Policingthe privateThe not-so-public face of computer security

Business Insight

Tuesday January 31 2012

Innovation nationsGlobal entrepreneurs gather in the NorthPage four

Back from the BlackstuffThe regeneration of LiverpoolPage six

Tuesday January 31 2012 | the times

Business Insight Business Insightthe times | Tuesday January 31 20122 3

The power of innovation in actionIn March, entrepreneurs from around the world will gather in Liverpool, making the city the heartbeat of the world of the entrepreneurial community. But this is just the latest stage in the citys long journey of determined regeneration.

In this issue we trace how Liverpool has fostered innovation to the extent that it is now the UKs fastest growing economy outside of London. That regeneration has brought benefts stretching far beyond the economic.

Liverpool is thriving culturally. This year will see the Sea Odyssey on the streets of the city, which follows on from the opening of Tate Liverpool and the city being the European Capital of Culture in 2008.

Liverpool is also a city of science. We profile the respected Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, where cutting-edge research improves the health of the planets poorest people.

Indeed, we look at the life science sector throughout the North and see how it is booming. We also profile NCC Group, one of the worlds leading IT security companies, an increasingly vital area of work.

All this is a far cry from the 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher was advised to abandon to Liverpool to managed decline, and is a testament to the regeneration of the North.

Welcome

The way we shop is changing.The change is being driven mainly by internet shopping: in Britain we are now spend-ing over 5 billion each month

online. It is not just technology, though the economic downturn is changing the way we spend and shifting demo-graphics are affecting what we buy.

This is having a noticeable impact on our traditional retailers, the lifeblood of the regions town and city centres. A glance at newspaper headlines over the past few weeks shows just how real this problem is: several famous and long-established high street retailers are in the process of closing stores, and high street vacancy rates are on the rise.

With less to attract people into the centres, so there is less business for retailers. With the retail sector likely to

remain under pressure throughout 2012 and more business failures expected over the next few months, we have reached a critical point.

A new approach is needed to ensure the viability of our retail centres. The consequences of failing to act now could be dire, while the rewards for getting it right are high.

One city which is working hard to ensure its main retail area adapts and thrives in this new era is Liverpool, and the work the city is doing should be seen as a blueprint for success across the North of England.

Over the last decade, Liverpool city centre has undergone a major trans-formation of its retail core, commercial district and waterfront, propelling it on to the global stage. However, it is the main retail areas diversity, value, ambi-ance and overall quality which drives wider success. It is essential that this area is able to adapt to the changing retail landscape if activity, productivity and expenditure across the city are to continue to increase.

To achieve this, a roadmap for devel-opment and investment over the next 10 to 15 years has been produced. The roadmap recognises that connectivity, experience, identity and promotion are central to ensuring that the main retail area remains the engine of accelerated city centre growth. While developed with Liverpool in mind, these central pillars can be applied to any of our city and town centres to help support their viability.

Connectivity is key in linking impor-tant public spaces and visitor destina-tions, ensuring that the main retail area is a hub for visitors, from arrival-point to destination. In Liverpool, recent new developments, such as Liverpool One, have created a sense of divergence and of distinct areas within the city. Getting connectivity right is also about seam-lessly integrating these areas.

Great connectivity is the first step in ensuring the visitor experience is positive key to the sustainability of the centre. Strong investment in the public realm, along with car parking

that complements public transport, remains a primary influence on visitor numbers.

A strong identity for the main retail area can also vastly improve experience and sustainability. In Liverpool, the indoor and outdoor markets are integral parts of the citys retail experience and contribute to the street theatre of the main retail area. Such unique aspects need to be encouraged, but managed correctly. Independent retailers should also be encouraged to provide a unique experience, unavailable in other city centres or online.

Bringing these things together, combined with better utilisation of public space for events, markets and pop-up shopping, creates a sense of an alternative Liverpool, strengthening the city as a destination through its heritage in music, culture, maritime history and sport. External marketing should focus on the totality of the offer as a visitor destination competing at a global level.

Co-operation is at the heart of making this a success. Only by bringing the whole city together will an initiative such as this work. The initial piece of work was instigated by a private and public sector partnership between Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Vision, Merseytravel, City Central BID, Grosvenor and Land Securities all of whom recognised that success would not come without bringing all of Liverpool together.

Now, Liverpool Vision, the citys economic development company, is incorporating this work into a wider strategic investment framework for the city. Anyone with an interest in Liverpool is being given the opportunity to have their say on this plan through a series of city conversations.

We believe that by bringing together the central pillars of connectivity, expe-rience, identity and promotion, Liver-pool will continue to attract visitors to its city centre and offer a thriving and sustainable main retail area in the face of a changing retail landscape.

Better connectivity needed to save critical retail

Once thought of as the fluffy underbelly of the market-ing mix, public relations as a discipline has undergone a dramatic change. No more so

than in the North, where agencies have helped to pioneer a new hard-edged form of specialist PR with every story linked directly to the bottom line.

The regions top PR firms are now poised to reap the dividends of this re-positioning as regeneration moves to the top of the agenda in the North. At the same time, they are increasingly giving the Ab Fab London agencies a run for their fees by out-hustling them at their own game.

This is not simply spin from the master spinners up North. Candyfloss PR is out and the Northern agencies were among the first to recognise this. In has come a focus on social media and the need to play a more strategic role for clients across multiple channels.

Meanwhile, the arrival of Media City has arguably heralded the decline of London as the centre of influence. Add the turbulent economic climate and the

Northern agencies are looking increas-ingly good value for money.

With Manchester agencies paying around 14 per square foot for office space as opposed to 75 per square foot in Lon-don and at least a third less for skilled account handlers doing the maths in favour of the North is easy. Then there are the daily fees in Manchester these would be typically 850 as opposed to 1,200 in London. But where clients re-ally see the difference between the North and London is in the add-ons, with ad-ministration charges of up to 17 per cent.

But low fees without the accompany-ing skills will not a successful agency make. Fortunately, the North has wit-nessed a wave of talent returning home as higher London wages are increasingly being swallowed by overheads.

Crown Paints is one national company which has recently moved its PR busi-ness from a top London agency in their case Franks and now calls on not one but three specialist agencies all based in Manchester: BJL for consumer, Brazen PR for trade and MC2 for corporate af-fairs.

While agreeing cost did play a part as a crude benchmark, Crown marketing director Liz Hickson insists that the skill levels and the ballsy approach on offer up North were the overriding factors in the decision.

The final pitch saw four London agen-cies competing against two from Man-chester (MC2 was already firmly in place, having previously beaten off all-comers), and the end result was Manchester 2, London 0.

Like many people, we used to think it was important to have a London agency as thats where most of the key editors are, but times have changed and the Northern agencies now offer what we see as more of a commercial edge. They are not as cuddly in the North - but that works well for us.

Whereas Northern agencies may be on the radar for all cost-conscious corpo-rates, the current rankings by PR Week the industry bible reveals that only five

Northern PRs benefiting from focus on bottom line

Inside ...EntrepreneursThe worlds leading risk-takers are coming. Page 4RegenerationThe remarkable story of the rise of Liverpool. Page 6Cover Story We meet the man behind an IT security success. Pages 8-9

Mike Cowleyat large

They might not be cuddly but spinners in the North are beating London agencies in these tough times

In his role as head of Drivers Jonas Deloitte, North West, Simon Bedford takes lead responsibility for the companys economic development consultancy work. Over a number of years, he has worked on behalf of a wide variety of public and private sector clients including English Partnerships, a number of regional development agencies and several major local authorities in the UK and Ireland.

He is currently leading a consortium in the development of a strategic investment framework for Liverpool.

out of the top 100 are based in the North. Four of these are in Manchester City-press (at number 72), MC2 (74), Brazen (80) and Staniforth (99). The only other representative for the region is Lucre of Leeds (85).

Citypress, the top Northern agency, is the oldest PR firm outside of London, with a current client list that includes some of the best-known names in the region the Bibby Line Group, Princes Foods, Brother UK and Bank of New York Mellon.

Building its reputation on regeneration schemes the Trafford Centre, Man-chester Ship Canal and Princes Dock in Liverpool Citypress has grown tenfold in the last ten years. This has been un-der the stewardship of Charles Tatter-sall, a member of the fifth generation of the founding family, and Martin Currie, who joined from Communique, then the Norths largest PR agency.

