tayside, for example, the RAB was instrumental in developing a joined-up approach between public and private sector partners in the region to help take full advantage of off-shore renewables opportunities in the area.

Are you still involved in regeneration activity?

At the time of our restructure responsibility for local regeneration projects was transferred to Local Authorities. This was agreed jointly with the Local Authorities on a project-by-project basis.

SE kept its role in projects of regional and national importance, based on their contribution to economic growth. Such projects include the Edinburgh BioQuarter, Clyde Waterfront, Energy Park Fife, Dundee Waterfront and Energetica in Aberdeen.

Although it is still too early to assess the overall impact of the changes in this area, there is a broad spread of activity we believe successfully combines both regeneration and growth objectives.

What is your involvement with Urban Regeneration Companies?

Since receiving our draft budget, we’ve been working with officials at the Scottish Government to identify how best we can support the work of Urban Regeneration Companies in the future.

As part of our business planning, we recognised the important contribution that URCs make and have allocated £6.8 million toward their work in 2011/12. This is in addition to funding from the Scottish Government and combined, it will ensure the URCs have access to more than £25 million in 2011/12.

We believe that this is a fair allocation that recognises the realities of the funding environment we’re operating in and our assessment of URC commitments. URCs also have an opportunity to bid for additional finance from the new £50 million JESSICA fund, established to support regeneration activity across Scotland.