GROWTH SUMMITS 2010

National Business Awards Growth Summits: Birmingham

Birmingham Hyatt Regency, 2 Bridge Street, Birmingham B1 2JZ

May 27th 2010

Summit Host: John Stapleton

Keynote Speaker:  Ardi Kolah, Guru in a Bottle

'Customer collaboration" is central to success in new economy, says Guru

Businesses from across the Midlands gathered at the Hyatt Regency on 27th May to hear qualified views on the role of communication in growth at the fourth Business Growth Summit in Birmingham. Presenting views on new media, communications technology and how to engage customers, it toured delegates through some of the latest ideas and innovations.

Global marketing specialist Ardi Kolah, CEO of Guru in a bottle, set the scene with a vividly insightful presentation on the strategies helping businesses stay ahead of the curve. Quoting unpublished research from Cambridge Judge Business School - that innovating business models had a much larger impact on return than innovations to products and services - Kolah cited numerous examples of new thinking.

“Size doesn’t matter,” he said, “just be relevant and niche to compete. Learn from examples like Threadless T-shirts which invites customers to submit a design that, if chosen, results in a $2,000 reward and a share of royalties (which is now seeing £1billion turnover) or Metro Bank, designed as a retail space like i-store and which will stay open after work and at weekends.

“Both companies are working collaboratively with the customer to deliver what they actually want. Make customers ambassadors for your brand, like Go Ape, which won a National Business Award for being SME of the year in 2009 because it took the time to understand their customer. It’s word of mouth for the 21st century but a very sophisticated word of mouth.”
 

Talking up growth
Exploring this last point in more depth, broadcast journalist and host John Stapleton invited views on customer engagement from a panel including Alun Thorne, editor of the Birmingham Post; Lawrence Jones, CEO of web host UKFast; Peter Cochrane, founder of IT infrastructure consultancy Cochrane Associates; Darren Hopper, Head of Acquisitions and Propositions for SME segment marketing at Orange UK; and Duncan Baker, Head of Strategic Planning at the Institute of Customer Service.
 

The Birmingham Panelists

Lawrence Jones	Peter Cochrane	Darren Hopper	Duncan Baker	Alun Thorne
UKFast	Cochrane Associates	Orange UK	Institute of Customer Services	The Birmingham Post

While the Birmingham Post adopted a niche strategy to become the region’s top business title, embracing online, UKFast’s CEO explained that any business relying on the web had to consider user experience. “We found that slow sites not only lose business but Google has admitted that faster sites get priority in searches,” he said.

With superfast broadband still limited across the UK, Cochrane said “an investment of only £15 billion in infrastructure was needed to support business and nurture new industries like nanotechnology and ITC”. Hopper explained that new phone technologies were already helping SMEs to reduce costs by making teams more mobile and more informed in the field. “Workers are not tied to offices anymore, which has helped small businesses to restructure without losing valuable staff; but businesses in general are still not making the most of the technology available.”  

Concluding with a final word on customer service, Baker said companies have relied too much on technology and call centres to deal with customer service. “But new technology like social media is not only making it easier to complain but making complaints more damaging,” he said, adding that these complaints could become strong testimonials if handled properly.

The next Business Growth Summit will take place at the Hilton London Tower Bridge Hotel on 11th June. Focusing on the topic of ‘Finance for growth’, it will feature a panel comprising Santander Corporate Banking, 3i, and Ariadne Capital and keynote presentations on sustainable finance and investment from Fairtrade Foundation, World Wildlife Fund and ICAEW.

To book your place at an event that could make it easier for your business to secure funding, contactcall Sam Robinson on +44 (0) 207 234 8713 or email sam.robinson@ubm.com or simply register here >