Starting with a small satellite office in London in 2006 to service its mergers and acquisitions, Citypress has since es-tablished a presence in both Edinburgh and Birmingham and is now ranked as one of the UKs top ten advisory firms.

Hard on the heels of Citypress is MC2, unique among the top Northern agencies in that it has opted to remain exclusively in Manchester and considers its offering to be more holistic than that of its ri-vals, in being a full-service agency.

Mike Perls, a former rising star at the Manchester Evening News when it was at its peak, heads the current number two agency. A well-known face on the corpo-rate North West scene since his time in the newspaper world, he was lured from print with an offer of equity by a market-ing agency. Known as Mr Network, he pops up in every centre of influence and is reputed to be able to get to anyone with two phonecalls. As someone who lends credibility to the term mover and shaker, Perls is also actively involved with Envestors, a business angels group, and The Division, which fills the slot left vacant by the British Film Council. He chairs the MPA, the representative group for creative industries in the region.

With its core strength in the financial services and investment community, MC2s growing client list includes De-loitte, HSBC Private Bank and Cobbetts, with the agency successfully integrating into each companys management team to steer them through the intricacies of the information revolution.

However, there is another contender for the number one spot Bell Pottinger North, based in Macclesfield and with offices in Liverpool and Leeds. The out-post of the UKs leading PR company was recently placed top in a Northern PR league table published by Business Insider magazine.

While Bell Pottinger North is undoubt-edly a leading player clients include Co-op Energy and Waitrose it is argu-ably not a Northern agency in the strict sense of the term, with its appeal to many clients being both the national and inter-national reach of its parent.

Understandably, John Butters, a di-rector of Bell Pottinger North, takes exception to this, insisting his agency is autonomous and has strong North-ern roots which go back to a previous existence.

Meanwhile, most Northern-based agencies remain focused on the com-mon hurdle they must overcome how to wrest even more market share from London. Most have chosen to do this by opening satellite offices in the capital, where because their main operations remain in Manchester they are able to work on a low-cost models to compete at sensible prices.

Yet even this is often not enough. If you were a FTSE 100 company look-ing to drive your share price up, would you risk a punt on a PR company from Manchester? asks Charles Tattersall of Citypress. We still have some way to go in the perception stakes.

Liz Hickson, Crown MarketingCharles Tattersall of Citypress, the oldest PR firm outside London

John Butters of Bell Pottinger

First PersonSimon Bedford

Tuesday January 31 2012 | the times

Business Insight Business Insightthe times | Tuesday January 31 20122 3

The power of innovation in actionIn March, entrepreneurs from around the world will gather in Liverpool, making the city the heartbeat of the world of the entrepreneurial community. But this is just the latest stage in the citys long journey of determined regeneration.

In this issue we trace how Liverpool has fostered innovation to the extent that it is now the UKs fastest growing economy outside of London. That regeneration has brought benefts stretching far beyond the economic.

Liverpool is thriving culturally. This year will see the Sea Odyssey on the streets of the city, which follows on from the opening of Tate Liverpool and the city being the European Capital of Culture in 2008.

Liverpool is also a city of science. We profile the respected Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, where cutting-edge research improves the health of the planets poorest people.

Indeed, we look at the life science sector throughout the North and see how it is booming. We also profile NCC Group, one of the worlds leading IT security companies, an increasingly vital area of work.

All this is a far cry from the 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher was advised to abandon to Liverpool to managed decline, and is a testament to the regeneration of the North.

Welcome

The way we shop is changing.The change is being driven mainly by internet shopping: in Britain we are now spend-ing over 5 billion each month

online. It is not just technology, though the economic downturn is changing the way we spend and shifting demo-graphics are affecting what we buy.

This is having a noticeable impact on our traditional retailers, the lifeblood of the regions town and city centres. A glance at newspaper headlines over the past few weeks shows just how real this problem is: several famous and long-established high street retailers are in the process of closing stores, and high street vacancy rates are on the rise.

With less to attract people into the centres, so there is less business for retailers. With the retail sector likely to

remain under pressure throughout 2012 and more business failures expected over the next few months, we have reached a critical point.

A new approach is needed to ensure the viability of our retail centres. The consequences of failing to act now could be dire, while the rewards for getting it right are high.

One city which is working hard to ensure its main retail area adapts and thrives in this new era is Liverpool, and the work the city is doing should be seen as a blueprint for success across the North of England.

Over the last decade, Liverpool city centre has undergone a major trans-formation of its retail core, commercial district and waterfront, propelling it on to the global stage. However, it is the main retail areas diversity, value, ambi-ance and overall quality which drives wider success. It is essential that this area is able to adapt to the changing retail landscape if activity, productivity and expenditure across the city are to continue to increase.

To achieve this, a roadmap for devel-opment and investment over the next 10 to 15 years has been produced. The roadmap recognises that connectivity, experience, identity and promotion are central to ensuring that the main retail area remains the engine of accelerated city centre growth. While developed with Liverpool in mind, these central pillars can be applied to any of our city and town centres to help support their viability.

Connectivity is key in linking impor-tant public spaces and visitor destina-tions, ensuring that the main retail area is a hub for visitors, from arrival-point to destination. In Liverpool, recent new developments, such as Liverpool One, have created a sense of divergence and of distinct areas within the city. Getting connectivity right is also about seam-lessly integrating these areas.

Great connectivity is the first step in ensuring the visitor experience is positive key to the sustainability of the centre. Strong investment in the public realm, along with car parking

that complements public transport, remains a primary influence on visitor numbers.

A strong identity for the main retail area can also vastly improve experience and sustainability. In Liverpool, the indoor and outdoor markets are integral parts of the citys retail experience and contribute to the street theatre of the main retail area. Such unique aspects need to be encouraged, but managed correctly. Independent retailers should also be encouraged to provide a unique experience, unavailable in other city centres or online.

Bringing these things together, combined with better utilisation of public space for events, markets and pop-up shopping, creates a sense of an alternative Liverpool, strengthening the city as a destination through its heritage in music, culture, maritime history and sport. External marketing should focus on the totality of the offer as a visitor destination competing at a global level.

Co-operation is at the heart of making this a success. Only by bringing the whole city together will an initiative such as this work. The initial piece of work was instigated by a private and public sector partnership between Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Vision, Merseytravel, City Central BID, Grosvenor and Land Securities all of whom recognised that success would not come without bringing all of Liverpool together.

Now, Liverpool Vision, the citys economic development company, is incorporating this work into a wider strategic investment framework for the city. Anyone with an interest in Liverpool is being given the opportunity to have their say on this plan through a series of city conversations.

We believe that by bringing together the central pillars of connectivity, expe-rience, identity and promotion, Liver-pool will continue to attract visitors to its city centre and offer a thriving and sustainable main retail area in the face of a changing retail landscape.

Better connectivity needed to save critical retail

Once thought of as the fluffy underbelly of the market-ing mix, public relations as a discipline has undergone a dramatic change. No more so

than in the North, where agencies have helped to pioneer a new hard-edged form of specialist PR with every story linked directly to the bottom line.

The regions top PR firms are now poised to reap the dividends of this re-positioning as regeneration moves to the top of the agenda in the North. At the same time, they are increasingly giving the Ab Fab London agencies a run for their fees by out-hustling them at their own game.

This is not simply spin from the master spinners up North. Candyfloss PR is out and the Northern agencies were among the first to recognise this. In has come a focus on social media and the need to play a more strategic role for clients across multiple channels.

Meanwhile, the arrival of Media City has arguably heralded the decline of London as the centre of influence. Add the turbulent economic climate and the

Northern agencies are looking increas-ingly good value for money.

With Manchester agencies paying around 14 per square foot for office space as opposed to 75 per square foot in Lon-don and at least a third less for skilled account handlers doing the maths in favour of the North is easy. Then there are the daily fees in Manchester these would be typically 850 as opposed to 1,200 in London. But where clients re-ally see the difference between the North and London is in the add-ons, with ad-ministration charges of up to 17 per cent.

But low fees without the accompany-ing skills will not a successful agency make. Fortunately, the North has wit-nessed a wave of talent returning home as higher London wages are increasingly being swallowed by overheads.

Crown Paints is one national company which has recently moved its PR busi-ness from a top London agency in their case Franks and now calls on not one but three specialist agencies all based in Manchester: BJL for consumer, Brazen PR for trade and MC2 for corporate af-fairs.

