Federation of Small Business National Conference 2013
I was honoured to attend the FSB conference in Leicester 21-23 March 2013 as the Salisbury (Wilts) branch voting delegate. The views expressed in this summary are my own.
As a newcomer, I was impressed by the FSB’s professionalism and its well developed policy work. The outgoing chairman John Walker, and the head of policy Mike Cherry, were highly capable and linked comments from the floor to FSB lobbying and policy work to make their points very effectively to senior politicians: SoS for BIS (Vince Cable), his shadow (Chuka Umunna), SofS for EFRA (Owen Paterson), Minister for Biz and Ent (Micheal Fallon), his Shadow (Toby Perkins), and the MPS for Loughborough (Nicky Morgan) and Leicester (Jon Ashworth). The politicians appeared reasonable, acknowledging cross party agreement on many business issues. They talked up small business as the engine of economic growth and new jobs. They were realistic about party politics driving a short term approach, which became a theme of the conference. For example investment decisions on UK energy provision are becoming urgent. They listened well and took away some ideas. Experienced FSB members commented that this was the most impressive national conference to date, and said the FSB had raised its game over the last 12 months.
From the AGM motions, the FSB appeared set on a path of continuous improvement, including good governance. A sidebar conversation with one of the national officers explained the issues of FSB recruiters being barred from high office, and past chairmen clogging up the National Council. FSB finances were improving dramatically: reserves were approaching 50% of annual expenditure, with a new target of 90%. Delegates warmed to the National Treasurer who had a good story to tell.
The Chairman was upbeat about FSB successes. It had established a reputation for ‘fact based lobbying’ built on evidence gathered from member surveys and by partnering with respected external bodies such as business schools. The FSB had a high level of engagement with Government and Regulators and ministers often quoted FSB policy reports and consulted the FSB proactively.
SoS for BIS (Vince Cable) was positive about the future as both employment and the number of start-ups were increasing, which were grounds for optimism for a private sector led recovery. Access to finance remains THE problem and the Government intended to set up a Business Bank for wholesale banking to address this. Comment: other speakers were critical of this idea as it would use existing banks to distribute funds. Why would banks change their behaviour when 'the computer still says no?’
Justin Urquhart-Stewart, co-founder of Seven Investment Management, was irreverent, witty and hugely entertaining. He raced over recent economic history and politics and the state of the economy. His conclusions: our economy was 'damaged not doomed’; and confidence was the key. Thunderous applause.
Peter McAvoy (Google Mobile) talked about the change in consumer behaviour to mobile technology – checkout Google Glasses! Businesses that understood the shift in how users relate to both the physical and digital world would prosper. Afternote: as if to illustrate his point, a few days after the conference, Yahoo announced the acquisition of ‘Summly’ for $20M, an app designed by a young teenager in his bedroom to provide relevant news summaries on the go.
SofS for EFRA (Owen Paterson) identified rural broadband as a key enabler for economic growth, and said present provision was 'dire’. With 50% rural membership, this was a big issue for the FSB.
Shadow SofS for BIS (Chuka Umunna) was keen on a state backed British Investment Bank with local business banks like Sparkasse in Germany. He suggested a new agency for small business to bring together all those factors affecting business and called for a USA style 'Small Business Saturday’ in UK, proposed for 7 Dec 2013.
The UK head of policy (Mike Cherry) noted the importance of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). There were 3 LEP models: big cities, counties, and shotgun weddings (my words). LEP performance was patchy, reflecting differences in capacity and competence: some weren’t even able to bid for resources. Cash distributed through LEPs was dependent on LEP good governance so the Heseltine report provided a 'moment of opportunity’ for the FSB to hold LEPs to account.
In the Policy Workshop, lead officers gave detailed responses to questions and clearly had a good grip on their subjects.
In the Q&A with local MPs and journalists, Mike Cherry noted that the FSB had lobbied for years on transport and infrastructure but wasn’t getting very far yet integrated strategies were still needed (cheers from the floor!). He added that Government was too big, took too much tax from small business, and gave preferential treatment to big business (more cheers!)
The FSB Finance for Business presentation pointed out that the FSB was already providing the Business Bank the Government was talking about. £9B had been lent in 2012 via 92 lenders and 900 brokers for various uses: investment, purchase and credit, and was available to FSB members now. It Included Funding Circle and provided a single point of contact for all small business finance needs with no upfront fees, cash-back for members and easy access to local brokers.
The FSB Pension Scheme addressed the auto enrolment ‘headache’ for members: where could they get advice, help, costings and assurance on a good scheme? The FSB scheme provides an end to end service with excellent T&C for members to help them comply with auto enrolment by the 'staging date’ of June 2015, and avoid heavy fines for non compliance.
I left the conference early to avoid the worst of the bad weather but was able to catch up with videos of the other speakers on this link: http://www.fsb.org.uk/conference2013 I particularly enjoyed the motivational speech by Toyah Wilcox. Oozing a positive attitude and being true to herself, Toyah gave a tour de force as a creative artist flowing through the changing stream of show business. She described her career as now being a 'cottage industry’ compared to the ‘big corporations’ like lady Gaga. Through it all she has been acutely aware of her image, reinventing herself as she grew older. Toyah recognised that everyone is unique and at some time that uniqueness has a value and can be part of your business.
On the social side, the murder mystery dinner night was very enjoyable. Approx 700 people shared an excellent meal while Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson led us through the investigation on stage with film clips featuring National Officers in glamourous roles such as James Bond and Maria in The Sound of Music. Brilliantly done.
Ross Nichols
Business Mentor, Executive and Career Transition Coach
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