While agreeing cost did play a part as a crude benchmark, Crown marketing director Liz Hickson insists that the skill levels and the ballsy approach on offer up North were the overriding factors in the decision.

The final pitch saw four London agen-cies competing against two from Man-chester (MC2 was already firmly in place, having previously beaten off all-comers), and the end result was Manchester 2, London 0.

Like many people, we used to think it was important to have a London agency as thats where most of the key editors are, but times have changed and the Northern agencies now offer what we see as more of a commercial edge. They are not as cuddly in the North - but that works well for us.

Whereas Northern agencies may be on the radar for all cost-conscious corpo-rates, the current rankings by PR Week the industry bible reveals that only five

Northern PRs benefiting from focus on bottom line

Inside ...EntrepreneursThe worlds leading risk-takers are coming. Page 4RegenerationThe remarkable story of the rise of Liverpool. Page 6Cover Story We meet the man behind an IT security success. Pages 8-9

Mike Cowleyat large

They might not be cuddly but spinners in the North are beating London agencies in these tough times

In his role as head of Drivers Jonas Deloitte, North West, Simon Bedford takes lead responsibility for the companys economic development consultancy work. Over a number of years, he has worked on behalf of a wide variety of public and private sector clients including English Partnerships, a number of regional development agencies and several major local authorities in the UK and Ireland.

He is currently leading a consortium in the development of a strategic investment framework for Liverpool.

out of the top 100 are based in the North. Four of these are in Manchester City-press (at number 72), MC2 (74), Brazen (80) and Staniforth (99). The only other representative for the region is Lucre of Leeds (85).

Citypress, the top Northern agency, is the oldest PR firm outside of London, with a current client list that includes some of the best-known names in the region the Bibby Line Group, Princes Foods, Brother UK and Bank of New York Mellon.

Building its reputation on regeneration schemes the Trafford Centre, Man-chester Ship Canal and Princes Dock in Liverpool Citypress has grown tenfold in the last ten years. This has been un-der the stewardship of Charles Tatter-sall, a member of the fifth generation of the founding family, and Martin Currie, who joined from Communique, then the Norths largest PR agency.

Starting with a small satellite office in London in 2006 to service its mergers and acquisitions, Citypress has since es-tablished a presence in both Edinburgh and Birmingham and is now ranked as one of the UKs top ten advisory firms.

Hard on the heels of Citypress is MC2, unique among the top Northern agencies in that it has opted to remain exclusively in Manchester and considers its offering to be more holistic than that of its ri-vals, in being a full-service agency.

Mike Perls, a former rising star at the Manchester Evening News when it was at its peak, heads the current number two agency. A well-known face on the corpo-rate North West scene since his time in the newspaper world, he was lured from print with an offer of equity by a market-ing agency. Known as Mr Network, he pops up in every centre of influence and is reputed to be able to get to anyone with two phonecalls. As someone who lends credibility to the term mover and shaker, Perls is also actively involved with Envestors, a business angels group, and The Division, which fills the slot left vacant by the British Film Council. He chairs the MPA, the representative group for creative industries in the region.

With its core strength in the financial services and investment community, MC2s growing client list includes De-loitte, HSBC Private Bank and Cobbetts, with the agency successfully integrating into each companys management team to steer them through the intricacies of the information revolution.

However, there is another contender for the number one spot Bell Pottinger North, based in Macclesfield and with offices in Liverpool and Leeds. The out-post of the UKs leading PR company was recently placed top in a Northern PR league table published by Business Insider magazine.

While Bell Pottinger North is undoubt-edly a leading player clients include Co-op Energy and Waitrose it is argu-ably not a Northern agency in the strict sense of the term, with its appeal to many clients being both the national and inter-national reach of its parent.

Understandably, John Butters, a di-rector of Bell Pottinger North, takes exception to this, insisting his agency is autonomous and has strong North-ern roots which go back to a previous existence.

Meanwhile, most Northern-based agencies remain focused on the com-mon hurdle they must overcome how to wrest even more market share from London. Most have chosen to do this by opening satellite offices in the capital, where because their main operations remain in Manchester they are able to work on a low-cost models to compete at sensible prices.

Yet even this is often not enough. If you were a FTSE 100 company look-ing to drive your share price up, would you risk a punt on a PR company from Manchester? asks Charles Tattersall of Citypress. We still have some way to go in the perception stakes.

Liz Hickson, Crown MarketingCharles Tattersall of Citypress, the oldest PR firm outside London

John Butters of Bell Pottinger

First PersonSimon Bedford

Tuesday January 31 2012 | the times

Business Insight Business Insightthe times | Tuesday January 31 20124 5

Entrepreneurship

This year is set to be one of the toughest economic environ-ments in recent history, and it has never been

clearer that we cannot just rely on multinational corporations to create new jobs and opportuni-ties.

We must instead champion the entrepreneurs, the small and young companies which are the wealth- and job-creators that will haul us out of this reces-sion. Our economy depends on sustaining these businesses.

The small group of young businesses that survive the perils of their first few years and become larger companies are the foundations of all economic prosperity in the western world. Businesses of fewer than 50 employees account for 99.2 per cent of the UKs total stock of companies and provide 47.1 per cent of private sector employ-ment.

The young startups with potential are the changemakers that will not only create jobs, but have the ability to make things better for the rest of us. But young businesses are very fragile their high mortality rate is evidence of that.

Thus, we as a country have a desire for more businesses to start and for more of them to survive. Real support must be given both to young businesses starting out, and to those small businesses that are growing fast.

We must focus attention on the difficulties that young busi-nesses face, whether it is access-ing capital, more effectively utilising the web, or creating a sustainable business model around an innovative idea.

Importantly, people in the UK need to realise that anyone can run their own business and that successful entrepreneur courses are less about teaching and more about empowering. We have got to put people in a position where they feel they can do something.

The Global Entrepreneur-ship Congress (GEC) is an inspirational gathering of entrepreneurs, thought-leaders, economists and policymakers who will celebrate enterprise and encourage those with the can do spirit to turn their dreams into an ambitious reality.

The host city of the GEC, Liverpool, is a hub for creativity and business. This is why I am bringing the Web Fuelled Busi-

ness programme to the city in March, in an intensive effort to help small businesses exploit the web to its fullest extent.

This is a key time for entre-preneurs in the UK. If we want to boost entrepreneurial growth, then we must unleash the full potential of our startups. By backing the small businesses that represent all of our opportunity, we are helping to set the stage for stimulation of the economy.

Doug Richard is the founder of School for Startups and host of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills initiative, Web Fuelled Business.

The foundersThe Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation was established in the mid-1960s by the entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, the Kauffman Foundation is among the 30 largest foundations in the United States, with an asset base of approximately $2 billion.

Its work centres on harnessing the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, the Foundation aims to open young peoples eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and facilitate the commercialisation of new knowledge and technologies.

Why Liverpool?We were impressed by Liverpools tradition and history of entrepreneurialism and the attempts they are making to embed

entrepreneurship across the city in a range of innovative ways, said Jonathan Ortmans, president of Global Entrepreneurship Week and leader of the selection process. Liverpool Visions bid was outstanding and it has won the chance to bring the Congress to Europe for the first time.

Why is it so important?The work done at this Congress in preparation for Global Entrepreneurship Week could not be more important, said Carl Schramm, outgoing president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation. To start the economy in any country and restart the economy in periods of recession entrepreneurs will play the critical role.

Who is behind the Liverpool rebrand?Liverpool Vision is the citys economic development company, established at a critical stage in the citys urban and economic renaissance and pivotal to the considerable economic recovery and growth that Liverpool has witnessed over the last decade.

With echoes of Liverpools award of the European Capital of Culture in 2008, secured with the most vital, energetic

bid, as Tessa Jowell commented at the time, the city continues with its timely reinvention as a globally renowned, cosmopolitan centre of entrepreneurial spirit.

Taking place in March, the Global En-trepreneurship Congress will make Liv-erpool the heartbeat of the world of the entrepreneurial community, according to GEC chairman Jonathan Ortmans. The citys vibrant rebranding is gath-ering momentum under the watchful eye of Liverpool Vision the economic development company responsible for integrating economic and physical de-velopment in the city to build a sus-tainable economy.

The significance of this for Liverpool cannot be underestimated and the ef-fects of the GEC selection committee choosing our city will ripple for many years to come, says Max Steinberg, chief executive of Liverpool Vision.

We want to create the conditions in which innovators and entrepreneurs can thrive and that has never been more important than now. Liverpool is im-proving economically but we need to ac-celerate by encouraging enterprise and having the private and public sectors working more closely together.

The Congress in Liverpool this year will help us achieve these goals while learning new lessons on how we can best stimulate and grow our economy.

Its a far cry from the rusting dock-yards that signalled Liverpools steady decline in global influence in the 1970s and 1980s, but the citys creativity and entrepreneurial innovation, which once reshaped the worlds industry and tech-nology, has emerged once again.

A new generation of entrepreneurs has clustered in the North West to carve Liverpool a new role and a new standing in the unforgiving, unrelenting business environment of the 21st century one defined by specialism and expertise in a landscape of globalisation, commoditi-sation and overcapacity.

If it was the European Capital of Cul-ture award that kick-started the grad-ual shift in perception of the city from sleeping giant to emerging superpower, smaller steps since that time have made it really take hold.

Everything from the viral Its Liver-pool media campaign, showcasing the city as a progressive urban centre in

which to live, work and learn, through to Liverpool being the only UK city having an award-winning dedicated presence at the six-month long World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. It has been a carefully orches-trated rebranding strategy implemented by Liverpool Vision supported by the city council, with wide-ranging private sector participation

Behind it all has been a 4 billion physical transformation of the city, fol-lowing Liverpool Visions strategic re-generation framework for the city in 2000, and the subsequent Strategic In-vestment Framework that is progressing ideas for the coming ten years. The citys commercial district has expanded sig-nificantly and the retail offering is now in the top five in the UK, unrecognisable from just a decade ago.

On top of that, the citys world-famous waterfront has been transformed into a visitor destination of international qual-ity, and work continues apace with a fo-cus on north Liverpool.

Liverpool has been granted an Enter-prise Zone that straddles both sides of the River Mersey, with the city taking bold steps to rebalance its economy and become less reliant on the public sector.

The parallels between Liverpools ef-forts to reinvent itself as a city and the UKs need to evolve and redefine its own global standing in terms of innovation and expertise have not been lost on the Prime Minister, David Cameron.

It is a city of great creativity and in-novation and a city with renewed confi-dence and ambition, he said, commit-ted to sparking enterprise in the young and helping others to unleash their ideas.

The Congress in Liverpool will attract some of the worlds leading economists and entrepreneurs who are a key part of our strategy for growth and enterprise. The public and private sectors are col-laborating in a unique way to ensure it will encourage debate, inspire talent and create a real legacy for Liverpool and the UK for many years to come.

Behind the GEC is the non-profit Ew-ing Marion Kauffman Foundation based in Kansas City, Missouri: an organisation dedicated to advancing and understand-ing entrepreneurialism to improve eco-nomic welfare, and one that has grown the inaugural event from its home town in 2009 to Dubai in 2010 and Shanghai in 2011.

As with the European Capital of Cul-ture bid, it was the personality and ambi-tion of Liverpool that proved an almost irresistible allure for choosing it as this years host.

The power of the message put for-ward by Liverpool Vision about Liv-erpools interest, said Carl Schramm, outgoing president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, and the many expansions of entrepreneurship that were pointed out in the application that characterised modern Liverpool as a city truly committed to entrepreneurship, were very decisive.

It is of little surprise that this years event, in which Liverpool beat off strong competition from the United Arab Emir-ates, Chile and Denmark, will see around 3,000 entrepreneurs from more than 120 countries descend on the city, and it has attracted some of the countrys highest-profile business heavyweights in both support and participation. Lloyds TSB was also quick to sign up as a headline sponsor.

It forms part of Liverpools plan to host a world-first Festival of Entrepre-neurship, with more than 40 free to enter fringe events happening across in the city, such as Start Up Weekend, the Future Lab, and the Lloyds TSB Entre-preneur Award. Liverpool has also been running an enterprise competition for all its schools, challenging pupils to come up with compelling business ideas with the final round at the GEC itself and a trip to Washington DC as the first prize.

Headline speaker Sir Richard Bran-son recently reasserted his belief that a strong economy needs to encourage entrepreneurs to create and grow their businesses when interviewed about his support for Liverpools hosting of the event. He is joined on an impressive bill by former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy and founder of the Haymarket publish-ing group and former Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Michael Heseltine.

For Leahy, born and raised in a pre-fab maisonette on a council estate in the Belle Vale district of Liverpool, the citys rejuvenation is a matter close to his heart. In recent years I have seen Liverpool begin to restore its reputation as an international outward-looking destination, he says. There is a sense of pride and confidence that has re-emerged with our success as European

Capital of Culture and as a participant at the World Expo and here is another opportunity to make our mark.

If Liverpool is to grow and prosper we need to help and encourage the next generation of innovators and business leaders to believe that their ideas and enthusiasm can make a lasting differ-ence, and I believe that the Congress is coming at the right time for Liverpool.

The GEC also presents a unique op-portunity to promote the emergence of Liverpool as a champion of women en-trepreneurs in particular a position that could have the most profound effect in the longer term.

With speakers at the GEC ranging from founder of Lastminute.com Mar-tha Lane Fox, through to the president of the British Association of Female En-trepreneurs, Deb Leary OBE and Lara Morgan, founder of Pacific Direct, the event has quietly and assuredly rein-forced the message that women-owned businesses are critical to the health of the UK and global economy.

The global trends are striking. In 2010, 104 million women in 59 economies (which represent more than 52 per cent of the worlds population and 84 per cent of the worlds gross domestic prod-uct) started and managed new business ventures. These women entrepreneurs made up between 1.5 per cent and 45.4 per cent of the adult female population in their respective economies, whilst an-

Gathering of global go-getters

Maggie OCarrollDeb Leary, chief executive of Forensic Pathway

The GEC will bring together risk-takers from 120 countries

When Liverpool was named as the 2012 host city for the influential Global Entrepreneurship Congress, it marked yet anothersignificant step in the citys impressive transformation over the pastdecade and more, says Luke Manning

other 83 million women across those re-gions ran businesses they had launched at least three-and-a-half years before.

Now in 2011, the role of female-led businesses is more important than ever. According to the influential Womens Enterprise Policy Group, women repre-sent only around 15 per cent of the total business base, yet there are more than 700,000 women-owned businesses op-erating across the nation and in every sector and their role in growing the economy, and creating and sustain-ing new jobs, is crucial to recovery and growth.

Success doesnt come from just hav-ing a great idea, says Leary, chief ex-ecutive of Forensic Pathways. Success comes from being connected. It comes from seeing that global is the new lo-cal. Technology, the internet and social media allows the market to come to us, creating diversity in terms of markets and people. From the minute we start our businesses and go online we are born global. The GEC takes it one step further and physically brings a wealth of resources and investors, and an in-valuable network of start-ups, small and medium enterprises and global players, to Liverpool. Its about growth. Its about mindset.

It is opportunities like the GEC com-ing to town that must be taken seriously to prevent the British economy from stalling. Recent UK figures also show fe-male unemployment at its highest level for 23 years and there is a record level of young people, including many female graduates, who are not economically ac-tive.

Self-employment and business own-ership remain among the most positive ways of addressing these issues, and while women remain under-represented in enterprise it hinders the opportunity to grow the UK and global economy.

Liverpool is once again ahead of the

curve and forging its own forward-looking path, with the city establishing the striking 5.2 million Womens Inter-national Centre for Economic Develop-ment (WICED), the first of its kind in the UK or Europe.

Liverpool is pioneering female entre-preneurialism in the UK and WICED has become a beacon of best practise and expertise, an incubator for emerging ideas and talent and a global research hub, says Maggie OCarroll, CEO the Womens Organisation. We have made excellent progress in raising awareness but more needs to be done through pri-oritising initiatives like WICED through governmental policy, embracing events like the GEC to act as a catalyst for growth, and getting the right media cov-erage across all channels.

With the UK and Europe seemingly gripped in a climate of economic fear and an uncertain 2012, Liverpool ap-pears not to have noticed, and is pushing ahead with a confidence and a focus that is turning heads and demanding atten-tion.

All eyes are now turning to the GEC in March, and it is another of the speak-ers at the event, Martha Lane Fox, the UK digital champion and dotcom icon, who sums up the expectation now be-ginning to crackle through the city.

The energy and excitement of Liver-pool is absolutely incredible, she says. The city has taken a very smart ap-proach in facing its challenges and has gone out on the front foot and embraced the boldness and spirit of entrepreneuri-alism. Liverpool exemplifies everything I care about; the excitement of start-ing a business, finding a balance in the workplace, building networks, providing equal access to technologies and fuelling an innate desire to innovate and evolve.

Its an observation that is hard to ar-gue with. Liverpool, a city of firsts, is leading the way again.

Success doesnt come from just having a great idea. Itcomes from being connected. It comes from seeing that global is thenew local

The visionariesThe story behind the people bringing the Global Entrepreneurship Congress to Liverpool this year.

The pressing need to go for it

Entrepreneurs: Your country needs you

At the beginning of this year, the Prime Minister set a clear, yet optimistic, challenge to Britains

aspiring entrepreneurs: Enter-prise is what we do in Britain. This is the year that, more than ever, weve got to go for it.

I believe that this sense of urgency and can do attitude is crucial if we are to pull our economy out of the doldrums and on to the path to prosperity.

As an entrepreneur who has grown a business from scratch over recent years, I am all too aware of the risks and chal-lenges a start-up faces, and 2012 will be a challenging year.

Yet for anyone thinking about starting a business, the need for them to take the leap and go for it has never been stronger.

The Prime Minister is right, Britain is by nature an entrepreneurial country it is in our DNA. We started the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions and we have been at the forefront of the technical and digital evolution we are facing today.

British entrepreneurs excel in creativity, bringing new

things into the world through our invention, innovations and sheer determination, and I feel passionately about the potential our country has to create more world-class businesses I believe there is a lot to be optimistic about.

Thats why Im speaking at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Liverpool this March, a truly global event and the largest gathering of start-up champions in the world. Coming to Europe for the first time, the GEC aims to inspire a

new generation of businesses to go for it and enable our young companies to grow quickly.

I hope that of the 3,000 people who will attend the GEC, some of them will be inspired to take David Cam-erons optimistic advice and go for it. 2012 is the year that we must build a winning Britain and it is our enterprises that will put us on the fast-track to success.

Paul Lindley is Founder and CEO of Ellas Kitchen.

Tuesday January 31 2012 | the times

Business Insight Business Insightthe times | Tuesday January 31 20124 5

Entrepreneurship

This year is set to be one of the toughest economic environ-ments in recent history, and it has never been

clearer that we cannot just rely on multinational corporations to create new jobs and opportuni-ties.

We must instead champion the entrepreneurs, the small and young companies which are the wealth- and job-creators that will haul us out of this reces-sion. Our economy depends on sustaining these businesses.

The small group of young businesses that survive the perils of their first few years and become larger companies are the foundations of all economic prosperity in the western world. Businesses of fewer than 50 employees account for 99.2 per cent of the UKs total stock of companies and provide 47.1 per cent of private sector employ-ment.

The young startups with potential are the changemakers that will not only create jobs, but have the ability to make things better for the rest of us. But young businesses are very fragile their high mortality rate is evidence of that.

Thus, we as a country have a desire for more businesses to start and for more of them to survive. Real support must be given both to young businesses starting out, and to those small businesses that are growing fast.

We must focus attention on the difficulties that young busi-nesses face, whether it is access-ing capital, more effectively utilising the web, or creating a sustainable business model around an innovative idea.

Importantly, people in the UK need to realise that anyone can run their own business and that successful entrepreneur courses are less about teaching and more about empowering. We have got to put people in a position where they feel they can do something.

The Global Entrepreneur-ship Congress (GEC) is an inspirational gathering of entrepreneurs, thought-leaders, economists and policymakers who will celebrate enterprise and encourage those with the can do spirit to turn their dreams into an ambitious reality.

The host city of the GEC, Liverpool, is a hub for creativity and business. This is why I am bringing the Web Fuelled Busi-

ness programme to the city in March, in an intensive effort to help small businesses exploit the web to its fullest extent.

This is a key time for entre-preneurs in the UK. If we want to boost entrepreneurial growth, then we must unleash the full potential of our startups. By backing the small businesses that represent all of our opportunity, we are helping to set the stage for stimulation of the economy.

Doug Richard is the founder of School for Startups and host of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills initiative, Web Fuelled Business.

The foundersThe Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation was established in the mid-1960s by the entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, the Kauffman Foundation is among the 30 largest foundations in the United States, with an asset base of approximately $2 billion.

Its work centres on harnessing the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, the Foundation aims to open young peoples eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and facilitate the commercialisation of new knowledge and technologies.

Why Liverpool?We were impressed by Liverpools tradition and history of entrepreneurialism and the attempts they are making to embed

entrepreneurship across the city in a range of innovative ways, said Jonathan Ortmans, president of Global Entrepreneurship Week and leader of the selection process. Liverpool Visions bid was outstanding and it has won the chance to bring the Congress to Europe for the first time.

Why is it so important?The work done at this Congress in preparation for Global Entrepreneurship Week could not be more important, said Carl Schramm, outgoing president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation. To start the economy in any country and restart the economy in periods of recession entrepreneurs will play the critical role.

Who is behind the Liverpool rebrand?Liverpool Vision is the citys economic development company, established at a critical stage in the citys urban and economic renaissance and pivotal to the considerable economic recovery and growth that Liverpool has witnessed over the last decade.

With echoes of Liverpools award of the European Capital of Culture in 2008, secured with the most vital, energetic

bid, as Tessa Jowell commented at the time, the city continues with its timely reinvention as a globally renowned, cosmopolitan centre of entrepreneurial spirit.

Taking place in March, the Global En-trepreneurship Congress will make Liv-erpool the heartbeat of the world of the entrepreneurial community, according to GEC chairman Jonathan Ortmans. The citys vibrant rebranding is gath-ering momentum under the watchful eye of Liverpool Vision the economic development company responsible for integrating economic and physical de-velopment in the city to build a sus-tainable economy.

The significance of this for Liverpool cannot be underestimated and the ef-fects of the GEC selection committee choosing our city will ripple for many years to come, says Max Steinberg, chief executive of Liverpool Vision.

We want to create the conditions in which innovators and entrepreneurs can thrive and that has never been more important than now. Liverpool is im-proving economically but we need to ac-celerate by encouraging enterprise and having the private and public sectors working more closely together.

The Congress in Liverpool this year will help us achieve these goals while learning new lessons on how we can best stimulate and grow our economy.

Its a far cry from the rusting dock-yards that signalled Liverpools steady decline in global influence in the 1970s and 1980s, but the citys creativity and entrepreneurial innovation, which once reshaped the worlds industry and tech-nology, has emerged once again.

A new generation of entrepreneurs has clustered in the North West to carve Liverpool a new role and a new standing in the unforgiving, unrelenting business environment of the 21st century one defined by specialism and expertise in a landscape of globalisation, commoditi-sation and overcapacity.

If it was the European Capital of Cul-ture award that kick-started the grad-ual shift in perception of the city from sleeping giant to emerging superpower, smaller steps since that time have made it really take hold.

Everything from the viral Its Liver-pool media campaign, showcasing the city as a progressive urban centre in

which to live, work and learn, through to Liverpool being the only UK city having an award-winning dedicated presence at the six-month long World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. It has been a carefully orches-trated rebranding strategy implemented by Liverpool Vision supported by the city council, with wide-ranging private sector participation

Behind it all has been a 4 billion physical transformation of the city, fol-lowing Liverpool Visions strategic re-generation framework for the city in 2000, and the subsequent Strategic In-vestment Framework that is progressing ideas for the coming ten years. The citys commercial district has expanded sig-nificantly and the retail offering is now in the top five in the UK, unrecognisable from just a decade ago.

On top of that, the citys world-famous waterfront has been transformed into a visitor destination of international qual-ity, and work continues apace with a fo-cus on north Liverpool.

Liverpool has been granted an Enter-prise Zone that straddles both sides of the River Mersey, with the city taking bold steps to rebalance its economy and become less reliant on the public sector.

The parallels between Liverpools ef-forts to reinvent itself as a city and the UKs need to evolve and redefine its own global standing in terms of innovation and expertise have not been lost on the Prime Minister, David Cameron.

It is a city of great creativity and in-novation and a city with renewed confi-dence and ambition, he said, commit-ted to sparking enterprise in the young and helping others to unleash their ideas.

The Congress in Liverpool will attract some of the worlds leading economists and entrepreneurs who are a key part of our strategy for growth and enterprise. The public and private sectors are col-laborating in a unique way to ensure it will encourage debate, inspire talent and create a real legacy for Liverpool and the UK for many years to come.

Behind the GEC is the non-profit Ew-ing Marion Kauffman Foundation based in Kansas City, Missouri: an organisation dedicated to advancing and understand-ing entrepreneurialism to improve eco-nomic welfare, and one that has grown the inaugural event from its home town in 2009 to Dubai in 2010 and Shanghai in 2011.

As with the European Capital of Cul-ture bid, it was the personality and ambi-tion of Liverpool that proved an almost irresistible allure for choosing it as this years host.

The power of the message put for-ward by Liverpool Vision about Liv-erpools interest, said Carl Schramm, outgoing president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, and the many expansions of entrepreneurship that were pointed out in the application that characterised modern Liverpool as a city truly committed to entrepreneurship, were very decisive.

It is of little surprise that this years event, in which Liverpool beat off strong competition from the United Arab Emir-ates, Chile and Denmark, will see around 3,000 entrepreneurs from more than 120 countries descend on the city, and it has attracted some of the countrys highest-profile business heavyweights in both support and participation. Lloyds TSB was also quick to sign up as a headline sponsor.

It forms part of Liverpools plan to host a world-first Festival of Entrepre-neurship, with more than 40 free to enter fringe events happening across in the city, such as Start Up Weekend, the Future Lab, and the Lloyds TSB Entre-preneur Award. Liverpool has also been running an enterprise competition for all its schools, challenging pupils to come up with compelling business ideas with the final round at the GEC itself and a trip to Washington DC as the first prize.

Headline speaker Sir Richard Bran-son recently reasserted his belief that a strong economy needs to encourage entrepreneurs to create and grow their businesses when interviewed about his support for Liverpools hosting of the event. He is joined on an impressive bill by former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy and founder of the Haymarket publish-ing group and former Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Michael Heseltine.

For Leahy, born and raised in a pre-fab maisonette on a council estate in the Belle Vale district of Liverpool, the citys rejuvenation is a matter close to his heart. In recent years I have seen Liverpool begin to restore its reputation as an international outward-looking destination, he says. There is a sense of pride and confidence that has re-emerged with our success as European

Capital of Culture and as a participant at the World Expo and here is another opportunity to make our mark.

If Liverpool is to grow and prosper we need to help and encourage the next generation of innovators and business leaders to believe that their ideas and enthusiasm can make a lasting differ-ence, and I believe that the Congress is coming at the right time for Liverpool.

The GEC also presents a unique op-portunity to promote the emergence of Liverpool as a champion of women en-trepreneurs in particular a position that could have the most profound effect in the longer term.

With speakers at the GEC ranging from founder of Lastminute.com Mar-tha Lane Fox, through to the president of the British Association of Female En-trepreneurs, Deb Leary OBE and Lara Morgan, founder of Pacific Direct, the event has quietly and assuredly rein-forced the message that women-owned businesses are critical to the health of the UK and global economy.

The global trends are striking. In 2010, 104 million women in 59 economies (which represent more than 52 per cent of the worlds population and 84 per cent of the worlds gross domestic prod-uct) started and managed new business ventures. These women entrepreneurs made up between 1.5 per cent and 45.4 per cent of the adult female population in their respective economies, whilst an-

Gathering of global go-getters

Maggie OCarrollDeb Leary, chief executive of Forensic Pathway

The GEC will bring together risk-takers from 120 countries

When Liverpool was named as the 2012 host city for the influential Global Entrepreneurship Congress, it marked yet anothersignificant step in the citys impressive transformation over the pastdecade and more, says Luke Manning

other 83 million women across those re-gions ran businesses they had launched at least three-and-a-half years before.

Now in 2011, the role of female-led businesses is more important than ever. According to the influential Womens Enterprise Policy Group, women repre-sent only around 15 per cent of the total business base, yet there are more than 700,000 women-owned businesses op-erating across the nation and in every sector and their role in growing the economy, and creating and sustain-ing new jobs, is crucial to recovery and growth.

Success doesnt come from just hav-ing a great idea, says Leary, chief ex-ecutive of Forensic Pathways. Success comes from being connected. It comes from seeing that global is the new lo-cal. Technology, the internet and social media allows the market to come to us, creating diversity in terms of markets and people. From the minute we start our businesses and go online we are born global. The GEC takes it one step further and physically brings a wealth of resources and investors, and an in-valuable network of start-ups, small and medium enterprises and global players, to Liverpool. Its about growth. Its about mindset.

It is opportunities like the GEC com-ing to town that must be taken seriously to prevent the British economy from stalling. Recent UK figures also show fe-male unemployment at its highest level for 23 years and there is a record level of young people, including many female graduates, who are not economically ac-tive.

Self-employment and business own-ership remain among the most positive ways of addressing these issues, and while women remain under-represented in enterprise it hinders the opportunity to grow the UK and global economy.

Liverpool is once again ahead of the

curve and forging its own forward-looking path, with the city establishing the striking 5.2 million Womens Inter-national Centre for Economic Develop-ment (WICED), the first of its kind in the UK or Europe.

Liverpool is pioneering female entre-preneurialism in the UK and WICED has become a beacon of best practise and expertise, an incubator for emerging ideas and talent and a global research hub, says Maggie OCarroll, CEO the Womens Organisation. We have made excellent progress in raising awareness but more needs to be done through pri-oritising initiatives like WICED through governmental policy, embracing events like the GEC to act as a catalyst for growth, and getting the right media cov-erage across all channels.

With the UK and Europe seemingly gripped in a climate of economic fear and an uncertain 2012, Liverpool ap-pears not to have noticed, and is pushing ahead with a confidence and a focus that is turning heads and demanding atten-tion.

All eyes are now turning to the GEC in March, and it is another of the speak-ers at the event, Martha Lane Fox, the UK digital champion and dotcom icon, who sums up the expectation now be-ginning to crackle through the city.

The energy and excitement of Liver-pool is absolutely incredible, she says. The city has taken a very smart ap-proach in facing its challenges and has gone out on the front foot and embraced the boldness and spirit of entrepreneuri-alism. Liverpool exemplifies everything I care about; the excitement of start-ing a business, finding a balance in the workplace, building networks, providing equal access to technologies and fuelling an innate desire to innovate and evolve.

Its an observation that is hard to ar-gue with. Liverpool, a city of firsts, is leading the way again.

Success doesnt come from just having a great idea. Itcomes from being connected. It comes from seeing that global is thenew local

The visionariesThe story behind the people bringing the Global Entrepreneurship Congress to Liverpool this year.

The pressing need to go for it

Entrepreneurs: Your country needs you

At the beginning of this year, the Prime Minister set a clear, yet optimistic, challenge to Britains

aspiring entrepreneurs: Enter-prise is what we do in Britain. This is the year that, more than ever, weve got to go for it.

I believe that this sense of urgency and can do attitude is crucial if we are to pull our economy out of the doldrums and on to the path to prosperity.

As an entrepreneur who has grown a business from scratch over recent years, I am all too aware of the risks and chal-lenges a start-up faces, and 2012 will be a challenging year.

Yet for anyone thinking about starting a business, the need for them to take the leap and go for it has never been stronger.

The Prime Minister is right, Britain is by nature an entrepreneurial country it is in our DNA. We started the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions and we have been at the forefront of the technical and digital evolution we are facing today.

British entrepreneurs excel in creativity, bringing new

things into the world through our invention, innovations and sheer determination, and I feel passionately about the potential our country has to create more world-class businesses I believe there is a lot to be optimistic about.

Thats why Im speaking at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Liverpool this March, a truly global event and the largest gathering of start-up champions in the world. Coming to Europe for the first time, the GEC aims to inspire a

new generation of businesses to go for it and enable our young companies to grow quickly.

I hope that of the 3,000 people who will attend the GEC, some of them will be inspired to take David Cam-erons optimistic advice and go for it. 2012 is the year that we must build a winning Britain and it is our enterprises that will put us on the fast-track to success.

Paul Lindley is Founder and CEO of Ellas Kitchen.

Tuesday January 31 2012 | the times

Business Insight Business Insightthe times | Tuesday January 31 20126 7

7

Regeneration

When a Liverpool ship-owner founded the Liv-erpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) at the end of the 19th century, he

could hardly have anticipated that, more than 100 years later, his initial pledge of 350 would have translated into a re-search portfolio of 229 million.

Nor could Sir Alfred Lewis Jones have predicted that the school, the fi rst of its kind in the world, would, by the beginning of the 21st century, be regarded as a global leader in the fi ght against infectious, debilitating and disabling diseases.

But the LSTM has fi rmly established itself as a postgraduate centre of excel-lence in the fi eld of tropical medicine for research, teaching and consultancy work. In total, the school works in more than 70 countries, ever mindful of its mission to improve the health of the globes poorest people.

Those who are unfamiliar with the schools endeavours may be surprised to learn that among its plethora of research projects, training and technological initiatives is a programme focusing on maternal and newborn health. Based at the Maternal and Newborn Health Unit (MNH), the Making It Happen programme has recently been awarded more than 18 million in grants from a number of organisations including

UNICEF and the Department for International Development.

Consideration of the scale of deaths and ill health of women and babies demonstrates how vital the Making It Happen programme is, and illustrates the need for funding. It has been estimated that, each year, 358,000 women worldwide die from complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth. Many more survive but have long-lasting illness or disability. There are about four million neonatal deaths and three million stillbirths annually. These are staggering statistics, particularly given that more than three-quarters of all deaths occur in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

The whole aim [of Making It Happen] is to design evidence-based packages of care for developing countries to try and reduce the number of women and babies who die in childbirth, says Dr Nynke van den Broek, who leads the MNH. Here in the UK you assume that your baby will be healthy and you will come out of it alive. We want to try and make a difference [in countries where that is not the case].

With more than 20 years of experience in the area of maternal and newborn health, Dr van den Broek, an obstetrician-gynaecologist, has been head of the MNH since its inception in 2006. With four strategic areas under her leader-ship skilled birth attendance, essential

obstetric and newborn care, quality of care and pregnancy outcome she and her 25-strong team offer unique expertise to those in need.

In the three years that Making It Happen has been running in fi ve countries (Bangladesh, India, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Kenya), there has been a reduction of 40 per cent in the number of pregnant women who come to hospital and subsequently die. The number of stillbirths across the fi ve countries has dropped by 15 per cent.

We started off not even daring to hope that we would have that effect, Dr van den Broek says. But using a targeted training package and support to midwives and doctors in hospitals and health centres has really made a difference. Its all been over and above what we expected.

By the end of 2011, Making It Happen, with the support of volunteer midwives and obstetricians from The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, had trained almost 3,000 healthcare provid-ers and almost 300 national facilitators. Analysis of all levels of healthcare workers showed that their knowledge and skills signifi cantly improved after the training. Researchers from the MNH unit at LSTM found that there had been better care and monitoring of women who had complications during labour and delivery, and that morale and teamwork on the

labour wards had improved.We are pretty proud of the fact that

we can make and have made a positive impact, says Dr van den Broek, having ensured that over half a million women had more skilled attendance and a better birth experience.

Phase one of Making It Happen fi n-ished at the end of December. Now Dr van den Broek and her colleagues are embarking on phase two.

Working with govern-ments and our partners, we will continue working in the initial fi ve countries across Asia and Africa, she says, and we are also expanding the pro-gramme to include an additional seven countries who have invited us to come.

At the turn of the 21st century, Liverpool Vision, the UKs fi rst urban regeneration company, unveiled an ambitious plan to transform Liverpool into a

world-class destination for tourists and business visitors. The scale of the citys aspirations ranged from the largest retail-led development in Europe and a cruise liner facility, to a 164 million arena and the largest newly built national museum in Britain. Detractors said it couldnt be done.

More than a decade later the naysay-ers have been forced to eat their words. Today, Liverpool is the countrys fastest growing economy outside London. Its waterfront ranks alongside the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China as a world heritage site and the visitor economy generates nearly 3 billion a year. Some 6 billion of public and private sector money has been invested in the city over the past 10 years.

Once again, Liverpool is an important engine of economic growth, not just for the North West region but for UK plc, says Max Steinberg, chief executive of

Liverpool Vision, the citys economic de-velopment company, funded entirely by Liverpool City Council. And Liverpool is now using its international connections and global reach.

Liverpool is known throughout the world for many attributes, not least its legacy as a vital port and fl ourishing mercantile district. Mention Liverpool to someone who has never visited the place and a number of things are sure to come up: The Beatles, Liverpool Football Club and the River Mersey. But the city has also gathered a host of negative connota-tions. In recent times, it has successfully worked to shake off images of the Toxteth riots, high unemployment, destructive lo-cal politics and a once-mighty port that had fallen into dereliction. The release of Cabinet documents from 30 years ago, revealing that Margaret Thatcher was urged to abandon Liverpool to managed decline, did not help.

Councillor Joe Anderson, leader of Liv-erpool City Council, acknowledges that the city faces a series of challenges. I ac-cept that in terms of the UK [as a whole], fi nancially we are in a diffi cult position.

The reality is that we are the most de-prived local authority in the country and we are the hardest hit local authority in terms of the Government cuts. We recog-nise that its diffi cult and we are working harder.

But I think we are getting there and people recognise that. Liverpool has been a sleeping giant for far too long. We have woken up to the fact that we have got one of the friendliest populations in the world with a rich history.

The work of politicians, businesses and local communities over the past 10 years has done much to reinvigorate Liverpools economic, political and fi scal fortunes. One example is the regeneration of the waterfront, famous for the Three Graces: the combined Edwardian elegance of the Royal Liver, Cunard and Port of Liverpool buildings, which have defi ned the view from the River Mersey for almost a cent-ury. Dubbed the Southbank of the North, since 2000 a staggering 1 billion has been invested in the waterfront.

Encompassing the four-year-old Arena and Conference Centre Liverpool (ACC Liverpool), the new 72 million Museum of Liverpool, Tate Liverpool, the Albert Dock (which houses the largest group of Grade 1 listed buildings in the UK), the re-cently constructed Liverpool Canal Link and the Merseyside Maritime Museum, the waterfront is a magnet for tourists.

Under planning proposals due to be considered in March, the 5.5 billion Peel Holdings development to regenerate Liverpools northern docklands, called the Liverpool Waters scheme, features 9,000 fl ats, hundreds of offi ces, hotels, bars and a cruise terminal as well as the 55-storey Shanghai Tower and other skyscrapers. It features two clusters of tall buildings, one near the city centre and a second further north.

Although there are some concerns about the impact on Liverpools world heritage status, Cllr Anderson believes

the investment is crucial and a key com-ponent of the citys future prosperity. The docks in north Liverpool have been lying derelict for 20 years, he says. Now we have got a scheme to build new offi ce access, new retail, new houses. We are looking to transform north Liverpool.

Liverpool was once home to nearly one million people. Now we have around 430,000 people living here [partly due] to the decline of the docks. Now we are turning that around.

The success of the European Capital of Culture in 2008, during which Liverpool welcomed 15 million cultural visitors of whom 3.5 million were coming to the city for the fi rst time fuelled the regions economy and its desire to attract more people to the area. The economic ben-efi ts to the city were estimated at 800 million.

Bob Prattey, chief executive of ACC Liverpool, says there was an enormous pent-up demand for an entertainment complex in the city. Liverpool is a great city and when people hold conferences here for the fi rst time they are delighted with whats on in the city. Our retention rate [for people who book the centre again] is higher than at other venues Ive been involved with before.

Liverpool has a distinctive culture and personality that is legendary but is also quite real. Its the friendliness more than anything else, the ability to welcome peo-ple that comes up time after time in our post-conference surveys.

And ACC Liverpool is looking to grow. An extension is being built which will be-come an exhibition centre. Initial work on-site is planned for early next year, with a completion date of autumn 2014. Using a capital investment of 40 million, the fi nished product will comprise three halls and a total of 8,100 square feet.

The new exhibition centre isnt the only major cultural addition devised for Liverpool, however. This April, the streets will be taken over by giant marionettes as part of the Sea Odyssey spectacular. Culture Liverpool, funded by the council, hopes that between 250,000 and 500,000 people will come to see the Odyssey over three days. It will be one of the highlights of a series of events in Liverpool to com-memorate the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic.

Its about bringing great art to the city, which is free, says Claire McColgan, di-rector of Culture Liverpool, who was also involved in producing the programme for the European Capital of Culture year. Sea Odyssey will bring the city to a standstill. And its not just about the city centre. North Liverpool is an area of huge potential. Part of the event will be in that area. We are using culture as rocket fuel for regeneration.

Testament to McColgans conviction of the importance of culture in Liverpool is the glut of events on the citys 2012 en-tertainment calendar. Tate Liverpool is running the blockbuster Turner Monet Twombly exhibition, which will be the British publics only chance to see the works of three of the most prolifi c and well-known artists of all time in one space.

All seven national museums and gal-leries in Liverpool will be featuring must-see exhibits, not least the Elvis and Us exhibition at The Beatles Story by the river. This explores how Elvis Presley inspired the Beatles and coincides with

the 50th anniversary of the formation of Liverpools most famous band.

We see culture as a key driver of our economy, says McColgan. For every 1 spent by us, we get 12 back from a visitor. The attitude to Liverpool has changed nationally. There is nothing dull about our city. The Capital of Culture changed things dramatically. Its a place where creatives want to live and work. We are going from strength to strength. This place resonates around the world.

Liverpools visitor economy supports approximately 41,000 jobs a year, which is expected to increase to 55,000 by 2020. Liverpool is now a top fi ve city break destination and is ranked in the top fi ve retail centres in the UK, thanks in part to Liverpool One, the 1 billion project which opened in 2008. The development provides 1.5 million square feet of retail space as well as hotels, apartments, a cin-ema and restaurants. Work on another project, the 200 million Central Village, due to open in 2013, is already underway.

An equally important boost for the city is to be found in the knowledge economy, Liverpools mix of leading universities, multinational companies, science and innovation parks, and spe-cialist research centres such as the Liver-pool School of Tropical Medicine and the School of Veterinary Science.

Our knowledge economy is one of the growth areas for the future, Steinberg says. Consider that there are more peo-ple in pharmaceutical production in Liv-erpool than any other European city. And Liverpool has well-recognised strengths in cancer studies. We have the world-famous Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Liverpools universities produce the highest output of medical graduates for life sciences.

The city is home to 7,000 fi nancial and professional services companies, in-cluding Coutts and Barclays Wealth, and is recognised as the second largest wealth management centre in the UK, [added to which] we have a project that will bring 11,500 more jobs in the green economy by 2015. The low-carbon economy [such as offshore and onshore wind operations] is another of our growth areas for the fu-ture.

Cllr Anderson agrees that the strength-ening of the knowledge industry is a key part of Liverpools renaissance. Now he is looking forward to another phase of re-generation. The city can, I think, rightly be one of the major global destinations once again, he says. Thats the ambition and the intention.

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How 350 in 1898 saveslives around the world today

Liverpool has been a sleeping giant for far too long

We want to try and make a difference

From managed decline to regeneration rocket fuel

Once again, Liverpool is an important engine ofeconomic growth, says Max Steinberg

The Sea Odyssey

Liverpool has seen a cultural transformation

30 years ago the Government was urged to give up on Liverpool. Today the city is bursting with innovation and creativity, says Helen Nugent

Picture courtesy of McCoy Wynne

Picture courtesy of Mark McNulty

Tuesday January 31 2012 | the times

Business Insight Business Insightthe times | Tuesday January 31 20126 7

7

Regeneration

When a Liverpool ship-owner founded the Liv-erpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) at the end of the 19th century, he

could hardly have anticipated that, more than 100 years later, his initial pledge of 350 would have translated into a re-search portfolio of 229 million.

Nor could Sir Alfred Lewis Jones have predicted that the school, the fi rst of its kind in the world, would, by the beginning of the 21st century, be regarded as a global leader in the fi ght against infectious, debilitating and disabling diseases.

But the LSTM has fi rmly established itself as a postgraduate centre of excel-lence in the fi eld of tropical medicine for research, teaching and consultancy work. In total, the school works in more than 70 countries, ever mindful of its mission to improve the health of the globes poorest people.

Those who are unfamiliar with the schools endeavours may be surprised to learn that among its plethora of research projects, training and technological initiatives is a programme focusing on maternal and newborn health. Based at the Maternal and Newborn Health Unit (MNH), the Making It Happen programme has recently been awarded more than 18 million in grants from a number of organisations including

UNICEF and the Department for International Development.

Consideration of the scale of deaths and ill health of women and babies demonstrates how vital the Making It Happen programme is, and illustrates the need for funding. It has been estimated that, each year, 358,000 women worldwide die from complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth. Many more survive but have long-lasting illness or disability. There are about four million neonatal deaths and three million stillbirths annually. These are staggering statistics, particularly given that more than three-quarters of all deaths occur in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

The whole aim [of Making It Happen] is to design evidence-based packages of care for developing countries to try and reduce the number of women and babies who die in childbirth, says Dr Nynke van den Broek, who leads the MNH. Here in the UK you assume that your baby will be healthy and you will come out of it alive. We want to try and make a difference [in countries where that is not the case].

With more than 20 years of experience in the area of maternal and newborn health, Dr van den Broek, an obstetrician-gynaecologist, has been head of the MNH since its inception in 2006. With four strategic areas under her leader-ship skilled birth attendance, essential

obstetric and newborn care, quality of care and pregnancy outcome she and her 25-strong team offer unique expertise to those in need.

In the three years that Making It Happen has been running in fi ve countries (Bangladesh, India, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Kenya), there has been a reduction of 40 per cent in the number of pregnant women who come to hospital and subsequently die. The number of stillbirths across the fi ve countries has dropped by 15 per cent.

We started off not even daring to hope that we would have that effect, Dr van den Broek says. But using a targeted training package and support to midwives and doctors in hospitals and health centres has really made a difference. Its all been over and above what we expected.

By the end of 2011, Making It Happen, with the support of volunteer midwives and obstetricians from The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, had trained almost 3,000 healthcare provid-ers and almost 300 national facilitators. Analysis of all levels of healthcare workers showed that their knowledge and skills signifi cantly improved after the training. Researchers from the MNH unit at LSTM found that there had been better care and monitoring of women who had complications during labour and delivery, and that morale and teamwork on the

labour wards had improved.We are pretty proud of the fact that

we can make and have made a positive impact, says Dr van den Broek, having ensured that over half a million women had more skilled attendance and a better birth experience.

Phase one of Making It Happen fi n-ished at the end of December. Now Dr van den Broek and her colleagues are embarking on phase two.

Working with govern-ments and our partners, we will continue working in the initial fi ve countries across Asia and Africa, she says, and we are also expanding the pro-gramme to include an additional seven countries who have invited us to come.

At the turn of the 21st century, Liverpool Vision, the UKs fi rst urban regeneration company, unveiled an ambitious plan to transform Liverpool into a

world-class destination for tourists and business visitors. The scale of the citys aspirations ranged from the largest retail-led development in Europe and a cruise liner facility, to a 164 million arena and the largest newly built national museum in Britain. Detractors said it couldnt be done.

More than a decade later the naysay-ers have been forced to eat their words. Today, Liverpool is the countrys fastest growing economy outside London. Its waterfront ranks alongside the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China as a world heritage site and the visitor economy generates nearly 3 billion a year. Some 6 billion of public and private sector money has been invested in the city over the past 10 years.

Once again, Liverpool is an important engine of economic growth, not just for the North West region but for UK plc, says Max Steinberg, chief executive of

Liverpool Vision, the citys economic de-velopment company, funded entirely by Liverpool City Council. And Liverpool is now using its international connections and global reach.

Liverpool is known throughout the world for many attributes, not least its legacy as a vital port and fl ourishing mercantile district. Mention Liverpool to someone who has never visited the place and a number of things are sure to come up: The Beatles, Liverpool Football Club and the River Mersey. But the city has also gathered a host of negative connota-tions. In recent times, it has successfully worked to shake off images of the Toxteth riots, high unemployment, destructive lo-cal politics and a once-mighty port that had fallen into dereliction. The release of Cabinet documents from 30 years ago, revealing that Margaret Thatcher was urged to abandon Liverpool to managed decline, did not help.

Councillor Joe Anderson, leader of Liv-erpool City Council, acknowledges that the city faces a series of challenges. I ac-cept that in terms of the UK [as a whole], fi nancially we are in a diffi cult position.

The reality is that we are the most de-prived local authority in the country and we are the hardest hit local authority in terms of the Government cuts. We recog-nise that its diffi cult and we